Although 60/40 solder melts at about 200°C, the tip temperature of a soldering iron should be at about 370°C. This is necessary to make a good quick joint, without the risk of overheating delicate components because the iron has to be kept on the joint for too long. Unfortunately, at this temperature, the tip oxidises rapidly and needs constant cleaning. Thats where this circuit can help - it keeps the soldering tip to just below 200°C while the iron is at rest. Oxidisation is then negligible and the iron can be brought back up to soldering temperature in just a few seconds when needed. In addition, normal soldering operation, where the iron is returned to rest only momentarily, is unaffected because of the thermal inertia of the iron. Two 555 timers (IC1 & IC2) form the heart of the circuit.
Soldering Iron Tip Preserver Circuit Diagram
IC1 is wired as a monostable and provides an initial warm-up time of about 45 seconds to bring the iron up to temperature. At the end of this period, its pin 3 output switches high and IC2 (which is wired in astable configuration) switches the iron on - via relay RLY1 - for about one second in six to maintain the standby temperature. The presence of the iron in its stand is sensed by electrical contact between the two and some slight modification of the stand may be necessary to achieve this. When the iron is at rest, Q1s base is pulled low and so Q1 is off. Conversely, when the iron is out of its stand, Q1 turns on and pulls pins 2 & 6 of IC2 high, to inhibit its operation. During this time, pin 3 of IC2 is low and so the iron is continuously powered via RLY1s normally closed (NC) contacts. Note that the particular soldering iron that the circuit was designed for has its own 24V supply transformer. Other irons may need different power supply arrangements. The warm-up time and standby temperature can be varied by altering R2 and R5, as necessary.
Author: Alan March - Copyright: Silicon Chip Electronics
The LEDs are arranged so that when the polarity across the circuit is one way only one LED will light and when the polarity reverses the other LED will light, therefore when no transistor is connected to the tester the LEDs will alternately flash. The IC2 outputs are also connected to resistors R4 and R5 with the junction of these two resistors connected to the base of the transistor being tested. With a good transistor connected to the tester, the transistor will turn on and produce a short across the LED pair. If a good NPN transistor is connected then LED1 will flash by itself and if a good PNP transistor is connected then LED2 will flash by itself. If the transistor is open both LEDs will flash and if the transistor is shorted then neither LED will flash.
If the fans should fail, for example, the maximum temperature limit would lie at a considerably higher level than the desired value. The accompanying circuit, which compares the magnitude of the fan voltage to a fixed reference value, has been developed to allow the maximum temperature to be reliably detected. This circuit is tailored for 12-V fans. The reference voltage is generated by the ‘micro power voltage reference’ D1 and the FET T1, which is wired as a current source. These components are powered directly from the applied fan voltage. The current source is set up to deliver approximately 50µA.
D1 can work with as little as 10µA. The supply voltage for the IC is decoupled by R10, C3 and C4, with D4 providing over voltage protection. A maximum supply voltage of 16 V is specified for the TLC271. This opamp works with a supply voltage as low as 3 V and can handle a common-mode voltage up to approximately 1.5 V less than the positive supply voltage. Accordingly, 1.2 V has been chosen for the reference voltage. The fan voltage is reduced to the level of the reference voltage by the voltage divider R2–R3–P1. The limits now lie at 11.2 V and 16.7V.
If you find these values too high, you can reduce R2 to 100 kΩ, which will shift the limits to 9.5 V and 14.2 V. The output of the voltage divider is well decoupled by C2. A relatively large time constant was selected here to prevent the circuit from reacting too quickly, and to hold the output active for a bit longer after the comparator switches states. A small amount of hysteresis (around 1 mV) is added by R4 and R5, to prevent instability when the comparator switches. D2 ensures that the magnitude of the hysteresis is independent of the supply voltage. Two outputs have been provided to make the circuit more versatile.
Output ‘R’ is intended to directly drive the LED of an optocoupler. In addition, transistor T2 is switched on by the output of the opamp via R7 and R8, so that a relay can be actuated or a protection circuit triggered using the ‘T’ output. The high-efficiency LED D3 indicates that IC1 has switched. It can be used as a new ‘maximum’ temperature’ indicator when this circuit is added to the fan controller. The circuit draws only 0.25 mA when the LED is out, and the measured no-load current consumption (with a 12.5V supply voltage) is 2.7 mA when the LED is on.
