Good day!
I have a Weller soldering station model EC2000 that has suddenly refused to heat up. It is about 35 years old and has been a reliable work horse.
I have taken voltage and resistance readings of the iron and all appear to correlate with the schematic that I found online. This "suggests" that the element and sensor are both OK?
The 3 digit display on the base unit climbs rapidly to around 800 and then displays "EEE" but the iron does not heat up.
Any suggestions welcomed.
Thanks,
Steve.
2019, December 11 - 00:12
#1
banjo
Welcome!
Check this document:
https://stevenjohnson.com/soldering/data/weller-ec2000-manual.pdf
Good luck!
2
Thanks very much. It is the same document that I found, but yours is much clearer and thus easier to read / decipher.
I have re-flowed one of the solder joints on the phenolic tag strip inside the EC1201 iron. The iron started to heat so I increased the set temperature to 500°C and it melted some solder on the tip. I turned it back down to 400°C and it no longer melts solder. I shall re-flow solder joints everywhere because they all look to be of very poor manufacturing standard to me.
Given the foregoing, I'm focused on the EC1201 as holding the key to this problem. I suspect the sensor (which has platinum plating) or the element to be the culprit. I just need to find replacements because it's worth repairing. I read somewhere that Weller changed the diameter of the heater and therefore the corresponding nut on some spurious whim. Happy days!
More as and when, and thanks again for the link.
Steve.
0
Here's an update in case it should help someone else; I re-flowed the solder joints in the soldering iron and I cleaned the contacts in the five pin plug and the associated socket on the main unit. This included squeezing together the contact fingers in the socket receptacles. The iron now heats up and is useable, although there is a negative discrepancy of about 25 Celsius. I can live with that for now because I have my trusty friend back! A bit more TLC should see it back up to speed.
I note that the cheap chinese soldering station that I had to buy to carry out the "repair" is of far higher internal quality of construction. It wouldn't be so bad if I could have approached the manufacturer for service or even some spares. They changed the heater diameter and also the nut used to secure it. Replacement element could be purchased at twice the cost of the Chinese station and I would still have had to buy a new heater and attachment nut. What a sorry state of affairs? Not a "green" company!
Thanks again for the link to the higher quality service sheet.
0
Hello Everyone,
A final word on this, I replaced the plug on the iron and the socket on the station chassis with a 5 pin "Foster" plug and socket and this has effected a complete cure. These connectors are familiar as microphone connectors on radios.
Thanks for the help,
Banjo.
2