Soldering Iron

[berwick53]

Hello I'm Starting out in the world of Electronics and Next year I will be doing a undergraduate MEng in Electronic Engineering. But I'd like to get some practice in before I go, I have some projects that I'm going to do but what multimeter and soldering iron would you recommend for £140/245 AUD/$202

[Kiriakos-GR]

Hello UK 

Your budget are ok for starting.
For basic tasks , you will need even less cash.

Do you have access on ebay ?

 

[berwick53]

Yes I do have access to eBay

[Kiriakos-GR]

Good , this opens the way to get even second hand stuff .
And play with the opportunity's to get expensive gear in low pricing.

Do you favor any brands , speaking about multimeters ?  
Portable or bench type ... lightweight or heavy ... low voltage tasks or 220V to 1000V ..

Start asking your self, this questions as first ones ..  

 

[berwick53]

I like Fluke multimeter's but I think there out of my price range and I'm looking for it to be portable and to be used on low voltage jobs.

[Kiriakos-GR]

Well in what ever you will select , I had to offer one important advice ...
get the one with the best resolution, lots of digits ..

I do not favor any brand  , but I do own multimeters from  Pros Kit, UNI-T, Fluke & Metrawatt (analog)
I call them all as reliable , and its up to the model , the question about the final cost.
  

Did a quick search for you ...  contact the sellers for more info like shipping quotes ..
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Proskit-Digital-Multimeter-Amp-Ohm-Volt-Hz-Temp-Cap-AUS-/360233343859?cmd=ViewItem&pt=AU_B_I_Electrical_Test_Equipment&hash=item53df949b73

Or this ..

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/UNI-T-UT71B-Portable-Intelligent-Digital-Multimeter-/220563414581?cmd=ViewItem&pt=UK_BOI_Electrical_Test_Measurement_Equipment_ET&hash=item335a9a9e35


As about solder iron ,  I own   JBC and  ANTEX  sticks, and a medium cost  temperature controlled soldering station, not known in your country as brand ..

[redek]

I'm partial to Weller soldering irons, since I started out on one.  I have a wd1002 at home (which is probably overkill), but it does get hot super fast.  I use a wesd51 at work, and in my opinion, is a perfectly good iron.  I use it for very intricate soldering of strain gauges and vanish coated connecting wires, as well as larger applications.  Price is around $135 - $150 US.

[allanw]

Try this place for irons:

http://www.circuitspecialists.com/level.itml/icOid/9258

If you search around for the brands you'll find other people discussing them. They were generally favorable.

[Mechatrommer]

my soldering+hot air station+DMM cost even less than your budget. do not try 2nd hand, it will die soon. find a new and branded product, i'm not sure what brand would be. most people talk about Fluke for DMM and Hakko for soldering, not sure. look into that, if you find it more expensive, go down a little bit until you find suitable. But the point is, your budget is quite decent, dont give a chance to elcheapo or 2nd hand item (unless its still "like new" or the seller mistakenly bought it or have used it lightly).

[Simon]

antex soldering irons are nice and they are not exspensive, for basic electronics get a 12W iron although heavier stuff (large wires) may require a 18/25W iron, a 2.whatever mm flat tip and maybe a 1mm tip for small stuff (SMD) you can buy right off the Antex website with free delivery. The Amprobe AM220 is a decent meter for £ 30 on ebay if your not after something that sings and dances for you too.

what sort of work are you looking to do ?

[EEVblog]

Total price?
The Hakko 936 is the classic soldering station, can't go wrong there.
Get a name brand cheap meter in the $50-$100 mark, like an Extech or Amprobe. My low cost meter shootout is coming soon...

Dave.

[squeezee]

Yeah the Hakko 936 is an easy recommendation, it's resonably priced and tips are cheap/easy to find.

For a multimeter something like the Extech EX330 is going to do pretty much everything you need. IIRC, Dave has the EX320/AM220 in the shootout but for $10 more the EX330 adds quite a few features and brings it in line with the Amprobe AM240. (be interested to hear what he thinks of them)

Spend the rest of your budget on other tools, a decent screwdriver set, shear cutters, wire strippers, etc. or just to stock up on some components.

[Simon]

a stock of parts is invaluable, it took me time and I dare say some cash but i have parts available to do most things on the spot on a breadboard, it's such a pain to want to quickly check something out and not have the parts to verify that principle

[saturation]

After a request from a user on this forum about eBay DMM in the past, I was amazed by how many old Fluke benchtop manual ranging models are still working, many are calibrated, and under $50 US.  

http://cgi.ebay.com/Fluke-8010A-Multimeter-Calibrated-/170487664410?cmd=ViewItem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item27b1db4f1a

To start in electronics and working mostly in DC or low volt AC [ie., such as generated by signal generators etc.,], these are superb because they are as accurate or better than the top 87V in both DCV and AC TRMS, and are cheap because few pros buy manual ranging DMM anymore.  But it will best the accuracy and precision of most second tier, no name DMMs.

As for being second hand, DMMs are primitive micocontroller devices and thus use low voltages internally, and its less likely to die on you from age, even if its old.  Plus, some of those sold on eBay are described as working and may have a short guarantee.

The only reason to choose a modern non-Fluke DMM, besides its major competitors like Agilent or Metrawatt, is safety, portability and convenience.   However, how good safety is in no name brand DMM are working on line voltage is very iffy, you can find posts on this forum.

As for soldering irons, just get a basic under $10 job, without temperature control.  You can find Chinese types or Velleman with temperature control for about $20 US.  Like training for martial arts, if you use the very basic, no-frills version and get good at it, you'll be even better, and appreciate the better features, of a better made one.

http://www.epanorama.net/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=868


With the money you have left over, you can get a Chinese 17B Fluke to take with you and use the bench meter when accuracy counts.

Hello I'm Starting out in the world of Electronics and Next year I will be doing a undergraduate MEng in Electronic Engineering. But I'd like to get some practice in before I go, I have some projects that I'm going to do but what multimeter and soldering iron would you recommend for £140/245 AUD/$202

[EEVblog]

Yeah the Hakko 936 is an easy recommendation, it's resonably priced and tips are cheap/easy to find.

Just beware of the fake Chinese tips at too-good-to-be-true prices.

For a multimeter something like the Extech EX330 is going to do pretty much everything you need. IIRC, Dave has the EX320/AM220 in the shootout but for $10 more the EX330 adds quite a few features and brings it in line with the Amprobe AM240. (be interested to hear what he thinks of them)

I have both the EX330 and EX320 for the review, but have decided to review the EX330 even though it's $10 and the most expensive of the group.

But, yeah, the EX330 would be money well spent, as would the AM220 at $20 cheaper. In fact you could probably two meters and an iron for the indicated price range.

Dave.