SDG #347 Quick TR1 1000W Hot Air Handpiece for SMD, BGA rework

The Quick TR1 is a 1000W hot air rework tool with everything built into the handpiece: a high speed blower, the heating element and the control electronics, with a 1.5 m mains lead in place of the usual hose to a base station. It uses a conventional replaceable Quick heater and accepts standard Quick nozzles, three of which are supplied, and it is available in 230 V and 115 V versions at around £80 to £100 delivered. Four buttons and an OLED on the handpiece set temperature in 5 degree steps and fan speed from 1 to 10; there are no presets. Placing the handpiece in its small cradle switches off the heater while the blower runs until the element cools to about 100C, and a long press gives permanent cool air.

The teardown reveals a bridge rectifier and large reservoir capacitor feeding a three phase brushless blower driven open loop by an SD05M50 six MOSFET driver, a triac for the heater, a non-resettable mains fuse, and a stacked pair of boards with an STM32 controller and two op amps for the thermocouple. A non-isolated buck regulator powers the interface. One caution: removing the filter exposes screws that give access to the mains side, including the capacitor terminals.

Calibration is close, with a thermocouple at the nozzle reading almost exactly 300C at a 300C setpoint, and the tool draws a peak of around 1400 W on heat-up. The compromises are noise, which is considerable at high fan speeds, a longer and heavier handpiece, a light cradle that does not stop the unit sliding, and a short, stiff PVC mains cable. For a bench without space for a full station it covers almost every hobbyist rework job, and it is well priced for what it provides.