I picked up a set of tips too:
Yihua 853D 2A (newer Blue model with 2a 15v PSU and USB port)
Anyone reading this, please bear in mind this is my first ever rework station or hot air unit. So my observations below are jaded by a neophyte caliber person to SMD and rework stations. However, I have been tinkering with electronics since the 70's and have a decade plus of high power UHF broadcast engineering experience so I am more comfortable with a 200lb 50kw klystron than I am with a .001g SMD resistor.
I pulled apart the station last night and verified it is indeed fused line (not neutral). It also has a connected ground wire going from the power socket to the chassis just below it so its reasonably grounded. It has a DPST power switch that severs both line and neutral to the unit. It appears to meet reasonable safety requirements right out of the box. And despite the box label saying 220v, the transformer and all other indicators inside said 110 so I gave it a go.
I must say its going to be a nice piece of kit. Is it lab grade? Em..no. Good enough for a casual tinkerer. Oh, absolutely. Worth $90. Well, initial impressions say absolutely yes. Long term durability is still in question. It seems reasonably designed to perform in a long term situation however my inexperience in this realm needs to be factored in as well.
I can already see it needs some mods but it is usable as is and adheres to common safety needs. Not sure whats possible for alterations/mods. I didn't have it open other than to verify safety of the AC feed and correct voltage so I didn't take a hard look at the panel and how its wired or whats there in the way. I need to re-open it and look closer at the front panel.
Initial testing using reasonably priced pair of multimeters (don't have the budget nor need to buy a 3 or 4 figure Fluke, if I did I wouldn't be buying a $90 chinese knockoff rework station). I did some quick tests of the soldering pencil on some wires and a PCB using 0.015 Kester 285 62/36/2 and .031 Kester 285 63/36. I tested the heat wand using the medium round tip to remove an 8p SOP MAX485 chip from a PCB (the chip had let the white smoke out so was ripe for testing). I can't dispense my solder paste so I can't test the wand for initial soldering yet. The pencil with included tip was sufficient for medium size soldering jobs. Not sure with its blunt tip how well it would do on tiny SMD stuff. Perfect for throwing wires on a PCB or standard through hole stuff maybe overly large and wrong shape for SMD. The wand performed its task quickly and the chip was removed from the PCB in mere seconds with way less cleanup than had it been removed using a pencil and wick. All meters/gauges worked properly and were reasonably accurate. All switches worked properly and have a good feel. All controls' functions seemed to operate properly and were fairly obvious on what/how they do what they control.
Build quality seems reasonable especially given it cost less than $90 with free shipping. Supplied accessories were reasonably useful with exceptions noted below.
Would I buy it again knowing what I know now about it? Yes. Given its cost, I feel it performed well, provides adequate safety, and functioned as expected or better than expected.
My initial negative observations:1. The test leads are extremely cheap. They are molded and non-reparable. They even still have the nibs still on them from the injection molding spew tree. They are, for all intents and purposes, a POS.
2. The test leads won't even plug in! They have a partial sheath on the banana male so its not possible to even plug them into the PSU/Meter banana jacks on the front panel. Imagine buying a test meter and you can't even physically plug in the test leads that are included in the box. Yea, thats happening here. Thankfully they molded the connector on the end out of softer plastic. I took a scalpel and trimmed off the sheath from the negative lead and am able to insert it into the center ground connector. Will also do the red lead as well.
3. There is no connector on the heat wand. Why? Seems darn odd that they would have one on the pencil but not the heat wand. I need to look closer at the leads of it to see if a connector is possible.
4. The banana jacks are nearly a total fail. Their screw caps are not captive which means they can unscrew and be lost. The main shafts have no cross hole for wires to prevent them from twisting when attaching loose wire leads. I will open the unit back up and see how possible it is to replace these with better quality ones.
5. The heat sink internally is simply an aluminum plate. I may investigate adding some fins to it for more efficient heat dissipation.
6. Came with a sponge I have no clue where to put. The can with flux/brass cleaner seems well attached to the stand so I got no idea where to put the sponge should I wish to use it. Doubt I will ever use it but the point still stands, where does it go if I did?
7. Came with a mystery tool. Plastic handle with metal U shaped prongs. No clue what its for. But, yes, its outstanding for toasting mini-marshmallows using the heat wand. Me and one of the granddaughters had quite a bit of fun with this last night
No, really. We did. FYI, 250c on about 50% fan with no tips seems to work best for the mini's for best balance between toasting and melting interior without it falling off the prongs. Didn't have any full size marshmallows to try.
8. Chinglish manual. I needed half a bottle of Tylenol and several hits off the Tequila by the time I got though the 5-6 pages of english. If you can call it english. If you can even call it a manual. They even mentioned a clown and a fuzzy PID at a couple points in it. Wow. I still don't know what thats supposed to mean. I am absolutely sure the $5 hot glue gun I bought from Michael's has more of a manual than this does and I absolutely guarantee it had more coherent sentences in its manual.
9. Fingerprints on the LED displays. Pet peve of mine. I want it clean when its new. And, no, there were no plastic peal off sheets protecting them either.
10. Pushbutton for switching between PSU display and meter reading. Absolutely no physical indicator showing whether you were reading the output of the PSU or the test leads. Another thing I will see if it can be replaced. I like the old toggle switch. Easy physical indicator to reflect what you are seeing.
11. Solder pencil stand needs re-thinking for improved use. Its storage is all but useless. Its a bit too short. It looks like it could be used to store the wand tips in, you can't because it would interfere with the pencil tip while its in the stand.
12. The PSU set knob is extremely sensitive. Its a standard 270 degree turn radius that covers 0 to 15v. There is very little turning required for a .1v change and simply tapping or bumping it (when flipping the PSU on/off switch for example) could alter the setting. Again, time to dig in and see if it can be replaced by a multi-turn pot for more accurate setting.
13. Manual says or at least tries to say that you can switch from C to F. I could not figure out how nor is it described in the manual at all. Just says it does, not how.
14. Lots of holes on the right side, only 2 on the left for mounting stuff. But the holes on the right side really don't have anything in the box to attach to them, so no clue what they would be for.
15. Only one pencil tip. Some other kits come with 5 or more.
16. Meter test leads say 1000v isolation. I am not willing to test that nor am I planning on trusting that either. I will be replacing them anyway.
17. The ebay photo is not exactly what you get. As stated above, the Auto/Manual switch and the PSU/Meter switch are now push buttons not toggle switches.
18. Panel organization is poor and is broken up. Reordering it would place controls/displays better grouped with their respective tools. If they had switched the placement of the pencil on/off and temp settings with those of the wand on/off and temp that would be a far better layout. This would place the pencil at top and since it has no other controls, would be better in overall design. It would place the wand on/off and temp setting down next to the blower control which also affects the wand thus grouping all the controls for the wand together and separating it from the pencil controls. The way it currently is laid out, the wand on/off/temp is at the top and its blower control/auto/manual is at the bottom with the pencil controls between. Poor organization if you ask me. All controls for a particular tool should be in proximity to each other and not be broken up by controls for a completely different tool.
19. Air intake for the wand is on the wide portion of its handle. And only on one side even though it looks like vents are on both sides. Its possible to cover them with your hand if you don't watch where you hold it. Again, my inexperience here may indicate a design flaw where none exists.
My initial positive observations:1. The unit as a whole is reasonably sturdy and fairly well put together. The metal is a sufficient gauge to insure it will last a reasonable amount of time given its diminutive $90 price.
2. The solder pencil stand is all metal. I had seen in videos where it was metal/plastic combo and very poorly made. This one is all metal and fairly heavy gauge steel too. The holder ring (where you put the pencil) is also all metal and tack welded to the holder. Its not plastic. In fact there is no plastic on it at all.
3. They put rubber pads on the stand base. Again, one of the complaints on videos of the older unit complained about lack of LRF (Little Rubber Feet). This one has two strips of rubber material, one front, one rear so its not sliding around anymore.
4. Jesus the iron heats up fast. I am used to turning on my old cheap iron (from American Science) 10min before I need it. This thing goes from room temp to soldering in maybe a minute (didn't actually time it but, woof, fast!).
5. The heat wand also heats up rather quickly as well.
6. I like the safety of the wand not coming on unless the wand is on its cradle when turned on. Can't accidentally toast anything. Like that.
7. I saw some references to the LED voltage reading not being accurate. Well, mine is. At least it is in reference to two different multimeters I hooked to it. Is it dead nuts on? No. However it is sufficient for a cursory check of voltage levels. I will still rely on my multimeter. I set the PSU for 5.0v according to the panel meter. On the multimeter it was 5.04v. Given the meter has deeper accuracy I would say close enough. Set to 12.0v and its reading 12.02v. So, again, correct. I hooked up an ammeter and jacked in a 12/24v buck that outputs 5v (or close). It showed 17ma on my mutimeter and it showed 17ma on the panel. I would say thats spot on as well. I plugged the 5v out of the buck back into the meter input on the panel and got a display toggling between 5.0v and 5.1v. On the multimeter it read 5.13v. When I put the multimeter into 200v scale (single decimal) it read 5.1v solid. So the meter portion is darn close too. The toggling tells me it was thinking 5.05v ish as it couldn't decide on 5.0 or 5.1. So it may be reading 50mv low. Am I going to trust it to read voltages for an op-amp? No. Good enough though to tell me if the 5v buck is working or not.
8. The kit comes with a small selection of gun tips (4 I think). They appear to be sufficient for doing what I plan to do and I don't foresee needing any additional ones at this time. However I am most definitely a neophyte here. There is quite likely a situation I am completely ignorant of where additional tips could be needed.
9. The pencil is quite comfortable to hold. I did some test soldering and it was an immediate comfortable feel. Heavy enough to know you got it. Light enough to not overly fatigue you.
10. Digital ammeter instead of the analog one of the older versions of this unit.
11. I had seen mention of the fact the wand tips didn't come with bolt/nuts. Mine did. However there were two different lengths of screws and I have no clue whch one goes on which tip because they all seem to need the same size. Clueless as to why they provided different lengths.
12. The brass/flux tin seems pretty decent to be honest. There is an ample amount of flux in the bottom so I see it lasting a decent period of time. The scrunchie also seems quite ample and dense. Surprisingly decent considering the overall package price.
13. The power cord is fairly heavy duty and appears to be made of heavier gauge wires. In fact it feels and looks heavier than the cord that came with a 1500w computer PSU and this unit is only supposed to be 800w.
14. Reasonably compact design providing hot air wand, pencil iron and a 2a PSU in a convenient and fairly portable package.
15. Heavy enough to stay put. Light enough to carry easily.
Possible alterations/accessories:1. Multiturn pot for PSU voltage set
2. Replacement of banana jacks with better quality ones
3. Possible addition of a ground jack (yielding two ground banana jacks, one for PSU out, one for meter lead in)
4. Possible connector for heat wand
5. Front panel main power switch
6. New test leads
7. PSU power leads with clips on them
8. 3D print a stand for the wand so it doesn't have to attach to the unit's side.
9. Replace PSU/Meter reading push button with toggle switch
10. 3D print an attachment to the pencil stand to hold tips and perhaps solder wick.
11. 3D print a side mounted cup to hold the wand tips behind the wand holder.
12. Possible addition of fins (old computer heat sinks) to the internal heat sink.
So thats my initial feelings on the unit.
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