SL2020

[ramonest]

I was looking for a decent Soldering Iron, requisits were to be light (I will probably have to bring it to the university), decent quality, and not too expensive.

Up until now I did my soldering with an old verision of the JBC 14ST, and since it's not powerful enough for some applications i also have a chap high wattage chinese soldering iron, but if you keep it running for too long it will start burning things it should not.

I really love the JBC when it comes to soldering small things with little heat dissipation, so i looked for a new and more powerfull one to substitute the chineese crap, I had already discarted it being temperature controlled, since I wanted it light but I found the SL2020. It has a wide range of tips (shares tips with the 30ST and 40ST series) 40W to maintain the heat at air temperature and up to 200W when useing it. It has no station (like a pencil type) with the temperature control on the handle.

All I could find abot this soldering iron is from 2014 and not any review or people saying they have and that it works fine. So if someone has it and is willing to share the experience I would apreciate it, if the teperature controll works fine and has no major flaw it would be perfect for me.

Also if someone happens to know a similar option form a fiable brand I'm more than willing to hear it.

And finally if I decide to buy it I'll share my thoughts abot it, I'm no expert but I've been doing small things and repairs for a long time.

Tanks.

[RayRay]

I'd recommend you get the Bakon 950D:
http://www.gearbest.com/soldering-supplies/pp_363024.html?wid=21
You could also get spare tips from BG:
http://www.banggood.com/search/t12-tip.html
Overall, it answers all of your requirements, reasonably priced and portable.
And it has tons of positive reviews as well!

[ramonest]

Thanks, it seems a decent alternative. But I got interested in it for a project for a subject at the uni. Is there some info on the tips? I'm guessing it's relatively easy to drive and sense the temperature. Do you have any source where I can know the pins, resistance, sensor...etc.?
Tanks a lot.

[RayRay]

Well, you could have a look here:
https://www.hakko.com/english/maintenance/topic_hakko_fm202_use.html
But basically, T12 tips have both the heating element & sensor integrated onto the tip itself, so you have no reason to worry about it.
Also, you could optionally get the TM902C (digital thermometer) and the PK1000 thermocouple (if you wanna calibrate it)