(Open Article, i invite everyone to participate and enhancement this post, based on real feedback and daily use)(Disclamer: This article is not to discourage you from buying brand reputable tools or anything like that, this are alternatives for the price)Recently i have seen people asking for the same: cheap/budget tools, problem is people tend to buy the cheapest or anything in the middle, resulting in waste, difficulty and demotivation (Is this my fault? Most of the time no, check your tool)
We all know good reputable tools are dam expensive and for some people are not easy to afford them, or even a purpose, ie hobby.
The truth is quality and performance come with a price, but to be honest in this age (2017) that tools are a bit overpriced, we pay a lot just for a 400ºc soldering rock, yes because they only have that function, we can't EEVblog with it...
Lets check a single solder station only (no handle or tips) for example (JBC, Weller, others):Price Range: 250€-400€
What we get: Cheap ABS or other material enclosure, PSU, PCB and it components
All those things are dirty cheap for them and we pay for brand name, availability, multiple tools compatibility and others.
They can perform very well but are just like Apple products, you pay for outdated hardware and old tech, the hardware is there only for heat up a resistor and control the heater plus other features like stand by, hibernation that cost 0 multiplied by one hundred euros (courtesy of the software, nothing a 'if' plus a 'timer' won't solve)
JBC T210-A handle cost about 56€ and is the real thing, is what you should look, because this tool and the tip will do all the joints for you. So 56€ for a high-quality handle, that's cheap but it won't work alone. So you can do or buy a kind of station that can power the handle for half or less the price of the original. If it broke in a year or less you can buy another and still not touch near the price of the original station.
With all that in mind this article is to advice people with the best cheap tools money can buy (Discarding all trash) including clones from reputable brands and easy to source.
Also the listed tools can be used in a professional scenario
SolderingSoldering stations and irons
TS100
Iron Price: 30€ - 50€
Tip's Price: 7€ - 9€ [TS-xx], Cheap
Tip's availability: Not many but the available ones are more than capable for multiple works, easy to source.
Tip style: Similar to Hakko T12 tips but the length is smaller and more optimized, heater element builtin inside tip
Tip hot change: Yes, don't screw the tip if you want to change while hot, it will stay in place without move, tight connection.
ESD-Safe: Yes*, require a PSU with earth connection
Max Power: 24V / 65W
Features: Portable, Can be battery powered, stand-by, hibernation, digital, configurable, firmware can be updated, open source
Good for: Portability, hobby, battery operated
My review: Very good tool for any job, it outperform the hakko clones, well calibrated, tips are long lasting and high performance, even smaller tips like TS-ILS and TS-I can melt solder at very bottom without wick solder up. I can say that iron can do better job than my ERSA i-con 2v with the i-tool using tips from 0.2mm to 0.5mm, all ERSA tips from that sizes will wick solder up and don't melt solder very well at tip. Only the new optimized 0.3mm ERSA tip is good, that said TS100 outperform a complete tool that cost me 680€ under that scenario. About the others perform just as well, heat up times are the same, maybe some milliseconds difference.
Ergonomics are good to me (Medium hand), the shape is odd at first view, but it fell right in the hand, still it can vary from people to people.
Be sure to use a good and capable power supply (12v to 24v) with earth connection, and if possible a soft and light DC cable to make tool light as possible.
It can easy replace a good solder station.
So, for about 50€ plus the power supply if you have to buy it, we got a full iron and a tip that (out)/perform just as better than tools that cost 250€-300€, that a joke...
Hakko T12 Clone
Comes in DIY or complete set. There's also an portable version and an OLED version.
Set Price: 30€ - 50€
Tip's Price: 2€ - 5€ [T12-xx], Cheap
Tip's availability: Very, easy to source.
Tip style: Similar/same to Hakko T12 tips. Heater element builtin inside tip
Tip hot change: Yes.
ESD-Safe: Yes/No depending on station you get
Max Power: 24V / 65W
Features: Small and compact, Can be battery powered (DIY), stand-by, hibernation, digital.
Good for: Hobby, fixed station, people who have lot of spare T12 tips
My review: Handle feels cheap plastic, if you shake it you will hear plastic noise but is easy to operate. Station not always awake from a stand by mode, you need to perform a hard movement for it detect the motion and awake, can't change the sensivity for this sensor. Factory calibration is bad most of the times and display temperature is not the real, you need to calibrate it first with a proper thermometer. Beside all that and if proper calibrated station work very well and can perform the jobs very easy.
Advice: Buy original handle and tips for a optimal experience. Clone tips may be not as good as originals. If use clones please heat up the tip gradually when you first use a new one or it will partial damage your tip.
TS100 is better than this in every spec and is easy to turn in a fixed station
JND DI3000 - JBC C245 Clone
LinkSet Price: 160€ - 170€ + Shipping
Tip's Price: 12€ - 100€ [C245], Expensive
Tip's availability: Very, easy to source.
Tip style: C245. Heater element + temperature sensor builtin inside tip
Tip hot change: Yes.
ESD-Safe: Yes
Max Power: 24V / 75W
Features: stand-by, hibernation, digital.
Good for: Fixed station, serious use
Advice: Buy original handle (Most optional) and tips for a optimal experience.
Full JBC clone, what can i say?
UniSolder 5.2 - Really universal soldering controller
LinkSet Price: DIY, +/- 150-250€
ESD-Safe: DIY
Max Power: 9V-28V, AC or DC
Features: stand-by, hibernation, digital.
Good for: Fixed station, multiple tools, learn and make your soldering station
Advice: Buy original handle and tips from your favorite brand (Compatible with the station)
My Review: This station is very capable, but is hard to build yourself, the BOM is complicated and some components are hard to find even on aliexpress, you can order everything from mouser but will come at a higher cost. There are some empty pcb avaliable over eBay and maybe a full build station. With this you will never run out of possibilities but it require time to make it well, still on development and there are things that can be improved. I will say just for JBC pencil and Microtweezers this worth a lot to have. When you build your first you can replicate easy but i advice to use quality components or it can fail easy.
Features:
- power: 9-28V, AC or DC
- 2 separate heater control channels
- 2 independent sensor inputs
- current source on any sensor input 3uA - 12mA, wuth 2 bands (x1, x16) and 256 steps per band
- flexible differential amplifier input selection
- amplifier gain from 0 to 750 in 256 steps
- negative offset selection in 1024 steps
- resistive instrument identification (upto 625 different instruments can be identified by 2 resistors on the connector)
- polynomial floating point voltage/resistance to temperature calculation
- wave shaping to filter out the inductive peaks from series sensor signal
- PID control with power limit
- isolated USB port for firmware updates and live data
- 128x64 OLED display with rich user interface.
Tested so far with:
- HAKKO T12/T15 (series TC)
- HAKKO FX8801 (PTC)
- PACE TD100 (series TC)
- JBC C245 (series or separate TC)
- JBC C210 (series TC)
- JBC Microtweezers (2 separate heaters, each with series TC)
- WELLER WSP80 (PTC) (This iron was sent to me by a reader of the thread for a previous version of the controller. Thanks, Jaroslaw)
- ERSA RT80 (series PTC/heater resistance)
- various chinese cheap irons with separate TC
Pace ADS200Read:
https://www.eevblog.com/2018/08/02/eevblog-1106-pace-ads200-soldering-station-review-jbc-killer/https://www.eevblog.com/forum/manufacture/newest-pace-ads200-production-station-(a-jbc-killer-at-$239)/
ERSA i-con nano (0IC1200A)
This is one of the best branded stations you can get for the price from a well known and reputable brand: ERSA
Station Price: 160€ - 180€
Tip's Price: 6€ - 80€ [Serie 102], Cheap
Tip's availability: Very, easy to source.
Tip style: Serie 102. Tip only without any other components built in.
Tip hot change: Yes, can be changed by hand without tools or protection, still you must take care. (If you want the tool: 3N544)
ESD-Safe: Yes
Max Power: 80W, 150ºc to 450ºc
Heat up time in sec: ± 9s
Weight: 1.05Kg
Features: stand-by, hibernation, digital, configurable
Good for: Serious work, reability, long life tips
My review: This station is excelent for the price, beeing the most cheap and best station you can get from a reputable brand that not come from China. The i-tool (Soldering Iron) is one of the best irons i have used, very light and small, feels like a pencil and perform extremely well. Tip performance are great and the lifespan is one of the best i have seen. While ERSA have other expensiver models like I-CON 1* and I-CON 2* and even the Vario serie the i-tool is always the same on those stations and will perform as well as this one, as i told before the tool and tips are the most important thing. Note: That supeior stations can deliver 150W peak and able to heat up the i-tool faster, while heater is the same, nano powers heater from 16.5V but higher end I-CON stations from 24V. But if used with smaller tips there is no much difference between them. Only if using large tips and soldering something with high thermal capacity, the difference becomes noticeable.
My Advice: Buy tip sleeves (3IT1040-00 OR 3IT1045-00) for every tip you buy, change those things from tip to tip is hard and require some force, also if you have then already placed will allow you fast swap while hot, other way will be a pain to do that.
Buy the I-CON 1 if you found a very very good price if that justify, i brought mine for about 287€ from thier website, better look and more power.
Don't buy conical tips bellow (0.6mm - 0.5mm) they will perform bad for tiny SMD works and wick solder up, they will not keep solder at the end of the tip, however they fix that on new 0102PDLF03 0.3mm optimized tip and can do the work just fine leg by leg.
There's also an cheaper version of this station, the i-con pico. But i think this is a best buy for the price, however if you can only go for that you will not regret either.
DesolderingDesoldering stations
ZD-8915
Station Price: 80€ - 90€
Tip's Price: 1€ - 2€, Cheap [0.8mm, 1.0mm, 1.3mm, 1.5mm]
Tip's availability: Not many, easy to source.
Tip hot change: Not recommended.
ESD-Safe: Yes
Max Power: 150W
Features: Digital
Good for: Through hole desoldering, hobby
My review: This station will perform good but require some maintenance after some use, good if if you ocasional need to suck solder and you are to lazy to use a manual pump. If you want to desoldering all day and continuously this tool is not for you.
Advice: Buy all tips they are cheap and some spare filters to future use.
Hot AirHot air is hot air, but only a few can deliver reability air with good temperature control
Quick 861DW
Set Price: 250€ - 300€ + Shipping
Nozzle Price: 5€ - 40€ [NK-xx], Expensive
Nozzle availability: Very, hard to source.
Nozzle style: NK-xx.
Nozzle hot change: Yes but hard, need spare silicon pad.
ESD-Safe: Yes
Max Power: 1000W
Max Temperature: +/-500ºc
Max Airflow: +/-120L/m
Features: stand-by, digital, profiles, temperature calibration.
Good for: Fixed station, serious use
Advice: Buy quick nk-850 adaptor to use universal nozzles when needed. Buy JBC shields if you want/need to.
My review: For the price this station is the best you can get, unbeatable price/features/performance. Heat up times are very fast and able to calibrate the temperature output. The max airflow is already higher than other top notch stations and can be used to solder larger BGA chips. This station performs extremely well and can do any kind of job. Interface is clear, fast and easy to use. One thing that could be better is the amount of profiles, only three avaliable, they could turn this into six by using a double click behaviour but it's more than ok. You will never lost your money on this or regret the buy. A downside when new is the unpleasant plastic smell, but after a three or more days with good air circulation that will go away.
MicroscopeWhen it goes tiny sizes there no way to repair without a magnifier tool, if you are in SMD world you need one of this. There are cheap tools like crap usb cameras but will be tedious to work with despite low frame rate and quality. You can use some kind of magnifier or even glasses but not pratical to work with, make sure you always have two hands that you can use.
AmScope SE400-Z
Set Price: 150€ - 230€ + Shipping
Stereo: Yes
Head: 45 degree inclined binocular.
Eyepieces: 30.5mm widefield WF10x and WF20x
Objective: 1X.
Zoom: Can't change, fixed with the Eyepieces (10x or 20x included)
Can ajust height focus: Yes
Can ajust eyepieces focus: Yes*, only on left ocular
Illumination: Yes, included in a goose neck style, ajustable position, 1W fixed
Diopter Adjustment: +/-5dp
Working distance: +/- 9" (228mm / 22.8cm)
Interpupillary Distance: 2-0" - 2-15/16"(50-77mm)
Boom-Arm Stand: 12" arm (overall length: 17"), 13.5" high pillar, 7.5"x5.0"x2.5" steel base.
Accessories: eye-guards.
Good for: Hobby, small or moderate use
My review: One of best microscope you can buy with small money, easy to use, the quality is good and for inspection is more than ok, the included 10x eyepiece is what you will use all the time, 20x will not be that usefull, maybe you can benefit from it in some occasion but you will be lazy to change that just for one scenario. It will allow you to solder leg by leg, for example you wouldn't have any difficulty to view and exchange a micro usb port pin by pin. The working distance is excellent, the 22.8cm give you a lot more freedom that other alternatives, you can solder under it and even use hot air in a low angle.
Advice: Put one or two dead acid batteries on top of the microscope to make it heavier to prevent accidents and falls, microscope base is heavy but not enough in my opinion. If you can, buy the 5x 10x version if avaliable. If you have the money and you are serious about repair and smd please buy the AmScope SM-4xxxx (See below), it worth all the extra.
AmScope SM-4TP or SM-4NTP
Set Price: 400€ - 550€ + Shipping [EU: 600-800€]
Stereo: Yes
Trinocular: Yes - Camera port
Simul-focual: Yes
Head: 45-degree inclined, 360-degree swiveling trinocular
Eyepieces: 30mm super widefield high-eyepoint (WF10X/20)
Objective: 1X, can buy an adaptor to 0.5X or 2X
Zoom: Ajustable 0.7-4.5X, Zoom Range: 6.5:1
Can ajust height focus: Yes
Can ajust eyepieces focus: Yes
Illumination: Sold separately or part of the kit
Diopter Adjustment: +/-5dp
Maximum Field of View: 1-1/4" (31.75mm)
Minimum Field of View: 3/16" (2.5mm)
Working distance: +/- 4" (100mm)
Interpupillary Distance: 2-3/16" - 2-15/16" (55-75mm)
Boom-Arm Stand: 20" double-arm (overall length: 30"), 17" high pillar, 10-1/4"x8-1/4"x2-0" solid cast steel base
Accessories: eye-guards.
Good for: Professional, heavy and serious use
My review: One of best microscope you can buy for the repair world, easy to use, lot of ajustments, the quality is excelent, and very heavy it will not go any where. The zoom knob is very usefull, you can change from varios zoom levels without the need to replace the eyepieces or objectives, you will find yourself ajusting the zoom for each situation you need to check. The improvement over AmScope SE400-Z is huge. If you have the money don't think twice.
Advice: Buy the SM-4NTP if you can, it have lockable zoom (No usefull feature) but it have some level marks at eyepieces to know the focus level for each side, the NTP cost the same as the NP and seens like newer model but both will perform equally.
Buy a 144 LED Ring from China, for low as 20€ or 25€, theres no need to pay the extra for original ones, they are very expensive for what they are.
Buy 0.5X objective adaptor it will cut de maximum Zoom to half and increasing the working distance to the double, while you will never use the max zoom you can benefit from more working distance and lower zoom levels to see more things at once. Some people say that lens can slight decrease the image quality, maybe they do maybe they not i use one and didn't notice that, make sure you buy the original AmScope len and not other brand that can have that negative effect. If you not go with that len buy the 1x len just to cover and protect main objective from damage or dirt, it is cost effective and you keep your scope protected from splash and fumes.
Buy only the version that have TP on the name, that mean is simul-focal and others aren't. Simul-focal allow you to view from every port at same time, mean you can use your eyes and a camera at same time without the need to switch the light hole entrance.
You will find very variants of this microscope, the difference will be in the included extras, just buy the base model and upgrade it with what you want. The extras are very overpriced and nosense, even included cameras are crap.
Microscope Cameras C-MountIf you need to show your work, record, teaching and others under a microscope you will need a camera. There are a lot of cameras out there, you will choose the right one for your needs and for your equipment.
Please note the light you use will have a large impact on image quality, for example the led rings will create big reflections on board, a angled light source is prefered.
1080PHASensor: Sony IMX236(C)
Resolution: 1080P FullHD
Recording: 1080P FullHD 30FPS via SDCard, USB, HDMI + Capture Card
Live image: Yes via HDMI 60fps scaled from 30fps, via USB 30fps, both can be used at same time
Other features: Built in software over HDMI and Mouse, settings can be ajusted such as auto exposure, colors and others
Price: +/- 280€
(Read article whole description for more information)
720PHCSensor: SONY Exmor CMOS Sensor IMX222
Resolution: 720P HD
Recording: 30FPS via SDCard (1920x1080), USB (1920x1080), HDMI + Capture Card (1280x720). Note: FullHD resolution is scaled from 720p
Live image: Yes via HDMI 60fps scaled from 30fps, via USB 30fps, both can be used at same time
Other features: Built in software over HDMI and Mouse, settings can be ajusted such as auto exposure, colors and others
Price: +/- 160€
(Read article whole description for more information)
There are also other better cameras with best sensors and image quality but they are very expensive and lack of HDMI connection. For commodity HDMI is a must have in my opinion. This cameras are also USB3.0 and will require a PC with USB 3.0 ports to decode image in good frame rate.
My recommendation would go to 1080PHA and 0.35x adaptor, but if you have a less margin is ok to go with 720PHC (Less resolution and worse sensor but is OK!)
0.35X focus adjustable C mount adapter for New type of Amscope's Trinocular Stereo microscopeThis is very important to have with the camera, the included stock c-mount port from Amscope is not good, hard to sync with eyes and camera focus at same time, it will rotate easy and dust will enter inside your trinocular port, or use some ugly tape!. The adaptor i recommend for who goes with Amscope trinocular and these cameras, it will firmly secure your camera and have a horizontal knob to ajust focus, very easy to sync with eyepieces, a must have, don't ignore this!
ToolsThermometersDon't spend a fortune on this, cheap equipement will be as good as expensive ones.
Hakko FG-100
Price: 10€ - 20€
Resolution: 1°c / 1F
Range: 0~700ºc / 32~1300F
Sensor Type: K(CA)Thermocouple
Sensor availablity: Easy to source, cheap
Tolerance: ±3C(Range300~600C) ±5C(Othertemperature range) ±6F(Range572~1112F) ±10F(Othertemperature range)
Power source: 9V Batteries (recommended: alkaline batteries)
External dimensions: 68(W)×140(H)×38(D)mm
Weight: 115g(Does not contain batteries)
Operating Temperature Range: 0~40C, 20~90%RH,No condensation
Good for: Iron tips, gun tips, desoldering gun tips, other equipement that require direct contact. A must buy tool for every station to make sure the temperature is real
TM-902C K-Type
Price: 4€ - 10€
Resolution: 1°c
Range: -50~1300ºc
Sensor Type: K(CA)Thermocouple
Sensor availablity: Easy to source, cheap
Tolerance: 0? to 500? ±(0.75%±1?) 500? to 750? ±(1%±1?) / 0? to -20? ±2? / 750?~1000?(-3?~0?) / -20? to -40?:±3? / 1000?~1370?(-5?~-3?) / -40? to -50?:-3?
Power source: 9V Batteries (recommended: alkaline batteries)
External dimensions: 68(W)×140(H)×38(D)mm
Weight: 68g (Does not contain batteries)
Good for: Hot air stations and guns, IR Stations, BGA Replacement, Reworks, other no direct contact.
My Review: Temperature is accurate, LCD update very fast but poor view angles. A must buy tool.
(To be continued, i will write more on my spare times)
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