Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[mnementh]

I dunno... I grew up poor, and my mom couldn't afford to get me a lot of frivolous things. I remember the sad look on her face when she had to tell me she just couldn't afford something I wanted. Of course I didn't understand at the time; I was just disappointed. I want him to have things I couldn't. I can't really afford this either, but I'm gonna do it anyways.  And you don't know the half of it; last night I took us to the store and bought us journals so we could each write our own PokeDex. I've already got shopping lists and build notes, and game notes from the tournament.

I tell myself it's just because it was an "event"; but I really WANTED to take him to it and do it WITH him. 

Yeah, it does add up...  but you can add a LOT of bling for the cost of even a FX-888 (NOT T12 compatible), AND buy some genuine Hakko tips for the ones you use all the time. The KSGER's firmware is intuitive and self-explanatory, while the FX-951 (Genuine Hakko T12 station) is downright user-unfriendly. And my KSGER V2.1 has ALREADY lasted longer than my FX-951 did before it died in a fireball of it's own creation.

I'm vacillating over that alloy/carbon vs the stainless. Yeah, the SS costs enough to buy another whole station... but it's still less than half the cost of a decent handle for my MetCal. Half of what makes the MetCal so awesome to work with is that slim contoured grip on the handle; they knew what the furk they were doing when they designed that, what people who use the thing all day need from an iron. 

mnem
Not like THAT...

[beanflying]

While I have my two Hanba/Aoyue's on the bench (Iron, Tweezer, Rework and Desoldeing ready to go). If I was starting again (or restarting) the TS100 I have in my onsite bag would go on the bench with a rework gun and I would be happy. My desoldering gun only gets used when I have a known job coming up and I tend to reach for the solder sucker or wick before it. Tweezers apart from an occasional desoldering job with wide blades are a WOFTAM.

Whatever you do have child friendly search on when you are looking for Pokemon stuff too 

[bd139]

LMAO at Pokemon search. Yes been there by accident.

Honestly I haven’t touched my T12 for ages. The PS900 is so much much better. When you factor the total cost (mainly RM’a shafting) and time on the T12 into the equation it’s a zero sum game.

[mnementh]

While I have my two Hanba/Aoyue's on the bench (Iron, Tweezer, Rework and Desoldeing ready to go). If I was starting again (or restarting) the TS100 I have in my onsite bag would go on the bench with a rework gun and I would be happy. My desoldering gun only gets used when I have a known job coming up and I tend to reach for the solder sucker or wick before it. Tweezers apart from an occasional desoldering job with wide blades are a WOFTAM.

Whatever you do have child friendly search on when you are looking for Pokemon stuff too 

I don't let my son look over my shoulder. And I don't mind a little kinky here and there.

Son's laptop & tablet have parental ratings enabled, though. 

I had one TS100... twice... never again. The tip --> handle fitment is just plain piss-poor design; the tip is too big, too long, too much leverage against the little bit inside the handle. Had one arrived cracked at that joint; RMA'd it and the replacement arrived broken in two at the same point. Fuck that noize.

mnem
*Toddling off to ded*

[Specmaster]

   Defpom shows two alloy handles at about 2:00; one with a blue foam grip they sent with the review station, and another alloy handle that he has connected to another station. It is the other one with the silicone grip that KSGER and Banggood refer to as the "new" handle; though it looks to me from the listings like both are the same alloy extrusion with foam or silicone grip.

[EDIT] You can see clearly what I'm talking about re: the really long offset of the tip compared to grip as well. Ehhhhhh... [/EDIT]

He was excited about the foam grip; but speaking as someone who has done production soldering, I'll say with conviction that foam grips blow vs silicone. Especially when they get a few months old and full of oils from your fingertips; they can get downright nasty and even smell.

   Looks to me like that's not a button, but rather a threaded hole for a bulkhead vacuum connector. I'd say so you can install a vacuum pump inside if you want to use a desoldering handle.

mnem
*Back to the grind*

That would bug the feck out of me as they do not list anything remotely suitable to act as a vacuum pump to allow it to be used as desoldering station. As you know, desoldering stations usually have a switch on the handle to switch the pump on and off when required, once the solder has been liquified, otherwise the air being sucked into the nozzle tends to cool the tip down and is counterproductive to job in hand, Equally there is no air vent in the enclosure for the expelled air to escape from. 

                   

KSGER has a suitable vacuum pump here for $65, and I believe the desoldering guns they recommend use a mechanical valve/reservoir and the compressor cycles on a pressure switch. I'm pretty sure that if you're gonna build and plumb this beast, you can figure out how to make an inconspicuous vent opening.   They also have this utterly delicious 3-in-1 enclosure for $104 and this much simpler 2-in-1 enclosure for $37. If only they would hire somebody who speaks English well enough to run a spell-checker...   

That delightfully minimalist iron stand is here, but costs $28, and this dead-sexy alloy & Carbon fiber tube version of the stainless steel handle is only $22. So if you want to upgrade the entire business end of your T12 to the "new shiny", it'll cost you a cool $50.  I recognize these two items as accessories for their BSSS-01 "BattleStar Soldering Station" product a year or 3 ago; a limited edition beast CNC carved from a huge brick of anodized aluminum that sold for approx $300,  now discontinued. See below.

mnem
*ZZZzzzZZZzzz...*

Arh, so you looked at AliExpress, I only looked at Banggood cos I figured that if they sold that twin unit, they would also the bits to go with it. That was my dumb mistake, crediting them with more sense then they had[emoji23]

I agree, there are some nice T12 units out there, mine are not Ksger but Quicko, the black ones look just the same and as far as I'm concerned perform the same. Boost works well and if working on something that sucks heat away, just swop tip for something that has a higher thermal mass, I love mine and thank you for pointing me in the T12 direction. My fake Hakko has not been switched on since acquiring my first T12[emoji106]

[mnementh]

Yeah, AliEx is where KSGER has their actual storefront. That's where to look for the bits, though I'm sure Bang-em-good will have some king of vacuum pump you can put in there... that was the exact kind of goods they got their start with.  And inflatables, of course. 

[EDIT] https://www.banggood.com/search/vacuum-pump.html?sc=1&sbc=1

LMAO at Pokemon search. Yes been there by accident.

Honestly I haven’t touched my T12 for ages. The PS900 is so much much better. When you factor the total cost (mainly RM’a shafting) and time on the T12 into the equation it’s a zero sum game.

I still use my T12 for stuff where I need some of my specialty tips. It's a good station; just the MX500 is... stellar. Interstellar even.  And I enjoyed building my T12 station. There's real value in building it yourself the way YOU want it.

I have an Aoyue 2702 I refurbished with a FX9501 handle years ago; it was my go-to for EVERYTHING. Now I reach for the MX500 first, the KSGER T12 second, and the Ayoue gets used when I need to do hot air rework. Period.

mnem
What, I'm still here?

[Specmaster]

LMAO at Pokemon search. Yes been there by accident.

Honestly I haven’t touched my T12 for ages. The PS900 is so much much better. When you factor the total cost (mainly RM’a shafting) and time on the T12 into the equation it’s a zero sum game.

To be fair though, you did approach it from an off centre angle, I can honestly say that I've nothing but praise for the system when used with a more conventional set up. The only slight niggle I had was actually finding a truly suitable iron stand that would accept the 9501 handle effectively, that accomplished, it's a good system.   

[Specmaster]

Yeah, AliEx is where KSGER has their actual storefront. That's where to look for the bits, though I'm sure Bang-em-good will have some king of vacuum pump you can put in there... that was the exact kind of goods they got their start with.  And inflatables, of course. 

[EDIT] https://www.banggood.com/search/vacuum-pump.html?sc=1&sbc=1


mnem
What, I'm still here?

I saw those pumps but why on earth would you want to fit a 12v pump in there when the power supply is 24v?

[med6753]

Spent the afternoon checking it's overall calibration and things are not going well. As shown yesterday on the 20V range it's dead nuts. Not so on the mV range. Significantly out of spec. Attempts to bring it into spec cause the upper ranges to go out of spec. There's quite a bit of interaction between ranges and apparently something has gone fubar. Probably in some divider circuit. So it needs some troubleshooting. And I have the dead 8800A for parts if needed. Work on it more tomorrow.

If some ranges are better than others, you're right - the DC buffer is a suspect.  I had an 8600A which did this, and the problem turned out to be the range program PROM.  Others have seen problems with the reed relays, but that tends to cause drift rather than just out of spec readings.  I think there's a method in the manual which describes how to inject a DC voltage directly into the ADC, so you can verify that it works independently of the divider circuits. 

Does it zero properly after warmup?  If so, then the input FETs are probably OK.  Leaky FETs would cause significant offset in the lower ranges, but not in the higher ones.

The DC zero, DC bias, and Master offset are all OK. After stepping away from it and getting some sleep it turns out it's the idiot turning the trim pots that's at fault.    2 things. First, as the manual clearly states the top cover must be in place when performing a cal or it will affect your readings. It wasn't.  2nd, see attached chart. It is absolutely well within the limits as shown in Table 4-2. So I was looking for a problem but there wasn't one.   

D'OH. 



 

[bd139]

I saw those pumps but why on earth would you want to fit a 12v pump in there when the power supply is 24v?

bang!good   

[beanflying]

The DC zero, DC bias, and Master offset are all OK. After stepping away from it and getting some sleep it turns out it's the idiot turning the trim pots that's at fault.    2 things. First, as the manual clearly states the top cover must be in place when performing a cal or it will affect your readings. It wasn't.  2nd, see attached chart. It is absolutely well within the limits as shown in Table 4-2. So I was looking for a problem but there wasn't one.   

D'OH. 

PEBKAC meets failure to RTFM meets retirement stress.   

[mnementh]

Yeah, AliEx is where KSGER has their actual storefront. That's where to look for the bits, though I'm sure Bang-em-good will have some king of vacuum pump you can put in there... that was the exact kind of goods they got their start with.  And inflatables, of course.  [EDIT] https://www.banggood.com/search/vacuum-pump.html?sc=1&sbc=1
mnem
What, I'm still here?

I saw those pumps but why on earth would you want to fit a 12v pump in there when the power supply is 24v?

I'll be damned... 3 pages of vacuum pumps, and the only one that isn't 12V or USB powered is a metering pump. Well, at those prices you can afford to add a ballast resistor, a cheap brushed  ESC, or better yet, put 2 in series and suck twice as hard.

Seriously though... not sure the added load on the PSU wouldn't adversely affect performance, making a separate power supply a better deal anyways. Definitely cheap enough you can afford to go that route. 

I know the ratings on the 24V unit say only 0.5A; but that REALLY sounds unusually low for any kind of brushed-motor driven pump that actually does ANYTHING of use. I think they may have fudged a little, or the rating is entirely no-load.

bang!good   

To be fair, that one was Guurgle user error. I figured for sure they had to have SOMETHING that would work. And really, they DO. It's just a little more work, but you save $25-45 or so. Nobody in this channel is going to have trouble realizing any of the options above. 

mnem
"Welcome to the suck."

[Specmaster]

haha, the psu is rated at 5A, not 0.5A, have you ran out of coffee today? 

EDIT.

That being said, 24V @ 75 watt is actually 3A, so what is the true rating of the PSU, I'm pretty sure that mine (sourced from AliExpress) is a 5A one, I'll check and report back

[mnementh]

Right... PSU rated 5A for a dual 70W Soldering station. How much overhead before that pump motor starts to affect performance of the heating elements, especially if they fudged the current rating?

mnem
*Ploop*

[Ice-Tea]

 

[med6753]

Right... PSU rated 5A for a dual 70W Soldering station. How much overhead before that pump motor starts to affect performance of the heating elements, especially if they fudged the current rating?

Wait... gimme a sec... lemme see if I can find specs for the PSU used in the dual unit.

mnem
*Ploop*

This works great and takes no amps. 

[Specmaster]

Oh shit, I thought you was referring the PSU and not the pump 

But the Banggood rated PSU is 75W (3A) and the AliExpress one that I have is a 108W (4.5A) which gives mine a significant power boost. 

[med6753]

Nice! 

[mnementh]

Two claws up on the Wall o' leCroy!!! 

Oh shit, I thought you was referring the PSU and not the pump 

But the Banggood rated PSU is 75W (3A) and the AliExpress one that I have is a 108W (4.5A) which gives mine a significant power boost. 

Wait... gimme a sec... lemme see if I can find specs for the PSU used in the dual unit.

*Rummage-rummage-rummage... surf-surf-surf... clickity-click...*

Damn... that 5A PSU is the biggest they have, aside from a PWM controller they have for a hot-air gun. Definitely short on overhead there.

mnem
Who needs a shot of coffee now?   

[Specmaster]

Yes you are correct but thats on AliExpress, Banggood don't have a KSGER power supply for seperate sale, but the one fitted in the double decker station is only 75-80w 3A.

The desoldering station I have is this one at CPC https://cpc.farnell.com/duratool/d00672/desoldering-station-uk-eu-plug/dp/SD01384 and is rated at 80W so it KSGER might be powerful enough.

I like my desoldering station, it handles big heatsinks well enough when I have been harvesting items from old defunct boards. I think I would prefer separate units TBH, if you get a fault, especially power related, it only effects the one device.

With that desoldering tool, I have also used it to solder in the replacement part as well, saves having 2 units on the go at the same time, works really well too. 

[mnementh]

24V/360W $21

*WHUMMMMP!!!*  SOLVED!!!

mnem
Maybe I need a little LESS caffeine...

[mnementh]

   Yes you are correct but thats on AliExpress, Banggood don't have a KSGER power supply for seperate sale, but the one fitted in the double decker station is only 75-80w 3A.

The desoldering station I have is this one at CPC https://cpc.farnell.com/duratool/d00672/desoldering-station-uk-eu-plug/dp/SD01384 and is rated at 80W so it KSGER might be powerful enough.

I like my desoldering station, it handles big heatsinks well enough when I have been harvesting items from old defunct boards. I think I would prefer separate units TBH, if you get a fault, especially power related, it only effects the one device.

With that desoldering tool, I have also used it to solder in the replacement part as well, saves having 2 units on the go at the same time, works really well too. 

Oh, NOW you're going to bring COMMON SENSE into it?!?  Damn you and your beige box of sensible solder-suckage straight to the abyss!!!


We were talking about blinging out and building a battlestation, NOT what's sensible. I was trying to see if I could bring the prices down to something bearable.  You really can't judge a product line by what BunkGoods carries; I think it is far more reasonable to go to that manufacturer's store, which in this case IS on AliEx.

[EDIT: Anyways; the WX-DC2412 PSU in the double-decker unit is rated 4A cont/6A surge; quite good considering it's only driving a single 70W iron and maybe the CPU/display of the hot air controller as well. The hot air gun is completely controlled by a separate 800W PWM controller board at the back of the unit where the IEC socket is.]

mnem

[mnementh]

   Speaking of bling, I finally gave in and ordered the KSGER Stainless Steel FX9501 handle from Banggood; I had enough affiliate points to bring cost down under $30. 

mnem
Forgive me mother, for I have sinned...

[Specmaster]

That is better for control of the tip but it is 4mm longer to the tip than the 9501 handle is 

[mnementh]

That is better for control of the tip but it is 4mm longer to the tip than the 9501 handle is 

Oh, now you're just agitatin'. 

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I'll still like it better due to the slimmer profile of the grip area. 4mm longer I can live with;

40mm longer is just a massive " were you thinking when you designed this? Were you thinking AT ALL?!?"

mnem
Carry on agitatin', please!