Author Topic: Hakko FX-888 soldering station discontinued  (Read 85077 times)

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Offline Bored@Work

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Re: Hakko FX-888 soldering station discontinued
« Reply #25 on: November 16, 2012, 05:30:26 pm »
Quote
and the strange 240V special version for China

What was different about the chinese version?

There is/was a 240V series of these stations from China that had an analog controller instead of the usual digital custom Hakko chip. People were not really able to determine if these were genuine Hakko or some very very detailed fakes, down to the packaging. IIRC Hakko wasn't exactly helpful in determining if they were original or fake. Since Hakko is no stranger to dealing with fakes one would expect that Hakko would be quick to point out a fake. When they aren't one has to ask if they got caught with their pants down.
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Offline tom66

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Re: Hakko FX-888 soldering station discontinued
« Reply #26 on: November 16, 2012, 05:45:41 pm »
How hard would it be to use a dimmer switch to make a variable-power soldering iron? Of course, it's not true variable temperature, but it's at least better than the average Maplin fire starter.
 

Offline saturation

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Re: Hakko FX-888 soldering station discontinued
« Reply #27 on: November 16, 2012, 05:57:39 pm »
This is how el-cheapo irons work, the under $20 types are simple dimmers in a fixed temp iron.

Alas, most all cheapos do not use temp feedback, so it doesn't compensate for the heat sunk when soldering, most noticeable on large planes and tracings.

An ideal iron should keep tip temperature constant despite load, and better irons use, often proprietary means, to ramp up quickly to minimize variations, this is the difference between the basic technology of Hakko's 936, which everyone copies, or the Weller WES51, and the Metcal technology [ and their new clones] and the gamut of cost of those different systems.  If one is going to pay more than $100 for a temp regulated station, it should provide better soldering capability, and make work easier to perform.

The value of temp regulation and a temp maximum defined over decades of work are reasons soldering stations have a standard to look to, usually mandated only in commercial work, the IPC standard.

How hard would it be to use a dimmer switch to make a variable-power soldering iron? Of course, it's not true variable temperature, but it's at least better than the average Maplin fire starter.
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 Saturation
 

Offline david77

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Re: Hakko FX-888 soldering station discontinued
« Reply #28 on: November 16, 2012, 05:59:24 pm »
Not hard at all. Used to be quite common back when cheap stations weren't available.
Today the Chinese supply them ready made: http://www.china-zhongdi.com/zd-99.htm
 

Offline saturation

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Re: Hakko FX-888 soldering station discontinued
« Reply #29 on: November 16, 2012, 06:31:23 pm »
That's great, enjoy.  In the US this station begins at $400 so its in a different league, I hope it meets your needs.  At that price it competes with JBC longer well respected reputation.

Its unusual to work with a setting of 190C as in most instances touching a tracing often causes most iron tips to drop 30-50C as the solder and tracing sink heat, if an iron is set at 190C that would put the tip temp below melting point of even PbSn solder. 



There was a thread of an owner who complained about improper readings on his unit. 

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/general-chat/weller-soldering-station/msg72641/#msg72641




My current soldering station (WD1000M) is digital, and I can't say I've missed analog control. On the other hand it's powerful enough that I just set it to 190C and solder everything with that.
Best Wishes,

 Saturation
 

Offline T4P

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Re: Hakko FX-888 soldering station discontinued
« Reply #30 on: November 16, 2012, 06:51:47 pm »
a method to hot swap tips
Hot swap? It will eat into the FX-951 market ...
Not hard at all. Used to be quite common back when cheap stations weren't available.
Today the Chinese supply them ready made: http://www.china-zhongdi.com/zd-99.htm
Weller's still making them ...
« Last Edit: November 16, 2012, 06:54:43 pm by T4P »
 

Offline nanofrog

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Re: Hakko FX-888 soldering station discontinued
« Reply #31 on: November 16, 2012, 06:58:20 pm »
If one wanted to improve the 888, what I think some useful add ons would be:

auto-off
power on light
a method to hot swap tips
lower prices, especially the EU and UK market
I suspect it would cut into sales of the FX-951 if they had, so they intentionally restricted the feature set to prevent this.
 

Offline andersm

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Re: Hakko FX-888 soldering station discontinued
« Reply #32 on: November 16, 2012, 11:42:02 pm »
Not hard at all. Used to be quite common back when cheap stations weren't available.
Today the Chinese supply them ready made: http://www.china-zhongdi.com/zd-99.htm
Weller's still making them ...
You may be thinking of Velleman, but who knows who their OEM is.

Offline SgtRock

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Re: Hakko FX-888 soldering station discontinued
« Reply #33 on: November 17, 2012, 07:18:25 pm »
Greetings EEVBees:

--Now available on eBay. These are bullet proof.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/HAKKO-936-SOLDERING-STATION-907-IRON-/200848774453?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2ec3851535

--If you do not have to have the latest and you want to save some money, get one of these. I have two of these, one for light and one for heavy, both with the green LED Power On Light Mod. Dave has an even better Hakko Mod. see his video.

"Happy for you to desoldering, please."
Wun Hung Lo 1948 -

Best Regards
Clear Ether
 

Offline T4P

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Re: Hakko FX-888 soldering station discontinued
« Reply #34 on: November 17, 2012, 07:32:14 pm »
Nope. Weller. Mostly whatever you see on zhongdi is a clone of weller
Velleman's OEM for theirs is zhongdi
OH wait, weller's still making them, in red colour it's the WLC100
« Last Edit: November 17, 2012, 07:34:05 pm by T4P »
 

Offline andersm

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Re: Hakko FX-888 soldering station discontinued
« Reply #35 on: November 17, 2012, 11:09:43 pm »
OH wait, weller's still making them, in red colour it's the WLC100
Huh, I've never seen that one before, is it some kind of US-only (or non-Europe) model? In Europe, their cheap hobbyist models are the WHS40 and its digital variant WHS40D. They're both still about two to three times as expensive as the Velleman one, depending on where you look.

Offline T4P

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Re: Hakko FX-888 soldering station discontinued
« Reply #36 on: November 18, 2012, 05:44:07 am »
No idea but i've been looking on amazon, still very expensive for essentially a light dimmer in a box that is practically useless for electronics i'll tell ya
 

Offline saturation

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Re: Hakko FX-888 soldering station discontinued
« Reply #37 on: November 18, 2012, 01:48:06 pm »
It could, but the 951 heater is much faster, uses a different set of tips, is self calibrating and that's the true value of it, pretty much any iron that can senses the true tip temp without offset doesn't require calibration, implementing such is worth spending since it requires much more technology.  The 937 uses the same technology as 888, except for its digital panel.



When makers recommend calibration, tip temp drifts away from cal for many reasons, and it can happen fairly quickly [ the 888 or 936 manual recommend calibration every time a tip, iron or heater is changed, not including wear of the current tip, so tip swapping routinely on 888 technology would really make the readout accuracy suffer if it were down to 1C as a LSD]. The basic technology of Metcal and clones and JBC are also self-calibrating.  So what you see on the digital panel is truly what you get in self cal systems, always.  So the 888 truly would not be on par with the 951 even if it has some of its features.

Now the question how much is self calibration worth, or fast temp ramp ups?  I think if a user soldered much or is in a professional setting such as full time hand assemblers, you'd quickly see the value in fast heaters, self cal and hot swaps and move up to better stations.  888 is Hakkos' entry level station and for many folks who only solder for prototyping, low volume repair or hacking, its more than adequate.  The FX951 is a next level up, but those curve performances aren't on par still with JBC or Metcal, which also cost more money; so there is a niche for every level of user.


If one wanted to improve the 888, what I think some useful add ons would be:

auto-off
power on light
a method to hot swap tips
lower prices, especially the EU and UK market
I suspect it would cut into sales of the FX-951 if they had, so they intentionally restricted the feature set to prevent this.
Best Wishes,

 Saturation
 

Offline nanofrog

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Re: Hakko FX-888 soldering station discontinued
« Reply #38 on: November 18, 2012, 07:23:51 pm »
It could, but the 951 heater is much faster...
I looked at it as another feature, albeit a significant one that differentiates the FX-951 from the FX-888D, but was looking a bit broader at the additional features of the controller as well when I posted.

There's a lot of advantages to the FX-951 IMHO, and doesn't require nearly as significant of a cost investment vs. JBC (sticking to temp controllable stations). Especially for a hobbyist. Granted, the JBC is a better station, but the FX-951 offers a lot of bang-for-the-buck based on US pricing, which I would think makes it rather attractive for a lot of members here if they aren't being gouged due to their location.

I ended up with a Weller WD1001 as I found one for less than an FM-202 at the time, and much cheaper than a JBC. I definitely made a compromise, but I'm not using it professionally, and it does do what I need (can afford to wait a sec or two more between joints if need be, though it's no slouch). Looking back however, I'd make a different choice based on their QC and cost of replacement parts (iron alone is more expensive than the FX-888), and JBC's is half that of the Weller iron. Tips these days are closer to JBC in cost as well  ::) (~$11 - 20 per, depending on style for the NT series).
 

Offline LoyalServant

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Re: Hakko FX-888 soldering station discontinued
« Reply #39 on: November 18, 2012, 11:33:10 pm »
Wow.... IMHO it's a shame that they went to the digital stuff.
I like knobs :)

I am not the kind of person that after all these decades will find it comfortable to reach over to punch a button.
The rare occasion that I even change the temperature on my iron I am reaching for a knob.

I worked with some techs in the past that were damn good techs but had the worst soldering habits...
The first thing I would do when going to this other techs bench was reach for that knob and turn it a half turn to the left :)

If I even come back to the electronics industry in any capacity I hope they leave some irons with knobs for old farts like me.



 

Offline ejeffrey

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Re: Hakko FX-888 soldering station discontinued
« Reply #40 on: November 19, 2012, 01:28:18 am »
I would prefer an encoder, but I can live with buttons.  I don't mind using the wsd81 or the hakko 951.  What pisses me off is button overloading.  Trying to cram as many features as possible into a 2 button interface is not a winning product idea.
 

Offline cwalex

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Re: Hakko FX-888 soldering station discontinued
« Reply #41 on: November 19, 2012, 11:39:35 am »
Why don't we all get together and build our own!!!

All you need is

1 iron, under a fiver(uk) from ebay, lots of suppliers and millions of replacement tips.
24v 2A supply
pic or avr
rotary encoder
3 7-seg or lcd display
a couple of op-amps
And lots of pleasant interaction working out the software alone and with others.

Then you can add all the advantages of whatever you'd like into one single unit.

you could have an all singing, all dancing, does all that you want for under £20 in parts.


Mr Smiley  :)

There is already a project that is pretty far along and you can buy a pcb from seeed studio. http://dangerousprototypes.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=3475

Looks like it is compatible with hakko and weller handles.
 

Offline saturation

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Re: Hakko FX-888 soldering station discontinued
« Reply #42 on: November 19, 2012, 12:54:27 pm »
Controller electronics design is fairly widepsread and low cost.  If you try to buy a new Hakko replacement hand piece in the USA, it will cost as much as the whole premade FX888 including the iron.  When you factor the cost of the chassis, as expected, DIY will cost more than OTS, and it won't look as nice  :-//

http://www.hakkousa.com/detail.asp?PID=4854&Page=1

The real value of these irons is the alloys used in the tips and the heater assembly.  If you want to DIY try to mod these units to meet the capabilities of a JBC or the more expensive Hakkos.  I think it won't succeed as you can easily inspect that what makes these better irons better again are the heater assembly: the ceramic in the heating element, the placement of the thermal sensors and alloys of the tip.

Why don't we all get together and build our own!!!

All you need is

1 iron, under a fiver(uk) from ebay, lots of suppliers and millions of replacement tips.
24v 2A supply
pic or avr
rotary encoder
3 7-seg or lcd display
a couple of op-amps
And lots of pleasant interaction working out the software alone and with others.

Then you can add all the advantages of whatever you'd like into one single unit.

you could have an all singing, all dancing, does all that you want for under £20 in parts.


Mr Smiley  :)

There is already a project that is pretty far along and you can buy a pcb from seeed studio. http://dangerousprototypes.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=3475

Looks like it is compatible with hakko and weller handles.
Best Wishes,

 Saturation
 

Offline saturation

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Re: Hakko FX-888 soldering station discontinued
« Reply #43 on: November 19, 2012, 01:01:22 pm »
You're right nanofrog, if you want an improved $80 FX888, the $250 951 is it.  That higher cost buys a new set of  features and technology.

It could, but the 951 heater is much faster...
I looked at it as another feature, albeit a significant one that differentiates the FX-951 from the FX-888D, but was looking a bit broader at the additional features of the controller as well when I posted.

Best Wishes,

 Saturation
 

Offline xygor

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Re: Hakko FX-888 soldering station discontinued
« Reply #44 on: November 19, 2012, 01:46:02 pm »
I, for one, welcome our new soldering overlord.
 

Offline T4P

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Re: Hakko FX-888 soldering station discontinued
« Reply #45 on: November 19, 2012, 05:47:30 pm »
well to be honest, you can get them for 250 in the U.S but elsewhere the 220V-240V versions cost double! Just like the FX-888
There's a big but! For 100 bucks more i can get a JBC CD2 series but it's still pricey there and then ... it's about 640SGD which means a new SDS7102
Feels like 0 value to me but it's about 1.3 times the US price which is fair because this is serious business, anyone who buys a JBC probably has a Agilent sitting around ...
 

Offline nanofrog

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Re: Hakko FX-888 soldering station discontinued
« Reply #46 on: November 19, 2012, 08:26:09 pm »
I, for one, welcome our new soldering overlord.
If this was aimed at me, that wasn't my intent.

I just did a lot of research not that long ago for myself (needed a new one back in '08), and more recently for a nephew that's interested in going EE next Fall.

I'm just not that confident in the Chinese made stuff when I read about DOA's & defective units here and other sites on the net, and find $400+ (US pricing) for a good soldering station excessive for a hobbyist or student. Especially when that same amount of funds can also buy a usable scope. So I looked for alternatives that offered a resonable balance of cost and performance, and found ~$250 in the US could manage that rather well IMHO. 

well to be honest, you can get them for 250 in the U.S but elsewhere the 220V-240V versions cost double! Just like the FX-888
There's a big but! For 100 bucks more i can get a JBC CD2 series but it's still pricey there and then ... it's about 640SGD which means a new SDS7102
Feels like 0 value to me but it's about 1.3 times the US price which is fair because this is serious business, anyone who buys a JBC probably has a Agilent sitting around ...
This much price gouging outside of the US amazes me, but I see your point. At those prices, the JBC is in closer reach by comparison, and offers additional value.
 

Offline xygor

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Re: Hakko FX-888 soldering station discontinued
« Reply #47 on: November 19, 2012, 11:15:39 pm »
I, for one, welcome our new soldering overlord.
If this was aimed at me, that wasn't my intent.

Nope.  At the thread in general and refers to the new Hakko.

Obligatory Simpsons reference.

Thank you for sharing your research though.  I do enjoy reading it.
 

Offline Fluxed Matter

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Hakko FX-888 soldering station discontinued
« Reply #48 on: November 20, 2012, 06:24:27 pm »
I found these today at my local electronic surplus/junkyard warehouse. With all this talk about Hakko's I wonder if they are worth picking up.
Have a Great Day!
Fluxed Matter
 

Offline SLJTopic starter

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Re: Hakko FX-888 soldering station discontinued
« Reply #49 on: November 20, 2012, 07:20:02 pm »
$45 might be a little high.  I'd offer him $20 or $25 each if you take all of them.


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