Aoyue 937 soldering station. (Hakko 936 / 937 clone).

[Kibi]

There is a distributor in the UK that sells these Aoyue products. Most of them look like Hakko clones, but the prices are very attractive. This Aoyue 937 model is less then £40 and even comes with a spare element. I don't know if the addition of a spare element is a gesture of good will, or that they do accept that it is a crap element that will burn out after 2 weeks and they feel bad not including a spare. It looks like a good element and after some occasional use over the last 6 months, the original has not burnt out yet.
The Aoyue 937 is a bit like the Hakko 936 with it's rotary knob for temperature adjustment, but it sports a display (like the Hakko 937) which reports the set temperature when you turn the knob and then after a second or two displays the actual temperature. Nice and easy to operate. The casing of the controller is made of cheap plastic, but for under £40 you can't really complain. The station also has a proper fused IEC power inlet as standard.
The iron is 35W - not too bad, it's light, well balanced and is built to a good standard. The lead is heat resistant and pretty flexible. The plug attaches firmly to the controller and locks in with the threaded nut.
The kit also comes with a sturdy soldering iron stand with sponge and solder reel holder.
Although it is shipped with one of those conical tips, there is a wide variety of Aoyue tips to choose from. I have heard that the Hakko tips don't quite fit properly on this iron.

Here are some pictures of it.













Right, enough of that, let's "take it apart".



The control board on the front panel employs an AT89C2051 uC. My initial thoughts were that the uC was only there to make the display work, but upon closer inspection there is an ADC chip, so I reckon the uC does do some "thinking". The soldering on the board could be better if I'm honest and the temperature adjustment pot is a bit flimsy, but that can be upgraded at some point.



The power board is pretty straight forward. A 7805 for power to the control board and an opto-isolator / triac arrangement to control the element. The system power and the element power appear to be separate secondaries on the transformer. The primary is a proper 220v primary - no dropper resistors here.



Good earthing has also been employed.



It heats up to 350 degC in under a minute. It overshoots a bit on heating up, but maintains a consistent temperature during use.
It has a few bad points - the crappy pot and poor soldering - which are easy to rectify. The casing is a bit "plastic'y" but all things considered for less than £40 it really isn't that bad.
I have used it occasionally for the past six months and I haven't had any issues during use.

[saturation]

Thanks for making this available!  Great photos. Its seems closer to the capabilities of the 936 but with a digital readout vs the analog dial.  The real Hakko 937, now discontinued, had firmware capable of digital keylocking, several temperature setting compensations, and > 2x more expensive than the 936.  It seems to add very specialized features for the higher expense while the most vital part, the iron heating stability and adjustment, was functionally identical to its cheaper brother.


 

[Kibi]

Aoyue also do a 937+ which has buttons on the front to set the temperature like the Hakko 937. However the Ayoue 937+ doesn't appear to have user preset temperatures, just a "default" temperature setting. Kind of pointless really.

[vehf277]

Is it possible to change native heating element to Hakko 907 one?

[T4P]

Check the resistance of the sensing elements >5ohms means you can but if it's 1-2ohms use the ones spec'd for Atten 936 (not the b!) or YiHua 936