OK, here it is. I've tried to be unbiased but please note I'm selling these at labtronix.co.uk too!
First things first - who makes them and where are they from?
Well there are a number of labels selling what appears to be identical hardware. Certainly in the UK I've seen Kada, WEP, Saike, Yihua and maybe others. They all use the same product name such as 898D. So I investigated and found that Yihua at least, are original equipment manufacturers - I had them build a batch of 898BD+ units to order and they were shipped from China direct to UK. When you look inside a Yihua unit you should see the PCBs have Yihua printed on them. So the others may be re-badges, copies/clones, fakes, or genuine competitors, the internals may be identical or completely different - I can't comment further than that...
So the 898BD+, this is one of Yihua's high end units combining 50/60W soldering iron with approximately 700W hot air gun - you can see the spec sheets on my website here:
http://labtronix.co.uk/drupal/shop/soldering/898bdplusIt features digital PID temperature control by way of a Samsung microcontroller and, I assume (because I haven't studied the circuit) some form of triac configuration to drive the heaters. There are PTC temperature sensors in both the soldering iron, and in the hot air gun - what's more they're connected and routed back to the control PCB!
The '+' part of the name designates that the soldering iron uses Hakko heating elements supposedly for greater service life - it also used to mean that the hot air gun was detachable, but since this proved to be a safety issue the hot air gun is now captive (note, some units with connectorised hot air guns are still offered on ebay etc - be wary of these since detaching the connector during use exposes mains terminals at mains voltage).
The box and what's in it:
The product will be delivered double boxed with the shiny retail box in a tough cardboard outer - ideal for shipping.
The outer dimensions are 30cm x 19cm x 19cm and the gross weight is 3.3Kg - this makes economy delivery around the UK around £10.
As for what you get in this compact box see here:
So there is:
The main control unit with captive mains lead,
The captive hot air gun,
The detached soldering iron with standard conical tip,
A boxed soldering iron stand with sponge,
3 assorted hot air nozzles,
An IC remover/manipulator,
A user manual,
This is all well packaged and squeezed into the box - note, once you have taken everything out of the box it's pretty tough trying to get everything back in with the lid closed!
First impressions for me were quite good with the exception of the soldering iron stand, to be honest this is rather light weight, missing rubber feet and the sponge included is thinner than the cheese in your Big Mac... but this isn't a show stopper, you can add some weight, attach rubber feet etc or cheaply pick up another stand, and there's alternatives to wet sponges - either way I let the manufacturer know my opinion!
Initial impressions of the soldering iron (since it's in the picture above) are OK - cosmetic niggle is the finish of the body at the cable end - the cable relief fits fine and does the job but the end of the blue body is a little rough where the strain relief boot is fitted - there is a rubberised grip on the soldering iron which serves both to aid your grip and to protect you from heat - all parts forward of the rubber grip get warm (hot) in use!
Moving back to the system in general, there have been concerns about the safety of Chinese imports with respect to earth bonding. So, I don't have PAT testing kit, but the next best is to buzz out from the earth pin of the wall plug to any exposed metal parts. Being a CAT 1 device all exposed metal work needs to be earthed or protected by isolation from mains voltages under fault conditions (EN 60335-1). There's no picture to go with this just yet but further down we'll look inside. The shell of the main control unit is metallic with what appears to be a plasticised or textured paint finish - both inside and out, the upper inverted U shape form is screwed to the base chassis through the side wall using self tappers - the self tappers buzz out as you would hope so they are connected to earth. Likewise the end plates (front panel and back panel) of the unit are attached to the chassis and U form cover by 4 self tappers each - the end plates are painted and the front panel is also screen printed, causing both to be nominally insulating, but the retaining self tappers buzz out - so the front and back panels are also earthed as you might hope. However, I did note that the metal body of the circular connector for the soldering iron (on the front panel) is isolated from earth, this is probably due to paint work - opinions may divide as to whether this is a problem, I would prefer it to be earthed, but remember the soldering iron is low voltage and, if the internal mechanical layout eliminates any chance of mains voltage contacting the connector shell it would be compliant.
And now onto the earthing of peripherals - the soldering iron. The tip is obviously exposed metalwork, this buzzes out and is earthed, hopefully through some resistance to help with ESD protection (I forgot to measure this and will need to come back to it when I get the chance). The hot air gun nozzle is also exposed metalwork and 'phew' it buzzes out - whereas other brands have missed this, Yihua have done the correct thing here.
So, I am quite content that the design implementation has considered the need for proper earthing throughout the system.
Now I want to have a look inside. We're going to start with the main control unit looking at the following areas in particular:
1. Protective Device (device overload and fault current protection)
2. The transformer
3. Quality of soldering and manual processes
4. Quality of components and general design
5. Mechanical resilience of the shell and the assemblies mounted within
Protective device: This should be on the livewire coming from the mains input cable - there shouldn't be anything else in the circuit between the input and the fuse. The image below shows the mains input, the red/brown (live) wire goes straight to the fuse holder. It also shows the main earthing point which is a machine screw through the underside of the chassis, retaining the transformer and the mains input earth wire attached to a solder tag.
The transformer: Well for the European market 230VAC is the nominal voltage, whereas Yihua supply 220VAC as standard - there's not much difference but a 220VAC transformer in Europe would drive slightly higher voltages at the secondaries than the 230VAC - which could have pros and cons in this application. I was interested to see how they were transforming - would there even be a magnetic transformer? Or would there be a sequence of dropping resistors (please no!), or a standard transformer with some bolt-on droppers to bodge it right....? So have a look below, you should just about make out 230VAC 50Hz on the rating label, which unless they stuck that there specially to appease me whilst continuing to fit a 220VAC transformer, then I'm happy (suppose I should measure rms at the secondaries - but I'll come back to that if there's doubt in the future):
Quality of soldering and manual processes: In general the unit has been well assembled, however the quality of the soldering is not brilliant - this is most important around any mains wiring where I would have preferred crimped friction termination (but this is budget priced kit here). Although the joints appear sound I'm not sure all those stripped wires were fed through eyelets before solder was applied. Also the PCB (there's only one) is hand assembled (single sided copper with double sided thru hole component placement on what appears to be 1.6mm FR2), and again, the quality of assembly isn't brilliant - but is functional. Some may say the thru hole design is a bonus since it makes after sale maintenance and modification easy. Also note that except for earthing all terminations onto the PCB are connectorised - which is good.
The image below shows you the PCB stacked onto the back of the front panel. The front panel has weldon studs which are also used as the main earthing points for the circuit and the peripheral devices. Note that a separate earth cable is routed from the main earthing point in the unit to one of the earthing studs at the front panel - we are not relying on the screws which attach the front panel to the rest of the case to form the earth route. Also note that earth conductors for both the hot air gun and the soldering iron appear to be routed via cable direct to these earthing studs, rather than tracks on the PCB, which is good.
Quality of components and design: Generally no problem, there's a lot of UL markings, so unless these are fake components the manufacturer is considering quality during design and sourcing. However, although the soldering iron cable is marked, the hot air gun cable is not - but it does feel rubberised and I think it's up to the job - I may try wafting the hot air gun over its own cable at some point to see what happens. I don't much like the in-line connector at the end of the soldering iron cable - the knurled nut is too thin for me to easily lock it onto the front panel connector - although the insertion depth is quite deep and there is a good positive fit.
The overall design is good - accessibility is good and the internal layout is simple. However, I would prefer an IEC mains inlet socket - but that would be adding to cost, So with a captive mains lead I would expect a decent amount of slack cable on the inside so the back panel could be removed easily - however, I found the amount of slack to be limited so it was quite difficult to get inside the back panel without removing the U form section of the main body.
Quality of mechanical build: Well, would this unit remain intact after 5 drops onto a hardwood floor from a height of 1m? I reckon it would, it might not work anymore, but it would stay intact, and the rules say that it only needs to stop any live parts from becoming exposed. Am I going to try it? Not planning to!
Now let's have a quick look inside the soldering iron and the hot air gun:
First thing to note is, if you break your soldering iron element, you will need a soldering iron to replace the broken element! (Could this be a strategy to double my sales?).
The Hakko element has 4 wires - 2 for power and 2 for temperature sensing. All 4 wires are connected to the in-handle PCB and are routed back to the main control unit. The connecting lead is well retained to the in-handle PCB by some serious mechanical crimping - not much hope of pulling the cable out by accident or in anger! The PCB also serves as the retainer when everything is reassembled, shoulders at the front end prevent any axial movement. Replacing the tip or fitting different tips is a simple, unscrew the retainer, slide off the old tip and insert the new tip - easy! Replacing the heating element will be more involved - but being Hakko they say it will last longer (than if it was not Hakko...).
The hot air gun has a 3 part plastic casing, 2 halves of a shell for the main body and a screw on collar which fits over the nozzle. I can't see any markings on the mouldings to determine what material they are - however they are very well formed, they have a kind of soft and springy feel and yet feel rather strong. There are metal threaded inserts in the cable entry end to give durability during opening and closing for servicing. The interior includes a small distribution PCB beneath a low voltage impeller, both at the back end of the handle. Forward of this is the nozzle and heating element. The heating element includes a connected PTC temperature sensor at the business end, is wrapped in mica and inserted into the metal nozzle (either stainless steel or a plated steel). You can see 2 white blobs of glue in the handle, these are retaining a reed switch between them. This is used as part of the safety and automation function of the device - allows the system to detect if the air gun is in the holder or out of the holder! Also look at the second picture below, the conductor in white braid is the earth conductor welded to the side of the nozzle. Finally look at the 3rd image, this is looking into the nozzle outlet - it's blocked! Well I guess this is by design to circulate the air correctly around the heating element and maintains pressure before hot air finally escapes around the edge of the nozzle outlet. Also, it's a safety feature, you can't go sticking your screwdriver up there!
Finally I should say something about function!
You can use both tools at the same time.
The hot air gun will not come on until you remove it from the holder - this is a good safety feature (ie., if it's lying on the carpet when you turn the machine on it won't turn on and burn the house down - if you want to burn the house down, pick up the hot air gun replace it in the holder, then remove it from the holder, at which point it will turn on according to the front panel temperature and air flow volume , then you can place it back on the carpet to burn the house down).
The hot air gun automatically cools down and turns off when you place it in the holder, it automatically comes on again when you remove it from the holder.
Both devices indicate nominal temperature on their own display indicators
Temperature set point can be adjusted up and down independently for each tool using the red buttons.
When you press any red button the corresponding temperature indicator changes from actual temperature to set point temperature until a couple of seconds after you stopped pressing buttons.
The air flow dial controls air flow from a minimum safe level to a maximum level in a pleasingly smooth way. Also, it's much quieter than diaphram pumps.
The unit hums a little during operation - that will be the big transformer inside.
There are safety cut-out features in the design, e.g., if the hot air gun goes over temperature because the fan stalled power is cut before anything disastrous happens - I haven't tested this but probably will during the next few days.
Finally, finally - the included manual is useless, even if it's in reasonable English it unfortunately makes no reference to the 898BD+, but seems to prefer the 899BD+, which is a different unit altogether - fortunately the safety messages are equally applicable, and as for operation - if you can't work out the interface of the 898BD+ you probably shouldn't be reading this thread
This unit and it's spares are available from me at
http://www.labtronix.co.uk I ship to most European destinations and can fit a moulded European plug on request.
This was my first review, if I missed anything please ask me nicely and I'll do my best to update the post.
William
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