Cold heat soldering tool

[Richard Henry]

Another early-morning TV ad for Cold-Heat, right before Ron Popeil's show'
Anyone tried one? Any idea how it works, or whether it works?

 

[[email protected]]

It does work, and pretty well. I think that on a very basic level, it
passes a current through the tip whenever solder is available to
complete the circuit. They're pretty nice to have when you're putting
speakers in your car doors or scavenging in scrapyards. I am not sure
it's the best choice for ESD-sensitive work though.

Does anyone know if it's been evaluated for this kind of soldering?

 

[Leon]

I've seen it mentioned on the QRP-L amateur radio forum; it's a waste
of money for electronic work, at any rate.

I think it passes a high current through the joint to be soldered.

Leon

 

[Jamie]

Another early-morning TV ad for Cold-Heat, right before Ron Popeil's show'
Anyone tried one? Any idea how it works, or whether it works?

its ok for a quick portable solution to do things
like connectors in your car, audio system and
maybe a coax connector while your up in the air
on a tower ect.
i wouldn't try it on anything small like boards
and smt parts etc...
especially on boards since it does generate
current and you may just hit the correct
component on the board and the correct position
thus passing current for a moment through a
sensitive component.

 

[Erik Walthinsen]

I've seen it mentioned on the QRP-L amateur radio forum; it's a waste
of money for electronic work, at any rate.

Agreed. I have one and have given them as gifts, but you have to
realize that they are best at precisely what the commercial says they
are. I haven't even attempted any kind of real electronics work with
mine, because I know it'll be a disaster. Instead, it's used for bulk
(but not too bulky) soldering jobs, e.g. wires to connectors, patch
jobs, etc.

If you try to heat too much material with it, you won't get anywhere,
but for medium-sized jobs it does indeed work very well, as advertised.

I think it passes a high current through the joint to be soldered.

Dirty little secret: the only electronics (at least in the basic $20
version) are the LEDs. Literally, all the "magic" is in the tip, made
of some material that presumably aids in the process somehow. The
switch connects the two ends of the 4 AA's to the two sides of the tip,
and incidentally the LEDs. A current dump across the part to be
soldered (6V at whatever current the AA's can put out) heats it up
enough to melt solder and get the job done. I'm tempted to take some
batteries and plain old wire and see what happens, should be similar
results except for the sacrificial aspect of the tip.

I don't think it's actually going to be any kind of problem for mildly
sensitive electronics, unless you're not very careful. Touching one
side of the tip to the circuit won't do anything, because the circuit is
open on the other end, batteries or no. As the other side connects, the
voltage is shunted entirely through the pin/wire/etc being heated. The
only way you're going to get a high-current 6V dump through your part is
if you manage to touch each half of the tip to separate ends of the
circuit and allow a loop through your parts.

 

[[email protected]]

I am sure it doesn't comply with military or NASA standards for their
kind of work, but I wonder how damaging it can actually be. You can't
damage an IC by passing any amount of current through only one pin. I
think there are a couple different sized tips available too.

Now if you contact two different pins with the two halves of the tip, I
can see that having an unhappy ending. This is probably easy to do when
the trace being soldered leads to other pins on the same device. Aside
from that, though, I imagine that the tool being ungrounded would be
more dangerous to the work than the way it operates.

The only reason I don't have one is because I've got a great
electric-powered iron on my bench, and three or four perfectly useful
butane irons in my toolbox. It's probably fine for what it is, a
portable iron; but I've seen that Ronco ad and I don't agree with their
claim that it's the ultimate soldering system for everything from the
bench to the beach.

 

[Puckdropper]

*snip*

The only reason I don't have one is because I've got a great
electric-powered iron on my bench, and three or four perfectly useful
butane irons in my toolbox. It's probably fine for what it is, a
portable iron; but I've seen that Ronco ad and I don't agree with their
claim that it's the ultimate soldering system for everything from the
bench to the beach.

Marketing... Make your tool seem like the best thing in the universe by
reducing the size of your universe of discourse. I've got one and have
been unable to find anything worth soldering with it. I wind up breaking
things trying to let the tip get hot enough to start melting the solder.

Puckdropper

--
www.uncreativelabs.net

Old computers are getting to be a lost art. Here at Uncreative Labs, we
still enjoy using the old computers. Sometimes we want to see how far a
particular system can go, other times we use a stock system to remind
ourselves of what we once had.

To email me directly, send a message to puckdropper (at) fastmail.fm

 

[Pooh Bear]

You can't
damage an IC by passing any amount of current through only one pin.

By definition no currrent can pass through *one* pin. There has to be a
return path.

That return path is the other pins though.

There's plenty of damge I can see this iron doing to electronics.

Graham

 

[ehsjr]

Another early-morning TV ad for Cold-Heat, right before Ron Popeil's show'
Anyone tried one? Any idea how it works, or whether it works?

It's a piece of crap. It'll solder two skinny wires
together - that's about it. Somebody mentioned soldering
a coax connector when you're up in the tower. No way.

Ed

 

[[email protected]]

"[email protected]" wrote:

By definition no currrent can pass through *one* pin.

What I meant was, if all the current enters and exits through the same
pin, crossways or longitudinally, there's no problem. This is certainly
possible. But it's very easy to get your tip halves in between two
pins, or to contact a pin and the land you're trying to join before
they're electrically connected.

Small amounts of current flowing on the board during soldering are
harmless to 99.99% of electronic components. Electrostatically
significant voltages are what you have to watch out for, and it's a
problem with all portable soldering irons, not just electric ones. It
would be interesting to know just how "small" the current and voltage
used in ColdHeat soldering is.

 

[John Fields]

What I meant was, if all the current enters and exits through the same
pin, crossways or longitudinally, there's no problem. This is certainly
possible. But it's very easy to get your tip halves in between two
pins, or to contact a pin and the land you're trying to join before
they're electrically connected.

Small amounts of current flowing on the board during soldering are
harmless to 99.99% of electronic components. Electrostatically
significant voltages are what you have to watch out for, and it's a
problem with all portable soldering irons, not just electric ones. It
would be interesting to know just how "small" the current and voltage
used in ColdHeat soldering is.

 

[[email protected]]

I've thought it a few times but I'd almost be embarrassed to be seen
leaving the store with one.

 

[Spehro Pefhany]

Another early-morning TV ad for Cold-Heat, right before Ron Popeil's show'
Anyone tried one? Any idea how it works, or whether it works?

As well as the answers here, search google groups.

If you just want portability, the butane irons work wonderfully, have
nice tips like real irons and can be refilled in a snap. Mine is an
orange one made in Ireland (Portasol).


Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany

 

[Rich Webb]

As well as the answers here, search google groups.

If you just want portability, the butane irons work wonderfully, have
nice tips like real irons and can be refilled in a snap. Mine is an
orange one made in Ireland (Portasol).

However, one should be somewhat more careful where one might happen to
set down a butane iron, as the exhaust ports can be just a tiny bit
hotter in the off-axis direction than one's common experience with
resistive element heaters.

Fortunately, I rather quickly entered into full-bore "Holy shit!" mode
and got to it before the ESD pad (or anything else!) was too seriously
damaged... ;-)

 

[Ian Stirling]

What I meant was, if all the current enters and exits through the same
pin, crossways or longitudinally, there's no problem. This is certainly
possible. But it's very easy to get your tip halves in between two
pins, or to contact a pin and the land you're trying to join before
they're electrically connected.

Small amounts of current flowing on the board during soldering are
harmless to 99.99% of electronic components. Electrostatically
significant voltages are what you have to watch out for, and it's a
problem with all portable soldering irons, not just electric ones. It
would be interesting to know just how "small" the current and voltage
used in ColdHeat soldering is.

It's not complex, I'd expect a minimum of 1.5V, if it puts all the
cells in parallel, and several amps of current.