Table of Contents
Introduction
I purchased a couple of USB-C soldering irons a while back, and Andrew J raised an interesting question at the time; could such a tool be used in place of a normal soldering station rather than just for occasional in-the-field use? So, for the past couple of months, I decided to give it a try. This blog post shows how it went!
In summary, it is feasible, but one needs to consider the power source, grounding, and the soldering iron stand. With that sorted, the experience can be close to using a soldering station. Whether it is worthwhile or not depends on non-technical things just as much as technical! Also, the costs add up (although one can ‘enhance’ their setup incrementally, which might suit students, perhaps).
Which Soldering Irons and Tips?
I tried two irons, called L245 and Sequre S60. Both require a USB-C power source. The L245 uses C245 series tips, and the Sequre S60 uses JBC C210 series tips. I won’t cover as much about the S60 in this blog post because it has already been discussed.
| Name | Compatible Tip Range | JBC Iron Name |
| L245 | C245 | T245 |
| S60 | C210 | T210 |
Here’s a 4-minute video showing the L245 in action (direct video link):
C245 Tips
These are very general-purpose tips; there’s a huge selection, suitable for surface-mount, all the way up to soldering massive connectors. These tips can support more than 100W of power but can be operated with just a few watts of power for the smaller tip options in the range. I’ve never used a C245 tip operated beyond 60W because that’s all my current JBC soldering station supports. With 60W of power with C245 tips, there is no issue soldering 1/4 inch audio plug, BNC shells, copper clad board, metal lugs on typical power semiconductors, and so on.
The C245 series might be JBC’s most popular tip range (at a guess).
The most general-purpose C245 tip might be model C245-905. The dimensions are great for regular use.
Image source: JBC website
The tips are not too expensive. In the UK, it costs about £18+VAT, and it should last a decade or longer if used and handled properly; therefore, it's a minor cost in the space of things.
C210 Tips
These tips are smaller and support up to 20W of power. This might not sound a lot, but because the heater is integrated into the tip, the heat energy is concentrated right at the tip so that it can cope with a lot of situations; you can do things that might seem implausible at first glance! For instance, I use a small 1 mm tip for 95% of my soldering tasks - such a tip is small enough for a lot of surface-mount work, but it also works great for most through-hole work too! The 20W of power concentrated into a small tip is plenty for these use cases. The soldering station will automatically adjust the power output up and down rapidly to handle whatever soldering task I’m performing.
Due to the performance of the tips and the heating system being so high, I’ve pretty much moved to C210 tips for daily work and C245 for the times that I need higher power.
The C210 tip I use regularly is C210-006. As with the C245 range, this tip should last a decade or longer (mine is approaching 10 years of use) in a development environment. Obviously, in a production environment, it may be a different matter. The price is reasonable considering the performance and the use I have got out of it!
Image source: Kaisertech website
L245 Look and Feel
The iron is mainly made from aluminum, including metal push-buttons, and feels good. The soft grip area is simply heat-shrink sleeving, but it does the job well.
The photo below shows (from top to bottom) a JBC T245 iron (which accepts the C245 tips), followed by the L245, and then a JBC T210 iron (which accepts C210 tips) followed by the S60, which was reviewed in the earlier blog.
Here is a size comparison of C245 tips versus C210 tips.
The L245 soldering iron is thicker than the JBC T245 iron but thinner than the direct-mains-powered irons. I don’t feel that it is uncomfortable. I have used the iron frequently, and it feels fine.
Soldering Stand
I really missed a proper soldering iron stand! In the field, it’s not necessary for the occasional solder joint, but when working on projects, I need that iron close by with a proper stand. Fortunately for the Secure S60, any JBC-compatible stand works. It fits fine. There are clone stands that cost about £25, and they look good, with a spare tip storage area and brass wool holder. I use metal wool instead of a wet sponge, but for those who prefer the sponge method, there are other JBC-compatible stand options.
Image source: Aliexpress
The stand in the photo above (there is another photo of it further below) is not of the same quality as more expensive soldering iron stands, but it's not bad. It is made from very tough plastic (it might be glass reinforced), with aluminum docking port, and there is silicone in the area where the hot tip will be so that the tip won't touch plastic.
Unfortunately, the L245 doesn’t fit JBC stands, but there is a fix! The metal collar on the L245 has a slightly larger diameter than a JBC soldering iron, but only by about 0.2 mm! It is 12.0mm, whereas the JBC iron collar diameter is 11.8mm. This was a problem with an easy solution. The metal collar on the L245 easily unscrews off.
The inside diameter of the collar is just over 8.0mm, so I found an 8.0mm shaft (a drill bit could be used) and used thin paper as a shim to make the collar a tight fit onto the shaft.
After that, it was just a matter of spinning it (slowly; maybe 1000 -1500 RPM) and holding sandpaper against it. Here is the finished assembled result:
Obviously, now there is no black anodizing on that area, but it doesn't look bad. Now it fits fine! The photo here shows the £25 soldering iron stand with the sanded-down L245 iron.
Anyway, in summary, obtaining a decent stand is a must to use these USB irons as a daily driver.
USB-C Cable
Decent flexible USB-C cables are not cheap : (
I used the cable shown below for the S60 and a similar one (but USB type A on the other end) for the L245. The price is ridiculous, though. In use, they feel superb, just as nice as a JBC iron. It is flexible, like a test lead.
Image source: Amazon
USB Type-C to Type-A cable:
USB-C Power Source
In the search for a decent USB-C power supply so far I’ve tried three, and although all of them work, there are some things to look out for when purchasing a supply for soldering purposes.
Firstly, the Sequre S60 ideally needs a USB-C power source that can offer 12V. Not all USB-C supplies can do that. Some only offer 5V/9V/15V/20V, skipping 12V capability. As a result, the iron will negotiate the next voltage level down from 12V, which is 9V, and it may impact performance. I’ve found Anker USB-C supplies lack 12V. However, UGREEN supplies support it. Check the details for the specific one you decide to buy though, because there may be variations between different product models from the same manufacturer.
The L245 uses 20V, which provides a bit more flexibility on the USB-C power supply choice.
Grounding
One of the biggest differences between a USB-C-powered soldering iron and a regular transformer-powered soldering station is that the former has no grounding. This is a big deal when soldering semiconductors because the iron tip will be at a voltage that could approach 100V or so. Although the current will be low, it will be more than sufficient to destroy MOSFET gates.
The simplest solution is to use a USB-C supply with more than one USB socket and connect the metal shell from another USB socket to an earth bonding point. It is explained in this blog post: Easy Grounding for USB Soldering Irons
I wondered if mains extension leads with built-in USB-C sockets might already be earthed, but it seems they are not (or at least, I’ve not found any).
While you’re at it, you may as well get a wrist strap and cable for minimizing ESD risk further. If you are connecting the iron and the wrist strap to the same bonding point, then it does get a bit messy with the cabling getting in the way. A slightly longer cable for the wrist strap might help in that situation.
It is quite annoying that the metal collar on the S60 and the L245 is not grounded. With the JBC tools, I can frequently touch the collar to discharge myself if I forget to wear a wrist strap. For sure that is an unorthodox thing, but it was convenient since the collars do not heat up.
All-in-all, the whole grounding issue is frustrating. It ends up requiring two mains sockets, an earth bonding point plug and cables to solve this one problem. The ready-made soldering stations are looking a lot more attractive!
DIY Power Supply
Please don't attempt this unless you know what you're doing. There is a risk of electric shock to yourself or others, and of electrical fires. The information below is not a recommendation, and it might be incorrect. It merely documents what I did, not what is recommended.
The mess with the grounding was an incentive to try to make a custom supply. I took the easy approach and connected a 20V supply to a USB Type-A socket, which violates USB standards.
Incidentally, 24V supplies are more common, but fortunately, they have a trimmer that can be set to the minimum value to get close to 20V, which is good enough.
The Meanwell LRS-75-24 seemed ideal, and it was low cost. I wanted to wire the output it to a panel mount USB socket, but I didn’t have one, so I used that old problem-solver called Polydoh. It was straightforward; insert two long screws into the front panel, and then cover them with the Polydoh with the USB connector in-between (the springy metal needs to be covered with tape beforehand to try to retain a bit of springiness). The connector is stiff to use but seems fine.
A resistor is needed between either the USB shell or 0V connection, or both, to the earth connection. I added a banana socket to the front panel as well, for wrist-strap or mat grounding. I used 1 Mohm resistors for all of these connections, however it was insufficient for the 0V connection; I could see about 36 uA of AC current between the supply and ground. This is one of the reasons a proper soldering station is better! I reduced the resistance to 100 kohm and the current reduced to 9 uA, with an AC voltage of 9V, which is still higher than I wished, but now far safer for components, and I can live with that. I might reduce the resistance further to 47 kohm, at which point it should be completely fine for working with sensitive components.
An IEC mains inlet with fuse and switch is recommended.
A power LED on the front panel helps too, since, unlike proper soldering stations, this power supply has no fan and is completely silent, so it is easy to forget that it is switched on if there is no large power light. The L245 iron shuts down after a configurable amount of time, but still, it’s good to have the power indicator light.
Cost
I finally had a soldering iron that felt like using a soldering station! But at what cost?
| Item | Approx Cost (GBP) |
| L245 Iron | £30 |
| LRS-75-24 Power Supply | £20 |
| Enclosure and Connectors | £15 |
| Soldering Iron Stand | £25 |
| Decent USB Cable | £15 |
| JBC Soldering Tip | £25 |
The total comes to £130, so it is certainly cheaper than a JBC soldering station (even a used one will cost at least twice that amount) but for not much more than £130 it is certainly possible to purchase from a selection of plenty of other new soldering stations, and they would come with a warranty, whereas I have no idea how long the L245 will last. Anyway, it was worth the experiment, and I now have a spare soldering station in case the more expensive one breaks down.
Temperature Configuration
I’ve found that the L245 and the Sequre S60 that I owned both deliver a slightly lower tip temperature than that configured on the display when they are used with genuine JBC tips. The difference is about 10 degrees C. It is easy to correct the temperature using the built-in menu, or you could just set the display 10 degrees higher than desired.
The menu is a bit more advanced in the Sequre S60 than in the L245, but both are capable of setting the temperature adjustment. Both menu systems are easy to use, with the three buttons on the irons.
The L245 has a ‘Max’ temperature setting, and it is worth setting that to the highest temperature that you think you’ll ever want to solder with. I set the Max value to 380 deg C. You can set several different temperatures and then select through them using the up/down buttons, or you can go up/down in more granular increments, such as 5 or 10 deg C.
When soldering, my default temperature setting is 330 deg C, which works well with the solder that I use.
Note that with the Sequre S60, it is highly recommended to set the maximum power to 30%! This is because the C210 tips ordinarily work perfectly fine with 20W of power. There is also another important reason to set it to 30%, which is discussed further below.
Sleep Settings
Because the JBC tips heat up so quickly, the system is designed to drop the temperature after some time after the iron senses no movement to extend the soldering tip life, and then as you lift the iron from the stand, it heats up within the few seconds that it will take you to get ready for making the solder joint. It is a great feature. I set the sleep temperature to 120 deg C; it is not worth having it much lower than this because excessive repeated contraction/extraction due to the temperature change can’t be good either. I guess that 120-150 deg C would be a great sweet spot to preserve soldering tip life.
Soldering Experience
The experience is excellent. I can’t see any significant difference in performance when soldering using the L245 or Sequre S60, compared to using a JBC soldering station with C245 or C210 tips. There might be a fraction delay in power boost with the L245 when soldering very large items, but I still feel comfortable with it when soldering. Just glancing at the tip thermometer, I cannot see any overshoot (I have not done any temperature logging, this was supposed to be a quick experiment!).
Although this blog post focussed more on the L245, I have also used the Sequre S60 for about a month, and I really like that too. With the 1mm tip that was mentioned earlier, I have used the S60 on several PCBs, that included surface-mount parts, through-hole parts, and screw terminal blocks. Everything went smoothly, and there was no problem soldering the large terminal blocks.
Other things to be aware of!
When I initially used the Sequre S60, the temperature was jumping about all over the place, and the power meter bar on its little display was going from max to minimum and vice versa. I think the problem was that the soldering iron tip was not making good contact when inserted inside the iron! I don’t have a good solution to this. After powering off and removing/re-inserting the tip a few times, everything was fine and I have not seen the issue again for a month. You won’t want full power going into your C210 tip investment, so it is good to limit the power in the configuration to about 30%. See the Temperature Configuration section earlier. That way, even if there is a tip connection fault, the tip is far less likely to be damaged since the power is limited. The 30% setting is more than enough to support the C210 tips that I tried, so I don’t see the point of ever setting the maximum power higher than that. Just remember to do it immediately after purchase, before inserting any expensive tip!
With the L245, I watched a recent review video where the reviewer experienced the iron resetting itself when used with a genuine JBC tip, whereas it would work fine with the supplied tip. I don’t know what caused that, but the L245 device I used had firmware version 1.3 as supplied, and it worked fine. I don't know for sure though, if this was due to the firmware version or not.
Summary
During a couple of months of use, I have really enjoyed using the Sequre S60 and the L245 soldering irons. There’s not too much to fault about them, but when using them as a regular soldering iron, there are quite a few costs to factor in, such as power supply, grounding, and soldering iron stand. There is the tip cost too, but not many tips are needed to cover a wide range of typical soldering tasks, and they last ages.
Thanks for reading!
