Pace HeatWise hw100

[Adler]

Has anyone heard of this soldering system?
It seems to be an attempt to put soldering into the hands of untrained people. The question is, does it work?

Instead of having a dial to change temperature, you do it by switching a power module. I wonder what's in that module?

http://na.suzohapp.com/tools/92144500.htm

[MartinX]

We have a Pace HW200 station at work, with dual outputs so you can attach 2 irons. I think it is intended for use in production environment were the operator is not supposed to fiddle with the temperature setting, the plugs probably just contains a resistor. The tips have the heater integrated in them and they are easy to swap, it's pretty OK to work with, heats up fast, but the newer JCB stations are better. I don't think this was a big seller for Pace, I have not seen many around, we have had this station for 7-8 years so it's been around for a while.

[nanofrog]

If what that sells for was the budget limit, I'd probably go for a Hakko FX-951.

Slightly cheaper ($250 in the US), tips contain both the heating element and sensor, and it's user adjustable (better for lab work IMHO; no need for multiple tips with the same physical profile for different temperatures as there would be with say a Metcal).

[Adler]

Interesting.

I may have an opportunity to get one of these and I was thinking of building a custom power module with a dial. I hope they are just resistors.

[zaoka]

I had HW50 Pace, I preffer that model because of aluminum case, it can be mounted under the table.

How it works:

Its so good! heats up in about 6-7 seconds, its better quality than Hakko just because of one reason; iron. I did not like Hakko because if you press it hard iron comes apart while with PACE it cant.
You can change tips in 5 seconds.

Those temperature inserts are resistors, if I remember they measure around 300ohm depending of the preferred temperature.

You can get these on eBay for around $50 for the station and you can buy a new iron that goes for around $100, so its $150 and you have top of the line soldering station. Station is built so well that it can last for years and there is no reason, other than cosmetics, to buy new one.

Its not like JBC because of only one reason; temperature recovery. JBC heats up in 2-3 seconds and this short time difference makes big difference if you are desoldering multilayer boards with desoldering wick. For example if you are taking capacitors out of the motherboard JBC is preferred.

I see Pace and Ersa as the only real competitors to JBC.

[Amarbir[Lynx-India]]

Has anyone heard of this soldering system?
It seems to be an attempt to put soldering into the hands of untrained people. The question is, does it work?

Instead of having a dial to change temperature, you do it by switching a power module. I wonder what's in that module?

http://na.suzohapp.com/tools/92144500.htm

Sir ,
     i Would Rate These to Be One Of The Best Top Brands In Soldering stations .

[MartinX]

I looked at the station at work today and the power modules seems to be using an ordinary 3,5mm stereo headphone jack, the resistance in the modules were 240ohms for the red module marked 7 and 233ohm for the yellow module marked 6. The irons it uses are the same that Pace have on their current models so getting new tips are no problem, if you can lay your hands on a HW100 station for a good price it's not a bad choice at all.

[Amarbir[Lynx-India]]

I looked at the station at work today and the power modules seems to be using an ordinary 3,5mm stereo headphone jack, the resistance in the modules were 240ohms for the red module marked 7 and 233ohm for the yellow module marked 6. The irons it uses are the same that Pace have on their current models so getting new tips are no problem, if you can lay your hands on a HW100 station for a good price it's not a bad choice at all.

Martin ,
      The HW200 Are even Better As We Can Have Two Irons .I could not find any details of the hw100 and the hw200 now a days in pace website .No idea why they discontinued it  [  did they ? ]

[MartinX]

Martin ,
      The HW200 Are even Better As We Can Have Two Irons .I could not find any details of the hw100 and the hw200 now a days in pace website .No idea why they discontinued it  [  did they ? ]

I was also surprised that there is no trace of this product on the Pace homepage, only their current models can be found for some reason, they have done many models in the past but no sign of any support pages for them, very strange. If you type in HW100 or HW200 in the search field you end up with nothing.

[quint]

I suspect that if you contact Pace support they would provide you with a copy of the manual.  I've had good luck doing that in the past for older Pace gear.

[soren]

I thought this would be a good place to post the resistance values for the various temperature plugins used with the Pace HW-50, HW-100 and ST-70 soldering stations.

They are nothing more than a resistor between the tip and ring of a 3.5mm stereo jack.


500 °F    Green     205 ohm
550 °F    Blue      215 ohm
600 °F    Orange    226 ohm
650 °F    Yellow    232 ohm
700 °F    Red       240 ohm
750 °F    Purple    249 ohm
800 °F    Black     261 ohm
850 °F    Silver    274 ohm

[creyc]

I like the features of this station and especially the price, but for hobbyist use, requiring different tip resistance for each heat level means having numerous tips on hand to replace a station with adjustable temperature control, which means more money, more consumables and more storage and organization requirements. Looks like this isn't the case, the tip stays in place and the heat is adjusted via a 'module'.

In a production setting where the assembly process is engineered out to use specific tools for each component this might make sense.  But I may go from tacking down 0402 caps one minute to big through-hole power parts on a full ground plane and I wonder if that scenario would require me to swap out tips on a Pace?  I could otherwise just nudge the temp a tad and tackle the big parts with the same tip..

[Corporate666]

I like the features of this station and especially the price, but for hobbyist use, requiring different tip resistance for each heat level means having numerous tips on hand to replace a station with adjustable temperature control, which means more money, more consumables and more storage and organization requirements.

In a production setting where the assembly process is engineered out to use specific tools for each component this might make sense.  But I may go from tacking down 0402 caps one minute to big through-hole power parts on a full ground plane and I wonder if that scenario would require me to swap out tips on a Pace?  I could otherwise just nudge the temp a tad and tackle the big parts with the same tip..

Wow, thread resurrection

I have often sung the praises of the HW soldering stations... but you are understanding the resistance thing incorrectly.

The tips are all the same.

There is a plug-in "module" that goes into the front of the soldering station which sets the temperature.  That module is simply an audio jack with a built-in resistor.  Pace makes modules from (IIRC) 5.5 to 8.5 which correspond to temperature in degrees F, so 7.5 is 750F.   If you plug in the 6.5 module, whatever tip you are using will run at 650F.  If you plug in a 7.5 module, that same tip will run at 750F.

If you look at this image:

http://a1.trd.cm/thaisecondhand/201203/24i/10107084_0.jpg

The modules (colored things in the bag in the front of the pic) plug into the jack in the center of the base station, between the switch and handpiece connector - thereby setting the temp that the tip runs at.

Changing modules is not as easy as turning a dial, however, it's trivial to rig up a trim pot to an audio jack to give a dial adjustment to make any temperature you want, and honestly, I never did that because I leave the 7.5 unit in all the time, only ever changing it to a 5.5 module when I am heat staking LED lenses where a lower temp works better.

I believe, as stated above, the unit was designed this way because it is more of a production/industrial unit where soldering operators are not meant to be able to change the temperature at their whim.

[creyc]

There is a plug-in "module" that goes into the front of the soldering station which sets the temperature.  That module is simply an audio jack with a built-in resistor.  Pace makes modules from (IIRC) 5.5 to 8.5 which correspond to temperature in degrees F, so 7.5 is 750F.   If you plug in the 6.5 module, whatever tip you are using will run at 650F.  If you plug in a 7.5 module, that same tip will run at 750F.

Thanks for setting me straight!  This is indeed an interesting station to me if it does as well as the reviews seem to suggest.

From cold off, about how long does it take to get up to temperature on that Pace HW-100?

I'm noticing the power supplies seem to go pretty cheap on eBay, but the trick is going to be finding a good handpiece it seems.  For a hollow plastic tube with some o-rings they are ridiculously expensive to buy new, easily as much as a used power supply!

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but as I understand it:

• The HW-100 uses the Heatwise/Tempwise connector system which has a red connector
• The handpiece is a TD-100 (ThermoDrive?) with part number 6010-0132-P1
• This system is different and incompatible with the newer IntelliHeat system which uses a blue connector
• New TD-100 handpieces seem to be available only in the IntelliHeat system

[Corporate666]

From cold off, about how long does it take to get up to temperature on that Pace HW-100?

Just turned mine on and was touching a piece of solder to the tip about twice a second...at about 4 seconds a little puff of smoke came off the tip, and at 6 seconds the solder I touched melted.  Tip wasn't clean though, so it may have been quicker if it was.  Probably 4-6 seconds is a good estimate though, from "power on" to "up to temp".

I'm noticing the power supplies seem to go pretty cheap on eBay, but the trick is going to be finding a good handpiece it seems.  For a hollow plastic tube with some o-rings they are ridiculously expensive to buy new, easily as much as a used power supply!

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but as I understand it:

• The HW-100 uses the Heatwise/Tempwise connector system which has a red connector
• The handpiece is a TD-100 (ThermoDrive?) with part number 6010-0132-P1
• This system is different and incompatible with the newer IntelliHeat system which uses a blue connector
• New TD-100 handpieces seem to be available only in the IntelliHeat system

I didn't actually know there was any difference, but you piqued my curiosity so I just took off the handpieces from one of the HW100's and the ST-70.

-The handpieces (plastic housing) is identical
-The 'guts' of the handpiece are identical - same number of wires and same wire colors, same contact mechanism, you can take the guts of the ST70 handpiece and put them into the HW100 handpiece and they fit perfectly.  Even the screw cap on the back of the handpiece is identical.
-The ONLY difference appears to be the connector that goes into the base station.
-I know the tips are identical because we interchange them all the time

So it appears to me that Pace was a bit sneaky with this - since the connection mechanism inside the handpiece to the tip is identical and since the tips are also identical, I conclude that the sole difference is the connector that goes into the base station.  The connector on the HW100 is a 4 pin connector.  The one on the ST-70 is a 8-pin with only 4 pins used.  It's clearly the same brand/model of connector, just a 4-pin on the HW100 and an 8-pin on the ST-70.

I've seen HW100 units going for $50-75 on eBay (in the USA at least), which to me is a huge bargain.  I personally prefer the HW100 to the ST-70, because I notice the HW100 heats up quicker than the ST and seems to do better with copper pours.  Then again our ST70 is a euro model and runs through a 110-220 step up transformer so perhaps that is part of the difference.

[creyc]

Thanks for that detailed look at the differences and similarities between the two systems, Corporate666.

It boggles the mind why Pace would create an entirely new system that's almost identical unless there's something fundamentally incompatible between the new and old systems.

[Corporate666]

Thanks for that detailed look at the differences and similarities between the two systems, Corporate666.

It boggles the mind why Pace would create an entirely new system that's almost identical unless there's something fundamentally incompatible between the new and old systems.

I have heard that Pace is virtually unknown in the hobbyist market, but from what I see, they are huge in the industrial/production soldering market.  I would guess coming out with a new system would be a cash cow for them... meaning everyone needs a new base station, handpiece, etc.  I can't see any difference whatsoever in anything between the connector and tip, I am positive it's just the connector that's different. 

If you get the iron, I think you will really like it.  I just checked my records and I got it on closeout on August 1st, 2006 for $129 (must be around when they discontinued them).  I bought the other one a few weeks later and the ST70 a year or so ago.  I have the HW100 sitting right next to my MX-500 that cost around $1,000 with the desoldering gun.  And I always end up reaching for the Pace when I need to solder.  Many prefer Metcal, but there isn't much in it, really.

[quint]

I don't know much about the HeatWise system but I can say a bit about other Pace equipment.  As far as I know, there are basically two lines of Pace soldering stations:  SensaTemp (ST) and IntelliHeat (IH).  The ST line is the older one and has a black plug.  The IH system is newer and has a blue plug.  There are also two basic types of Pace irons.  The original series include the SP-2A, PS-80 and PS-90 irons.  These are a traditional design with interchangeable tips where the heater and thermocouple are part of the iron.  The newer series is the TD-100 which is a cartridge style where the tip, heater and thermocouple are all part of a single interchangeable unit.  The stated advantage is that this design has better performance because of improved coupling between the heater, sensor and tip which are closer together.  I do find that the TD-100 is much more responsive.
Both the TD-100 and the PS-90 are current production and I believe both come in either ST or IH versions.  And Pace sells an adapter cable which allows an IH base unit to drive ST handpieces.  There is no adapter in the other direction.
The pinout for the ST style connector is published in some of the Pace users manuals but I haven't seen the IH pinout published.  I did a little signal tracing and the IH units use different pins to drive ST or IH handpieces.  I didn't do a detailed analysis but it did seem like there were functional differences in how the two types of handpieces are driven.  I doesn't seem to just be a simple change in pinout of the connector.
I much prefer the TD-100 style irons although the cartridges are more expensive than the tips for the ST style irons.  However, while it is easy to find fairly inexpensive ST style irons on eBay, it is much harder to find surplus TD-100 irons. 

[threepot]

I have just signed up too add to this topic about the HW100, although I have been watching Dave's videos on youtube for a few years now.

I have recently bought a Pace HW100, and I love it to bits. If your reading this thinking about getting a soldering iron make sure you buy a decent one, non of this chinese monkey metal rubbish. A decent iron has a nice soft rubber wire, and the wand is nice to hold. The tips on chinese ones are made of crap metal which disolves slowly. Also the heating elements are unreliable and prone to failing after just a few hours, I have gone through 4 in less than 6 months.

The Pace HW100 does have its disadvantages and its advantages!

Firstly the temperature setting system works by plugging in the 3.5mm jack setting dongles, these are quite expensive and make sure you buy 3.5mm ones, not 2.5mm ones like I did. You can use a 2.5mm to 3.5mm stereo headphone jack adapter which are a £2 delivered on you favourite auction site.

The soldering tips are actually a cartridge, and are hot swappable. These are about £12 each, and are a brilliant feature as the heating elements get less work as you swap from one to another. They heat up very fast, hold stable temperature, and keep up temperature even under heavy thermal loads.

The base unit is compact, and very well built, it is heavy and proper solid. As is the stand, they are fantastic.

I am very happy with this iron, I was using a friends JBC iron which tempted me into ditching my chinese rubbish. The JBC has a wicked sleep mode function which saves the heating elements and stops the tips from oxidising while in the stand, shame the Pace does not do this.


Further up this topic you will find a list of the temperature setting dongles:-

Soren said:-
500 °F = 260°C   Green     205 ohm
550 °F = 287°C    Blue      215 ohm
600 °F = 315°C    Orange    226 ohm
650 °F = 343°C    Yellow    232 ohm
700 °F = 371°C    Red       240 ohm
750 °F = 399°C    Purple    249 ohm
800 °F = 426°C    Black     261 ohm
850 °F = 454°C    Silver    274 ohm

This got me thinking, instead of buying more stupid overprice dongles, why not make an adjustable dongle....

So after calculating the rough temperature settings from the resistance, I used a 180 ohm resistor and a 100 ohm potentiometer, and a 3.5mm jack connector. Solder the resistors to connect to the 2 contacts nearest the tip of the 3.5mm jack.

Look at the photos for the build up, its proper simple, even an idiot like me can do it.

What I found from building it though, 180 ohms is too low for the resistor, if you turn it below 190 ohms, the Pace HW100 give a red light and stops heating so it must be below its capable heat range. So I would use either a 190 ohm or 200 ohm configuration if I was building it again.

[mariush]

The tips are closer to around 9 uk pounds, for example Farnell stocks a few of them: http://uk.farnell.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Search?catalogId=15001&langId=44&storeId=10151&categoryId=700000006488&sort=P_PRICE&mf=100367&pageSize=25&showResults=true

They're the same as the ones used on a newer soldering station they have so there's still worth buying those Heatwise or Sensatemp stations off eBay. 

I was lucky to buy (using eBay) a Pace HW50 with a few tips from a guy that retired and decided to liquidate his small business.  I like it and I also like how nice the engineers at Pace were - I emailed them to see if they could give me some link for a manual and an engineer actually responded with more details and clarifications that I even asked for.

[stinch]

Firstly the temperature setting system works by plugging in the 3.5mm jack setting dongles, these are quite expensive and make sure you buy 3.5mm ones, not 2.5mm ones like I did. You can use a 2.5mm to 3.5mm stereo headphone jack adapter which are a £2 delivered on you favourite auction site.

The 2.5mm power modules use different resistance values.

650F 226.2ohm
700F 237.4ohm
750F 249.2ohm