Hi all,

I've purchased a T245 station, an Aixun T3A.

I really like it but I'm experiencing a major issue, IMHO, and I'd love another owner's opinion on it.

Basically whenever I am soldering on some grounded PCBs, the station misbehaves. It might lose connection with the tip or the temperature might go all over the place.

This is not happening when touching ground but only when touching some solder joints of a grounded PCB.

I had a motherboard on a pre-heating plate (which is grounded) and some solder joints just made the station to misbehave.

I made a video here to explain.

The display shows "NO TOOLS" when I am touching that leg on the motherboard.



Please note the below:

- The black alligator clip is ground. I have checked continuity and it's perfect continuity with mains ground.
- The tip is grounded when idle. When it's heating it appears not to be??
- I've measured voltages and current from the tip to GND and I have observed the below:

VOLTAGE

GND to TIP: 0.584V AC when heating (I take the tip to 100C and then ask the station to go to 400C - so the tip is heated constantly for a few seconds)
GND to TIP: 0.915V DC when heating (same trick than before)

CURRENT
GND to TIP: 1.5A DC when heating (same trick than before)
GND to TIP: 1.74A AC when heating (same trick than before)

MAINS check
The chassis is indeed grounded and the GND clip too.

station GND to Mains GND: I do have continuity
Station GND to Mains: 0.26AC on one mains leg and 242VAC on the other.

---
My first concern is: 0.9V DC at 1.5A is enough to damage some sensitive components. I really don't think I should measure that.
My second concern is obviously that I cannot use that station on grounded equipment!

Can someone (with or without the T3A) comment on this?

Thank you!!

 

hi Tony,
Other users of this iron seem to have similar problems.
E
https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=T245+station,+an+Aixun+T3A.+problems

 

Hi there,

I've been exploring the internet for a few days and I I have posted on some of the threads you linked but I think what you are referring to are the overshooting problems which are inherent to FW version 1.34. 1.33 - which I am on - doesn't have that issue.

Other issues with the T3A are buzzing noise (which I am experiencing too) and melted 24V connectors.

But so far, I haven't seen anybody reporting a "NO TOOL" error when working on a PCB. I could live with some overshooting but not with the station stopping working when soldering!