Pace ADS200 soldering station

[Shock]

I think they have a problem with their product descriptions. I've noticed the tips do not show as results consistently unless you search for Pace 1130 or Pace 1131.

ADS200 shows the stations in the first page of results
ADS 200 you get nothing
Pace ADS200 it shows up in the second page of results
Pace ADS 200 you just get the stands which don't show in those other searches

See if you get the same, it might pay to contact them and let them know.

[2N3055]

I have a suggestion/complaint about ISB cubby cable. I keep station(controller unit) on the shelf above desk, and just put iron holder on the desk.
ISB cable from iron stand to the back of station is much shorter that cable on iron handle, and I can't keep controler(power) unit where I kept old iron station.
Cable should be as long as handle cable ...
I would change it but don't have such a nice cable as is used on it originally.

On the other hand soldering performance is nothing short of spectacular...

REALLY can't wait for  tweezers ... :-)

Regards,

Sinisa

[Shock]

Hard to make one size suit everyone, for people who keep the stand closer to the station they will end up with too much cable. Could you make a female to male extension instead of replacing the cable?

[mbless]

Could you make a female to male extension instead of replacing the cable?

That's what I would do. It looks like it's 3 pin mini din. I didn't find any extension cables in a quick search, though.

[labjr]

I didn't find any extension cables in a quick search, though.

You could make an extension pretty easily with a male and female connector. You would only need to use two of the conductors for the ADS200 ISB stand.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Male-Female-Mini-DIN-Plug-Socket-Connector-3-4-5-6-7-8-PIN-Chassis-Cable-Mount/392270523424?hash=item5b55252c20:m:mSwd74IUuARk_kRIUFAx81Q

[Monkeh]

We use the ST50/TD100 irons all day every day for repair work. The current set of tips we've been using were ordered over a year ago and are used for about 1-2 hrs total each day, and they are still fine.

I've just ordered two new ADS200 irons because they cost about the same as a second hand ST50/TD100, so I'm looking forward to trying out the new kit. It does seem that Pace discontinue stuff pretty quickly though.

Edit: Reading the last page of this thread indicates that this station is/was sold by Farnell. I've bought most of my Pace gear in the past from Farnell however they only list the ADS200 tips with no mention of the soldering station. Have Farnell stopped selling Pace gear?

I ordered mine from exmel.co.uk who have been extremely helpful and quick to deal with.

Comes right up for me: https://uk.farnell.com/pace/8007-0581/soldering-station-with-isb-tool/dp/2893441?st=ads200

[IO390]

We use the ST50/TD100 irons all day every day for repair work. The current set of tips we've been using were ordered over a year ago and are used for about 1-2 hrs total each day, and they are still fine.

I've just ordered two new ADS200 irons because they cost about the same as a second hand ST50/TD100, so I'm looking forward to trying out the new kit. It does seem that Pace discontinue stuff pretty quickly though.

Edit: Reading the last page of this thread indicates that this station is/was sold by Farnell. I've bought most of my Pace gear in the past from Farnell however they only list the ADS200 tips with no mention of the soldering station. Have Farnell stopped selling Pace gear?

I ordered mine from exmel.co.uk who have been extremely helpful and quick to deal with.

Comes right up for me: https://uk.farnell.com/pace/8007-0581/soldering-station-with-isb-tool/dp/2893441?st=ads200

Wow, that's annoying. I tried searching for ADS200, ADS-200, ADS 200 etc... and also searching all of their Pace products. Farnell's search function is rubbish though, usually I just google for the part numbers I need and find them that way.

Exemel were cheaper anyway, £550 for two irons with 6 tips.

The ADS200 is good, about the same as the ST50/TD100 but the handpiece is a bit nicer to use and it heats up more quickly. For the price it's excellent, and the Pace stuff has always been poles apart from the low end Hakko irons IMO (but I've always hated their tips/installation).

[2N3055]

Hard to make one size suit everyone, for people who keep the stand closer to the station they will end up with too much cable. Could you make a female to male extension instead of replacing the cable?

Of course. But I don't have source for nice heat resistant soft cable, and two heavy connectors on  a cable (male/female) make cable hang wrong and noncompliant.

[Alex Eisenhut]

Hard to make one size suit everyone, for people who keep the stand closer to the station they will end up with too much cable. Could you make a female to male extension instead of replacing the cable?

Of course. But I don't have source for nice heat resistant soft cable, and two heavy connectors on  a cable (male/female) make cable hang wrong and noncompliant.

Simply drill a hole in the front panel and reroute that connector, there is enough cable internally to do it. (At least on my station there was)

[mbless]

I thought I’d finally post an update since people have been pm’ing me if I added an LCD to the ADS200 or not. Well yes, I ended up making a replacement control board with an LCD. Of course it took forever since I had to stop all projects for 6+ months to deal with the real world. Images of the final assembly, actual board and Kicad models are attached.

Here’s what I changed over the OEM system:

• Live tip temperature updated at 4 Hz
• Set point temperature display
• Cold junction (handpiece) temperature display
• Power meter and value updated at 8 Hz
• ISB indicator
• 5 preset temperatures shown on the display
• 28V to 5V buck converter with 3.3V post linear regulator. 1mV RMS, 2mVpp on the 3.3V rail. (No more hot heat sink next to an electrolytic.)

As people “discussed” in several preceding pages, there wasn’t really a reason to make this. I don’t really need all of the information, but it was a good project for me since I haven’t used a transformer and AC rectification or thermocouples in a project yet.

Obviously with the large display I couldn’t reuse the OEM front panel, so I laser cut a new one. I then heated it and bent it to make it fit the chassis. It’s not a perfect fit, but with the metal trim piece you can’t see that.

The heater control is a simple proportional controller since I found the system to be sufficiently damped. I always turn the heater on in pairs of ~full cycles to keep the transformer load balanced. Based on the display, the temperatures stay within -2/+3C, sometimes +4C depending on how small the tip is. I calibrated 3 tips with a thermowell and a knockoff Hakko FG-100. There are minor differences between them, but with actual soldering they all stay within the aforementioned temperature bounds.

With the GUI I can cycle through the presets. The active preset is highlighted and also shown as the set point temperature. I can switch to adjusting the set point temperature manually. A manually-adjusted set point can be saved to a preset, or I can adjust the active preset temperature.

Edit: Sorry, I don't know why some of the images are rotated. They are not rotated on my computer...

[mbless]

I only ran into two issues with the board. 1st I forgot to measure the heater voltage to calculate power. That was an easy enough bodge with a voltage divider. 2nd I had issues with a negative thermocouple voltage spike (ground bounce?) after the heater turned off. In the attached image you can see how the thermocouple (blue) trace spiked down after the heater (magenta) turns off. It then rises as it returns to normal (see thermocouple trace on the left before heater turns on) as well as from heat transfer from the heater.

To combat this I first increased the capacitance. This resulted in the thermocouple voltage more slowly decreasing, but it would still go lower than it should. I kept increasing the capacitance until I no longer saw the negative blip on the scope, but the temperature readout would still show a 4-6C instantaneous drop, so the negative drop was still there. I went all the way up to 0.1uF and that’s when I saw the voltage started to oscillate. At this point I figured it needed ESR to prevent the oscillations, so I replaced the ceramic with a 0.1uF electrolytic, and poof, the oscillations were gone. Furthermore the 4-6C instantaneous drop was also gone.

Since I really didn’t like the electrolytic there, I put the ceramic back in and added up to 100R of series resistance, but I could never replicate the electrolytic behavior. So that is why the electrolytic is bodged in on top of the thermocouple amplifier section. 0.1uF is more capacitance than I want since it takes 2 cycles for the thermocouple voltage to stabilize, so I would like to find a solution with less capacitance. I don’t consider it to be a debilitating, though. I found 4 off cycles was sufficient for accurate, stable temperature readings, and that allows a control loop up to 20 Hz, which is plenty for a soldering iron.

If I had to do it over again, the changes would mainly be focused on aesthetics. I would make the display centered on the front panel and put the handpiece connector off to the side. I would also use a better display that was edge-to-edge or find a way to cover the edge of the current one. The original design was driven by the constraint of making it fit the OEM chassis and wiring as well as good PCB layout, so some compromises were made.

For mechanical changes I would look into doing the front panel differently. It took some effort and two panels to get the correct bend to match the chassis. Additionally, it was a total PITA to get all of the correct heights for components: display standoff height to be flush with the front panel, extremely tall tactile switches, stock hex standoffs. This was all driven by the handpiece connector height since I used the PCB solder pins. Future versions should just use wire soldered to the PCB to avoid this difficult constraint.

Overall it was a good project that I’m glad I did; I only managed to kill two tips in the process. Let me know if you would like further details on anything in specific.

[labjr]

Now we just need a multi-channel control board for 2-3 irons? 

[Cliff Matthews]

Bloody Ripper, it's a Bobby Dazzler!

[Shock]

Cliff you butchered the aesthetics. How about this with a white on black display.

[labjr]

What is different about the original control board which makes calibration unnecessary?

[Shock]

Obviously with the large display I couldn’t reuse the OEM front panel, so I laser cut a new one. I then heated it and bent it to make it fit the chassis. It’s not a perfect fit, but with the metal trim piece you can’t see that.

Congrats on the mod, lots of work. As you can see from the edited image I did, a couple of tweaks and it would look very tidy, but yeah white on black display for sure with that matte black and grey bezel.

If you ever do a redesign, I think the layout would fit on a single side so perhaps leave it all on the rear side and then add some mounting holes to front mount display, controls and socket on an otherwise unpopulated front side. That way you can add a clear screen protector and be less dependent on component placement for the display fit.

[joeqsmith]

I thought I’d finally post an update since people have been pm’ing me if I added an LCD to the ADS200 or not. Well yes, I ended up making a replacement control board with an LCD. Of course it took forever since I had to stop all projects for 6+ months to deal with the real world. Images of the final assembly, actual board and Kicad models are attached.

Nice work on your project.   Did you do any sort of testing to compare the time it takes to reach temperature, load pickup (Add some thermal load an see how the control loops compare).  No doubt you have a lot of bells and whistles, but I wonder performance wise, how it compares.   

[nimish]

Well this is leagues ahead of my half assed attempt! Kudos. Any plans to make it a kit


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[mbless]

What is different about the original control board which makes calibration unnecessary?

Are you talking about calibrations for the different tips? I did calibrate the 3 tips I have, but I found them all to be close enough to each other to not bother trying to have individual calibrations. This is where Pace will definitely outshine mine since they know all the details about the tips. Perhaps they use the 18-bit ADC to figure out what tip it is so they can control it more accurately 

[mbless]

Obviously with the large display I couldn’t reuse the OEM front panel, so I laser cut a new one. I then heated it and bent it to make it fit the chassis. It’s not a perfect fit, but with the metal trim piece you can’t see that.

Congrats on the mod, lots of work. As you can see from the edited image I did, a couple of tweaks and it would look very tidy, but yeah white on black display for sure with that matte black and grey bezel.

If you ever do a redesign, I think the layout would fit on a single side so perhaps leave it all on the rear side and then add some mounting holes to front mount display, controls and socket on an otherwise unpopulated front side. That way you can add a clear screen protector and be less dependent on component placement for the display fit.

I agree that it looks quite nice like that. Finding that type of the display would be key.

Mine is already essentially single sided, but for some reason I didn't think to put the components on the back and only leave the display and connector on the front 

[mbless]

I thought I’d finally post an update since people have been pm’ing me if I added an LCD to the ADS200 or not. Well yes, I ended up making a replacement control board with an LCD. Of course it took forever since I had to stop all projects for 6+ months to deal with the real world. Images of the final assembly, actual board and Kicad models are attached.

Nice work on your project.   Did you do any sort of testing to compare the time it takes to reach temperature, load pickup (Add some thermal load an see how the control loops compare).  No doubt you have a lot of bells and whistles, but I wonder performance wise, how it compares.

Yes, I definitely compared how they worked in real world tests. 20C (room temp) to 300C is 4 seconds. I set the standby temp to 150C, so it's ~2s to heat up to 300C taking it out of the stand. For thermal loads it performs the same as OEM, and my findings agree quite well with what Dave showed in his review. The thermocouple doesn't measure any significant temperature drop when trying to solder a large ground plane (converse to the JBC), so you just have to use a higher temperature like Dave. I know some people didn't like that when the review came out, but it doesn't bother me. It was just interesting to see that with the live temperature readout and power meter.

Well this is leagues ahead of my half assed attempt! Kudos. Any plans to make it a kit

What did you attempt to do?

I'm not planning on a kit as of now. If I can clean up the aesthetics in version 2, then I would be open to the idea.

[nimish]

I thought I’d finally post an update since people have been pm’ing me if I added an LCD to the ADS200 or not. Well yes, I ended up making a replacement control board with an LCD. Of course it took forever since I had to stop all projects for 6+ months to deal with the real world. Images of the final assembly, actual board and Kicad models are attached.

Nice work on your project.   Did you do any sort of testing to compare the time it takes to reach temperature, load pickup (Add some thermal load an see how the control loops compare).  No doubt you have a lot of bells and whistles, but I wonder performance wise, how it compares.

Yes, I definitely compared how they worked in real world tests. 20C (room temp) to 300C is 4 seconds. I set the standby temp to 150C, so it's ~2s to heat up to 300C taking it out of the stand. For thermal loads it performs the same as OEM, and my findings agree quite well with what Dave showed in his review. The thermocouple doesn't measure any significant temperature drop when trying to solder a large ground plane (converse to the JBC), so you just have to use a higher temperature like Dave. I know some people didn't like that when the review came out, but it doesn't bother me. It was just interesting to see that with the live temperature readout and power meter.

Well this is leagues ahead of my half assed attempt! Kudos. Any plans to make it a kit

What did you attempt to do?

I'm not planning on a kit as of now. If I can clean up the aesthetics in version 2, then I would be open to the idea.

Take an M5Stack esp32 and bodge it in as an LCD + wifi + bt controller in place of the ancient MCU.

I think it looks pretty good as is frankly. You should sell it to PACE so they can jettison their shoddy excuse for a UI!

[Shock]

Take an M5Stack esp32 and bodge it in as an LCD + wifi + bt controller in place of the ancient MCU.
I think it looks pretty good as is frankly. You should sell it to PACE so they can jettison their shoddy excuse for a UI!

Have you used the UI or see the 1-4 firmware even? It works and looks perfectly fine. The stock ADS200 is not a gameboy, many manufacturers still sell analog stations without a display. Pace is selling to customers of their previous line of stations which aside from power, performance and the new iron is very similar in operation and appearance. Most customers don't care what MCU it has at the end of the day, these stations are designed for factory floor use and abuse.

[labjr]

Are you talking about calibrations for the different tips? I did calibrate the 3 tips I have, but I found them all to be close enough to each other to not bother trying to have individual calibrations. This is where Pace will definitely outshine mine since they know all the details about the tips. Perhaps they use the 18-bit ADC to figure out what tip it is so they can control it more accurately 

Yes I was wondering why the ADS200 tips don't need calibration. Interesting project. You confirmed that their control loop circuit probably works about as good as it can.

I guess the issue with soldering large ground planes likely has to do with tip design?

[mbless]

Are you talking about calibrations for the different tips? I did calibrate the 3 tips I have, but I found them all to be close enough to each other to not bother trying to have individual calibrations. This is where Pace will definitely outshine mine since they know all the details about the tips. Perhaps they use the 18-bit ADC to figure out what tip it is so they can control it more accurately 

Yes I was wondering why the ADS200 tips don't need calibration. Interesting project. You confirmed that their control loop circuit probably works about as good as it can.

I guess the issue with soldering large ground planes likely has to do with tip design?

I'd say so. I've been told Pace tips have more iron plating than JBC. That should give them longer life but at the cost of decreased heat transfer rate, thus slower thermal response.