Electronics > Beginners

Soldering Iron

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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.





--- Quote from: berwick53 on May 23, 2010, 07:32:00 pm ---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

--- End quote ---

EEVblog:

--- Quote from: squeezee on May 24, 2010, 09:32:23 am ---Yeah the Hakko 936 is an easy recommendation, it's resonably priced and tips are cheap/easy to find.

--- End quote ---

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


--- Quote ---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)

--- End quote ---

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.

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