Author: Andrei
03/09/2018

I, personally, was waiting for this project to be finished for some time. I really liked the past version because it is simple and well made. Now, this second board is even better. We've talked a bit about it a few weeks ago. But now, the project is made and we also have a new firmware, version 2.0, made by ELECTRONOOBS. This new version is much better, especially when talking about the tip of the iron. That's probably the main improvement. So let's see what we have new.

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Ok, so first of all, the new type of used tip. In this case, the T12 tip made for hakko 912 soldering staion. It is much high quality than the one used for the past version and it is also easy to replace. But sice this model has only 2 connectors, so the heater and thermocouple are in series, reading the temperature is not that easy. So the circuit had to be changed. It now has an OPAMp that will amplify the voltage drop between the two connectors of the soldering tip, and by that read the temperature value. To support the tip, the board has 3 fuse type PCB clips. One of those has nothing to it and the other two are T+ and T-.

But, the PCB has other new components as well. Beside the OPAMP, EN also placed a vibration sensor which is just a metal spring inside a tube that when vibrates will make a contact between two pins.

With the vibration sensor, the board could get out of sleep mode when the soldering iron moves, so that's a nice touch. Also, now the push buttons are placed on the sides, so he had to use 90 degrees push buttons that are used to increase and decrease temperature, and also turn on adn off the Sleep mode.

The board also has a buzzer for sound short signals like when we get out of sleep mode or turn the iron ON. The rest is the same as version 1. Same OLED screen, same microcontroller, the ATMega328 chip and same MSOFET. Electronoobs announced in his video, that a 3rd version is planned. So, that's the second version of the ELECTRONOOBS soldering iron with better tip, that could reach higher temperatures and the heat transfer is way better. Also the new firmware has better PID control for way more precise temperature tested with external thermocouple. Reading the temperature was the most difficult part of the projet, EN says.