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RT Soldering pen

Soldering pen for Weller RT tips with OLED display

vlkvlk
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vlk has 247 orders / 15reviews
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Every hardware hacker need good soldering tool. My idea was to build own but with very specific qualities. On one side not so expensive, on second side high quality and also small with precise control and features. I found some projects where is used Weller soldering tips designed for WMRP soldering iron with standard 3.5mm jack and inside the tip is also thermocouple for sensing temperature. These tips are not so cheap but the quality is really great, especially for fine soldering. Hardware design is based on similar projects but with many modifications and improvements. Also my request was to make the hardware small as possible to fit into handle and capable to supply from hobbyist LiPO battery.Buy one on tindiy: https://www.tindie.com/products/vlk/rt-soldering-pen/

Features:

  • very compact - will fit into handle
  • display show status, preset and tip temperature, power, supply voltage, drop, ...
  • two buttons
  • automatic standby
  • sensing supply voltage and tip current
  • precise regulation with PID (PSD controller with some modifications)
  • supply voltage is from 5V to 18V (best is 10-13V)
  • designed to supply from LIPO battery 2S (7.4V max is about 18W) or 3S (11.1V max is more than 40W)
  • calculating consumed Wh
  • heat-up in 5sec from 25 to 400°C (with 40W limit)
  • Idle current about 8mA

What is planed:

  • case
  • battery monitor (warn when battery need charge)
  • configuration editor for some constants from PSD controller, power limit, ....
  • open-source everything

Videos:

Weller-RT6-Holder-Bottom-V1.0.stl

RT pen case bottom part for HW v1.0

Standard Tesselated Geometry - 9.53 MB - 12/08/2019 at 19:15

Download

Weller-RT6-Holder-Top-V1.0.stl

RT pen case Top part for HW 1.0

Standard Tesselated Geometry - 4.78 MB - 12/08/2019 at 19:15

Download

Portable Network Graphics (PNG) - 64.37 kB - 03/30/2017 at 19:45

Preview
Download

  • 1 × STM32F031 Microprocessors, Microcontrollers, DSPs / ARM, RISC-Based Microcontrollers
  • 1 × AD8551 Precise operational amplifier
  • 1 × ACS711 Hall effect current sensor
  • 1 × LMR14203 Power Management ICs / Switching Regulators and Controllers
  • 1 × OLED display 0.91" 128x32

  • Display replacement

    vlk05/02/2023 at 09:25 0 comments
  • New HW revision v1.1

    vlk02/08/2021 at 21:00 0 comments

    - new switches

    - updated layout with fixed current sensor connection bug

  • RT PEN CASE

    vlk12/08/2019 at 19:22 4 comments

    Otto Winter send me STL files with case design for HW v1.0

    Bottom part: Weller-RT6-Holder-Bottom-V1.0.stl

    Top part: Weller-RT6-Holder-Top-V1.0.stl

  • About new RT tips

    vlk12/08/2019 at 18:55 0 comments

    RTM, RTP and RTU tips

    Weller this year introduced new series of RT tips with nice slogan "No compromise".

    There are three types:

    • RTM - RT Micro - they are same like previous line RT, but with new naming
    • RTP - RT Pico - these tips are smaller, shorter for more precise soldering
    • RTU - RT Ultra - these tips are in opposite bigger and designed for higher power (till 150 Watts)

    All the tips have same pinout and in general are compatible,

    RTM and RTP (also previous RT) have resistance of heating element 2 Ohm and they are designed for 12 V (current is 6 A) but maximum average heating power is 40 Watts - this power is controlled and limited by PWM.

    RTU has resistance of heating element 3.5 Ohm, this mean, to reach 150Watts is necessary to use higher voltage - at least 24V, but the current will be still similar - what is good for the JACK connector.

    But actual design of RT soldering pen has limitation for power at 18 V and current to RT, RTM and RTP will be at 18 V: 9 Amps - the pen it should withstand it, because average pulse power is limited by SW to 40 W) question is what can withstand the JACK connector.

    The main question is how to use this with RTU tips they need 24 V. so, absolute maximum rating of HW 1.0* is 25V for supply voltage (limiting element is input capacitor) after replacing input cap next limit will be 30V (maximum voltage of MOSFET switches)

    *Absolute maximum rating for previous HW v0.3 is 20V - this is limited by 20V MOSFET switch.

    For RTU if the supply will be 24V then output power can be near to 150 Watts, but this need also modifications in SW to allow higher output power. Yes, this is planed and new release will available be soon.

    Another problem with new tips is that each kind RT/RTM, RTP and RTU has different dimensions of the cylinder on JACK side and is necessary to count with this for case design. (old RT and new RTM have same dimensions of the cylinder) this is also reason why Weller sell for each kind different tip holder.

    MS tips:

    If I talking about tips there is one more question: What it mean if in name is "MS", it mean that tip meets Military Specifications. But there is no more informations. In general the main different is that shield of the tip is electrically isolated from the connector, standard tips have shield connected to ground.

    Weller RT TIP typemax average powerheater element resistancecurrent  and power at 12Vcurrent and power at 16Vcurrent and power at 24V
    RTM / RT40W (55W*)6A / 72W8A / 128W-
    RTP
    40W6A / 72W8A / 128W-
    RTU150W3.5Ω3.4A / 41W4.6A / 73W6.8A / 164W

    * some RT tips have 55W limit (RTM 36 S / RT 11)

    from left: RTP, RTM, RTM MS, RTU

  • New RT tips

    vlk10/06/2019 at 20:14 1 comment

    just found, that Weller announced new RT soldering tips

  • New firmware v0.4.0

    vlk10/06/2019 at 20:06 0 comments

    New firmware is ready to download, it support HW v0.3 and also new HW v1.0.

    features:

     - display brightness control

    - turn off display to protect pixels burning when is inactive for 15 minutes (wake up by pressing both buttons at once)

    - increased maximum preset temperature to 500°C (only for HW v1.0)

    https://github.com/pavelrevak/rt_soldering_pen/releases

  • New redesign is ready

    vlk09/26/2019 at 18:30 1 comment

  • New HW

    vlk05/07/2019 at 18:36 3 comments

    After longer delay, after some troubles, new revision is getting ready.

    There will be two major enhancements:

    • full reverse polarity protection
    • added accelerometer

    Stay tuned..

  • New version of Firmware v0.2.0

    vlk08/09/2018 at 18:14 0 comments

    Main changes:

    - improved PID

    - saving preset temperatures

    List of all changes and download: https://github.com/pavelrevak/rt_soldering_pen/releases

  • New version of Firmware v0.1.0

    vlk07/24/2018 at 21:29 0 comments

    Although is still in development state is stable and has many new features, like simple main screen with large temperature, Fahrenheit mode or left-handed mode.

    There is also many features in background

    Update is easy and safe with any SWD (ST-Link) programmer

    Download from github: https://github.com/pavelrevak/rt_soldering_pen/releases


    Updating firmware with cheap Chinese ST-Link programmer:

    To program, use ST-Link utility from ST, or any other SW for Flashing STM32 micro-controllers (openocd, texane/stlink, pystlink, ...)

    There is also possible to use ST-Link part of any Discovery or Nucleo board.

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Discussions

Petr Kounovsky wrote 04/05/2017 at 07:50 point

Great job, very sophisticated device. What about cover box ? Will you do it soon ? I'm curious.

  Are you sure? yes | no

sogseal wrote 03/30/2017 at 22:58 point

Epic! want one. Great job man, made my day!

  Are you sure? yes | no

jaromir.sukuba wrote 03/26/2017 at 19:49 point

Do you have some more details available? Like, PCB design, firmware.I have some RT tips and I'm interested in building controller for it - this one seems to be perfect fit.

  Are you sure? yes | no

electrobob wrote 03/26/2017 at 15:41 point

Really nice work. I think this is how the future of soldering irons should be, just get rid of the classical station box. 

Why the accelerometer?

  Are you sure? yes | no

vlk wrote 03/26/2017 at 16:37 point

Thanks,

Accelerometer will be to wake up from stand-by

  Are you sure? yes | no

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