Although if I had to buy a new hot-air station tomorrow, I’d probably buy this:
Not cheap though…
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Thanx for all the info 
I got one of the cheaper ones (£40) so isn’t amazing but it has TC control and Air Flow control. It seems adequate for what I will be using it for and if it is something I will use often then I will invest to a better quality one.
I did have a go with it last night on an old pcb from an old pc I had and it seemed pretty good.
I watched some youtube vids on how to use one so I think I’ve got it down.
Just going to practice on the old pc board first before I even attempt at fixing the proffie.
Again thanx for all the info.
I will check out the solder paste and get some on order.
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Update time.
I bridged the Batt with +5v pad as suggested earlier.
I was slightly cautious when doing this so I took it slow and tested it out after.
With no blade connected I found the fets and main processor and the amp got quite hot rather quickly.
I got worried so switched it off and removed the bridge.
Mr @profezzorn Sir is this normal for this type of temporary fix?
I have to say though that my nerve didn’t hold out to see if it fixed the bad sound issue.
Are you sure it’s the amplifier that got hot? It would make much more sense if the 5v booster got hot.
It was all top side of the board.
As far as my memory serves the booster chip is on the under side.
I just found it rather odd that they heated up so quickly.
Even the power fetts.
That was the bit that baffled me as they were under no load because the blade was not connected.
Either way I have some chips on the way so will just wait for them to turn up and fix the board properly.
Booster and amplifer are both on the bottom of the board.
The FETs should not heat up because of briding BATT+ and 5v.
Are you sure you bridged the right pads?
Kind of sounds like you bridged BATT+ and GND.
I double triple checked that the correct pads were bridged.
the 5v booster chips turned up today so i got straight on to replacing it.
surgery went well and I can confirm the board still works!
down side is that after playing with the saber for a while the dreaded sound issue came back.
i noted that this was in the same place (battery voltage wise) that is would normally happen.
does this mean it might be worth replacing the amp and see what happens?
Technically, the battery voltage shouldn’t matter to the amp, because the 5v booster should put out 5v regardless of what the battery voltage is. It could still be a problem with the amp I suppose, but it just seems weird that an amp problem would be dependent on battery voltage.
It seems more likely that this is a problem with the L1 coil or the capacitors that are supposed to filter the 5v power between the booster and the amplifier.
agreed, this is a strange anomaly.
I think I will be getting some more components to solve the issue.
I was looking over the schematic but couldn’t find L1 on there. I did find the filter caps and will order some of these too.
I will also get a few amp chips for good measure.
as they come in I will replace them one at a time and report back as to what changes happen so we can identify the cause and help anyone else who happen to be in the same situation.
You’ll find it right below “BOOSTER” in the schematic:
https://fredrik.hubbe.net/lightsaber/v5/proffieboard_22_schematic.svg
On the board itself it’s the big thing right between the booster IC and the GND pad on the bottom.
And it’s row 5 in the BOM:
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ha ha thanx for that, I just couldn’t see what was right in front of me!
I will have parts on order and get back to you on my findings.
thank you for your help.
struggling to find L1 online but I think I have found a substitute.
https://www.mouser.co.uk/ProductDetail/TDK/TMS252012ALM-1R0MTAA?qs=7MVldsJ5UazJkb9ALVLIUA%3D%3D
would this one be suitable?
I think so.
ok thank you i will order some of these too.
since changing the 5v power mode chip I have noticed that my saber is going for a lot longer.
I’m using Keeppower 3000mah batteries and have been getting around the 20 min mark before having to swap out for a fresh cell.
as we’ve just done Halloween (full dress up required 
), I had both cells charged and ready to go. however I did the whole affair with just 1 cell and still have more that a third of it’s respective capacity left? (run time was approx. 30 mins as the kids kept running off with it.)
the only change I have made is to remove a single pixel from the chassis (accent).
could this be the cause as to why I’m getting lower power usage or is it down to a good 5v power mode chip?
on another note, I have all other components turning up on Friday so will be replacing them all one at a time to find the culprit of the strange (distorted) sound issue.
I will update accordingly.
A single accent led shouldn’t make much difference in the run time, so it seems more likely to be the booster. Unless it’s something else, like maybe a software update or something.
probably the booster then as I’ve done nothing to update the saber.
still running V5.9 that I downloaded some months ago.
UPDATE TIME
I finally received my delivery of all the components needed to replace all of them and see what is causing this distorted sound issue.
I thought I’d start with the easy one’s first and see if any changes were made after each component.
first up was the C1 coil. nice and easy to change but sadly no change to the distorted sound.
next I thought I’d change the U1 Amp chip as it’s quite large.
this is where I might have done something untoward.
the saber started up as per normal, sound was on and just as I was about to swing the sound just stopped. nothing got hot or smoked, there was no squee of death.
when I soldered it to the board I checked the joints under my magnifier and all seemed well.
the rest of the saber still functions it just has no sound. luckily I have ordered a few of each component so can have another go.
as it’s quite late here in blighty and suffering a rather nasty cold I’m not going any further with this tonight.
but thought that I’d give a quick update as to my progress.
If it turns out not to be the U1 Amp chip (apart from crying inside) the next few components get rather small and then tiny so not looking forward to them.
I may have to ask @profezzorn if I can borrow his electron microscope 
CONTINUED UPDATE (the final one!)
After loosing the sound completely after the last session I looked over the components very carefully looking for bad joints etc. I actually found one suspect joint but this was not the culprit.
So I bit the bullet and soldered on another new amplifier chip.
Hazar! she lives! but the sound issue was still the same!
I then decided to just replace all the filter caps from the amplifier and 5v power mode circuit.
so , C11, C12, C31, C34, C35 were changed.
Still no change.
Last was the resistors and again I just replaced the lot. R1, R2, R3, R4.
This also did not solve the issue.
So to summarise.
I have replaced all the components with the 5v power mode circuit and the amplifier circuit.
The strange distorted sound still comes in at approx. half battery voltage.
Now the board looks like it has done 10 rounds with a professional boxer as it has been soldered, / de-soldered at least 20+ times now.
SO… I think I will just be replacing this board and keeping it for DEVS purposes as I have spent nearly as much as half a new board trying to fix it.
The sound is ok if the battery is full and for mucking about with stuff I would be ok with that.
It is rather frustrating that the cause was not found as this would have been useful information I’m sure.
sorry @profezzorn but I could not solve this one.
Thank you so much for trying.
If you’re interested, I will swap your board for a new one to see if I can figure it out.