Station choices for 10awg and Connectors

[Someone]

Thermaltronics TMT-2000-S with K series tip. Most affordable option, but could step up to the 9000 series, though it doesn't sound like I'd be missing too much by going with the more affordable 2000 series.

Since I have some M series tips here and there has been some heated discussion I went ahead and tested them on a 12 AWG wire terminating into a ground plane on a sizeable PCB.

https://www.thermaltronics.com//datasheet/M7CP303 - 1mm conical
https://www.thermaltronics.com/datasheet/M7CH176 - 1.78mm chisel
https://www.thermaltronics.com/datasheet/M7CH176H - 1.78mm power chisel

All pulled approximately the same power ("29" to "31" as reported by the Metcal 5000, not consistent between tips across multiple repeats) when pressed against the joint. Larger joints do increase the power reading further.

Added description above to your post. Good measurements that do demonstrate how well metcal works with smaller tip sizes. Though there will still be a physical limit when we reach a certain: temperature differential, surface area, and thermal conductivity. Grab something like long reach STTC-140 or a fine point STTC-126 and it will be obvious, you'll only transfer ~20W. Compared to the 30-40W you saw.

Agree that the thermaltronics "power plus" tip is a gimmick. It probably has some niche use case, but, for any hobbyist its not useful to buy them. They are worse for the kind of stuff we do (heavy, slow to heat up).

Considering you can get a wide M7CH250 (STTC-117) or M7CP200 (STTC-136P) for $17 though, it may be worth having around.

I've STTC-145 and STTC-146 tips (long reach 0.4/0.5mm conical), if you only use the end 1-2 mm of the tip then yes it reduces the power throughput to "22" or "23" which feels a little slow, though still flows the joint. Adding some contact to the joint (which dwarfs these tips, even the 1.8mm chisel) along the tip for less than 5mm they were able to deliver the same "30" or "31" as the other tips. The only limitation seems to be contact area, which makes sense from the curie heating being distributed and close to the plating. No thermal conductivity or mass comes into it. On any other station these would be considered completely inappropriate tip choices and you'd probably require a 3mm or 5mm chisel on such a joint.

Either way all those tips were able to competently solder the joint at some stable level of power in the region of 25-30W. Perhaps the 40W thermaltronics stations might be up to the task the OP had?

[thm_w]

Either way all those tips were able to competently solder the joint at some stable level of power in the region of 25-30W. Perhaps the 40W thermaltronics stations might be up to the task the OP had?

Its definitely up to the task, just question of speed vs a T245 clone station or a 80W metcal.
The T245 clones will have no problem pushing 60W+ with a fat tip. So for a $100 station you've already significantly surpassed the performance of the 40W stations, when we are specifically talking about OPs type of workloads with large surface areas.

youtu.be/26KXtHZqhMg?t=979

[Someone]

The T245 clones will have no problem pushing 60W+ with a fat tip. So for a $100 station you've already significantly surpassed the performance of the 40W stations, when we are specifically talking about OPs type of workloads with large surface areas.

That's the rub, I'm not sure the "extra" power of conventional tips are actually making it to the joint (at high enough efficiency). The metcal power meter never went above the level of a fully wetted/molten joint on the plane so I doubt more power = faster, the different tips all pushed the same surprisingly low power into the joint.

[thm_w]

The T245 clones will have no problem pushing 60W+ with a fat tip. So for a $100 station you've already significantly surpassed the performance of the 40W stations, when we are specifically talking about OPs type of workloads with large surface areas.

That's the rub, I'm not sure the "extra" power of conventional tips are actually making it to the joint (at high enough efficiency). The metcal power meter never went above the level of a fully wetted/molten joint on the plane so I doubt more power = faster, the different tips all pushed the same surprisingly low power into the joint.

A thin copper plane is a bit different than a solid copper/brass EC8 connector. You can watch SDG's videos to see power into a copper coin, which is probably around the mass of a EC8+10AWG wire or so. He's shown power draw in excess of 80W.

Where else do you think the power is going? We know some will be lost in the cable, PSU efficiency, but its not huge, and you can measure those if needed. I would guess its better than 75% efficient.
On the Metcal you have to take into account the RF PSU efficiency, which I guess is in the range of 70-90% on the 5000. Or just use a RF watt meter.

If I measure power at the wall on MX5000:
- 5W idle - no tip
- 90-105W when heating up - depends on tip
- 80-90W with a 2p coin - also depends on tip (STTC-137 2mm, M7LC650 5mm long)

So that means ~70-75W is going into the 2p coin. Much more than into an average PCB plane.

edit: Managed to hit 101W at the wall with STTC-017 (5mm chisel) and 2p coin, essentially maxed out the station. A 2p coin weighs 7g, EC8 connector should be ~12g.