2021-11-20

T12 OLED soldering iron

My latest purchase, T12 OLED soldering iron. Few reasons why I have chosen this model:
  • (obviously) compatible with T12 tips which became very popular due to great price/performance
  • I think that it would take less space than variant with base station and with longer cable it is kind of portable
  • it is quite cheap (< $25 with 3 tips and shipping) as power supply is not included
  • I already have spare good quality power supply (at the moment: http://commonemitter.blogspot.com/2020/02/hama-00039729-regulated-power-supply.html, although it is overkill)
  • I completely do not trust cheap AC/DC power adapters that are included in similar sets - ones I've seen are unearthed and (as is pretty common for unearthed switching mode power supplies) probably have some leakage and thus are dangerous for soldered components 
Offer from aliexpress allowed to choose tips - I went for BC1, BC2 and JL02 and I'll probably use BC1 (cone with tip cut off at 45 deg angle and 1 mm diameter) most of the time.



Motion for standby power down is detected with some kind of mechanical pipe-shaped sensor. There is audible metal ball or something like this bouncing inside this pipe when soldering iron is in position close to horizontal.
BA9H13, LM358 and some microcontrolled with scrapped markings.

Default menu language was Chinese, though I've switched to English in few tries. Menu has one or two positions more than described by seller, so firmware is probably still developed and might change over time.

Some drawbacks I've found so far:
  • I wouldn't mind if handle + tip would be slightly shorter - it's about 2 cm longer than my previous AC-powered soldering iron
  • as handle has glossy and smooth surface it would be also slightly slippery - lens-like part of the handle does not bring any value
  • as handle is made of hard plastic - it might be prone to cracking if dropped



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