Products > Test Equipment
Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
Kosmic:
So I received the decade box I bought couple a weeks ago. Everything is in excellent shape and working perfectly. All the switches are clean and not used at all. I double checked all the range with my Philips pm2534 and both were in agreement to the last digit :-+
The 0.01 Ohm resistors are interesting. look like they were hand crafted individually. I guess that's what you need to do when you want a 0.01 Ohm resistor at 0.01%
Specmaster:
--- Quote from: Kosmic on June 28, 2018, 02:16:00 am ---So I received the decade box I bought couple a weeks ago. Everything is in excellent shape and working perfectly. All the switches are clean and not used at all. I double checked all the range with my Philips pm2534 and both were in agreement to the last digit :-+
The 0.01 Ohm resistors are interesting. look like they were hand crafted individually. I guess that's what you need to do when you want a 0.01 Ohm resistor at 0.01%
--- End quote ---
That's a nice catch you got there, ideal for checking your Philips2534 against. I have a decade box with 0.1% resistors that use on mine and I do a cross check on other meters. Very unlikely to find that they all drift the same amount, more chance of winning the lottery jackpot I think.
From mobile device so predictive text might have struck again [emoji83]
bd139:
Quick diversion into soldering ... Referring to my comment about soldering irons in this thread in December 2017 I decided to have a look at new ones again due to some major annoyances.
Honestly I'm not that happy with the T12. I had to do too much frigging around with it to get anywhere and the handle is dicky already. Plus it takes bloody forever to get on the slow boat from China whenever it does go wrong which means I have to have two on hand. Plus the three stands I tried were shit. And my Quicko unit doesn't allow me to cal due to a software bug. All I want to do is solder shit!
Ergo it was back to the Weller for a bit. Which isn't bad but has some problems hitting ground planes hard due to the new tip styles which is a bugger as I do a lot of work on ground planes. Also due to magnastat everything stuck to the iron like glue like component leads and SMD parts. Where did the 0805 go? Oh it's stuck half way up the iron. And the last straw: Last week I bought a lower temperature chisel tip for the Weller, a and found that the thing won't fit in the handpiece due to the tip being too wide at the top. The shank won't screw up. Genuine Weller 4PTA6-1 tip from RS. Fuck it had enough.
So reviews were consulted, information collated (thanks to this forum) and a spreadsheet knocked up and ranked.
One new Metcal SP900 arriving tomorrow :-+
Not as good as the MX but more cost effective for low volume and repairs.
Specmaster:
I'm happy with the T12's, I honestly think that you went down the wrong route with the portable low voltage jobbie, had you gone with the Quicko T12-952 full kit with their power supply then I think that you'd have been very happy with it and TBH I think that the stock handle that comes with it is actually better built than the 9501 handle that we both went for.
Certainly the Metcal is supposed to be a good unit but there again, you could have had upto 5 of the T12 952's for that money so even allowing for that slow boat (which is getting quicker now) you'd never have been without an iron as you'd had spares. I have never had to use my 2nd one that I got as a backup yet apart from testing it.
bd139:
I’ve got a mains T12 as well. Honestly I haven’t bothered to assemble it yet as I’m unable to make myself happy enough with it to consider using it full time. The mods required to make it safe are extensive and I haven’t had the inclination to jump through the hoops. I think both handles suck. The 9501 handle’s strain relief keeps buggering off plus I’m getting intermittent problems with tip feedback which has caused it to blow two tips now. The default 936 style handle I haven’t tried extensively but the requirement to change tips occasionally makes it difficult to use as like the weller it requires partially dismantling.
Granted the T12 is objectively better than the weller in performance but not quality or reliability. If they fixed those issues, even for 2x the price it’d be a killer platform.
I wrote a list of requirements, including budget, and the metcal came out on top. Fast tip change, next day availability of all parts without postal buggery, very fast heat up and delivery, long tip lifespan, handle size, reliability, no fiddling around getting stuff working.
Edit: to note I’m keeping the DC T12. It was purchased for running off an SLA really. It will do the job for light duty work there.
Edit 2: tggzzz describes the above problems as fettling and that’s exactly what it is. This is an objective get work done and get out tool. I rather like making things and seeing the results more than playing fix the tools (test gear aside as that has some learning potential)
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