YouTube channel bigclivedotcom showcased our Model #7700 Portable Soldering Iron. He gave his viewers a complete look at the inside of the iron. And, at the end, modified the charger to allow it to run from a USB power supply. He also installed a simple LED light to the base to show when the portable soldering iron was charging.
Model #7700 Portable Soldering Iron
Click here to purchase our 7700 Quick Charge Iron!
The Quick Charge Soldering Iron Kit is the world’s #1 rechargeable soldering iron kit designed with the professional in mind. The 7700 cordless soldering iron kit is our basic unit and the biggest seller for a good reason. We like to think of it as the “crank up window” of our soldering irons. It’s dependable, bullet proof and has an easy battery charge. It doesn’t have all the bells and whistles our other models feature, but it gets the job done and done well. The 7700 soldering iron kit fully recharges in 4 hours and outputs 125 solder joints per charge.
For more information about our portable soldering irons, click here!
Side Note: Joe here at the office, purchased a USB powered soldering iron from China to see how well it worked. Plugged it in to his computer, blew his USB…oh Joe!
Check out his modifications here:
Thanks for the video bigclivedotcom!
Is there much difference between the charger base for the 7800? Could the 7800 base be modified on the same way to permit 60 minute charging?
Hi Nick! Not sure if I’m understanding… The #7800 is the 60 minute fast charge therefore no need to modify.
The #7800 charging transformer is different than the #7700. It’s center tapped and has a full wave (rather than a half wave) rectifier built into it. This makes the 7800 battery charging voltage about twice that of the #7700, so you’d have to completely redesign the circuit to make it work for a #7800.
Also, trying to get the current necessary to charge a NiCd battery in 60 minutes from a computer USB port, would be challenging and could fry your motherboard. The power supply could probably handle it, but because computer USB ports are designed more for data than power, they are usually rated at 800mA or less.
Needing a dedicated power supply to provide current high enough to charge the #7800 iron, completely negates the value of this conversion. Since the #7800 charger is both simple and perfectly suited for this purpose, there is no good reason to mess with it.
I’ve done this modification on my old Model S.I (7700) and it works really well. Bigclivedotcom’s video got almost everything right, but there is one thing I would change. I would never have taken out the old transformer after completing the modification. Without the heavy OEM transformer, the charging stand is far too light to be stable. It easily moves or tips over when you replace the iron into the charger. This is annoying at best and dangerous at worst. Dropping a hot iron can be painful… for you and the iron).
Leaving the disconnected transformer inside the charging base (plenty of room for it) after adding the few diodes and resistors necessary for the 5V USB conversion, not only prevents the 7700 from being top heavy, but also stores it safely in case you ever want to reconnect it or need it for whatever reason. This transformer (with an integral rectifier diode) is way too cool to trash and I have a serious aversion to tossing away anything associated with Iso-Tip soldering irons anyway.
I don,t understand how a 1.7V charger can charge a 2.4V battery. I have the model 7700 grey charger. What is the charger output voltage.
Hello Gene,
The battery is a battery pack consisting of two Sub C Ni-Cd, of which each cell is 1.2V, so you are actually charging two 1.2V cells. Thus, the transformers output is correct.
Thanks!