A petition to bring us back the knob!? A complaint to modern soldering stations

[aronake]

Why have pretty much all modern digital soldering stations given up on having the perfect interface for setting temperature which is good old-school knob?

Knobs are Fast, accurate, intuitive etc.

These days we get annoying, slow to operate buttons.

The knob on a modern digital soldering station could be implemented with a multi turn rotary sensor.

I just got a Weller WX2 with a couple of different irons etc.  Absolutely wonder full for soldering. However Weller have made the decision to take the annoying buttons one step further and implemented a terrible  "circular touch pad" for setting temperature. As there are 2 preset buttons, the "circular touch pad" is not much used, but once needed, annoying!

Im hereby starting a petition for us to get the knob back.

Make a replay here with "+1" to show your support. If you want also include some words on how annoying you feel the buttons to be compared with a knob.

Once we have reached enough people we bring this to Hakko, JBC, Weller, Metcal etc.

[amyk]

The various 936 clones are still in production... if you want a knob you can still get one with a knob.

What I'd really like to see, however, is a station with an analogue temperature gauge.

[Mechatrommer]

Knobs are Fast, accurate, intuitive etc.
These days we get annoying, slow to operate buttons.

i guess because new kids on the block (users or designers) have bad taste on vintage looking knobs making the demand/production of buttons crap type becomes the defacto. the sense of practicality is ripped away from their soul and filled with the sense of aesthetics, the sense of nonsense. btw my clone 852AD is using knobs, but i find myself will always reach my non-temp-controlled hakko, no knobs no buttons (err, just one button for high wattage setting), and then just solder away. my clone temp-controlled 852AD is just for melting plastics.

[GK]

Just buy the iron (not the complete station) and build your own powersupply/temperature controller.

[wraper]

Ersa uses a knob in their I-CON soldering stations.

[razberik]

Vacancy on the market, introduce your own station and profit !

[setq]

I don't like knobs or temp control.

I've had literally everything iron-wise from high end Weller TCP and WS51, Metcal, Hakko 936 (genuine and two clones) and I find they are all like driving an automatic car. The gearbox (control loop) just pokes you in the eye constantly. The cheapest Metcal was pretty nice but the tips were too expensive for the average user.

Now I'm going to be crucified for this but you know the thing I always end up back with... There is no piddling around with setting temperature or arguing with it. The Antex C15. 90% of TH jobs and ALL non massive package SMD jobs, this thing is a little demon. You can get it in all the holes that other irons won't reach into, it doesn't get hot handle or require any maintenance. You just plug the damn thing in and solder. The bits are cheap and far better than even the Weller ones.

This is what I mean by size:



These aren't no brand crap firesticks for ref; very good irons still made in the UK.

I keep the TCP around for when I need to blast something.

Again, no knobs or buttons

[Towger]

I keep mine in the bottom of the tool box. It must be 25 years old at this stage. But, I have two Metcals and the get used for any serious work.

[RobertHolcombe]

Easy and simple temperature adjustment is justified in entry level stations where it is necessary to increase temperature to compensate for low thermal capacity when working large thermal mass joints. I think a knob, rotary encoder or programmable buttons for preset temperatures are all fine solutions for these stations. High end stations simply don't require frequent temperature adjustment because they don't suffer from the same shortcomings.

[setq]

I keep mine in the bottom of the tool box. It must be 25 years old at this stage. But, I have two Metcals and the get used for any serious work.

Exactly. If I still did serious work I'd still have one

[GreyWoolfe]

I have a Hakko FX-951 and never change the temp.  No need to. I also have a Metcal.  No issues with sagging thermal capacity with either one of them.

[Tandy]

These aren't no brand crap firesticks for ref; very good irons still made in the UK.

Sadly not the case any more, we used to stock Antex irons but in the last couple of years they started shipping us 'Made in China' stock. Although some are made in the UK a majority are not any more and they were not willing/able to guarantee UK made stock so we decided not to stock them any more as being Made in the UK was part of the justification for the higher cost.

Nothing wrong with things made in China but costs to produce in the UK are much higher, so Chinese made units should cost less but this reduced cost not being passed to the consumer in lower sale price, in fact prices go up ever year from Antex.

[setq]

Damn shame.

[blacksheeplogic]

I just got a Weller WX2 with a couple of different irons etc.  Absolutely wonder full for soldering. However Weller have made the decision to take the annoying buttons one step further and implemented a terrible  "circular touch pad" for setting temperature. As there are 2 preset buttons, the "circular touch pad" is not much used, but once needed, annoying!

Complex, stupid UI's like the WX are the problem. Hakko's alarm clock interface is another bad UI example (although much better than the WX). Don't confuse bad UI design with the control style.

I don't have a problem with the up/down buttons on the WD2M for example.

[Maxlor]

My Ersa i-Con has up/down buttons that work reasonably well; still, it takes more than 10 times as long to set the temperature to the desired level compared to an analog knob. An optoencoder would be nice. Given the prices of soldering stations, that should be doable.

And also, why bother with single digits at all, why not have 5°C or even 10°C increments by default

[Kilrah]

Mine has up/down and 3 presets, and IMO that's as good as it gets.

Knobs get knocked and need verifying/resetting, and after getting used to digital displays the psychological disturbance of not being able to set a precise round number makes them unbearable   

[helius]

The digit pad on the Hakko 939 is still better. Fire and forget.

[Gary350z]

+1.   I prefer the knob. Maybe with one button to lock it.

[Goodwill Hunting]

I dislike the Hakko FX-888D's temperature control interface so much that I bought a used Hakko 937 to replace it.  I can set that one simply, while the 888 I had to look in the manual every time because it never made sense to me.

[Gary350z]

I dislike the Hakko FX-888D's temperature control interface so much that I bought a used Hakko 937 to replace it.  I can set that one simply, while the 888 I had to look in the manual every time because it never made sense to me.

Exactly the point.

With only 2 buttons and confusing and poor user interface, if you press the wrong button or sequence you erase the calibration and you are screwed if you don't have the $200 calibrator.

[bitseeker]

Why don't things have knobs these days? For the same reason lots of interfaces these days (hardware and software) aren't as efficient or intuitive as their predecessors -- designers want their products to look different, which means "not like what came before".

[Gary350z]

Watch this video to get the point across about not have knobs:

https://youtu.be/WgoGhnlJHas?list=PLkVbIsAWN2lvK9wLg2pwcXJLut_-_P9G4&t=2618

It's quite informative and amusing.

[bitseeker]

LOL! Does no one study interaction design anymore? I guess penny pinching and speed to market are more important.

[setq]

LOL! Does no one study interaction design anymore? I guess penny pinching and speed to market are more important.

Everyone is still doing it. Unfortunately there are some horrible design methods purely driven by aesthetics creeping in driven by recent efforts from Apple, Google and Microsoft to entirely destroy usability. This is an unhealthy HCI change if you ask me.

The one that really kills me is the whole "flat design ethic" that comes with it which removes any distinguishing features from UI elements in software that define what interaction you can have with them. For example, buttons with a raised effect, entry fields with a recessed effect and no watermark. Now you can't tell the difference between an entry field with a watermark or a button. If you are colour blind then you're up poop creek.

The real problem with this is that it is starting to creep into tangible devices and not just virtual user interfaces on computers.

[julian1]

It's why I bought a (new original) Hakko 936.