Solder Station and Multimeter

[shovenose]

Hello :-)

I need a recommendation on a good solder station (and some good solder for it),and a good Digital Multi Meter.

Everything together I don't want to spent more than $70.
Thank you!

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: Solder Station and Multimeter

For a cheap soldering station you can't beat this: http://www.eevblog.com/2011/04/25/ee...rework-review/

As for the meter, save up to $100 to get something decent.

[digge]

Re: Solder Station and Multimeter

For soldering iron, anything that has variable temperature and is 50W or more with a descent tip (the kind thats flat at the end). A hot air station is good to but not usefull for "regular soldering". If you can buy a more known brand cause you will want to be able to get new tips for it sooner or later.

Not sure if you meant an iron or not but if you meant hotair i can recommend the one Th3_uN1Qu3 linked, i have it and it works great. Only downside ive found is that its a bit low on effect for 4+ layers pcbs with huge grounding layers.

When it comes to multimeters i would agree with former poster Th3_uN1Qu3. If buying new and on tight budget you can have a look at the agilents, or buy something like fluke used for quality. If really really tight budget you can go for even cheaper brands like uni-t or similar, slightly lower quality wise but still ok. Exactly what meter you would want/need is hard to recommend since dont know what you are working on mostly.

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: Solder Station and Multimeter

I automatically assumed that you are looking for a hot air station. I do fine with my 25W and 65W soldering irons thank you.

As for meters, my more fancy meters are Uni-T and while there would be room for improvement i'm fairly happy with their performance.

[mariushm]

Re: Solder Station and Multimeter

I've ordered an Uni-T UT61E multimeter from eBay - it's 50$ and theoretically better than the 65$ UT61D model reviewed on eevblog in the 100$ multimeter review.

You can find the review here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3WGaiYF2sk

The 61D model is only 6000 counts while the 61E is 22000 count, has better precision (at least on paper) and has logging through some usb/serial thing (2 readings per second).

It's still at customs here in the city, I'll go pick it up tomorrow or in a couple of days.


I've also ordered a hot air atten 858d - seemed good for the price. I'll still have to open it up to make sure it's wired correctly (some people on the eevforum reported they're purchases were not grounded properly)

Just a couple of days ago I ordered this thing from eBay



http://www.ebay.com/itm/180742581197...84.m1497.l2649

Not sure how effective it will be considering it's only 30w but at 10$ shipping included it seems like a good compromise between a cheap 2-3$ manual desoldering tool and a 150$ Hakko gun (or a no-name 70$ chinese clone)

I'm considering buying an ESR Micro next.. probably going to get the 3.1 version without case and batteries at 1000 rubles - that's about 32 dollars. Since Russia is close to Romania, shipping would be cheap as well.

If you're not fixing stuff all the time, it's often not worth it - capacitors are cheap enough you can just replace and see if that makes a difference.

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: Solder Station and Multimeter

The 61D model is only 6000 counts while the 61E is 22000 count, has better precision (at least on paper) and has logging through some usb/serial thing (2 readings per second).

I have the 60E, mine has a serial cable. Can't comment on USB/serial adaptors with it, my computer (still) has a serial port. I can say that the logging works great on any Windows OS including 64-bit versions, even tho the software is written several years ago. The serial connection is optically coupled thru IR sensors.

[shovenose]

Re: Solder Station and Multimeter

Thanks for the recommendations. I'll check out the links and see what I can do.
@The_unique: I meant like soldering iron not hot air rework
thanks though!

[Agent24]

Re: Solder Station and Multimeter

Just a couple of days ago I ordered this thing from eBay



http://www.ebay.com/itm/180742581197...84.m1497.l2649

Not sure how effective it will be considering it's only 30w but at 10$ shipping included it seems like a good compromise between a cheap 2-3$ manual desoldering tool and a 150$ Hakko gun (or a no-name 70$ chinese clone)

I think it would be OK for situations where a non-heated tool would work also. I doubt it will be much better on anything else, due to the nature of the 'one-shot' pump action.

However, since it's got a heated tip, you may be able to hook up your own vacuum pump and give it much better performance, or even hook a blower up and use it as a really cheap and nasty hot air tool.

[shovenose]

Re: Solder Station and Multimeter

I've ordered an Uni-T UT61E multimeter from eBay - it's 50$ and theoretically better than the 65$ UT61D model reviewed on eevblog in the 100$ multimeter review.

You can find the review here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3WGaiYF2sk

The 61D model is only 6000 counts while the 61E is 22000 count, has better precision (at least on paper) and has logging through some usb/serial thing (2 readings per second).

It's still at customs here in the city, I'll go pick it up tomorrow or in a couple of days.

Let me know how you like it, OK?

[retiredcaps]

Re: Solder Station and Multimeter

I've ordered an Uni-T UT61E multimeter from eBay

Polish website review of it here

http://flodins.info/moim-zdaniem/81-...tr-uni-t-ut61e

Use google translate to read.

[mariushm]

Re: Solder Station and Multimeter

Posted a few thoughts and pictures with it here: https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showthread.php?t=17099

To answer your question... I like it a lot so far

[c_hegge]

Re: Solder Station and Multimeter

[Post deleted]
^Spam?

[Agent24]

Re: Solder Station and Multimeter

I wouldn't think so

[Agent24]

Re: Solder Station and Multimeter

Just a couple of days ago I ordered this thing from eBay



http://www.ebay.com/itm/180742581197...84.m1497.l2649

Not sure how effective it will be considering it's only 30w but at 10$ shipping included it seems like a good compromise between a cheap 2-3$ manual desoldering tool and a 150$ Hakko gun (or a no-name 70$ chinese clone)

I just found this:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI...m=320771305374

Looks like the next step up. I wonder how it runs, surely it's nowhere near the Hakko 808 for example but it might be quite nice for single layer boards - at least you wouldn't have to keep re-cocking it all the time.

Then again, you'd probably have to clean it all the time instead.

[Agent24]

Re: Solder Station and Multimeter

mariushm, did you receive your heated solder sucker yet? Would be interesting to hear what it's like and get some better photos than the ones on eBay.

[mariushm]

Re: Solder Station and Multimeter

Actually, yes. I did receive it yesterday ... seems like the customs here focuses more on packages from China these days so it took an extra week or so to receive it.

I can make pictures of the sucker but the item itself is really very close to the pictures I already posted. The two tips look good, they screw on the base and they heat up fine.

However, the problem I see is that the thing barely sucks any air. There's just very little sucking action. I've tried it on the video card I posted here some time ago, trying to desolder some capacitors on it and while the solder did melt a bit it just wouldn't be sucked up - seems there's just more surface tension than what the sucker can do to pull up. In the end I just used a 100w gun and pressed sideway on the caps and they popped out with clean holes.

Another thing worth noting is that once the thing warmed up nicely, it started to make a steady thin smoke, which seems to come from where the round PCB gets screwed in the black plastic. I'm not sure if it's from the plastic burning or from the actual heating element inside but being powered on for the first time, it could be just the heating element so I'm not too worried about it.

So what can I see... I won it for 1$ but paid 10$ in shipping - kind of not so good deal but it could turn up to be a great one. I'm thinking of getting one of those car vacuum cleaners or something like that and mod this sucker. Shouldn't be very hard.


I am however very pleased with the Atten 858d+ hot air gun - for 55$ + 10$ in shipping, it turned out to be quite well made. aluminum case, fan inside the hand tool wasn't cracked like in the eevblog video, everything looks Ok inside, it heats up fast and maintains temperature..

I can post some pictures with it or make some video... though I must say I wasn't able to completely tear it apart, just got the bottom end off which was enough to inspect the circuit board and the transformer inside to check the grounding.
The screws they used are not that great, they're screwed hard and when trying to remove them, one screw got damaged and can't unscrew it anymore.

I'll add some pictures of the solder sucker later.

[mariushm]

Re: Solder Station and Multimeter

Pictures...

Posting them on external host because they're 3000px wide and i'm too lazy to resize them...



(paper sheet is A4 format)




The plug is the one in the ebay pictures, i cut it down and mounted the European kind .. cable wires are thick enough for this device (copper strands). No grounding through the mains cable, the wire with the crocodile clip at the end goes to the screws of the metal tube that heats up.





it's not glue, it's some kind of thermal tape, the tips screw well on the metal end.

[Agent24]

Re: Solder Station and Multimeter

However, the problem I see is that the thing barely sucks any air. There's just very little sucking action. I've tried it on the video card I posted here some time ago, trying to desolder some capacitors on it and while the solder did melt a bit it just wouldn't be sucked up - seems there's just more surface tension than what the sucker can do to pull up.

Might be just not enough heat - especially on a multilayer board. What if you try using your Atten hot air as a pre-heater?

Just found where someone said the 40 watt version works well: http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcfo...or-desoldering - unfortunately it seems they are only in 110v. Of course his DIP IC probably didn't have any ground planes like your capacitors would have.

Then again maybe yours has an air leak somewhere. What size is the tip you used? If it was too big you might have had bad contact around the joint.

Another thing worth noting is that once the thing warmed up nicely, it started to make a steady thin smoke, which seems to come from where the round PCB gets screwed in the black plastic. I'm not sure if it's from the plastic burning or from the actual heating element inside but being powered on for the first time, it could be just the heating element so I'm not too worried about it.

Yeah I would say the element. I recall seeing in a manual for some soldering iron that up to 10 minutes of smoke on first use was normal.

So what can I see... I won it for 1$ but paid 10$ in shipping - kind of not so good deal but it could turn up to be a great one. I'm thinking of getting one of those car vacuum cleaners or something like that and mod this sucker. Shouldn't be very hard.

I like the idea of attaching an external vacuum. Could be turned into quite a useful tool that way, even if it was just for single\double sided boards. I doubt there is any good way I could remove anything with more than 3 pins from a double-sided board with the tools I have and keep the part intact.

Thanks for the photos too, they look good.

Didn't know it had a transformer - does the heater work on 24v or something?


Interestingly, I found one with a slightly different design: http://www.ebay.com/itm/270842703523

The ones like yours don't ship to my country, but this one does. Maybe I'll get one for fun.

[eltrkbrd]

Re: Solder Station and Multimeter

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