Repairing An AIXUN T3A soldering station

My AIXUN T3A soldering station died after only about 4 or 5 months of use. Let's take it apart, try and diagnose the problem and hopefully repair it!

UPDATE:
I managed to find some schematics that someone reverse engineered:

I eventually replaced the diode on my unit as I think it was breaking down or had a bad internal connection. It seems the heat from the iron just temporarily restored it for a couple of weeks, as the fault re-occurred a few weeks later. Heating the diode seemed to make it work again.

The diode appears to be a 4.7v Zener I replaced it with a LL34 SMD Zener Diode 0.5W
The mystery power supply IC is a MP9942GJ-Z

#electronics #electronicsrepair #electronicscreators
AIXUN repair
how to fix AIXUN
fixing AIXUN

[BuyitFixit]

Update: Please see video description for an update on this, info on the unidentified parts and schematic.

[SeifEddineB]

Great fix, thank you for getting us inside the T3A, I was curious to see how well it is made.

[PavolNemec-lv]

I am long term My Mate Vince subscriber but i stumbled on your videos this week and i have to say you are so underated. I really love your fault finding methods and overall videos and nicely made as well. Really enjoyable and interesting to watch. I am certain your sub count will rise in the future because of quality of your videos. 👌

[JoeBob]

Fantastic stuff.
It's such a pity that so few people ever even consider trying to repair things nowadays; most people just send things straight to the rubbish dump without even attempting a repair.
It'd be great if basic soldering and repair was a subject in schools, even basic stuff like replacing components and resoldering dry joints.

[thdrizzl]

we have these in use at the shop being used daily all day along with t3b and t420d's and yet to have any issues except with one unit needed a cap changed and was back up and running again. but we have around 14 t3a's and its been a year roughly without any other issues at all.

[Hulkeq]

4:48 Most low volume pcb manufacturers add a serial number without the customer asking for it. You need to specifically specify they shouldn't and it costs a tiny bit more to do so. If someone gets hold of that number they can have exact duplicates made without needing to reverse engineer anything.

[MikeyMack]

Great fix, Mick. Good to see it was not a costly fix!

[BruceBoschek]

I'm just randomly going back through your videos and especially enjoyed this one. Thanks Mick.

[ctivate]

To get into my T3A I needed to remove the face plate with some heat, and their are 4 sxrew underneath. Also the main power board was siliconed in place between the bottom of the unit and some transistors on the bottom of the board. I used a metal shim to cut the Silicone.

I shorted my unit by touching to live 110V AC. Tips started getting red hot.
Fix was easy. Replaced a mosfet right next to the soldering tip plug

[MrEwool]

Looks like a great little iron that one, and it heats up really fast, last one i worked with took about 3-4 min before you could work with it. You can always touch up the glass chip with a bit of paint. But thanks for a great video really enjoy watching them

[kitmarshall]

i finally have the same issues as you did, i'm hoping to follow your foot step and maybe i can get it back running again.

[ArreglandoCosas]

Excellent fault find. Great video. Really enjoyed it. Looks like a nice iron station

[SURGE]

Really enjoyed watching this, I have one of these stations and was really interesting seeing it taken apart. Great watch and fix as well.

[stef]

Need a 3d printed bezel now to hide the damage lol. That would have annoyed the life out of me having done that. Great fix as always.

[wherami]

Wow thats a rapid heating too on that sucker. Nice machine

[tubeDude]

I have one of these and love it! I've had my 2 years, (it's currently 2024). I don't have that tip holder you have. Yours is much nicer.
I guess my dementia kicked in, I don't know what you did to fix it.

[naidol]

Well made video. Just like a detective solving a mystery. 😊

[nathanw]

Shame it went pear shaped. That's my daily driver, so thanks for showing a possible fix if it goes wrong. I can't fault mine; it's been a great station so far.

[rangercv]

Just want to let you know that I checked out your content and subscribed to the channel based on My Mate Vince’s recommendation. Cheers!

[sacem]

Thanks for the tear down video… it was really helpful.