DEADLY WIRING FAULT ; Atten 858D+ Hot Air Rework Station

[T4P]

Forget about writing instructions, they can't even get datasheets done properly ... damn china
I'm still impressed by Cyrustek's datasheets even being Taiwanese ...

[GEuser]

The kit thing saturation is exactly how i was explaining them on another place to someone a few weeks back too , but i used the scenario that the kit had be assembled by someone like ME and a purchaser then brought it and had to clean it up a tad .

[nukie]

Most Chinese chips are copies of the western products that's why you dont see datasheet. Often I find chips that has same pinout, same packaging, look into thr datasheet 100% exact copy. How they perform in real world I am not so sure.

tapatalk

[Monkeh]

Is the market demand really so biased to this line voltage

Well, yes. The exceptions to 240VAC 50Hz consist of: The USA, Canada, Japan, and various South American countries. The entire planet uses 240V 50Hz with the exception of those under the thumb of the US.

Including Hong Kong, the source of most of these devices, who also share the same plug as the UK.

[dr_p]

I have one of these Atten 858D on it's way from Hong Kong. I was planning on a teardown to check for issues, even whithout knowing of this topic. Now that I read it it's definitely getting a thorough inspection.

Nicest surprise from the chinese QC was a extension cord that had "one of the other wires"    and ground swithed over. Since I live in Europe, our plugs don't care for polarity. First time I plugged it in it worked fine because the neutral went to ground and vice-versa, which it did anyway in the panel board(no RCD). Second time I plugged it the other way around and got hot on the chassis ground.  As a bonus the equipment that's plugged in was not working, so it begged for me to touch it. 

I then realized there's a problem, opened the extension cord and checked for continuity, since the colors were right (yellow/green to ground) and found out that they were switched over insinde the moulded plug. It wasn't my cord to throw away, so I text labeled them and soldered them the correct way.

[saturation]

ouch, yes, dr_p, you have a new set of unique faults to contribute; just again supporting a big issue is variations within their assembly quality.  If you have the time, photos of these issues would help to add to the discussion and archives for future readers.

I have one of these Atten 858D on it's way from Hong Kong. I was planning on a teardown to check for issues, even whithout knowing of this topic. Now that I read it it's definitely getting a thorough inspection.

Nicest surprise from the chinese QC was a extension cord that had "one of the other wires"    and ground swithed over. Since I live in Europe, our plugs don't care for polarity. First time I plugged it in it worked fine because the neutral went to ground and vice-versa, which it did anyway in the panel board(no RCD). Second time I plugged it the other way around and got hot on the chassis ground.  As a bonus the equipment that's plugged in was not working, so it begged for me to touch it. 

I then realized there's a problem, opened the extension cord and checked for continuity, since the colors were right (yellow/green to ground) and found out that they were switched over insinde the moulded plug. It wasn't my cord to throw away, so I text labeled them and soldered them the correct way.

[uhmgawa]

Is the market demand really so biased to this line voltage

Well, yes. The exceptions to 240VAC 50Hz consist of: The USA, Canada, Japan, and various South American countries.

I believe a few countries, notably Taiwan and Mexico have been omitted from the above roster.

The entire planet uses 240V 50Hz with the exception of those under the thumb of the US.

We like it that way -- keeps out the riffraff.
However my question rather was of actual market sales volume vs.that of global outlet tally.

In any case it appears the 110V units have become more common though the 230V units still dominate.
In particular replacement heaters for this and cloned designs are less common and substantially more
expensive.  It is possible though to parallel fold a 220V element in mid stride with an iron wire and brass crimp
if need be.

Something I haven't seen discussed is the variation in nozzle mounting style.  It appears the
current majority of units have a bottom flanged bayonet style push & spanner turn configuration.
Less common seem to be a dimpled/deformed pin and groove bayonet, and lastly a conventional
22mm clamp nozzle.  I've even seen one vendor of the flanged bayonet offer what appears to be a
22mm clamp adapter.  Presumably to allow use of existing specialty nozzles using a 22mm clamp
mount.

[uhmgawa]

In terms of the hot air wand, there are no signs of grinding or hacking of the fan enclosure to make it fit. Likewise all wires are well attached to the PCB with no large stretches of bare copper exposed or anything like that seen in other stations.



So after strain relief was fitted to the mains cable, the mains earth wire re-attached, and the active and neutral swapped around plus a bit of tidying up and re-bundling of wires, the station was good to go.

Perhaps you have an early version of the wand where the brass screw boss inserts in the cable end hadn't been cost reduced out yet.
It also appears the reed switch may have an actual mount clip vs the dribbling of epoxy I'd found in a recent wep858 and xpower 8786d.
In both of these units the bare molded bosses into which the connection PCB screw mounts, were cracked.  I believe the thermoplastic
used is glass filled and more brittle than say unadorned ABS which has sufficient resilience to give when the screw self threads.

These hot air tools work remarkably well given their many shortcomings.  I'd go as far to say they may be one of the few original
(+/-) product designs I've seen appear from Chinese vendors.  I'm trying very hard to ignore the S3F9454 being socketed which
almost invites displacing it with a plugin uC board to address existing firmware quirks, add custom features, etc..

[T4P]

Nope, those are the Yihua ones, i bought mine 2 years ago and it broke
The fan is pretty piss poor but the machine inserts are fantastic, though there's a LOT of restriction on the handle
the shape of the atten handles are a bit better but not as smooth as yihua

[devhdc]

Seeing as I'm just getting into electronics, and ordered one of these for testing out some minor reballing, I'd truly appreciate a detailed breakdown of what could conceivably be fixed .. And better yet, a video detailing potential errors, and documenting the work to fix it.

[matteo_galet]

Hello,
after weeks reading through lots of topics about this hot air station, I finally bought one AT8586 from AliExpress:

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/220V-ATTEN-AT8586-2in1-Hot-Air-SMD-Rework-Soldering-Station-Desoldering-Station/387167165.html

It took 10 days to dispatch the order plus 3 days to get here in Italy with DHL/DPD/BRT (yes, 3 couriers involved - God knows why), but hey, for just 62€ (78$) it's fair.
The unit came with an akward chinese power plug, took me 4 seconds to replace with a common schucko.
Well... it... works! The stylus welder is even better than my old Weller Red-series analog one, while the hot air blower really does its job!
Before plugging it in I carefully disassembled the main unit and the blower, and found very nice cabling and good PCB quality - double face, with soldermask.
Long story short, all the issues I read about seems solved, and the overall quality improved.
All metal shields are grounded, the fuse case is now embedded into the socket/switch module, no pinched wires around.
Good work Atten, I'm proud of having spent 60€ on something I really needed.
Here you are some pictures of the thing.
Ciao!

[SgtRock]

Dear Monkeh:

--You said "The entire planet uses 240V 50Hz with the exception of those under the thumb of the US.". An interesting an provocative assertion. I would be very interested to see any evidence of the US forcing countries "under its thumb" to use 240V 50Hz. Do you have any similar theories about which side of an automobile the steering wheel is on?

"Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence"
Carl Sagan 1934-1996

Best Regards
Clear Ether

[pickle9000]

Canada shares the same power grid, we sell massive amounts of electricity to the states. It's basically an infrastructure issue, cheaper to keep the same system. I expect the US companies sold the same building blocks to the other countries. Is it fair to "under it thumb", I'd probably say convenient and a way to earn a buck. Why not sell equipment from your own country to make a profit (I have no problem with that)? In any case these things happened long ago.

[justanothercanuck]

http://imageshack.us/a/img803/1617/p1020799n.jpg

Is it just me, or does the resistor in the bottom left corner look like it has a bad solder job?

[Monkeh]

Dear Monkeh:

--You said "The entire planet uses 240V 50Hz with the exception of those under the thumb of the US.". An interesting an provocative assertion. I would be very interested to see any evidence of the US forcing countries "under its thumb" to use 240V 50Hz. Do you have any similar theories about which side of an automobile the steering wheel is on?

"Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence"
Carl Sagan 1934-1996

Best Regards
Clear Ether

That's not how I meant it and you know it. But you keep looking for an argument, I'll just leave you with this:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f5/Weltkarte_der_Netzspannungen_und_Netzfrequenzen.svg/2000px-Weltkarte_der_Netzspannungen_und_Netzfrequenzen.svg.png

[matteo_galet]

Is it just me, or does the resistor in the bottom left corner look like it has a bad solder job?

It looks like those pins got less solder than others, but I'm pretty confident there is enough on the bottom side.

[aquaaddict]

Just got one of these, and tore it right the heck apart. I was very surprised that find everything in order.
....
There was even a shiny holographic Q.C. sticker on the outside. Of course the sticker did say "Qenuine Q.C. Passed". I guess they spell "genuine" with a 'Q' in China.

I have just ordered this 'Scotle' branded one from ebay http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/181140428736?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649 as the photo also shows that same  holagraphic type sticker; I know you dont always get whats in the ebay pic but interestingly they also have A LOT of pics of the inside of the unit (inc the fan with no bits hacked off) and it (allegedly) undergoing compliance testing.

Seems this seller specialises in rework equipment.

Shame it doesnt have an IEC inlet (easily solved  ) but will be interesting to see how it compares to the pictures and what faults it has; although to be honest for $56 delivered I dont care if it needs a few tweaks before putting it in to service. I'll let you know what its like when it arrives.

Anthony

[aquaaddict]

It arrived today, thats about 1 week from the far East to Perth, it was sent DHL which is amazing for the price.

It too has the holographic sticker on the front as per the listing pics.

Fan looks good, nothing cut from it and the pcb in the handle is all neat.
wiring is around the right way, but no attempt to eartg the front or back metal panel so ill scratch some paint off where they join.

only other thing that concerned me was this

the legs dont actually touch but I might reverse the resistors so the leg sticking up and out is pointing towards the cap instead.

one of the nozzles is a loose fit it just rotates so need to bend the 3 liitle tabs on it some more for a good friction fit when rotated to lock in place.

oh and the red plastic lens for the display is a little recessed on one side where it has to much glue under the lip but that may just be being picky on somthing  so cheap.

Fized cable with Euro plug supplied with travel adapter, will put iec socket or replace cable.

panel mount fuse and cable relief both addionally glued .

Anthony

[Monkeh]

Fized cable with Euro plug supplied with travel adapter, will put iec socket or replace cable.

You know you can replace the plug without changing the entire cable.. right?

[aquaaddict]

You know you can replace the plug without changing the entire cable.. right?

ha ha yes, but Ill just chop the iec plug off a spare iec mains cable and use that so has moulded mains plug on the other end. I work in IT so I always have spare free iec cables around.

Oh and anyone know what this is?


I am sure it is obvious but I cant see it...

Anthony

[Monkeh]

You know you can replace the plug without changing the entire cable.. right?

ha ha yes, but Ill just chop the iec plug off a spare iec mains cable and use that so has moulded mains plug on the other end. I work in IT so I always have spare free iec cables around.

You trust moulded plugs more than one you've assembled yourself?

And, uh.. I don't know. Hot nozzle stand?

[BillyD]

Oh and anyone know what this is?


I am sure it is obvious but I cant see it...

Anthony

I puzzled over that for a while too and concluded (possibly incorrectly) that you use the screw to assemble it into a springy fork shape, and use it for holding components in place while soldering them.

[aquaaddict]

yes some sort of very basic tweezers type arrangment was the only conclusion I reached but it would be so poor I presumed it must have a better use

[BravoV]

That is a FP smd pickup wire and the handle, just google for Hakko 850B manual in pdf and see for your self.

[Monkeh]

Ahh, so it's what fancy people use instead of flipping the part off the board with a screwdriver.