What kind of gear do you use?

[lord]

Hi all,
I suffer from a little known disease called GAS, few friends of mine have it also. It is a Gadget Acquirmenet Sindrome


Anyway, i would like to know what kind of rework and soldering systems are you guys working on and what kind of expirience are you having with it. I am in a new soldering stationa acquirement period, and for now ERSA i-Con is my first chioce. At least if anyone convinces me otherwise

I have a SMD rework system - hot air + soldering iron



For now i use this soldering iron, it is ok for soldering, but when it comes to cleaning solder under BGA boards it fails. I think it is to weak.

For BGA rework i bought 862D++ with soldering iron and hot air
Soldering iron sucks heavy, hot air is not working all the time as it should (i need to restart the device several times to get it working), the preheater is stronger than the 862 regular (i sometimes removed the BGA chips only by preheater), and the IR also works like a charm.
Only problem that i have that some boards are twisting when heated ( i think that's because preheaters little dimensions). And i didn't had a chip that big that i couldn't remove it.



Looking forward

[lord]

Re: What kind of gear do you use?

So? Anybody?

[tom66]

Re: What kind of gear do you use?

BK Precision 2709B multimeter

Rigol DS1102E oscilloscope (100 MHz, 2 ch, 1 GS/s)

Formerly HP 54501A oscilloscope (100 MHz, 4 ch, 10 MS/s) - Sold it to a friend

Formerly Gould OS300 oscilloscope (20 MHz, 2 ch, CRT) - Sold it on eBay

Solomon Systech Precision 6.5 Digit Multimeter (0.012% on DC volts; a score on eBay for 45 quid.)

Tagasaki 30V, 3A power supply (indestructable, and very heavy!)

Atlas ESR70 cap and ESR tester

Antex Soldering Station at home (60W; my workplace was throwing it out so I nabbed it along with a bunch of tips, £200 new!)

Aoyue 968 hot air/soldering station (rubbish, half broken and a waste of £139)

Nikon Coolpix 7600 (excellent macro pictures of PCBs)

[smason]

Re: What kind of gear do you use?

There's a thread on this with pics https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showthread.php?t=18547


Hakko 936
Old 80's Weller WTCP station
Sparkfun (rebranded Ayoe) hot air SMD station
Hitachi 212 scope
Fluke 77 and 87
Atlas semiconductor tester
ESR Micro
Tektronix Func generator (dead Ebay special fixed for dirt cheap)
One Hung Low bench power supply.
Blue ring tester
One Hung Low SMD tweezers
I think that's it....

[heavymachines]

Re: What kind of gear do you use?

Elenco dmm
x tronic rework station
infared station
radio shack soldier iron station
still working on getting more equipment..

[jeremykum]

Re: What kind of gear do you use?

No brand 30v 3amp regulated power supply (just enough for me to test shorted boards)

Sanwa DMM CD771 1000v (cheapest around withstanding 1000v)

Atlas ESR 70, DCA, SCR, LCR. (bought 1 shot cause shipping is very high from UK to Malaysia equivalent to a unit of ESR)

Prokits Solder + hot air station SS989 (crap, frequently burnt hot air heating element, the solder tip came with it melted after 2 week usage and replace with a Hakko tip)

Quick IR Rework Station 1760E, nice gadget for bga rework coupled with a old NEC notebook (need serial port to control the IR Station)

Mainly repairing notebook, pc mainboards and LCD monitors.

GAS, I guess I also have the same syndrome. But it actually helps a lot in my work. Looking forward to acquire in near future:

better power supply
laser thermometer
IR camera (maybe get a used SLR and modify)

And wish to thanks everyone in badcaps for sharing their expertise and help me in solving many of the problems I encounter from the post within the forums.

[lord]

Re: What kind of gear do you use?

There's a thread on this with pics https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showthread.php?t=18547


Hakko 936
Old 80's Weller WTCP station
Sparkfun (rebranded Ayoe) hot air SMD station
Hitachi 212 scope
Fluke 77 and 87
Atlas semiconductor tester
ESR Micro
Tektronix Func generator (dead Ebay special fixed for dirt cheap)
One Hung Low bench power supply.
Blue ring tester
One Hung Low SMD tweezers
I think that's it....

Didn't know

[lucco85]

Re: What kind of gear do you use?

Achi ir6000 (sold) and I worked with her for about 2 years, I think this is the ideal rework station for start. It is not expensive and is well capable of doing the job.
ZM 5860 currently using and get ready for an upgrade
Ws81 Weller solder station 80w of power, comfortable working with BGA applications. At the time I bought it, I had to test and Weller WX2 Two handles 120w but I was not particularly impressed with it considering the price.
Uni-T DSO UT4202C logic analyzer and DMM.
Uni-t functioning generator UTG9005C
Lab Power Supply 30V 5A 2ch (can in series, and parallel operation)
GORDAK 952 Hot Air Station

[aqibi2000]

Re: What kind of gear do you use?

-Jovy Re 8500 IR rework station
-Atten Hot air station
-70w Soldering station
-Capacitor Wizard CapB1 ESR Meter
-Amprobe (made by Fluke) AM240 Multimeter
-15v 1amp supply for diagnostics
- Building my Main PSU at the moment.

[lord]

Re: What kind of gear do you use?

I bought a new soldering iron
ERSA i-CON Pico, and i love it!! It heats up to 450°C for 9 seconds!!

[momaka]

Re: What kind of gear do you use?

Looks very good and not like the cheap ones. Does it use cartridge tips?

[lord]

Re: What kind of gear do you use?

They are changeable. Different sizes and shapes
And by now, i can tell you it is working pretty good!

[momaka]

Re: What kind of gear do you use?

They are changeable.

Yeah I can see that. But my question was if each tip has its own embedded heating element or if the tips are more like those cheaper more common ones where the heating element is not embedded in the tip?

[lord]

Re: What kind of gear do you use?

oh, i didn't understand what you meant. Now i do
There is no heater nor the ptc in the tip. Although you can easily change the heater and the ptc, as they are easy to remove. Just pull them out of the handle.

[Pentium4]

Re: What kind of gear do you use?

I use a Weller WD1 and I love it

[eniac22]

Re: What kind of gear do you use?

Aoyue 968 hot air/soldering station - is good for beginners but is not lead free and i have problem to desoldering some parts - not used any more

aoyue 2702a+ the negative is that can't use desoldering gun & heat gun the same time

ACHI IR-PRO-SC BGA REWORK STATION

[momaka]

Re: What kind of gear do you use?

There is no heater nor the ptc in the tip.

Ah. I probably wouldn't like it then. I prefer heater and PTC to be embedded in the tip - more reliable and better response from the station in terms of temperature regulation.

ACHI IR-PRO-SC BGA REWORK STATION

Open that thing and rewire it NOW! Before it goes
Both terminal blocks in it are a mess.