SDG #371 Geeboon HC24 Low Cost High Power Soldering System for JBC handpieces.

The Geeboon HC24 is a high power soldering station for every JBC handpiece from the T470 to the T115, plus T12, built around two 24 V switch mode supplies that a relay places in series for the T470’s 48 V. Compared with the toroidal HA310 it is smaller, lighter, works on 110 V and 230 V, and cost £93 plus £20 shipping. The front has a 2.4 inch TFT, three preset buttons, USB and the rotary encoder the HA310 lacked; the rear carries the IEC inlet, cradle sleep connector, ESD earth and a fume extraction output. The kit included the T470 handpiece, a 10 mm C470 cartridge and a 5 mm C245 chisel.

The glued front panel makes disassembly awkward. The earth reaches the chassis through a ring terminal, but a second earth to the rear panel board passes through a 200 mA glass fuse that could open unnoticed. The front board uses a relay, a single MOSFET and a current shunt with a GigaDevice ARM microcontroller, far simpler than the HA310’s AC switching, and the station identifies the cartridge by heater resistance, dropping to 24 V when a C245 is fitted in the T470 handle.

The menu matches the HA310, with limits, step size, presets, sleep delay, shutdown, peak power limiting, calibration and P loop access, plus a graphical screen. Calibration was close at 310C and no leakage was measured on the tip. The 80 mm fan originally ran loudly at full speed on every heat up; firmware 1.27, loaded by copying a file to the USB mass storage device, confines it to C470 use, where mains draw reached 435 W. The busbar and coin tests matched the HA310, and the cheaper TC22, without the second supply or T470 support, is suggested as a quiet entry level option.