Solder station recommendations for someone who thinks the FX-888D sucks.

[amwales]

Metcal, I love my second hand Metcal, do a little research on them and tip availability and whether you intend to use it for leaded or non-leaded work as the tips control the temperature for you. The old ones are built like tanks ( cant speak for newer models ) as it would appear that someone forgot all about inbuilt obsolescence. The patents have expired so it may be worth a look at Thermaltronics too.

[nigelwright7557]

After 2 failed soldering stations I gave up and went back to a simple 30 watt soldering iron.
I got a £15 Maplin Antex er30.
Tips last a long time.

[shapirus]

Copper is the new gold, the amount in tips is decreasing and I find more steel is being used, so thermal mass and heat transfer is not as good. Try a magnet.

Heat capacity of iron is considerably higher than that of copper, so steel is better for "thermal mass".
But for heat transfer, yes, copper is better.

The solution may be quite the opposite of the intuitive one. With the microcontroller-operated soldering stations and powerful heating elements, we want to decrease the thermal intertia of the tip as much as possible so that the temperature sensor in the tip sees (feels? :) the (changes in) temperature of the external surface of the tip sooner to allow for a faster reaction to turn the heating element on or off.
It's similar to the difference between a passive low-pass smoothing RC filter with a huge cap and an active one with an op amp constantly receiving feedback from the output and adjusting it as necessary.

[Jwillis]

I've been using a Quick TS1200A now for 4 years and the same tip it came with. I have bought other tips but never used them yet. Then only problem I've had was with the iron handle when the blue plastic guard popped off. Repaired it with high temp epoxy and it's been good every since. When doing SMDs I ussally don't have to make direct contact to the pins. Just the heat and flow from the trace solders the component with ease.

A quick note on the value of copper without hijacking the point of the thread to much . I just finished up an environmental clean up for ATCO that involved a off line high voltage transformer that was cut open to steal the copper inside. This has become epidemic here and some of the thefts are so brazen it's just bizarre. 

[xavier60]

I was planning to get a FX-971 whenever it went on special.
It didn't take long to happen. https://www.oritech.com.au/FX971/Hakko-FX971-Soldering-Station/pd.php
I currently mostly use the conical T18-S4 tip, so I have ordered a HT39-I02 tip and also a HT39-B02 to try because of its lower cost.
https://www.oritech.com.au/Soldering-and-Rework-Equipment/Soldering-Tips/Hakko-T39-Range/pl.php

[trackersoft]

OK, This and other threads have been interesting as my old and aging Solderite SGS-3015 was getting me more and more frustrated. Being a ham radio op, I mainly work on restoring old Collins radios from the 40's through the 80's -- commercial, military and ham -- so I work on both point to point and through hole. Time to look for a new soldering station. The sale on the Pace ADS200 caught my eye and I decided that would be a good purchase so I tried ordering one and was first surprised with a shipping fee of over $50 and then their ordering page kept giving errors. I sent an email to Pace and had not heard back. I did hear back later from Pace with a nice email but I had moved on.

Then I talked with a good friend who used to work at Collins and he uses Metcal - and loves it. That lead me to look at the Thermaltronics 2000S. Ended up ordering one with a few cartridges/tips. It arrived a couple of days before Christmas and wow, I am impressed. Heats up FAST and stays hot! Really looking forward to using it this year! I think I made a good choice but time will tell. Now I am looking at adding the desoldering kit for it as my Hakko 808 is showing some age also and I have a bunch of boards for HF80 equipment to repair - tracking down bad tantalums and replacing them. Anyone have experience with the desoldering kit?

[cosmicray]

I think the Hakko FX-888D was a great product when it was at its original price, but its not so great for the price people charge in most places now. If they got it back to well below $100 I would still think its good. It doesn't have the responsiveness of many modern products, but it lasts for years, and never causes you any trouble.

So I went back and looked at what I paid for my 888D, early in 2015 (~9 years ago). With a small variety of tips it cost me $110 USD. Back then it's reputation was not as entrenched as it is today, and the manufacturer may have been trying harder to garner sales. USD also had better buying power back then, but has lost much due to inflation (but that is an Economics topic). If the 888D is still a solid product, the 2024 price may be well worth it. Checking the search engine results, it seems to be between $120-$150 USD. That is about what I expected to see (but not what anyone who remembers the old prices wants to see).

Cheers

[tooki]

I think the Hakko FX-888D was a great product when it was at its original price, but its not so great for the price people charge in most places now. If they got it back to well below $100 I would still think its good. It doesn't have the responsiveness of many modern products, but it lasts for years, and never causes you any trouble.

So I went back and looked at what I paid for my 888D, early in 2015 (~9 years ago). With a small variety of tips it cost me $110 USD. Back then it's reputation was not as entrenched as it is today, and the manufacturer may have been trying harder to garner sales.

Well, just yesterday I came across a book (from USA) from 1993 that recommended Hakko equipment. And given that the FX-888 (no “D”), which had a large fan base already, had been discontinued when you got yours, I don’t think there’s any basis to assume that Hakko was acting like a startup trying to break into an existing market. They had already been an established member of that market for many decades by then.

[coppice]

I think the Hakko FX-888D was a great product when it was at its original price, but its not so great for the price people charge in most places now. If they got it back to well below $100 I would still think its good. It doesn't have the responsiveness of many modern products, but it lasts for years, and never causes you any trouble.

So I went back and looked at what I paid for my 888D, early in 2015 (~9 years ago). With a small variety of tips it cost me $110 USD. Back then it's reputation was not as entrenched as it is today, and the manufacturer may have been trying harder to garner sales.

Well, just yesterday I came across a book (from USA) from 1993 that recommended Hakko equipment. And given that the FX-888 (no “D”), which had a large fan base already, had been discontinued when you got yours, I don’t think there’s any basis to assume that Hakko was acting like a startup trying to break into an existing market. They had already been an established member of that market for many decades by then.

In 1993 Hakko was de rigeur for any decent lab in Asia, and widespread in production there, but they were hardly known in the west.

[tooki]

But they were known in the west by some people at least (which was the point of saying that an American book from 1993 suggested them), but moreover, they certainly were well-established in the west by 2015, when cosmicray bought his and claimed they were unknown and suggesting they were acting like a low-cost new entrant. They certainly weren’t doing that on 2015!!

[coppice]

But they were known in the west by some people at least (which was the point of saying that an American book from 1993 suggested them), but moreover, they certainly were well-established in the west by 2015, when cosmicray bought his and claimed they were unknown and suggesting they were acting like a low-cost new entrant. They certainly weren’t doing that on 2015!!

Oh sure. The 888D was inexpensive (about $70 I think) in 2000 in Asia, and should have been a cheap near obsolete model by 2015. Instead it went up a lot.

[rsjsouza]

Ok, late to the party but here'smy $0.02. I have an FX-888 (non-D, $89 circa 2012) and do a lot of mixed vintage and SMD electronics - no issues at all in any of the fronts, including those pesky lead free solder and massive thermal planes of through hole parts - just use a genuine tip that gives the most surface area and compensate with higher temperature if things get pesky. Also, no need to fiddle with firmwares and alarm clock interfaces - a pot is all you need (but this is a rare breed). Still in my plans are a second wand for a quick tip replacement. Tweezers would be nice to have as well, but that can get expensive.

And yes, I have experience with regular T12-style soldering stations at work (FX-951, FX-100, FM-203) and in the past they had a selection of Metcal stations. I find the Hakko ones perform similarly to my FX888 at home with the occasional annoyances of sleeping during soldering on some stations, the hopeless graphical display and button interface on the FX100 and perhaps one or another annoyance that I can't recall. As for the Metcal, I really didn't care for it - the FX-951 worked much better for me.

[uli12us]

I can recommend fake JBC Stations from China. Aifen or Sugon are the same but have in some cases different company names, but the stations are exactly the same. They offer
Stations from 70$ to 400$, dependent from the numbers of different channels, iron and tips. Most of the stations offers the possibility to use 3 different irons with power from 20-120W.
https://www.aliexpress.us/w/wholesale-aifen-.html? The delivery time to germany is  in the range of 2 weeks, I think to america is not longer.

[User01]

I just picked up one of these. Its 3d printed, battery powered, and AWSOME.

https://www.amazon.com/Deackimei-Milwaukee-18V-Battery-Temperature/dp/B0CM95RBL

It's not bench top or daily driver. But for a mobile unit I dig it.

I ended up here because my FX-888 is acting up and the FX-888D sucks.

[floobydust]

Hakko discontinued FX-888D, now replaced by FX-888DX with better UI: changed to a rotary encoder, and 95W option.
I don't see it offered on the Hakko USA site yet.

[shapirus]

Hakko discontinued FX-888D, now replaced by FX-888DX with better UI: changed to a rotary encoder, and 95W option.
I don't see it offered on the Hakko USA site yet.

Interesting. I thought that slide-on tip systems had no future, but we see that new models are released. Are they not much worse in terms of performance than cartridge tip systems? I would assume that Hakko knows what to do, so probably they are good? How do they compare to, say, T12?

[tooki]

Interesting. I thought that slide-on tip systems had no future, but we see that new models are released. Are they not much worse in terms of performance than cartridge tip systems? I would assume that Hakko knows what to do, so probably they are good? How do they compare to, say, T12?

Ersa released its latest slip-on tip system, the 142 series, a year and a half ago (snuck in on the i-Con Trace production station) with the broader release last July with the i-Con Mark II stations. The original i-Con series was introduced in 2007, and I had that at my old job, and at home. The update claims 20% improved performance.

I’ve never used T12, but I have used JBC T245 and Pace TD-100, and while the Ersa doesn’t heat quite as fast, it’s still under 10 seconds from cold to ~350C. It has no trouble with anything I throw at it. In actual use, there’s no noticeable difference between JBC and Ersa. (But I prefer the Ersa handpiece.)

Let’s put it this way: I got to buy a new soldering station at work last month. Anything I wanted, more or less. I chose the Ersa i-Con 2V Mk II. JBC stations cost roughly the same, but the tip costs are incomparable, costing around 3x as much for basic tips, 2-3x as much for more exotic  shapes. That, and easier tip availability, more than made up the tiny advantage in heating speed of the JBC.

Cartridge heater systems can be great, but slip-on tip systems can be great too. A really well-done one like Ersa is functionally indistinguishable in everyday use. IMHO the quality of the control loop can make an even bigger difference (as evidenced by Pace’s somewhat anemic performance in the ADS200 due to a very conservative PID tuning.)

[xvr]

I want to add my 5 cents for Metcal. I use one for more than 15 years now (it's P-600 model, now obsolete), and absolutely happy with it. Some time ago I'd try some T-12 clone from China (they promise 120W), and it works fine (very fast heat up, good temperature control) until I try to solder SMD resistor to ground plane on PCB. Instead of soldering resistor T12 solder itself to ground plane 120W doesn't help.

Metcal works out fine. Of course it couldn't work out for сast-iron pan soldering, but for PCB it is a great tool.

[Langdon]

I love the FX-888D.
It is a joy to use

However, you have to replace the tip of the iron and occasionally the piece of sheet metal that holds the tip bends and needs replacing.

[SteveThackery]

I've read several complaints about the FX-888D running too cold. The problem is the user interface: attempting to change the temperature without knowing what you're doing can easily put it into calibration mode, at which point adjusting the "temperature" actually changes the calibration. I've done it myself and had to find the user guide online to sort it out.

Apart from the appalling UI, I think it's a good iron, although I'd happily swap it for something that is definitely better.

[J-R]

For US & Canada buyers, Hakko's new FX-888DX with the improved UI is on sale for $97.17 with free shipping until the end of the month: https://hakkousa.com/products/soldering/soldering-stations/fx-888dx.html

[marck120]

I also noticed that the old heating system of the tips has never been abandoned, Hakko FX-888DX and i-con nano mk2 are proof of this, instead of high frequency induction heating what do you think ? Stations like the XYTronic LF-3200 and QUICK 3205 use this system, comparing Hakko FX-888DX and i-con nano mk2 against XYTronic LF-3200 and QUICK 3205 in your opinion do they have similar performances ?

[Langdon]

If you solder something that needs lots of heat, you need to tin the tip and let the soldering iron sit at soldering temp for a minute so it can fully heat itself up.

When the iron first reaches set temperature, the tip temperature is unstable.

It takes a minute to fully stabilize when starting the iron from cold.

Also, make sure the tip is screwed on tight, or heat conduction will suffer.

[marck120]

Yes I agree, the technique you indicated is correct, but my point was different, I was comparing the performance of the four stations I mentioned, I was wondering if in general the high frequency induction technology of the XYTronic LF-3200 and the QUICK 3205 is superior in comparison to the Hakko FX-888DX and i-con nano mk2 stations, of course it is difficult to make a comparison since the stations have different powers, who knows which is more powerful among these stations.

[tooki]

Yes I agree, the technique you indicated is correct, but my point was different, I was comparing the performance of the four stations I mentioned, I was wondering if in general the high frequency induction technology of the XYTronic LF-3200 and the QUICK 3205 is superior in comparison to the Hakko FX-888DX and i-con nano mk2 stations, of course it is difficult to make a comparison since the stations have different powers, who knows which is more powerful among these stations.

You can't compare the FX-888 and i-Con nano, either -- they're in completely different leagues of performance. The FX-888 takes between 30-45 seconds to heat up. The i-Con nano takes about 10. It's simply capable of pumping in energy way faster.