Advice Please -What solder station?

[bilabonics]

Hi all

I’m looking to build a 52v/2000w bike and only have a pencil iron as I work on small PCB usually.

I do also have a £8 30w iron that is useless.

I’m looking to get something decent to do the build and have done EC5 connections several years ago on a build but would like something half decent that won’t brake the bank and variable volts/power for my new build.

I notice people now use XT waterproof connections and not EC5s.

Nothing to expensive just a hobby one for bike building and odd household repairs.

I’m based in the U.K.

Cheers.

 

[marty]

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I got a few soldering irons from little to big and a solder gun. Never felt the need for a solder station.

 

[bilabonics]

Thanks

 

[nicobie]

After trying at least a dozen, I've settled on this Hakko:

View attachment 1

Even though I rarely use it, I keep one of these around too:

 

[calab]

Get a cheap, corded 60w iron with the cheesy stand. This can be a good thick guage wire tinner.

Then for the fine work, there is no fine soldering work in ebikes until you open the controller or be blessed with opening the motor for some hall sensor work. Throttle you just throw away, always have spares. BMS perhaps, even the 60w brut can do thin gauge wire

 

[CONSIDERABLE SHOUTING]

Whatever you choose, don't take the meme option with the USB powered Soldering irons. I got one for ~$3 recently and they physically cannot keep enough heat within the iron to melt solder; they touch something cold and lose it all in seconds, which sucks especially when they're so nimble. Maybe a UBC-C based one could work, but so far I doubt it.

 

[bilabonics]

Thanks guys. Much appreciated.

 

[amberwolf]

Whatever you choose, don't take the meme option with the USB powered Soldering irons. I got one for ~$3 recently and they physically cannot keep enough heat within the iron to melt solder; they touch something cold and lose it all in seconds, which sucks especially when they're so nimble. Maybe a UBC-C based one could work, but so far I doubt it.

The basic USB standard (pre-USB-C) only supports 500mA per port, so that's 0.5A x 5v, which is only 2.5W. That would take a while to heat an iron, and cannot reheat it or sustain it's heat while it's doing it's work.

If using a USB wallwart that supports higher current, such as a common 2A charger, it will be 2A x 5v = 10W, which is almost 2/3 of the crappiest radioshack iron I've used, that just about solders normal small thru-hole components and wires to PCBs.

USB-C supports much higher currents and power levels, up to at least 100W, *if* there are electronics in the powered device that negotiate for this with the USB port, *and* the cabling also supports this power level via it's wires and electronics, *and* the port (or wallwart/charger) itself is capable of it (they aren't all).

A $3 iron is unlikley to even *have* electronics in it to do any communicating, much less be capable of handling the power level required to do soldering of any of the heavier gauge wires commonly used on Ebike stuff.

It's much simpler to just use an iron that directly plugs into the wall. I prefer one with a large chisel-tip for high-thermal-mass to easily solder large-mass things together.

If thermal control is desired, a station like the Weller I use works well.

This post has some useful links:
https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=114698&p=1696069&hilit=solder%2A+iron#p1696069
and there are others around the forum.

 

[Lowell]

TS-100 65w with 450c firmware. 6s 4500 pack or whatever 6s FPV packs are handy for on the go.

 

[Overclocker]

cordless is the way to go. i'm powering this one with a ryobi battery. you could solder a 12ga wire to an XT90 with this

 

[nicobie]

That's clever. :thumb:

 

[bilabonics]

IMG_20211010_224331.jpg

cordless is the way to go. i'm powering this one with a ryobi battery. you could solder a 12ga wire to an XT90 with this

Wow!

I'll see if they do one for my Dewalt 18v gear as i have several batteries.

Cheers