Aoyue Ritocco 3D sculpting Stylus - Teardown - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Fraser
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 21, 2018, 11:42:21 pm
content: I recently purchased the Aoyue Ritocco 3D sculpting stylus that was seen in the EEVBlog mail bag.The Ritocco is intended to be a temperature controlled hot tool for melting the plastic on 3D printed items or any plastic that melts at less than around 400C. The tool comes with four shaped tip cartridges that contain the ceramic heating element. They are similar in principle to other integral heater tip cartridges used for soldering. Such a tool can be useful for tidying up 3D prints, but also for other tasks involving melting of plastic. Plastic 'staking' comes to mind or even cutting open battery cases. Fumes are a concern however ! Operation in a well ventilated space is recommended.The first Ritocco I received was faulty. There was a serious issue with it overheating the tip cartridge. One tip cartridge disassembled itself with a loud POP! and acrid smell. Not a good start ! I was gifted a second Ritocco unit by a client for testing and comment. I have tested the new unit and had no issues with it overheating so the first unit was likely a, hopefully, rare dud. It should not have overheated to the point of dismantling its cartridge though. There appears no overheat protection within the cartridges.The handpiece itself is, quite frankly, a nasty cheap plasticky affair that does not inspire confidence in this tools longevity. It will need to be treated with great care if it is to last. The tip cartridges are similarly cheap in feel and appearance. They are not as robust looking or finely finished as, say, PACE tip cartridges, but then they cost less so no surprises there.Does the Ritocco work ? In a word, yes. It does what it claims..... it has a temperature regulated tip that melts plastic. Is it closed loop temperature regulated ? Hmmmm we shall seeThe tool and its various shaped tips are capable of cutting, boring, smoothing and shaping plastics such as ABS and PLA. Three modes, ABS and PLA and custom are available. Both ABS and PLA offer a set temperature for such a material plus a temperature trim of plus or minus 10C for fine tuning. The Custom mode permits a tip temperature of between 100C and 400C to be set. More than enough range for plastics and it could even be used for soldering ! In fact, upon checking the coating on the tips, I found them to be tinned with a thin coating of what appeared to be solder. It certainly melted at 400C !The tip cartridges are a combination of Stainless Steel tube, high temperature plastic insulation, a ceramic heater and a copper tip of various shapes to suit differing tasks. The contacts on the rear of the cartridge are just two Stainless steel rings set into the plastic insulation. As stated the tip cartridges are nothing special on the quality front, but they appear functional.Upon investigating the internal parts of the Ritocco, I was not surprised to find very little on the PCB. The major component is a microcontroller and this drives the small, LCD display and Power MOSFET for the heater cartridge. That's is basically it. Nothing very exciting. I suspect the unit is basically a simple PWM driven ceramic heater, with no feedback, that is driven by the microcontroller according to a preset 'calibration' table. Calibration of the tip temperature is possible via a menu option. The microcontroller just provides a tiny LCD display on which to see a temperature indication that is aligned to the calibration table. This is all theory of course, but the drive to the heater cartridge is just two contacts.I will add pictures of the unit and it's internal parts tomorrow. But to round off this post, would I personally pay £100 for this 3D Sculpting tool that is basically a cheap cartridge type soldering iron ? ...... NOPE. The quality of the product just does not seem to match the UK retail price. Maybe £40, but not £100. I believe the unit is cheaper in the USA and some have been discounted down to $59 but the retailer charges $60 postage to the UK !Is there a cheaper alternative to the Ritocco tool ?Yes, you could use your temperature controlled soldering iron if you can set the appropriate temperatures for plastic and find a suitably shaped tip. Or there is the much cheaper Adapted Chinese USB soldering iron, the name of which temporarily eludes me, but it costs around £22 in the UK and offers similar performance to the Ritocco but has only two temperature settings.Pictures to followFraserAdditional note:The Ricotto unit that destroyed its tip cartridge through overheating was immediately accepted back for a full refund by the supplier and he stated that this is the first such occurrence they have seen with the product. They would investigate it further. He also stated that they have had no other units fail in the field. I have no reason to disbelieve him as his company is respectable.

author: Fraser
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 21, 2018, 11:47:22 pm
content: The Aoyue Web page...http://www.aoyue.eu/ritocco-pen-3d-correction-pen-for-3d-objects-tool-for-modelling.html

author: Fraser
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 21, 2018, 11:51:51 pm
content: The cheaper alternative tool, that I also own, is the Modifi3D unit from a UK company. IIRC, this was a Kickstarter campaign to take a Chinese USB soldering iron and adapt it to 3D plastic melting. It costs £22 in the UK. I also bought the standard Chinese USB Soldering iron for less than £5 delivered from China. This was only bought out of curiosity and for comparison to the Modifi3D unitThe extra cost of the Modify3D version is the production of the custom tip cartridges I suppose.http://www.modifi3d.co.uk/Fraser

author: Fraser
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 21, 2018, 11:56:08 pm
content: Pictures of the Modifi3D (Red sleeve) and standard USB soldering iron that had its design adapted for plastics use. (Yellow sleeve)Fraser

author: helius
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 22, 2018, 12:00:29 am
content: The tip profiles shown appear the same as standard soldering tips (bent conical, bevel, and knife) apart from the "cutting disc" tip, which looks a lot like the cutting tip for a 500W Weller gun.

author: Fraser
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 22, 2018, 12:11:33 am
content: Indeed. These are really just soldering irons that can be set to an appropriate temperature for plastics. It would be possible make your own custom tip shapes and attach them to a standard soldering iron tip with unleaded solder. Provided the normal operating temperature of the tip is kept below that of the solder melting point, no worriesThese appear to be be tools intended for 3D modellers and artists who have no access to a soldering iron. That may explain the high price of the Ritocco.I purchased a complete Aoyue '936' soldering station for only about £35 from China. That could easily be adapted to 3D plastics use and tips are cheap.Hobbyking sell the Yihua 936 clone station for only £12 ! Eminently adaptable to 3D plastics work. Aoyue even sell a Ritocco cartridge compatible handpiece for their soldering stations...... price is around £40 !It is a mad mad worldFraser

author: Fraser
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 22, 2018, 12:36:44 am
content: OK, the pictures of the Ritocco internal design and PCB.Most components on the PCB are pretty obvious. The ATmega8A microcontroller, LDO regulator, POWER MOSFET and LCD display. The black cylindrical component is a crude movement sensor that sounds to be a ball bearing type. This is used to wake the Ritocco after it has entered sleep mode through no use. It does not seem very sensitive and I find I have to 'rattle' the unit to wake it up. I suppose in normal use, the movement detector keeps resetting the 'sleep' timer.Fraser

author: Fraser
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 22, 2018, 12:54:15 am
content: Main componets ID:IRFR5305 Power MOSFET 0.065Ohms VDSS=-55V/31Ahttps://www.infineon.com/dgdl/irfr5305.pdf?fileId=5546d462533600a4015356324d0820fdATmega8A Microcontrollerhttp://ww1.microchip.com/downloads/en/DeviceDoc/Microchip%208bit%20mcu%20AVR%20ATmega8A%20data%20sheet%2040001974A.pdfAMS1117 - 5.0 LDO regulator +5V@1A maximum outputhttp://www.advanced-monolithic.com/pdf/ds1117.pdfThe tilt/vibration sensor may be a single or dual ball type. Details of such sensors may be found here:http://www.instructables.com/id/Tilt-Sensor-Tutorial/Fraser