DIY Soldering Station Part 1/2

15 Dec

I’m still using my 20$ soldering station which I use since I got started with electronics. Now it’s time for an upgrade. Weller® quality is exceptional, but also exceptionally expensive. Some guys designed an open source Weller® soldering station which is compatible with Weller® tips. This post describes the building process.

Bill of Materials

PartQuantity
MOQ
SupplierOrder numberPrice / piece
PCB110dirtypcbs.com699$ 1.40
Capacitor 0.1uF510farnell432210€ 0.0106
Resistor 10k3100farnell2502397€ 0.0021
Resistor 1M2100farnell2502399€ 0.0021
Resistor 1k10100farnell2502396€ 0.0021
MOSFET BSN20210farnell1081309€ 0.332
Capacitor 10uF21farnell1650980€ 0.289
5V Regulator 15farnell1467762€ 0.309
OPA336U11farnell1459587€ 2.46
Resistor 56k1100farnell2502472€ 0.0021
Resistor 100R1100farnell2502395€ 0.0021
MOSFET IRF741611conrad162476-29€ 0.50
Jackplug pcb11conrad734101-89€ 1.35
Jackplug tipholder11conrad595223-89€ 1.46
Jackplug male11conrad595197-89€ 1.85
Microphone cable21conrad608304-89€ 2.30
TFT 1.8" display11banggoodSKU103769€ 4.68
Arduino Pro Mini 5V11banggoodSKU066315€ 2.65
Power Supply 12V 8A11youold computer€ 0.00

PCB Assembly

There was some confusion about the components, since the PCB I received was version 1.5 while the schematics on Github are version 1.6. The assembled board looks like this:

PCB Assembly SMD components
PCB Assembly SMD components

There is one important remark: I did not place R6 at the indicated pad, but between the display RST pin and the Arduino A6 pin. I did this because the display did not always boot. The reset pin was wired to +5V with a resistor, so always enabled. By wiring the RST pin to A6, the reset sequence can be controlled from the software. With this hack, I no longer experience problems with the display. edit: After hassling for hours, I figured out that it works best when the RST pin of the display is not connected at all…

The SMD components are placed according to the following table:

IndicatorComponent
C60.1uF capacitor
R1210k resistor
R161M resistor
R1410k resistor
R151k resistor
T3BSN20 mosfet
R81k resistor
R101k resistor
R91k resistor
C710uF tantalum capacitor
IC278L05 power regulator
C210uF tantalum capacitor
C40.1uF capacitor
R51k resistor
R1110k resistor
T2BSN20 mosfet
R41k resistor
C50.1uF capacitor
R1100R resistor
R31k resistor
R131M resistor
R256k resistor
C10.1uF capacitor
R181k resistor
C30.1uF capacitor
R71k resistor
R6DNP, see remark!

Power Supply

An old computer power supply is used to provide 12V at more than 8 Amps. This saves the cost of buying a dedicated power supply and gives the power supply a second life.

The next post will describe how I built it all into a nice housing. I already bought this one from conrad: GSS05

3 Replies to “DIY Soldering Station Part 1/2

  1. Hi Bart,

    I have also stumbled upon Weller home mad soldering station 2 months ago and decided to build it. Right now I’m still waiting for PCB’s and TFT display to arrive.
    I’m curious how metal case work out for you (GSS05) as I have decided to put everything together (transformer + soldering station electronics)
    I just can’t wait second (2/2) part of this build log !!! 🙂

    Looking forward to hear from you !

    Marek Grapiniak

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