Soldering Iron Temperature Controller (TRIAC – DIAC)

Nov 272020

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Soldering Iron temperature controller

You can buy a Soldering Iron temperature controller system with many features, but here we want to give a circuit for you to do it by yourself.

The Soldering iron

A soldering iron is an instrument used to repair and assemble electronic circuits. This instrument works, most of the time, connected to the outlet (110/220 VAC). This causes a constant energy consumption.

In addition to this consumption, it also causes deterioration of the welding tip. One way to avoid these problems is to connect, between the welder and the power source (socket or similar), a circuit that regulates the amount of current passed to the welder and therefore its temperature.

The circuit shown can vary the temperature of the soldering iron from 0° degrees to its maximum value, thus regulating the heat dissipation.

How the soldering iron temperature controller works?

The set of components: potentiometer R1, resistor R2 and capacitor C1, vary the tripping angle of the TRIAC and therefore the time that this component is conducting.

The DIAC can trigger the TRIAC in both directions (positive and negative half cycle of the voltage wave). By handling the potentiometer R1 we can change the firing angle of the TRIAC and therefore the temperature of the soldering iron.

This circuit can be placed in a small metal box. Position the potentiometer so that it can be easily manipulated from the outside. (As volume control)