Soldering Iron saver

[garage nut]

I have bought quite a few cheap soldering irons in my life only to forget them on and after 2 hours they are dead.

So I bought an expensive soldering iron, Now it is lasting but the tips are more expensive than a complete cheap soldering Iron.



So the answer was really simple. Fabricate a soldering iron stand that will turn the iron off after a set time if not in use.

How to do.

I used a standard 4 x 4 surface mount electrical box to house everything in.

Some 25 x 5 flat bar inserts inside to help my shaft pivot smoothly and a adjustable tab to activate a hefty 220V rated micro switch.



Then on the end of the shaft a coil of 4mm wire for storing the iron when not in use. Similar to what the commercial stand have. I also made this adjustable, so the weight of the iron will activate the switch.



To stop the shaft moving from side to side I fitted another tab on the other inside of the box. This is also adjustable, this time to protect the switch from being smashed if something heavy would fall on the sire holder.



Then I used an Arduino Nano to do the programming.



I can send the code if somebody is interested.



The logic is to capture the time once the micro switch is made and then add a pre determined length of time to that. As the Arduino is running at 16 MHz it will the continuously check if that "Calculated Time" matches the "Current Time" if it is TRUE it means the time has lappsed and you have not used the soldering iron for that time, so it turns the power off.

I have mounted it in such a manner that the USB is accessible, for 2 reasons:-
1) I can use my newly built Power Pack as a power source and
2) I can easily change the "ON" time on the Arduino.

I have used a duel RELAY MODULE because they were cheaper than the single units at the time I ordered them.



Video not great, but I have to learn.

In the video I have set the time to 5 Sec just to prove it works and used a light bulb as an indicator.

Now I can go back to cheap soldering irons.