/SolderingIron

An OpenSource Soldering Iron

Primary LanguageEagleGNU General Public License v2.0GPL-2.0

SolderingIron

Idea for an OpenSource Soldering Iron

This project is just another avr based soldering iron. Since professional equipment is quite pricy and not very complicated this projects takes a good, changeable soldering iron tip like the Weller RT1 and provides all the electronics behind that.

View on PCB Layout

Features

  • open hardware (schematic and layout made in Eagle 7.2 freeware license)
  • open firmware written in C (not ready to use right now)
  • fast heatup
  • saving and restoring temperature to and from EEPROM
  • high-precision op-amp for temperature measurement
  • safety measures against overheating and controller crashes
  • automatic temperature control (pid controller)
  • different temperature scales available (recompiling necessary)
  • solder tip rest detection via hall sensor (optional)
  • almost all parts are available from the Seeedstudio Open Parts Library

How does it work

  • 5V for logic
  • 12V for soldering iron
  • ATmega328p controlled

Temperature measure

The thermo-voltage signal is amplified by an op-amp with a gain g = 1 + R1/R2 = 1 + 51k/100 = 511 this signal is converted by ADC0 using Vcc=5V as voltage reference

Solder tip detection

Solved by a hall sensor connected to ADC2. This sensor is powered by 5V

References

Links:

Datasheets:

Current State:

  • hardware version 1.2 is almost ready to be produced
  • optimized bill of materials by reducing unnecessary components
  • PCB measures 5cm x 5cm
  • individual 7-segment displays in use (broader availability)
  • I2C is now unused and can be used for additional hardware