So I'm looking to upgrade my crappy 20 eur soldering station and am also in need of some other stuff. I’m mostly building synths (through hole compononents)
• Soldering station, not looking to spend more then around 150 eur
o Hakko FX88D
o Aoyue 701A++ (this looks nice since it’s also fucntions as a desoldering station)
o I-CON PICO
• Desoldering station, I suck at desoldering and don’t want to further risk ruining another pcb or components, don’t really want to spend a fortune on this.
• Osciloscope, I currently have a DIY kit; Velleman EDO09, do I need something with more firepower? If so Batterfly.com seems to have a good deal on a RIGOL DS1054Z+a Hakko FX-88D for 415 eur
• Transistor tester, there are a bunch cheap DIY kits on banggood that I guess will fulfil my requirement of simply getting HFE and idds readings and match transistors, which one should I chose or doesn’t it really matter?
o
https://www.banggood.com/DIY-Meter-Tester-Kit-For-Capacitance-ESR-Inductance-Resistor-NPN-PNP-p-929603.htmlo
https://www.banggood.com/DIY-M12864-Graphics-Version-Transistor-Tester-Kit-LCR-ESR-PWM-With-Case-p-997023.html?rmmds=search• PCB holder large enough to hold up to 50cm pcb or any other recommendation so I not constantly have to flip over the pcb and try to balance it one something while risking damaging already soldered components
• Osciloscope, I currently have a DIY kit; Velleman EDO09, do I need something with more firepower? If so Batterfly.com seems to have a good deal on a RIGOL DS1054Z+a Hakko FX-88D for 415 eur
You'll have to ask yourself that question. Do you hit limitations of that kit with projects you're working with ? And what exactly do you do ? Other options are something like analog discovery 2 which can do slightly more than your typical scope at cost of worse bandwidth and having to use computer for control. But if you are doing analog to few MHz I think it is cheapest way to get network/spectrum analyzer.
• Transistor tester, there are a bunch cheap DIY kits on banggood that I guess will fulfil my requirement of simply getting HFE and idds readings and match transistors, which one should I chose or doesn’t it really matter?
+ there is huge thread about them on forum
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/$20-lcr-esr-transistor-checker-project/4100/
Altho better way would be probably finding a way to design your circuit so it is less sensitive to component variance
• PCB holder large enough to hold up to 50cm pcb or any other recommendation so I not constantly have to flip over the pcb and try to balance it one something while risking damaging already soldered components
If board have screw holes simplest way is just to screw on some spacers like those
https://ae01.alicdn.com/kf/HTB1FlK8JpXXXXcxXXXXq6xXFXXXm/25pcs-brass-standoff-spacer-Screw-M2-male-Screw-x-M2-female-Screw-5mm-Long-Pillars-Nut.jpg
Soldering station is a good start, but if they supply the Hakko FX-888D with the pointy tip it's not really the best for SMD or through hole. So be prepared to get a couple of tips with it.
Oscilloscope is good if your going to use it. Current limiting variable bench supply and a multimeter should come before an oscilloscope when starting. If you have the money though for the oscilloscope, it's decent value for money.
Those Chinese testers cannot be beaten for value as long as you keep it cheap. If you are spending anywhere near 85 euro a DER EE 5000 is a decent handheld LCR meter, it doesn't do transistor testing or signal generation though like some of the Chinese testers do so they are still handy.