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Q: Why are you doing this project?
A: We work a lot with soldering irons during our studies (computer science, electrical engineering). Most professional soldering iron sets cost usually more than 600 Euro. Since the tip of those expensive ones is detachable we figured that it could not be too hard to create the controller behind that on our own.
So we checked, tested and read a lot across the internet about projects like this. When we found Martin Krumms website we thought about doing the same thing but without the Arduino platform. That was when designing and testing started...
Q: What kind of power supply do I need? Will my old PC PSU work?
A: That will most likely work. According to the information we have the soldering tip consumes up to 60W. We use a 12V power supply, that can deliver 6A. Most power supplies for PCs can deliver even more than this. Although we firmly discourage you from taking a power supply apart in case you do not know exactly what you do. There are a lot of tutorials out there on how to use an old power supply for your work bench.
One more thing: Please make sure that the power supply can handle cross-loads (big load on 12V rail, no load on 5V rail). It is very unlikely that this will pose an issue, but you should consider testing your soldering iron on another power supply, if it does not run properly.
Q: Why did you use this strange display?
A: These displays were originally ordered for another project and just came in handy. They are cheap, easy to use and all the wiring necessary for multiplexing is already encased into the display. This way we did not have any problems to make the pcb smaller.
Q: Where do I get part X?
A: Most of the parts are available at your electronics distributor of choice. Some parts can be bought at aliexpress.com. If you desperately want to build this project and need help you can open an issue and we will try to help you.
Q: Do you offer kits of the project?
A: Right now we are working on getting the first prototype working. This could possibly take a while. We plan on making kits, which might be (partly) preassembled. If you are interested in this and want to encourage us to offer those kits, please drop an email to solderingiron@van-balen.de. Thanks!