Need minimum load to avoid auto power-off on PowerBank

Cook

Hello,

I want to power your soldering iron from a lithium power-bank with 19v 3A output but I face a problem.

When TS100 iron do not heating up, the load fall down to nearly 0 (only few mA) the power-bank do not detect the load and after 20s goes to power-off.

Is it possible in a future firmware update to set up a minimum consomption for the TS100 to avoid this kind of issue ? I see 2 solution to avoid false detection of no-load by power source and minimize thermal effects.

1. I believe TS100 heating element is powered in PWM. is it possible to add a parameter in config file to limit the lowest value of PWM ratio ?

2. Is it possible to add a fonction activated by 3 parameters in config file to ensure that every x seconds (10 sec for example) the iron will heat up for a short time (0.1 sec for example) at a predefined PWM ratio (10% for example) to trig the load detection of power source without any noticeable adverse thermal effect. (0.1 sec / 10 sec * 10 % = 0.1 % = 0.04 W, quite nothing in thermal point of vue)

I know it's open source and I can modify by myself but I never made software for STM32 and I know nothing about it plus comment in source file looks in Chinese.

Maybe you could give me some advises about devellopement tools and organisation of your source code ?

Thanks.

echo

You can use 4 x 18650 in series to power TS100, a cheap and tiny solution.

minidso

Many thanks for your suggestions.
However, 1. PWM can not be changed,results in temperature would be unstable. 2.Also,Can not do that,as it will lead to same results that temperature would be unstable.
We would like to advice that please use 4X18650 series connection will be ok then.

Should you have any further questions, please feel free to contact us.

Yours sincerely

Cook

Yes I already plan to go this way.
Already bought BMS PCB (Serial of 4x18650 without BMS is evil) + Socket + 4x 18650.
Waiting for enclosure to fit everything + Plastic box to remove battery when travelling by plane because hand-made 18650 power pack even nice looking will never be accepted on board of planes (because no brand and no official labelling)

So power trick on the TS100 would be nice. I will try to do it myself. I don't think this trick can alter the temperature because the power involved is ridiculously low 0.04 W (by the way, process control is my job)

Could you please told me which developement tool I should use to compile / build the source code ?

Speaking about temperature I have the feeling the temperature shown in OLED display is not always the measured temperature but display temperature is damped with setpoint temperature when measured temperature is near setpoint temperature. I saw this kind of trick before in my professional life to fool the user and give impression PID control loop perfectly maintain temperature constant. So I had a quick look on source code. What is that ?

        if((TEMPSHOW_TIMER == 0) && (!td_flag)) {
            temp_val = Get_TempVal();
            if((temp_val > device_info.t_work) && (temp_val - device_info.t_work < 18))       temp_val = device_info.t_work;
            else if((temp_val <= device_info.t_work) && (device_info.t_work - temp_val < 18)) temp_val = device_info.t_work;
            if(Get_TemperatureShowFlag() == 1) {
                temp_val = TemperatureShow_Change(0,temp_val);
            }

            Display_Temp(1,temp_val/10);
            Show_HeatingIcon(ht_flag,Get_MmaActive());//0ÉýÎÂ1½µÎÂ2ºãÎÂ
            td_cnt++;
        }

Cook

OK, found it :

IAR Embedded Workbench for ARM 6.40.4

let's play with it ...