HELP! Weller PS-2D Soldering Station Blowing its fuse...

[JoeDorcia]

I do mean that literally, the poor thing isn't just pissed off at me... Anyway...

I was beavering away the other night and after placing 30+ resistors went to solder and nothing. I have an old (ish) Weller PS-2D Soldering Station that takes the TCP pen/tips. Love it. I inspected the base and no on/off light. Checked the mains fuse and on board fuse and it was the on board 315mA 250V (FYI, I'm in the UK) Slow Blow (Time Delay) Fuse that had blown. Next day I picked some more up and every fuse blows as soon as I power the unit on. I tested each fuse before it went in and they were all fine. The blow whether the Pen is connected or not. The on/off light flashes on and then fuse blows. From some googling I thought I may have a short on one side of the transformer. However, I checked blow sides and they blow read a resistance - 42 ohms on the primary, 0.8 ohms on the secondary. This seems correct based on my minimal knowledge and googling. There is also no visible sign of burning out or shorting on the transformer.

Any ideas as to what else this could be? Anything else I could check or any other way of testing it? I can't test the AC across each side of the transformer as the fuse blows, could I temporarily jumper the fuse to test the voltage or is this too dangerous?

Please help so I can finish building my Triple Wreck! 

[LaceSensor]

Id refer back to the manufacturer, sounds dodgy.

sorry i cant add anything more useful

[TGP39]

Do NOT jumper the fuse. The fuse is blowing for a reason. I just don't know what that reason is. I agree with LaceSensor......call the manufacturer.

Steve.

[JoeDorcia]

Thanks guys, any other suggestions gurus?

[rullywowr]

I do mean that literally, the poor thing isn't just pissed off at me... Anyway...

I was beavering away the other night and after placing 30+ resistors went to solder and nothing. I have an old (ish) Weller PS-2D Soldering Station that takes the TCP pen/tips. Love it. I inspected the base and no on/off light. Checked the mains fuse and on board fuse and it was the on board 315mA 250V (FYI, I'm in the UK) Slow Blow (Time Delay) Fuse that had blown. Next day I picked some more up and every fuse blows as soon as I power the unit on. I tested each fuse before it went in and they were all fine. The blow whether the Pen is connected or not. The on/off light flashes on and then fuse blows. From some googling I thought I may have a short on one side of the transformer. However, I checked blow sides and they blow read a resistance - 42 ohms on the primary, 0.8 ohms on the secondary. This seems correct based on my minimal knowledge and googling. There is also no visible sign of burning out or shorting on the transformer.

Any ideas as to what else this could be? Anything else I could check or any other way of testing it? I can't test the AC across each side of the transformer as the fuse blows, could I temporarily jumper the fuse to test the voltage or is this too dangerous?

Please help so I can finish building my Triple Wreck! 

A pretty common failure in the old Weller soldering stations are the diodes.  These often rectify the power supply as well as other uses.  Check with your DMM to see if any of them have failed (shorted closed or shorted open).   Weller will often send you a schematic upon request if you are bent on fixing this one up.  Otherwise, I would suggest a newer station like the Weller WESD51 or Hakko FX-888d.

[JoeDorcia]

I do mean that literally, the poor thing isn't just pissed off at me... Anyway...

I was beavering away the other night and after placing 30+ resistors went to solder and nothing. I have an old (ish) Weller PS-2D Soldering Station that takes the TCP pen/tips. Love it. I inspected the base and no on/off light. Checked the mains fuse and on board fuse and it was the on board 315mA 250V (FYI, I'm in the UK) Slow Blow (Time Delay) Fuse that had blown. Next day I picked some more up and every fuse blows as soon as I power the unit on. I tested each fuse before it went in and they were all fine. The blow whether the Pen is connected or not. The on/off light flashes on and then fuse blows. From some googling I thought I may have a short on one side of the transformer. However, I checked blow sides and they blow read a resistance - 42 ohms on the primary, 0.8 ohms on the secondary. This seems correct based on my minimal knowledge and googling. There is also no visible sign of burning out or shorting on the transformer.

Any ideas as to what else this could be? Anything else I could check or any other way of testing it? I can't test the AC across each side of the transformer as the fuse blows, could I temporarily jumper the fuse to test the voltage or is this too dangerous?

Please help so I can finish building my Triple Wreck! 

A pretty common failure in the old Weller soldering stations are the diodes.  These often rectify the power supply as well as other uses.  Check with your DMM to see if any of them have failed (shorted closed or shorted open).   Weller will often send you a schematic upon request if you are bent on fixing this one up.  Otherwise, I would suggest a newer station like the Weller WESD51 or Hakko FX-888d.

I can't see any diodes in there.  Tis indeed old, got it on eBay recently though. Live and neutral come in, live goes to the fuse and then to the switch along with the neutral. Switch connects these yo the transformer primary. Secondary side goes straightto the output for the TCP pen. Old and simple... But clearly not too reliable.