Dual iron jbc clone how to make it esd safe ? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Imran333
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: January 28, 2021, 05:28:52 pm
content: I bought a xsoldering pro for a good price as it comes with 2 irons , c245 and c210 and no tips for £140 and the china c210 tips are just terrible , the temperature is around 35-40 degrees Celsius too high and quality is bad on the fine tips and the knife tip is the only one I could use out of the 3 , the c245 I’ve tried with original tips and it performs great and temperature is spot on with original tips , just waiting for original c210 tips to try , the station was very Light weight so I took a look inside and noticed the pcb with the controller is decent quality and everything looked good, the reason it was light weight was as there’s no big transformer but a dc power supply which is fine but I noticed the connector for the irons inside the station only have 2 wires going to them and the tip is not grounded , there’s extra pins on the connector of the soldering irons and the connector in the station and there’s wires that can make it esd safe , so I added the wires to make it esd safe but the problem I ended up with was once the tip is grounds it won’t go in and out of sleep mode anymore , I just wanted some help to bypass that ?

author: cybermaus
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 29, 2021, 10:21:29 pm
content: Well, since no-one with more credentials picks this up:Personally (but I am only a non-professional) I still wonder why people want *full* ground on their tips.The case of any device, sure. Full ground to redirect mains faults.And for that reason, a hot air gun should probably also have full ground, as they are usually driven by mains.But for ESD safe, it only needs to 'bleed' away static charge. Not zap it away. So put a 1Meg resistor.Just like on your wristband and your ESD safe rubber mat.It will have to same effect of preventing static buildup.And it will have the additional advantage that if you already have static on your PCB (because you grabbed it maybe) it will softly bleed it, rather then zap it.Again, like wristband and ESD mat.And for you, it may have the additional advantage of maybe not messing with your sleep sensor?Of course, I am going against conventional wisdom with this, and I do not exactly have the credentials for that.But I wonder how many reviews on You tube went like "this china thing is not even ESD safe" because it has no continuity, when it did in fact have high Ohms to ground.Maybe even your device? Did you measure the entire ohms range?

author: Shock
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 30, 2021, 06:29:28 am
content: The component and pcb should already be statically discharged if ESD safe handling has been performed. I doubt adding a resistor to the soldering iron tip grounding to make it a static discharging tool would be of benefit. The other factor is electrical safety, will it still trip fuses? The ANSI/ESD 2015 standard for soldering/desoldering tools lays out clear testing criteria and that the tip to ground should be less than 2 ohms, 20mV and 10mA leakage. So none of that makes sense to me.

author: Imran333
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: January 31, 2021, 02:04:41 am
content: When your soldering certain components they need to be soldered with a esd safe iron, when your soldering delicate parts which can easily be damaged if your iron is not esd safe , even if your wearing a wristband, if your soldering smd leds and the iron is not esd safe then the leds will be lighting up every time your soldering them bcuz the iron is not esd safe and a wristband won’t help you with that problem and it can damage or reduce the life of the led. Other components can also get damaged especially when working on micro smd parts , this is why it’s important for esd safe irons

author: Imran333
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: February 01, 2021, 02:59:47 am
content: It’s definitely not esd safe bcuz in resistance mode there’s no reading at all and a wristband is not going to eliminate delicate parts getting damaged and also smd leds will be lighting up when a iron is not esd safe and this can damage the leds

author: Imran333
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: February 03, 2021, 09:17:49 pm
content: I managed to resolve the issue now anyway , I tried different value resistors and found the 1 mega ohm one to work perfectly , but I had to use 1 separate resistor for each soldering iron bcuz when I used just one for both irons , then if I put one in sleep mode but both will go in sleep mode and if I remove one out of sleep mode then the other one would aswell , then I tried just to make one iron esd safe and it would jump in and out of sleep mode , different value resistors had different affects , so I tried 1 mega ohm resistor for each iron and all seems well at the moment but need to do a much longer test to find out if it’s perfect or not , I don’t know why they never made the station esd safe bcuz there is a connector at the back of the station to connect your wristband, also it wouldn’t cost them anymore to make it esd safe as I was able to do it for the cost of 2 resistors which cost pennies

author: cybermaus
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 04, 2021, 05:49:01 pm
content: Good to hear.Now, if I understand you correct, it is not fully grounded but with a 1M resistorI think you will find it means it also no longer lights up LED's. It cannot build up static, and also draws the PSU Y-capacitor leakage to neutral.Or at least, my 1M iron does not do light up LED that anymore since I added the 1M and it did before.I also have a fully grounded iron BTW.It may not be according to ESD certifications, but I am pretty sure 1M does practically protect ESDAs to mains fault mentioned above, but I feel this is an safety argument, not an ESD argument: Yes, it will not protect from mains fault against the tip, which is why you should ground the case of your soldering iron. The chances of mains fault to make it to the tip on the tip side of the 1M resistor, rather then the far end, are not big. Not without making it to the case too.

author: Imran333
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: February 05, 2021, 04:48:50 pm
content: Hi yes it’s not directly connected to the ground/earth wire, I had to use a 1m resistor, I tried other values but they all was useless on the t245 type iron and t210 type was a hit and miss , sometimes it was ok but most of the time kept going out of sleep mode or caused both irons to go out of sleep mode , direct to the ground never worked at all for me as it wouldn’t go into sleep mode at all , with 1m resistor t210 type is perfect , the t245 type is near enough perfect , as I noticed once in a blue moon it will jump out of sleep mode for around 2 seconds then go straight back into sleep mode , that’s not a big deal as it only happens sometimes and it only does it for a couple of seconds which I can live with , maybe a different value resistor for that iron might resolve it but I’m not too bothered about it , I do have soldering stations which are direct to ground and the resistance readings are like 0.02 ohms which I presume is direct to ground , I’m no expert of esd safety but I think it is important when soldering certain components , I presume a 1m resistor will be better than nothing and the leds won’t be lighting up while soldering