Pace ADS200 soldering station

[grantb5]

Good to know you finally got yours, congrats. They should be all version 1.4 by now but it's a simple process to change the firmware over anyway.

In case you weren't aware use the tip tool to swap tips, the silicon pad is just there to confuse people. It might make a good place to drop parts on when the tweezers come out.

Yeah I was looking at that big square pad with the arrow shape on one side, wondering what it was for. I just use the little "tweezers" and drop the hot one in one of the spare slots on the docking/stand part ... other than your future plan, what could it be for?

[grantb5]

I spoke to Evan from Tequipment about this the other day. Their stock level has looked terrible for months seemed like they weren't ordering in enough tips and stations. I'm sure they would have sold more overall, not everyone likes to wait for a backorder or buy a station without the tips. Perhaps their ordering system doesn't forecast well when the product is a new listing.

I noticed people are starting to buy on Amazon as well.

Hey Shock, what's the model of your work pad thingy there? I assume esd safe. Looks very nice.  I just use an IKEA mat now. 

[Shock]

Yeah I was looking at that big square pad with the arrow shape on one side, wondering what it was for. I just use the little "tweezers" and drop the hot one in one of the spare slots on the docking/stand part ... other than your future plan, what could it be for?

It is for swapping tips, or I guess putting tips down if you don't want to put them into into the rack. Some other brands use similar but once you can use the tweezers the pads make things clumsy. Makes a good coffee mat also.

Hey Shock, what's the model of your work pad thingy there? I assume esd safe. Looks very nice.  I just use an IKEA mat now. 

That is not mine, it's an image from Amazon. Those things are sold from various China sellers, not sure if there is any official version. Search for PCB REPAIR PAD or similar on Ebay, or start a new thread in the "Other Equipment & Products" forum, someone might be able to hook you up with a good one that doesn't smell rubbery etc.

[helius]

Those pads are made of silicone rubber for heat resistance. They are not ESD mats: there is only one rubber layer, not a dissipative over conductive sandwich like a real ESD pad. I couldn't tell you if the rubber is static dissipative at all—I do not have the proper tools for that measurement—but it reads as zero conductance when testing with probes.

[Shock]

Those pads are made of silicone rubber for heat resistance. They are not ESD mats: there is only one rubber layer, not a dissipative over conductive sandwich like a real ESD pad. I couldn't tell you if the rubber is static dissipative at all—I do not have the proper tools for that measurement—but it reads as zero conductance when testing with probes.

Ok only good for corpses then, thanks for checking.

[joeqsmith]

joeqsmith,

I'm curious about that tip. And the type of soldering you do, where you need for a high thermal mass conical tip?

Thx

I have some 1/64th conical tips at home that make the one shown look like a dull butter knife.  In the attached photo I have scraped away some of the mask to attach my parts to the plain and using AWG 30 to make my connections.  Under those big 0805s is a leadless IC that my am attaching to.   The fine tips like the 357 allow me to get into these tight areas and have enough thermal mass to overcome the  thermal mass of the plain.   

Maybe check out the following article to get a better idea where the various tips are used.
http://blog.okinternational.com/metcal/5-tips-for-solder-tip-selection

Not too long ago, someone asked about making a home made soldering iron.  I ended up jigging something together and used a similar tip.  I bit more flat as I wanted to show some general soldering.   This iron is running off my bench supply, powered by a PC and using  a bench meter to read the tip temps.      Most expensive iron ever, works as you would expect.   You can see me strip some parts off an junk UNI-T meter with it....     Oh yea, the heart of the iron and the only thing it has going for it, a PACE tip! 

https://youtu.be/Xa2TQ583OIU

[grantb5]

It is for swapping tips, or I guess putting tips down if you don't want to put them into into the rack. Some other brands use similar but once you can use the tweezers the pads make things clumsy. Makes a good coffee mat also.

Coffee mat I can see, the arrow belt part is a mystery.   And I guess the little bag of thumb screws is for hooking stuff together haha.

[Cliff Matthews]

Joe, you are one very talented man! If recall correctly, you're up the cold arthritic New England area.
Ever thought of visiting warmer places like Elk Ridge?  (er.. I mean to check out the Real Estate?)

[joeqsmith]

Joe, you are one very talented man! If recall correctly, you're up the cold arthritic New England area.
Ever thought of visiting warmer places like Elk Ridge?  (er.. I mean to check out the Real Estate?)

You like the way I flick those parts off that cheap meter?   Normally, I would do this with my heat gun but for a demo it's fine.   My tweezers are too clumsy to work on small parts like this.  I'm faster with the heat gun.  The small PACE tweezers with the self aligning quick change tips are the best. 

[Cliff Matthews]

Never change Joe, your contributions are noteworthy. Seriously, I'd love to see select cuts from a tour of Pace Inc. one day.. and if any of Pace's engineers subscribe to your channel, I'm sure they'd love to "chew the fat" with someone so resourceful. 

Q - Is there any chance one day you might do a video on how (and with what investment) the novice user can use the free or Academic versions of LabView to handle tasks like the one you posted? https://www.eevblog.com/forum/beginners/homebrew-soldering-iron/msg2135812/#msg2135812

[labjr]

The wine cork makes a good grip. Always Worked well on fishing rods.

[joeqsmith]

Never change Joe, your contributions are noteworthy. Seriously, I'd love to see select cuts from a tour of Pace Inc. one day.. and if any of Pace's engineers subscribe to your channel, I'm sure they'd love to "chew the fat" with someone so resourceful. 

Q - Is there any chance one day you might do a video on how (and with what investment) the novice user can use the free or Academic versions of LabView to handle tasks like the one you posted? https://www.eevblog.com/forum/beginners/homebrew-soldering-iron/msg2135812/#msg2135812

Thanks.  I'm sure the engineers at Pace would have a laugh at the home made irons.  I thought about going one step further with the project but it seems our friend lost interest in the subject.  The plan would have been to start designing something that could actually be used.  Maybe some homemade tweezers.   

A few years back when sparkfun was supplying the student version with an arduino for $50, I had a few friends buying it and tossing out the arduino.  We tried several tests on the student version and it appeared to basically be the base package but with a watermark.  Nothing appeared crippled.  At that time I was working on a system that was fairly intensive.  I was using Labview to test the hardware.  We tried running these tests with the student version and also saw no problems.   The base package is very powerful and what I started out with for my hobby.   NI made me an offer on that I couldn't refuse and I upgraded to pro.   By far, this has been one of the biggest time savers for me.  For home I strictly use Labview now to control the PCs.   

There are training videos on YT for labview.  IMO, the best thing is to just read the getting started manual and work the examples.  It will take a day to absorb it but it's a good starting point.    They have a forum as well that appears popular.  This would be a good place to get help. 
 

[bsudbrink]

I thought I'd post a picture of my "old" Pace setup, with the observation: I really can't see buying any new Pace equipment, the old stuff lasts too long!   

[labjr]

A bit off subject. TEquipment doesn't carry the Kester line of solder products. But they have this. Has anyone tried this bargain solder? Has good reviews.

https://www.tequipment.net/Amerway/AM63.37.SPOOL.1LB/Solder-Wire/?b=y&v=124481

[Cliff Matthews]

A bit off subject. TEquipment doesn't carry the Kester line of solder products. But they have this. Has anyone tried this bargain solder? Has good reviews.

https://www.tequipment.net/Amerway/AM63.37.SPOOL.1LB/Solder-Wire/?b=y&v=124481

I wonder why it is that this small family biz has been 'below the radar' since 1988.. maybe it's just getting traction now? Joe is such a resourceful materials guy, it would be nice to get his take. I liked watching all the smelting and drawing processes I saw in the video (but with lead.. there no way I'd ever work in a plant like that..) Factory on G-maps: https://bit.ly/2SOGCJL


edit - I'd say you're not far off the subject - maybe Aaron's heard about these guys? On that map, I see 2 furnaces 'out back' as the say in the video and a stock yard with easy forklift access to rail cars (solder tends to be heavy stuff).

[labjr]

Seems odd that they've only been ISO 9001 certified since 2017. Maybe they recently started making electronic solder? Judging by their distribution, it appears the main focus of the business was the stained glass industry.

They don't actually offer many types of electronic solder compared to the well established brands.

I emailed the sales manager and received what I feel is a pretty basic response.

Who knows?  Maybe it's good stuff.

[grantb5]

Are people doing the firmware update on their units? Mine shows 1-2 (which I think is Rev B) and it looks like there is a 1-4 (Rev D). There is a photo someplace that shows the update if performed by swapping out a PLCC, probably microcontroller but I guess it could also be a memory chip. Is this for sale or offered via warranty anywhere? And is there a list of the changes/improvements?
 

[labjr]

Are people doing the firmware update on their units? Mine shows 1-2 (which I think is Rev B) and it looks like there is a 1-4 (Rev D). There is a photo someplace that shows the update if performed by swapping out a PLCC, probably microcontroller but I guess it could also be a memory chip. Is this for sale or offered via warranty anywhere? And is there a list of the changes/improvements?

ADS200 Firmware Update Rev 1-4 now available

Finally, I’m getting ready to send out a new “1-4” ADS200 firmware PLCC-44 chip. If you would like to try it out, free of charge, please send me a message with a good shipping address and email. Also mention if you need a Chip Puller to remove the PLCC, as I will provide that too. See the attached ADS200-chip-change.pdf file I have attached below for installation instructions. It's pretty straight forward.

The differences between Rev 1-3 (only sent to a few beta testers) and Rev 1-4 are minimal but the differences between Rev 1-1 or 1-2 are significant. The new firmware takes care of several nagging issues reported in EEVBlog:

• The wacky display screen antics during initial heat-up: by changing some timing code, we were able to curtail the random screen updates that were occurring when you first turn the unit on. Apparently, the unit reacts better if it is not running 100% of wattage when it first turns on. Our engineer also claims the tips heat up faster, although I could not notice any discernible difference myself.
• 5° Display Resolution is now 1°: The display will register in 1° increments rather than 5° increments now. When you set or view temperature, it will actually show the correct temperature e.g. 352°C or 353°C instead of 350 or 355°C. As a result, the display is much more reactive, meaning if you stick it on the sponge, it will drop a few degrees after 1 or 2 seconds. Before the display would just sit there, even though it was accurately reading the proper internal temperature.
• ISB Instant Setback Tool Stand: The ISB can now be programmed to be truly “instant.” While the ADS200 has a default setting of 30 seconds before Setback starts, it can now be set in 1-second increments from “0” (instantly goes into Setback as soon as you place it in the stand) to 240 seconds. Before the minimum setting was 15 seconds.

Shipping to US customers is a breeze, but outside of the US may take more time as we have to gather customs paperwork, etc.

I think you'll like the changes in the ADS200, so message me if you want the new chip sent!

Best,

Aaron

[grantb5]

Thanks. That helped me find a link to the appropriate tech guy. I shall investigate:

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/manufacture/newest-pace-ads200-production-station-(a-jbc-killer-at-$239)/?action=dlattach;attach=458980

[labjr]

Thanks. That helped me find a link to the appropriate tech guy. I shall investigate:

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/manufacture/newest-pace-ads200-production-station-(a-jbc-killer-at-$239)/?action=dlattach;attach=458980

EEV generates bad links. Which is why I quoted his entire post instead of linking to the post.

[grantb5]

If you grab the whole URL you get the PDF with the email address of Tony who is the guy that will theoretically be acting on the firmware update requests.

[labjr]

Oh I get it. I just wish they'd fix that issue. I think special characters are interfering with whatever generates the URL.

[LightlyDoped]

I recently bought the Pace ADS200 with the Instant SetBack tool stand, and I may have discovered a bug in the current firmware (1-4) -- or perhaps the bug is in my cerebral cortex (which is still in beta).

The full instruction manual suggests setting a temp of 350 deg F for Preset 1 (to initiate a "Manual Temperature Setback"), so that the temp can be reduced quickly without having to wait for the setback timer to elapse. So I did this, and left all other settings at their default, including the instant setback temp of 350 deg F which is triggered 30 seconds after placing the handpiece in the stand.

When I pressed the black button to select Preset 1, it correctly triggered the 350 deg temp. However, if I then placed the handpiece in the stand and let the instant setback timer trigger the setback temp after 30 seconds, the temp dropped below 350 deg and kept dropping. It eventually dropped below 200 deg, at which point I pulled the handpiece from the stand and it returned to 350 deg.

It may be that Pace's suggestion to set Preset 1 to 350 deg was intended for stations without the Instant Setback stand. Without the Instant Setback stand, the default setting will trigger the setback temp after 30 minutes of inactivity. But for some reason, manually triggering a setback temp that was the same as the instant setback temp resulted in this strange behavior.

I've returned all settings to default, since waiting 30 seconds for the setback temp to automatically trigger is not an issue. Am I misunderstanding how these settings work?

[Shock]

...the temp dropped below 350 deg and kept dropping. It eventually dropped below 200 deg.

I had a play tonight and was able to confirm on firmware 1.4 the setback temp needs to be lower than the active preset. I assume it turns off the heating but didn't wait for it to go to room temp. I would say it's unexpected behavior but in a weird way having it in setback with no heating and being able to read the tip temp is kind of useful.

So either set Setback 350F, Preset 1 351F or Setback anywhere between 300-349, Preset 1 350F (if you like more rounded numbers for instance) etc for the "Manual Setback" and it should work fine.

[Shock]

If anyone is looking to put an order in, both tequipment.net and uk.farnell.com are showing better stock. Though they are about to run out of the standard model again.

https://uk.farnell.com/pace/8007-0580/soldering-station-with-tool-stand/dp/2893440
https://uk.farnell.com/pace/8007-0581/soldering-station-with-isb-tool/dp/2893441

https://www.tequipment.net/Pace/ADS200-8007-0578/Soldering-Stations/
https://www.tequipment.net/Pace/ADS200-8007-0579/Soldering-Stations/