Maiskolben (solder station)

Description

Weller builds great solder stations for years, mainly targeting the professional sector. The WMRP/WXRP stations stand out due to their active soldering tip with a unbeaten heat time of just a few seconds. But the systems are not affordable for hobbyist makers, so why purchase a solder station for 600 € if you can also get the tips for 40 € and drive them by an Arduino?

This solder station called Maiskolben (“corncob”, soldering iron in german is “Lötkolben” which is verbatim “soldering cob”) does the job much cheaper and is fully featured:

• Drive by an old laptop or a new up to 24V power supply; Solder mobile with an 3s LiPo
• Voltage monitoring for battery to prevent deep discharge
• Easy change of tips using the 3.5mm jack (different tip shapes are available)
• Store/recall three different temperature presets
• Wide temperature range from 100 to 450°C
• Well readable display with all necessary information
• Auto standby (150°C, automatically after 4 minutes inactivity or using an external sensor to detect tip layoff)
• Auto wakeup (temperature driven by wet sponge cool down or by layoff sensor)
• USB port for monitoring, controlling or updating
• Optional potential compensation (1MΩ to GND)
• Optical feedback of heating by LED
• Open source software

Contents:

• Preprogrammed/assembled and ready to run PCB