KSGER T12 Mod To Improve Safety That You Can Do - It's Fun!

How to mod your KSGER T12 Soldering Station. If you already have a Ksger T12 soldering station, you already know how amazing these small form factor soldering tools are. If you don't have one yet, they offer superior direct drive tip technology performance, temperature accuracy & efficiency while being affordable & durable.

T12 soldering stations are perfectly suited for the hobbyist's, DIY'ers & electronic student's workbench. They are not perfect however.

There are two main safety issues with the KSGER T12 with the V2.04 power supply in my opinion that are worthwhile addressing with an easy mod or two. Do you have to do these modifications to your Ksger T12 soldering station? Of course not. But if you want to improve the safety of your T12 station and you're not sure where to start or what's involved, this video will how you how to do these simple safety mods.

Neither KSGER T12 mod requires too much soldering skill, but you do need to be able to solder for one mod, and de-solder and use a hand drill for the other mod. Because we are working on our T12 station, we naturally can't use it while performing the modifications. You will therefor need another soldering iron or gun. I'm using my little TS100 iron for this, but any standard soldering iron will work fine.

If either of these T12 mods seem a little too daunting for your current soldering skill set, then don't do them. These are precautionary safety mods only - don't sweat the small stuff :)

Video Chapter Time Index:
- Intro 0:00
- How to open the Ksger T12 0:29
- Explaining the two safety concerns 1:41
- How to ground the case 2:05
- Details on the T12 power supply rectifier heat sink safety issue 6:07
- How to mod the heat sink 7:52
- Testing & Conclusion 12:05

Links to the Ksger T12 Soldering Station review & items:

- KSGER T12 V3.1S soldering station review:

- KSGER T12 V3.1S station:

- SS-331 De-soldering tool used in this video:

- TS100 soldering iron:

- My KSGER T12 follow up video:

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[DarthMaul]

I love this little soldering station! Also got two T100s (bought the second because the OLED on the first died, and then I ordered a new OLED for the first, replaced it and this is how I got 2). Never hurts to have some extra irons at hand!

[antibrevity]

Thanks for the video and for advising owners of these stations to ground their chassis. I recommend using crimp connections wherever possible on ground connections as high currents can melt solder connections, allowing the wire to simply fall off. A fuse or breaker will hopefully cut the power before the soldered connections fail, but UL-approved ground wires are crimped to things like spade connectors and screwed eyelets, not soldered. We want to *force* something upstream to trip or blow well before the internal ground fails.

With that said, the present-day KSGER stations with coincident, soldered power connectors between the plug module and power supply board don't offer an easy way to attach a spade connector to the ground terminal, so a soldered chassis ground is better than none at all.

[Asdasdas]

I know this is an old video but just wanted to comment in case it helps anyone that I bought one from the official ksger aliexpress store last month and it came grounded already. Pretty good soldering station for the price.

[nghtrdr]

I also removed the resistor to ground from the rtc battery and added a verticle 2032 battery holder using the original battery pigtail so everything is quick disconnect. The battery is still going stron a year later. This is a fantastic little soldering station. I recently upgraded to a hakko fm203 station (my dream station) and passed on my ksger to a friend.

[pierpa_pierpaolo]

I am interested in the T12A version even though the station is tiny. It looks almost professional and desoldering stylus approaches Weller quality. :) 5:44 Modification I will make as soon as I receive it. So you avoid getting that annoying shock through the frame and then you protect the circuit.

[Scrogan]

In my experimentation, the black anodised finish was very strongly insulating. Even pushing my DMM probes into it as hard as I could I couldn’t get continuity. And I imagine that even if you ground one panel, that continuity wouldn’t follow on to the other 4 pieces of aluminium. So instead if you’re worried I’d just add some fabric insulating tape around the inside of the case where a heat-sink or other bits could contact it. Though sanding down the area near the screws isn’t bad either.

That heat sink goop looks conductive though, and it was getting kinda close to shorting the diode’s pins out.

[NakamoriAra]

I recently received a V2.2 with ground preinstalled, what a wonderful thing

[Zardwark]

Being the millionth and one person to buy one of these I did appreciate this little video. John is right, it's a mystery to me why it isn't done out of the factory, especially the rectifier heat sink.

[dutchaus]

Just purchased one. Earthed out the case as per your mod. Went to do the heat sink mod and to my surprise they have modified the board and the circuit now clears the heat sink. Must be later model? Someone at the factory has been watching your videos👌

[tastenheber]

I always put in a 2-pole switch on devices like this, so live and neutral get separated. This is because here in Germany we do have non-polarized outlets/sockets and there is a 50% chance to get live on neutral and vice versa. Of course it still works and shouldn't be an issue, but it feels better with the 2-pole switch.

But by far the most important mod is the PE/earth connection of the casing. It's more like a repair than a mod really. I like to use fan washers (Zahnscheiben in German), since they cut into the metal when tightening them down.

Never thought about that heat sink though.

[stevelaferney]

Thanks John for all of your T12 videos! They have been really helpful in my choices. Keep up the good fight.

[GameTechRefuge]

Thanks for the video. Just picked one up. Grounded the case but will have to move it the rear, way better placement. Will have to do the heat-sink adjustment.

[luckywetland]

I purchased mine few days ago, and it was already case grounded 😃

[repro]

The one I just got had an interesting variation. The power connector to the front board looks like it was snapped off, so they just soldered the wires right to the board! You can see the broken leads where the connector was. Nice job!

[samdeur]

really like watching your vids ..just discovered your channel. someone asked about the T12 iron i mentioned that i bought years ago. i don't have an electronic background so i went with the save option and bought the mini one and bought an external higher end power supply came in handy because i also wanted the TS100..i prefer the KSGER T12 because of all the tip options..

i really like the mods you did. and how you explain it.. i don't know that i would have bin able to mod the heatsink as i don't have a counter screw drill bit (i believe that's what you call them ?, eng is not my native language )..
will subscribe to the channel like the way you share your knowledge ..

Greetings from The Netherlands..

[SevenDeMagnus]

Cool. our the KSGER T12 is truly amazing, I'm very glad I bought it (thanks to sir John's channel, where I first saw it).
It's like modding our R/C (battery powered, Tamiya and Futaba combo guy- R/C race champion here, when I was a kid at least:-).

God bless, Rev. 21:4

[NotSkeletor]

For anyone looking at the T12 mini, the handle should already be grounded however the anodized paint has to be scratched off the corners and dials inside to properly ground the PCB to the case.

[neiliewheeliebin]

Looks like I lucked out with the DXCHMEI brand one of these, doesn't have any of these KSGER problems & it's properly grounded & insulated inside the metal case

[CanaleYouTubeGeneralista]

Hi, adding the ground wire to the case also makes the tip grounded ? Some connect a ground wire directly to the Tip GND of the GX12 connector.

[Zardwark]

I bought one based on John and others reviews, but it was John that inspired me to open it up and do the mods he suggested. He's right, just because it's fun! If any knows/can explain to a noob, why the outside of the GX12(?) socket isn't connected to the earth pin. I mean, this would have solved the who issue right?