$120-$150 Budget build to learn Soldering. Need opinions on my selected parts

[OntoTheWoods]

I would first like to preface this by saying that I do not live in the US, but rather in the Philippines. That's why some prices are cheaper, and some items like the Pinecil v2 are more expensive to procure.

Model	Product	Price
PTS200 v2 Aluminum	Soldering Iron	$21
Aneng 683 Touch	Multimeter	$15
Hayve 7" HD 1200X 12MP	Digital Microscope	$39.5
Yihua 8858-V (I don't think this is enough, more info below)	Hot Air Station	$19
Yihua 948DQ-I	Fume Extractor	$15
Goot GS-104 Medium	Desoldering Pump	$14
Anker Atom 2 60w	Iron Power Source	0
	GRAND TOTAL	123.5

Soldering Iron - PTS200 v2 - $21

I've searched reddit and found a couple commonly recommended Irons such as the:

    Pinecil v2 - $40.

    TS80P - $49

    HS02 - $31

    PTS200 v2 - $21 (just because the seller is doing a sale + coupons, original price is around $32)

The Pinecil V2 and ts80p are one of the most commonly recommended budget Irons I've seen on that sub.

However, I do think they're a bit outdated (but can be seen as a testament to their reliability) and based on the 2024 posts I've seen, the HS02 seems to be showing up quite a bit.

But after digging deeper, I've seen the PTS200 v2 come up a few times, and just from a pure spec-wise comparison, The HS02 and PTS200 v2 seem to be the same in terms of build quality and having the ability to reach 100w.

However, the similarities end there, the most glaring difference is their shape, and I find the PTS200's shape to be subjectively better. The PTS200 also use the ESP32, which theoretically could run IronOS, although official support for it is still currently unavailable. Although there's a custom firmware out for it, not that I know much about that, I just wanna plug my Iron and dissolve some solder. PTS200 can also accommodate t12,t13,ts tips.

So there, that's how I decided on the PTS200 v2. I crossed out Pinecil/ts80p because they're twice the price, has less max power, and are less durable. I crossed out HS02 because if it's the same as the PTS200 in terms of build quality and 100w power, the next most important thing to consider would be the shape and then tip compatibility.

Aneng 683 Touch - $15

Any multimeter would've probably worked for my use-case. The design, recharge-ability, touch screen, manual mode (compared to the 681/682) and extra bells & whistles @ this price was just too attractive to pass up.

Hayve 7" HD 1200X 12MP - $39.5

Seems like a decent plug-and-play solution at an attractive price.

However, I'm a bit on the fence on this one as I have particular setup in mind wherein I could build a 4k streaming digital microscope. Would be a cool project to do once I get the hang of soldering.

I could potentially can get a 4k Sony imx 678-based Microscope + Orange Pi + 4k capture card for around $110 and build my own 4k microscope set that can stream to my iPad Pro or 4k screen. Maybe add in another $15-20 for a built-in battery pack that I could read the power from as well and throw it to the feed for a truly wireless experience.

Software-wise, it seems fairly easy to do in theory, but that's because I'm a programmer and already made much more complicated web apps. Just setup Nginx as your web server, install a video encoder, setup to encode the video sent by the capture card, encode to something like rtmp, have Nginx serve it using the device's local ip address (or your ddns of choice). Access web server from my iPad/Phone/PC. I just need to study the hardware side.

I also own a 3d printer, so I can definitely create the perfect housing for this, maybe even include some fans.

Yihua 8858-V - $19

Looks like a decent hot air station for its price, and from a known brand at that. Can't really find another hot air station around this price. Currently getting the version 5, which was probably released around 2022-2023. The only gripe I found online with this one is that some people have a hard time triggering the auto shut off due to the angle the holder has. I could very easily design and 3d print a better-angled holder to alleviate that problem. Or if the filament can't handle the temps, just make an angled base to rest the device, so it leans more and easily activate the auto shut off.

HOWEVER, I received a reply from someone who actually ones the 8858 (but maybe not the exact V version) that claimed that this was simply underpowered air volume-wise and burnt their board.

So I may have a bit of leeway on the budget for this one as I can see myself using this tool equally as the iron.

So far, here are the new models I picked out:

• RF4-H5 = $75. Got the idea from this post: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/reviews/rf4-1000w-hot-air-rework-station-rf-h2-$125/
• Forward FW-HA01 = $66. It looks like it's based off of the H5 (or is it the other way around? Both were released around 2-4 months ago). It's not a 100% rebrand, but the knobs, number of memory buttons, heck even the pump looks very familiar to each other. And what even confirms my suspicions is that they almost have the same specs. Both can do 800w, 50L/Min Airflow, brushless turbine fan, 13000r/Min fan speed, 80cm handle. The only difference they have in their specs is that the H5 can do up to 480C, whereas the Forward can do up to 500C. And the H5 uses a Nixie display and the Forward uses a segment display (which I admit to be unfamiliar with, so I asked Claude and it said that the segment is much more durable). Haven't really seen this brand recommended, but they seem to be focused on mobile repair, and have a couple high end products as well. Their website also looks clean and professional (to be fair, as a web dev, you could easily spin up a site like this in less than a week, but I appreciate that they took the time to design it well, use https, and even purchased a .com domain).
• RF4-H6 = $45
• Yihua 959D II = $40
• Yihua 858D = $23

Yihua 948DQ-I - $15

Nothing much to say. A cheap and decent fume extractor from a known brand. I guess this is better than nothing. I have a 650cfm Dewalt fan (would most definitely not max it though) that I'll angle a bit toward it to help with the air flow and blast any remaining fumes. There's the II and III versions, but they all use the same extractor, the difference is that the latter ones have extra stuff that I already have.

Goot GS-104 Medium - $14

I was leaning on the SS-02 but found a forum reply @ https://www.eevblog.com/forum/reviews/engineer-ss-02-solder-sucker-or-other-nice-desoldering-pumps/ of someone who has the SS-02 and Goot pump, and he seemed to lean more towards the Goot.

Anker Atom 2 60w

I was gonna buy a 100w power bank, but since I only wanna work on pcbs, I decided to just use my existing charger, seeing that pcb work is mostly <=60w.

Final thoughts

As for the flux/solder/attachments for holding the items, I opted not to include them since they're fairly cheap enough to experiment with. Also, some of the brands suggested in this sub aren't available in my country. My plan is to just get the smallest rolls from a couple of brands and practice with them on a test board to see which one is more effective.

I really only wanna learn soldering, this wouldn't be used in any commercial capacity, I'm looking at 10-15 hours a week of usage. I'll be happy if this set lasts me 2 years. I think that's enough time to determine if I wanna go ahead and splurge on the big guns. I've already learnt my lesson in spending too much for things that I quickly lost interest in such as power tools, gym equipment (to be fair I still use some), airsoft, drones, cameras, etc.