Electronics > Beginners

multi-purpose solder station: Aoyue 2702A vs X-TRONIC 4040

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WhiteFireDragon:
Hi, I found this forum through Dave's youtube page, and this will be my first post. I already have a Weller WLC-100 soldering station and a cheap radioshack desoldering iron, and now I'm looking to upgrade to an all-in-one soldering station because I plan to do some light SMD soldering. Here are the two reflow stations I'm considering:

Aoyue 2702A+

X-TRONIC 4040

The xtronic 4040 is cheaper, and has a 5 star user rating from a pretty decent amount of people. It costs less, but it doesn't seem like this screams low quality according to all the reviews. Should I get this cheaper one and add in another $35 to get this Edsyn Soldapullt manual desolder pump? Or should I just spend the extra money for the Aoyue 2702A+ reflow station? There are less reviews for this one, but I've heard of Aoyue brand more. It also comes with a desoldering gun, which is important to me, and also a smoke absorber. Maybe I'm just being a pansy, but I'm getting tired of holding my breath when I solder haha.

Any other decent all-in-one stations I should consider? Thanks in advance.

peter.mitchell:
Screen doesn't really matter, you usually use 3 different temps, maximum, minimum and somewhere in the middle, after about a week of use you will only use the middle position apart from very specific things.

ablacon64:
I don't know about the quality aspect (altough Aoyue is very decent) but I plan to buy a 2702A soon because it has the extra desoldering tool, especially good for PTH. I have a 968 and the smoke absorber is very good, I can't live without it anymore, that's a 2702A high point.
I was thinking about getting all tools separately but changed my mind because of the space it would take.

Edit: X-Tronic has some extra soldering tips, that's good, they are 900 series tips, so if you have an older station you can use the old tips. Aoyue used different tips and they seem expensive.

There's an unboxing video here:

PbFoot:
I've got the Aoyue 2702A+, and it's quite good. Really, I have no complaints. I'll admit that it the feel, fit and finish are not super, but acceptable for an instrument of that price range. I certainly works very well, and I haven't had any frustrations with it. It also comes with a bunch of spare parts, which I like.

- PbFoot

andyturk:
I've got the X-TRONIC 6040, which has the hot air blower mounted in the wand, similar to the one Dave reviewed a while back.  The quality seems pretty decent, but I haven't looked inside--I just use the thing. The temperature control seems quite stable, although I've never measured to see how accurate it is. Mine also came with a florescent magnifying lamp, which is cheesy, but functional. The main problem with the lamp is that the base doesn't have enough weight and it'll tip over if you extend the head too far. On the plus side, the magnifier glass works well and there's a little high-power bubble that works almost like a loupe.

I've been very pleased with it and have been using it successfully on 0603 and 0.5mm pitch LQFPs.

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