Heater Element Problem In S993A Vacuum Desoldering Gun
A couple of years ago I bought one of those handy desolder guns. It was the very affordable S-993A model which is extremely useful when IC’s and other through hole components need to be removed from large boards. It is a much faster and easier way especially if it concerns large pin count chips which would take much longer to removed them by hand the old way with just a desolder pump in one hand and a solder iron in the other. Sadly my S-993A occasional refused to warm up until it refused heating up completely. So it was time to open up the device and examine the inside.
I removed one screw on the other side and 7 on this side.
And I left the 3 screws on which the nozzle with the heater element was attached to the black round plastic connected. Next photos show the inside of the solder gun.
After removing the 2 screws that attached the small controller board, the 2 white and the blue and red wires from the heater element are clearly visible. Luckily I already previously had ordered a spare heater element and now it was time to replace the old defect heater.
The S-993 plastic is no cheap toy because the screws fit tightly in the decent plastic housing. And also the way in which the heater element is connected to the case makes it a more professional design.
Replacing the old with the new 4 wired element is a breeze and before I know it I am ready to close the case and screw the screws back in. Also the Earth green/yellow wire for safety protection against accidental electrocution is very well connected by a screw on the small inside metal piece of the heater element. As next photo shows.
In above photo I also removed the 3 outside screws from the round heater plate that was attached to the black plastic mount because it is obvious that I am going to need that connected to the new heater element. After checking all electronic parts on the small board and its solder joints it was obvious that only the element was defect. And after this repair I will have to order another spare element because they apparently will quit working in the end.
Previous photo shows that the S-993A new heater element is heating up perfectly! Next photo shows the 2 metal wires with different thickness that are needed when the solder gun opening is stuck by old solder to clear the gun from residue.
They are included with two different nozzles for small and larger solder pins/holes.
The small white cotton like round parts are needed to protect the motor and inside from being contaminated by the incoming hot solder parts from the nozzle when it sucks the solder into the glass tube. They are very expensive and way too costly to replace often! (4 of those small pieces sadly may cost about 14 dollar/euro or more! Which is plain ridiculous considering what they just are made of!). Next photo shows the new element and the seller or manufacturer I bought the spare heater element from.
A new spare heater element was ordered on Aliexpress for 12,71 Euro which was about 30% cheaper than from the majority of sellers.
For a repair engineer almost nothing is as important as keeping his equipment in good working order. After all we never know when even more important things come our way that need the use of these tools to fix them in the near future too! And our finished work is only as good as the quality of the tools we use.
Albert van Bemmelen, Weert, The Netherlands.
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https://jestineyong.com/delium-android-tablet-fixed/
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Parasuraman S
September 28, 2018 at 10:32 am
Excellent! Good to see inside of a professional soldering iron!
Albert van Bemmelen
September 28, 2018 at 2:25 pm
Thank you for your always positive comments and professional contributions Parasuraman! I do hope you are in the position to add this handy tool to your equipment too! It certainly would help removing all those bad e-caps in a wink!(;)
Bruce Saxby
September 28, 2018 at 9:07 pm
Albert always like your articles you take on all shapes and sizes with a steady professional approach, good reading as well. Well done.
Albert van Bemmelen
September 28, 2018 at 10:13 pm
Well thank you Bruce! I do my best to keep it interesting.
Parasuraman S
September 29, 2018 at 10:10 am
Many thanks!
Albert van Bemmelen
September 29, 2018 at 7:05 pm
Thank you Parasuraman S for your valued appreciation!
beh
September 28, 2018 at 12:19 pm
Hi Albert
thanks for report. i had such problem in GOOT vacuum desoldering gun.
Albert van Bemmelen
September 28, 2018 at 2:32 pm
Thanks Beh! I wrote that there were 2 nozzles included with my solder gun but I noticed there were 4! All with different openings/diameters but only 2 hard stiff wires to clean the desolder gun with.
Robert Calk Jr.
September 28, 2018 at 12:35 pm
Good job, Albert. Guess what, my scope fan started making a little rattling noise. Of course, it has the Siemen's Hall-Effect sensor controlled fan motor in it. Sometimes it rains when it pours... lol, But I'm not upset. I look at it as a challenge.
So it looks like I'll be rebuilding my scope's fan motor soon. I'm not going to modify my scope with a PC fan because I want to keep it original, and plus, the Siemen's Hall-Effect fans are more silent and introduce less vibration. Since I have to remove the power supply board, I'll replace the e-caps and Rifa caps. I might go ahead and replace every e-cap in my scope.
I'll probably break it into 2 articles so that I can include many more photos to help aid others that may want to rebuild their Siemens fan motors. The fan impeller is on tight also, so I'll have to either find or make a forked tool so that I can remove the impeller without breaking it. Cheers!
Albert van Bemmelen
September 28, 2018 at 1:52 pm
You are having quite a lot of bad luck after you wrote about it in your last article Robert. I also had to replace the original Fan of my 2465 Tektronix scope after I had it one year. The seller David from Texas I bought it from already had warned me for the fact that the Fan could make some noise but it only really started being very noisy after a year. And I replaced it completely by a new Fan I read about being the right original type. I have mentioned the type of Fan I bought online in the same article in where I had to replace a suddenly bad exploded capacitor on the powerboard of my 2465 scope!
Andre Gopee
September 28, 2018 at 9:05 pm
Thanks for the this information, I have had a Hakko 808 for many years and I know one day this will happen and I may need to repair it. Thanks again.
Albert van Bemmelen
September 28, 2018 at 10:11 pm
If your Hakko is as easily serviceable like my S993A is you should not have any worries, Andre. But having a spare heater element at hand is mandatory of course.
Robert Calk Jr.
September 28, 2018 at 9:39 pm
Oh well, it just means more articles to write and more to learn. The fan in your scope is a piece of cake. Mine is much more involved and difficult to rebuild. Hopefully I will be able to get some new bearings for it.
Here's a page to give you an idea about the fan if you want to check it out. http://antiqueradios.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=235478
Albert van Bemmelen
September 28, 2018 at 10:07 pm
I love cake Robert! (Joking). But my Fan works like a sunshine compared to the old one. So no worries there. I was glad I could found one!
Albert van Bemmelen
September 28, 2018 at 10:29 pm
By-the-way: Thanks for the interesting page Robert! I've kept my old now very noisy original Fan. Maybe i'm able to fix it with that info? Mechanical things are not my strength but you never know!
Albert van Bemmelen
September 29, 2018 at 2:43 pm
Luckily I own a 2465A Tektronix with a 'standard' PC type of Fan. I assume you have the 2465 without any A or B after the number? So the article is probably not meant for my oscilloscope. And my replacement Fan works without any problem. Same goes for my 2440 memory scope that still uses its original Fan.
Robert Calk Jr.
September 30, 2018 at 10:32 am
I have the Tek 2465A DV. Since my scope has the DMM, T/V, GPIB, and C/T/T options in it, the scope uses the Siemens Hall-Effect fan motor. People just say things all the time on the Net without thinking I guess.
Devon Wilson
October 1, 2018 at 8:13 am
Thanks Albert for your invaluable contribution.
albert van bemmelen
October 1, 2018 at 8:44 pm
I hope it will come to good use if needed Devon. Thanks.
Justice (City of Durban --South Africa)
October 1, 2018 at 1:18 pm
I am definately going to include this tool to my tools. Wow why did I not know about it and yet its just an obvious needed tool! Thanks Albert wow.
albert van bemmelen
October 1, 2018 at 8:58 pm
Glad you think so Justice! I hope the desolder gun will be a fine new tool, saving you time when a lot of parts need replacements.
Albert van Bemmelen
October 2, 2018 at 1:03 am
By-the-way: I believe that Jestine used another slightly bigger model desolder gun at the Noahtech center. It looks like my S-993A but probably has a larger pump that works even better. And maybe that one is also more robust. And likely also slightly more expensive too. I forgot what model it was.
Jestine Yong
October 2, 2018 at 1:28 pm
Hi Albert,
I'm using a S-998P Model with a built in pump at the back.
Jestine
Albert van Bemmelen
October 2, 2018 at 2:25 pm
Thanks for confirming Jestine!
Robert Calk Jr.
October 3, 2018 at 3:07 pm
My Hakko 808 also has the pump in the back of the gun.
Jestine Yong
October 3, 2018 at 5:51 pm
Hi Robert,
Good to know that.
Jestine