HAKKO FX-888D decalibrated (DOH!)

[John Coloccia]

I hear you.  There are lots of great stations to be had.  I meant staying out of China for an entry level station.  Once someone commits to spending $200 or more, it picking out a station is child's play.  Speaking of equipment over $200, has anyone seen Marc Siegal's video on PCB rework?  I'm pretty sure it was intended to show off Pace's rework station, but it should be required viewing for anyone that touches a soldering iron.




So I guess I've now thoroughly derailed this thread.  My apologies.

[amyk]

What do I recommend for a good, entry level station now.  The only advice I have to give at the moment is, "Find a nice, used 936 if you can, or a NOS 888 if you must...just not the 888D".

Or a 936 clone, they're not going to stop making those anytime soon.. you can then upgrade it with a genuine heater.

But even using a genuine heater, if paired with a fake tip, its still pointless, like my discovery here -> Genuine vs fake Hakko solder tip comparison 

That's why you also get a genuine tip too... what I'm saying is that if you want something in the form factor of the 936 then it's not that difficult to.

[pachuma]

Just in case you want to reset to factory defaults:
1. Press the up and enter button
2. switch on the iron
3. you will see an A flashing, press up to navigate to U and press enter, select 0 + enter.

All done, now you will have to configure it back to your settings.
Not in the manual, got an email from Hakko.

I have to agree with most of the folks, the user interface of the FX888D simply sucks. But once you get used to it, you don't usually play around the temperature settings that much. I've configured the presets to the configurations I use and that works out great.

[lpc32]

Is calibration accurate regardless of the temperature you adjust it at, or is it multi-point?

Did your unit come adjusted properly?

[pachuma]

Calibration seems to be multipoint.

A few days back I got a tip temperature meter and made some adjustments at different temperature settings. The values looked a bit off to start (remember I did a reset to factory defaults), but after probing and setting the values for individual temperature points, they all looked reasonably spot on now.

The whole thing with this station is that it is so easy to change the calibration settings. The user interface simply sucks, what on earth were they thinking about... The simplicity of the knob on the FX888 is just not there. The station its self if great and works beautifully once properly adjusted.

Another word of caution is the use of fake tips of tips from Aoyue (they look to be a clone), temperature reading are way off. So if you have the intention to skimp on tips, get a tip temperature meter to adjust them.

[lpc32]

The manual does mention to do an adjustment after changing iron/heater/tip.

[pachuma]

No it doesn't. This is just because the tips I've been testing are not the original Hakko tips. With the originals, you shouldn't need to touch them.

[lpc32]

It's at the top of page 5 in the manual.

[pachuma]

Yes it does! Thanks for highlighting it. It did seem bizarre some of the results I was getting with the non-official hakko tips.
Nothing like paying close attention to the manual.

I am wandering how much the originals tips differ in temperature. If they differ substantially, to change tips you'll need to get a tip temperature meter. The chisel tips I've used don't differ too much though.

[TheBay]

I think my genuine hakko FX-951 has the worst menu system. My weller WSD80 is just perfect, you can't alter any options without the calibration unit plugged in.

[aabbcc]

Old thread, but I accidently messed up the temp calibration on mine yesterday. A factory reset wouldn't solve my issues I guess and I don't really have time to wait for the HAKKO FG-100 clone 

[Terry01]

Old thread, but I accidently messed up the temp calibration on mine yesterday. A factory reset wouldn't solve my issues I guess and I don't really have time to wait for the HAKKO FG-100 clone 

https://youtu.be/ecH4c6NdBuo

I think this sets the temp near enough. If it's a factory reset it's surely how it leaves the factory? It will be closer than if you've pheked it up right?
Hope it helps buddy...

[aabbcc]

Old thread, but I accidently messed up the temp calibration on mine yesterday. A factory reset wouldn't solve my issues I guess and I don't really have time to wait for the HAKKO FG-100 clone 

https://youtu.be/ecH4c6NdBuo

I think this sets the temp near enough. If it's a factory reset it's surely how it leaves the factory? It will be closer than if you've pheked it up right?
Hope it helps buddy...

Thanks! Will try the factory reset then, and yea I would assume factory reset=same state as I received it in.

[HobGoblyn]

Old thread, but did the same as others.

Turned on my new 888D without reading the manual (well pretty useless piece of paper), and thought pressing the up button would increase the temperature.

When nothing happened I held the up button in for a couple of secs, it then came up with “ADJ”. Thankfully at that point I checked the manual. Very stupid interface, calibration mode shouldn’t be that easy to get into. On the other hand, trying to work out how preset mode works, requires watching YouTube vids.

But it’s my first proper iron and I am happy with the performance

[Terry01]

It's actually quite easy to use once you get used to it.