TuxKey, I’ve been using Aouye 2900 since 2010, bought in the UK from an established channel, as were the tips. I’ve a suspicion Aoyue is moving forward in a different direction to the 2900. Years ago I read somewhere a claim the 2900 was based on a Hakko design. The tips are not mechanically compatible with the Hakko T12 tips, lacking the ridge that the Hakko ones have half way up the shaft.
I’ve used two Aoyue 2900, they have been value for money but not without issues, like others the firmware is not totally honest on the instantaneous tip temperature. The Aoyue iron I don’t have access to now would very occasionally ‘crash’ requiring a power cycle.
The bits only have two connections despite some having a third ring. I did not expect the variation in the cold resistance the tips, I have a suspicion some were intended for a different product, most are about 8 ohm a few 11 ohms, but one is 6 ohms. Hakko tips seem to be 8 ohm +/-10%.
The Aoyue firmware I’ve seen lacks a timeout if its unused for a while, at least one person has written their own code.
I got interested in increasing the power to speed up the warm up and recovery, its not running hotter just getting to temp faster and even better for ground planes. Ended up running it up to about 160W, the test software is labVIEW, external PSU and hardware. There is still a time constant limitation in the Aoyue Tips that I’ve not explored, doubling the available power was a bit disappointing. I’d need to dissect the tips and look at the thermal design of how the coils (?) are wound etc.
The Bakon BK950D appears to use clones of the Hakko T12 tips rather than the Aoyue:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/bakon-bk950d-soldering-station-my-opinion!!/