New Soldering Station Recomendation Weller VS JBC VS Ersa VS Others

[nukie]

L l

[sn4k3]

My ERSA I-CON 1 does a little of noise while is heating up or while mantaining the temperature. Is it normal?

[eKretz]

Yep it's normal. I don't even notice mine unless the room is dead "library" quiet though. It's just switching noise - you'll hear it anytime the unit is heating the element - when first turned on and anytime you make a joint that cools the tip down. I hear the same noise from switching wall warts when they're charging our cordless house phones.

[sn4k3]

After some time i come back to leave a short review on my station (i-con 1)
Start using: Jan-2017

Station: 4.5/5

- Very Fast heat up, i use 350ºc and it reach that temp after 5-6s
- Easy to operate
- Compact
- Heat recovery is excelent, just after tip cool down station will boost the temperature to keep it at the right profile
- Easy to open
- Well built

Feature i like to see/have:

- 3 or more easy access buttons to quickly change settings (Click and go), rotative knob is ok but can be painfull if you have to change frequently.
Thats why 4.5 of 5 rating

i-Tool 5/5

- Best handpiece i have own
- Very light, thin and small
- Easy to change tips (If you have a tip holder for each tip), otherwise change the tip holder is very very hard, the metal clamp require very force to remove tip, so i recommend everyone to get one tip holder for each tip (Like i did)
- Doesnt require a tool to change tips, i change tips at 400ºc by hand and is ok, plastic is hot but doesn't burn. Becarefull to not pick the metal tip instead of plastic holder
- here i can't tell what could be better

Tips 4.5/5

My collection: From 0.2mm to 10mm

- Big thumb up: PRICE and QUALITY! The price is low comparing to other brands, JBC for example can cost 25 to 35 EUR while ersa cost 8EUR the short version, of course ersa tips are just tips, otherwise JBC have temperature sensor on the tip and also they look fancier and expensive, but with the price of one JCB tip you can buy 4.
- Ersa doesn't have a very wide tip selection like other brands, but the tips they have are more than enough for almost everyone
- 0.2mm tip is useless, not optimized and solder will stick at body instead of tip, avoid this one, ersa know that and they now have a new 0.3mm heat optimized that fix that problem and by video i have seen it's perfect to solder tiny pin by pin)
- 0.4mm chissel tip is ok, it can solder small pins like micro-USB pins, at 400ºc it do the work fine without wait to solder melt and attach to pin/copper
- If 0.4mm tip works well mean all other big tips will work too, just use the tip that fit your solder job, they recommend use a tip that match pad lenght and that works well for me
- Default tip is almost universal, i have used for lot of jobs including micro usb pins
- PowerWell drag solder tips works as they advertise, but good flux will do same effect with other tip, still this powerwell tips are a must, as they only have 3 tips of this kind you should consider having at least 1, it will not hurt you

My favorite tips and most used:
- 0.4mm, 1.6mm (chissel)
- 0.8mm bent, 1mm (Conical)

Stand 4/5

- At first, from what i saw in images i didn't like the iron stand, but i must say i was wrong, not the best but the stand is appropriate and well designed for the iron.
- tip will not touch anything while on stand so it will not cool down the tip.
- It have 6 slots for place the tips, only 4 metals are included to secure the tips but i have brought some copper bars 3mm and cut them to make my own improved tip holder/secure (I also will build a tip holder from 3D print or wood, ersa tip holders are expensive and don't worth the value)
- It have one drawback, stand is light/not heavy, and it will not sticky to the surface very well, if you are the kind of person that put the tool with lot of confidence in the stand you can move it back
- The solder clean brass is ok but after sometime the stand will get dirt from splashed solder and is very noticeble, if you don't like to see mess or spiked textures you should buy a cleaner with splash protection

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So in the end i'm very happy and i already sold my ersa i-con 1. Thats right i sold it three days ago and have buy the i-CON2V, the extra port will come handy for the tweezer tools.
Why not ERSA VARIO 2? IMO it don't worth buy vario 2 only to use i-tool + tweezers.
So VARIO 4 is a no no to me too, if i want X-TOOL and S-AIR i iwll keep i-con2v and buy vario 2 and use both independent, as two system will live longer than one with same power supply and circuit.

Also keep in mind a big disavantage (at least for me), ersa 2 or more tools stations once you power them up they will heat up all connected tools. Even you set a stand by time, which you must, is time that you are wasting your tip and oxidize them, theres no need to heat up 3 tools when you only use one, but i already advice ersa to update the firmware with a simple addtion: Use the motion sensor to detect tool grab, once tool got picked it start heatup for the first time, i prefer to touch the tool to start heat up then have all frying. Also i advice to put a menu option to set this ON or OFF. Easy to do, free and improve alot the Vario 2 and 4.

Keep plug and unplug tools are boring, and can lead to damage pins over time, so in my i-con2v i plan to hack the station and implement two switch buttons to enable or disable tool data pin. Also i will try to add fixed macros to the station, something like 200, 300, 350, 400ºc will fit my needs. (200ºc macro is just to trigger a sleep temperature instead of waiting)

Fell free to ask anything, i hope this review can help the people.

[kandrey89]

I prefer this Weller station, handle and tips: http://www.weller-toolsus.com/soldering/systems/weller-wx2021n-solder-stat-wxmpms-wxmtms-wdh51-wdh60-120v.html