squarehead

iTrader: (75)

Found out from a Hakko rep today that the listed temps are not taken at the tip, but at the core attachements of the ceramic element. The temps will not only never be the same on the tip, but they also said that temp guns don't have a fine enough (read: small enough) measuring area to accurately get a reading on a tip that may have a reflective surface. It is why you will get hotter temp readings on the barrel of the iron tip than the actual chisel part of the tip.

I found the PDFs on the Hakko website (which is REALLY bad, by the way, if you are on a Mac). I'm going to go through them all before I hit the pillow, but they should help keep the performance as high as possible.

One thing I have already learned is that every time you change the tip, the thermostat needs to be recalibrated. There is a full explaination in the materials on exactly how to do that.


More later...


doug

andrewdoherty

iTrader: (49)

link to the calibration pdf's?

squarehead

iTrader: (75)

Go to the 936 page on www.hakkousa.com and you can download them there. I can't get to them directly on a Mac, I needed to have a direct link sent to me by the Hakko rep.

andrewdoherty

iTrader: (49)

ok thx. The tiop the iron came with was a little bitty pointed tip and I have switched to a 3.2 mm tip and then up to a 5.1 mm tip. I thought that after reading that the unit needs to be calibrated after each tip change that it was worth a shot. I pulled the plug out and turned the screw about 1/4 to 1/2 turn cw. The iron is back to working like when it was new. Hope this works for the long term!! Thanks guys.

http://www.hakkousa.com/techDoc/Tech...TN00000008.pdf

interesting that they recomend setting the temp at the tip when they said it couldn't be done.

squarehead

iTrader: (75)

I did a little backtracking off of the source code on the Hakko site and found it: http://www.hakkousa.com/2006/doclist.asp?PID=1249

That link should have all of the important PDFs in it for you to read.

squarehead

iTrader: (75)

Before you go jacking the settings on your 936 station, I HIGHLY suggest anyone interested in getting the best performance out of their Hakko go read the tehnical bulletins. There is a ton of great info in there—many things that I never knew.

A few small things about your Hakko:

- any cracks or depressions in the surface of the tip essentially render it useless, and it should be replaced

- when changing the tip or element, the station should be recalibrated

- more force or tip pressure does not mean more heat or better solder joints

- higher heat destroys a tip faster, and doesn't necessarily give you a better solder joint—you don't need to run max heat on the iron for it to work properly

- moving the iron across the surface reduces heat and ruins the surface of the tip

- dirty sponges can lead to premature tip failure and bad solder joints.

- household sponges shouldn't be used to clean tips, and distilled water should be used in the sponge to keep common water minerals off of the tip

- do NOT use any abrasive material to clean the tip, like a 3M pad, file or sandpaper—you will destroy the plating on the tip that allows it to work

- keep the tip tinned at all times

- iron reaches full operating temperature in 15 seconds

- keep iron shut off when you are not using it




There is plenty more in there, as well. I think tomorrow, I'll be ordering some new tips and sponges for my 936 station.

andrewdoherty

iTrader: (49)

After I turned it up it has worked just like new. Yea!