Advice needed: inexpensive soldering station in France

[LaurentR]

Hi,
I'd like to buy somebody who is located in France a decent inexpensive soldering station (something like a Hakko FX-888D or a Weller WESD51), in the EUR100-200 range.

First question: what should I buy? The Hakko seems a lot less common in Europe and I can't find the WESD51 equivalent (all the digital Weller seem to be EUR300 and up). Anything else of similar quality worth considering?

Second question: where to buy? Amazon.fr doesn't have much. I know there is Batterfly in Italy (mentioned on the forum on occasion) who happen to carry Hakko. Anything in France? (has to be online)

Thanks in advance.

[Gromitt]

I would recoment a Ersa i-Con Nano.

172 € on amazon.de https://www.amazon.de/Ersa-i-CON-Digitale-L%C3%B6tstation-0IC1200A/dp/B002MQLJ46/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1483004323&sr=8-1&keywords=ersa+i-con+nano

It's more expensive on amazon.fr for some reasons.

[RayRay]

I'd suggest you get the Bakon 950D:
https://www.amazon.fr/Portable-Digital-souder-Station-T12-Tip/dp/0284957895/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1483006132&sr=8-1&keywords=BAKON+950D


You can also get additional tips for it as well:
https://www.amazon.fr/dp/0284978493/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1483007437&sr=8-3
https://www.amazon.fr/t12-ils-Solder-fx-950-fx-951-poste-Station/dp/0284980080/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1483007516&sr=8-7


And if you care about temperature calibration, you could also get these:
https://www.amazon.fr/TM-902C-num%C3%A9rique-Thermom%C3%A8tre-entr%C3%A9e-Thermocouple/dp/B01G78VQ42/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1483006483&sr=8-1&keywords=TM-902C
https://www.amazon.fr/K-Type-Temp%C3%A9rature-Thermocouple-Capteur-Digital/dp/B00PQDMXQK/ref=sr_1_21?ie=UTF8&qid=1483006458&sr=8-21&keywords=thermocouple
Just melt some solder onto the metal part of the probe.
Overall, this is quite inexpensive.

[nctnico]

The ERSA RDS-80 is cheaper than the Icon series. Ersa is the best brand for soldering irons to get in Europe. A soldering iron is one of the tools for which you should go after quality. There is a big online shop specialising in Ersa: http://www.ersa-shop.com/
RDS80 digital station:
http://www.ersa-shop.com/ersa-rds80-elektronisch-geregelte-l%C3%B6tstation-p-926.html

[LaurentR]

Thanks!
The RDS80 looks nice and priced right. What is missing vs. the Pico or the Nano?

Laurent

[tooki]

Trust me, go for the i-Con nano.

The RDS80 is ancient technology, heats far more slowly, not ESD-safe, and most annoyingly, the cable between the iron and station is really thick and stiff.

I have the nano and it's awesome. It heats super fast, tips are cheap and plentiful, and the cord is thin (not as soft as on some higher end stations, but still very soft). The only thing that sometimes makes me wish I'd bought the i-Con 1 instead is a) lack of LCD backlighting (which the RDS80 also doesn't have), and that the nano's 2 buttons make for a very sparse user interface. (You can program it via microSD card to either have three presets, or to have free temperature control. But you can't do both.)

[tooki]

And if you absolutely cannot afford the nano, then go for the i-Con pico, which is the cheaper, non-ESD-safe version of the nano. (The pico uses a slightly different heater with plastic threads, while the nano uses the same metal-thread heater as the "big" i-Con series. They all share the same 102-series tips.) The pico costs less than the RDS80.

[nctnico]

Trust me, go for the i-Con nano.

The RDS80 is ancient technology, heats far more slowly, not ESD-safe, and most annoyingly, the cable between the iron and station is really thick and stiff.

The RDS80 has a grounding point in the front but I agree the cable could be better. I'm using different hand pieces (with a more flexible cable) with mine.

[tronde]

Ersa catalogue in English.

http://www.kurtzersa.com/fileadmin/medien/members_final/Electronics/9_Medien/9.5_Kataloge/9.5.1_Tools/ersa_werkzeugkatalog_en_web.pdf

[LaurentR]

Thanks all for the responses!