Any opinions on the AiXun T3A?

[mastershake]

its so odd I have prob like 100 aixun tips or more from all the stations I've ordered (12 of each model including the t420d version) and I've only had a total of 2 tips with issues and only one that didn't work. I've also bought a handful of others by different companies and they normally work fine now they are NOT as good as the original ever are imo but for most people they are just fine. the sunshine brand on Ali you can get dirt cheap and they are basically identical to the aixuns for those who want China ones that are cheap. like the three pack of c210"s are u Der 13$ for all 3

[janoc]

Hi,

I've been using a t3b for a while and on the back of that I purchased the t3a, I've been using with a real JBC 245 cartridge for drag soldering with zero issues.

Today I wanted to use it for a different use so switched to one of the 3 axiun cartridges that came with it.
...
Any suggestions?  Anybody else experienced this?  I've search the web, YouTube and on here and couldn't seem to find any similar issues?

Thanks

On mine the Aixun tips do work but they tend to overshoot badly and one even got glowing red hot for a bit for whatever reason. The genuine JBC tips don't do that. OTOH, the Aixun tips are not all that useful due to their shapes anyway, so I am mostly using the JBC ones.

[mastershake]

now that I agree with the tips they give you are meh shape wise

[exe]

What tips do you guys use? My most common is knife. I also like a spoon for drag soldering. I didn't use others much. I wonder if it makes sense to buy a chisel.

[janoc]

I am doing most work with chisel tips of various sizes, those seem to have the best thermal transfer to the joint for me. And have a bent conical tip, that one is useful for SMD work in tight spaces.

[YulyPH]

The chisel seems to be the best general use for me.
I have the C245-773 and C245-770 original tips.
Both leave the chinese ones in the dust. Even the small 773 is better that the knife from T3A box.
I'm waiting for the C245-755 to do some major melting

I haven't seen any discussions about the L245 soldering pen that has better contact to the tip and I find it better suited for me as it's portable with a 20v supply brick.
There is a review on "SDG Electronics" channel.
It has a NCE30P25S as the driving mosfet.
Just as important the is no buzzing as the contacts seems to be more stable. I can't see any difference from T3A to the L245 in driving original tips, both do great.
In the end I have desolderer the usb c connector and feed wires directly to the pcb as there was a 1V drop with the connector.

[Brando753]

al777 Thank you for sharing your ESD protection design. I am waiting on my station to arrive, and I wanted to know what hole size you used for J2 and J3, the Ground and Input lines. I don't have the station in to measure the screw size and wanted to get a board designed asap. Also, what gauge wires are used back there? I noticed you crimped some connectors, and I wanted to get everything done nice and properly like yours, but I need to know what size connectors to get.

For the front panel, I saw a teardown where it looks like there is not much room to put anything. Since I would rather not have an external box that has to be plugged in, would a surface-mount TVS diode soldered directly on the connector pins and ground be sufficient?

[al777]

Hi Brando753, the actual holes diameter is 6.4mm, between-centers distance is 14mm. But I'd strongly recommend to wait for the station to arrive and measure factual dimensions. It would be frustrating to get PCB manufactured and then find that AiXun have made minor adjustments to the back panel and called it version xx.yy+1 ...

I don't recall what the wire gauge was - I used the original wiring, just re-soldered connections on the back edge of PSU board (they were subpar), and snipped off one of the ring terminals as one wire was to be soldered into the new PCB after my modification. For the one additional wire - its gauge is not critical, it only carries current for the LED in the optocoupler (~2 mA) and both ends are soldered, no crimping on that one either.

As for putting the TVS inside of the connector - I assume you are thinking about putting a TVS into the handle's connector... If so - then the answer is no, it will not be a proper ESD protection. The problem is: if your handle, while disconnected from the base, have gained significant ESD potential - the TVS in the handle will not be effective, as it is not having a path to ground for ESD potential to be discharged to. Until the handle is connected to the base, of course... but when you connect the handle there is no guarantee that the ground pin will make contact first... so, your ESD-charged wires leading to MCU inputs may make contact first and the ESD event will happily occur, frying your MCU input(s) before the ground pin have made its contact thus "enabling" TVS protection... A kludgy attempt to mitigate that would be to have a longer pin for ground in the connector (similar to how USB-A male power pins are longer than the data pins), but that is both unrealistic with the GX connector and simply not an elegant engineering solution. Hence - either open up the front panel and modify the MCU PCB, or go the route I went for. Good luck and have fun doing whatever you will choose to do!

[yelkvi]

Hooray! I repair my Aixun T3A. If you remember, then my port in the processor, which is responsible for the "Dormancy" mode, failed.
Thanks to Dreamcat4 for the link to purchase the processor on Aliexpress.
The GD32F305RET6 processor was mounted at the factory, dreamcat4 wrote that GD32F303RCT6 is enough - it is cheaper.
I put it on.
I flashed it with a Chinese ST-Link V2 programmer using the STM32 ST-Link utility program under Windows 10.
The program does not determine the type of processor, but nevertheless flashes it correctly. Program settings in the photo 4.
The chip (if necessary) was erased separately beforehand.
Special thanks to c0d3z3r0 for the firmware file.

[c0d3z3r0]

Special thanks to c0d3z3r0 for the firmware file.

Nice, great to know my "DRM" bypass works

[yelkvi]

Question: Who uses the T12 pen? How is the sleep function implemented in this mode?
I don't fall asleep. Only when you put the soldering iron on the stand does the 'dormancy' mode turn on. Why is there a vibration sensor in the handle then?

[yelkvi]

The latest firmware version is 1.27. If you hold down the "CH" button for a long time, the soldering station switches to the "TEST" mode.
What is this mode? Judging by the photo, the heating / temperature control mode has changed.

[yelkvi]

Has anyone seen a display from this soldering station for sale?  MY240H2416S-V2
My display has a thin (1 pixel) horizontal bar at the bottom of the screen.

[c0d3z3r0]

Has anyone seen a display from this soldering station for sale?  MY240H2416S-V2
My display has a thin (1 pixel) horizontal bar at the bottom of the screen.

I broke the display when disassemling the main unit. Unfortuately, I wasn't able to get the MY240H2416S-V2.
Instead I got a JLT24008D: https://de.aliexpress.com/item/32347021854.html (16 bit version)

However, that required patching the lcd initialization (gamma table and invert bit): https://github.com/c0d3z3r0/aixun_t3a_rev/tree/master/patch
Note that this patch is version specific (v1.26).

JLT24008C might work without any firmware patches (no guarantee!).
https://de.aliexpress.com/item/32349236024.html (choose 16Bit ST7789 LCD)
https://de.aliexpress.com/item/32639132217.html (choose 16Bit ST7789 Screen)

[yelkvi]

Thank you. I found these options. But I needed your approval that they would fit.
I'm still thinking about the advisability of replacing the display - only the green color in one small strip does not work. You can see it in my previous photos.

[c0d3z3r0]

Thank you. I found these options. But I needed your approval that they would fit.
I'm still thinking about the advisability of replacing the display - only the green color in one small strip does not work. You can see it in my previous photos.

Yeah, I see. Well, since you already have the case open, it's easy to replace. Not sure what the new display costs including shipping for you, for me it'd be roughly 10€.
If it was my device, I'd just do it, but got for the C version display this time (hopefully without patching fw).

[yelkvi]

If it was my device, I'd just do it, but got for the C version display this time (hopefully without patching fw).

You talked me into it  
Ordered here: https://aliexpress.ru/item/32379063593.html
The price is also about $10

[mastershake]

Special thanks to c0d3z3r0 for the firmware file.

Nice, great to know my "DRM" bypass works

nice! I missed that post not sure how, ill have to try to dig back and find it to keep on hand. awesome to know it works. appreciate you posting it we have a bunch of these in use and thus is great to have just in case

[c0d3z3r0]

If it was my device, I'd just do it, but got for the C version display this time (hopefully without patching fw).

You talked me into it  
Ordered here: https://aliexpress.ru/item/32379063593.html
The price is also about $10

Heh, I can't read anything there! Let me know if it worked

[yelkvi]

Delivery of the parcel is promised only in a month.
Let's wait.

[c0d3z3r0]

Delivery of the parcel is promised only in a month.
Let's wait.

Ugh. Fortunately I was able to get it delivered in just one week (with 10-days delivery option)

[nedrysoft]

After some back and forward with Axiun by email, sending photos I eventually got a response of;

“We have already fixed it”.

I then had to try and coax the answer out of them, since clearly if they had fixed it, it wasn’t fixed for me and was the whole reason for the series of emails.

It turns out there was a bad bunch of cartridges that didn’t work, and all 3 of mine were from this batch which is why none of them worked.

I lost the will to live at this point since I didn’t buy the iron directly, it was from another vendor on AliExpress and further to that it wasn’t ordered by me, my wife did it, so I cut my losses and just bought other tips rather than go through a whole other set of exchanges with somebody else.

[yelkvi]

Got the display from Aliexpress. In appearance, it completely coincides with the one set by the manufacturer.
Earned immediately after connection. Delivery - two weeks. Perfect packaging to prevent damage to the display during shipping.
I don’t give a link to the display - Russia has its own application for shopping on Aliexpress. Search by seller JR E-Shop

[mastershake]

edit found it. im going to order in a handful just to have on hand between the 3a and 3b we have 24 of them in the shop i just want to have them hanging around in case we need them. thanks

[ozkarah]

I couldn't find any T3B 220V T245 version on Aliexpress. Do you think it is because that configuration is not in production?