TS100 Soldering Iron

[Marvo]

The power supply you bought was illegally sold as it has a non UK plug on its lead.

I'm located in sub-Saharan Africa so not illegal, it was sold with a non UK plug in a non UK country.

 

[GeorgeCooke]

I hadn't noticed he was in South Africa. SA uses BS546 15amp plugs not Europlugs though.

 

[PEG]

Looks handy enough,and the use of a convenient power source,from an existing tool,would be my first thought.
Are there any specific add-ons listed for it,such as a de-soldering head? These are the bits i end up fabricating,and would be nice to have a manufacturer put the R&D in,and save me more time to spend annoying the kids

 

[telectrix]

The power supply you bought was illegally sold as it has a non UK plug on its lead.

marvo is not in the UK. our regs don't apply in the jungle.being able to outrun a lion is of more use.

 

[Deleted member 26818]

Not going to be able to plug in a soldering iron in the jungle.

 

[telectrix]

Not going to be able to plug in a soldering iron in the jungle.

yes he can. a monkey treadmill coupled to a generator will cope with small loads such as a sodering iron. just needs fuel . as in a crate of bananas.

 

[Deleted member 26818]

He’s not going to do all that, while running away from a Lion.

 

[Marvo]

...running away from a Lion.

I'm well hard, I never run from Lithium Ions

 

[Marvo]

Looks handy enough,and the use of a convenient power source,from an existing tool,would be my first thought.
Are there any specific add-ons listed for it,such as a de-soldering head? These are the bits i end up fabricating,and would be nice to have a manufacturer put the R&D in,and save me more time to spend annoying the kids

I edited post#5 to include the info on the tips available from the manufacturer.

I actually bought the kit version which was a bit more expensive but it included 2x tips (BC2 and B2) as well as an ESD connector but you can also buy it as just the iron with only a B2 tip.

The tips are the modern type, each with its own built-in heater and temp sensor which makes them much faster and far more temperature stable than the older type of tip where they just slid over the heater which was an integral part of the iron. Obviously however this makes the tips more expensive than the ones you get for cheap DIY / hobby soldering irons.

One good thing is that whilst the manufacturer only sells a very limited range of tips the T100 iron also works fine using the T12 tips from my Hakko soldering station. Whilst the T12 Hakko tips come in a very wide range, the only issue is that they're are around 50mm longer than the T100 tips so this makes them a bit awkward to use with the T100 iron.

Hakko T12 Tip

T100 Tip

Here's the range of general Hakko T12 tips available;

 

[Marvo]

I hadn't noticed he was in South Africa. SA uses BS546 15amp plugs not Europlugs though.

SA has officially changed its plugs recently. We used to use the old BS546 plugs and sockets

but now all new installations must use the 15Amp IEC 60906-1 plugs and sockets that look like this;

or a mixture like this

Incidentally the 2-pin plug on the charger will fit in the 3-pin socket above.

 

[Squid]

I also got some new bifocal glasses a month ago which are the mutts, I'll make another thread and do a proper teardown and review of them for you

Ho W a Re yOu find inG yuR Bie f Ocals? EyE ciint git U sed 2 Mean.....

 

[Squid]

Takes me back years I had a Portasoll which I still have from over 30 years ago the standard orange one that RS sold, upgraded to a fine tip, was handy in comms rooms when terminating cables, I now have a newer version with a click starter which is better then the old lighter the spark igniter.

I used these guys, sort of "old school" in a nice way.

ANTEX - http://www.soldering-shop.co.uk/index.php/antex-soldering-irons-accessories.html

 

[static zap]

Antex did a 12V version replacement element .
( I attached to a camcorder 12V 4Ah Nicad pack many years ago )... Did over run a little freshly charged !

 

[Marvo]

The Antex is the old type iron which doesn't have the heater built into the tip so it will be much slower to heat and it's not accurately temperature controllable so it's probably okay for hobbyist type applications but not suitable for board repair and SMD component soldering where temperatures are more critical.

TBH the Antex is probably fine for most general sparky use as well whereas the TS100 iron is more suitable for people who work more with component level electronics, for a domestic sparky it's probably not worth spending the extra money for the TS100.