EEVblog #596 - World's Cheapest Soldering Station - Yihua 936

[sleemanj]

How do they measure the temperature. Given the price I can't imagine a thermocouple circuit.

The heating element includes a thermocouple.  These ceramic elements are pretty standard, if you search the forum for A1321 and A1322 you'll find threads about them.

[Refrigerator]

15:50 You can see the crusty cap ..... ughhhhh geezus !

[jucole]

Great video!!  and a good insight to what you don't get for your money!   :-)

[Rory]

A while back, I bought the hot tweezers with a very similar power supply box:



First thing that needed to be done was to fix the miswired handpiece, as one side did not heat up to the same temp as the other. The soldering, as you can expect was as abysmal as Dave's $16 beast.  It cleaned up pretty nicely, after a bit of documenting which pins on the 8-pin Philmore jack did what. In the end, it does the job.

Stating the obvious, on all these ultra-cheap Shenzhen products the most common problem I see is the quality of the soldering during final assembly, combined with poor QC. Is training and equipping assembly workers with usable tools and supplies so prohibitively expensive?

[Stonent]

Hobby King don't supply crap!

I've never received crap from them. None of the people I know have received crap from then.

Only Dave Jones has received a suspect product.

Makes you wonder.

If you order something cheap, you'll get something cheap.  It's not like he ordered something thinking it was going to be good.
I think he gave it a fair shake, he said it was better than an unregulated iron.

The best price I could find was going to be about $55 total including shipping from Latvia.
Hobby king has been out of stock in the US for months apparently.

[pickle9000]

I would think more than one forum member had one of these way back when. Regardless of the iron good solder is the biggest factor in making a good joint. Sometimes wonder if anyone even remembers what it was like to file an irons tip. I do not long for the "good ol' days".

 

[don.r]

I wonder if swapping the control board for one of those "Hakko" 936 boards that go for $15 on eBay would help. They appear to be the original 2 chip design but have a 5-pin rather than 7-pin connector so some modding would be needed.

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/400569501356?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649

They are also good if you have a 24VAC supply so you can roll your own station.

[Refrigerator]

I would think more than one forum member had one of these way back when. Regardless of the iron good solder is the biggest factor in making a good joint. Sometimes wonder if anyone even remembers what it was like to file an irons tip. I do not long for the "good ol' days".

I still use one now, just ordered my first soldering station a few days ago. ( el cheapo one )
I might do a teardown of it when i receive it.

[jucole]

Great video!!  and a good insight to what you don't get for your money!   :-)

Actually I think Dave agrees it's actually value for money. His was a little sloppy but they aren't all like that.

I totally agree too about it being good value for money;  I liked the video because he compared it directly to the real thing which showed what you don't get unless you pay a little bit more.

[pickle9000]

I wonder if swapping the control board for one of those "Hakko" 936 boards that go for $15 on eBay would help. They appear to be the original 2 chip design but have a 5-pin rather than 7-pin connector so some modding would be needed.

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/400569501356?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649

They are also good if you have a 24VAC supply so you can roll your own station.

Fast recovery is probably the single most perceived feature of a quality iron. To get this has a great deal to do with the construction of the handle (tip mass, temp sensor location and element size and fit). It's worth experimenting with the electronics but will only get you so far.

Try larger mass tips and see what happens.
 

[Bored@Work]

Stating the obvious, on all these ultra-cheap Shenzhen products the most common problem I see is the quality of the soldering during final assembly, combined with poor QC. Is training and equipping assembly workers with usable tools and supplies so prohibitively expensive?

Paying for good tools means the owner of the sweatshop can afford one whore (aka ernai) less.

And training? Training is dangerous. A trained employee might ask for more money, for being treated properly, thinking he is actually a valuable human being and all that stuff. Capitalism or communism, both are based on exploiting and suppressing workers to the maximum extend possible.

[Refrigerator]

Stating the obvious, on all these ultra-cheap Shenzhen products the most common problem I see is the quality of the soldering during final assembly, combined with poor QC. Is training and equipping assembly workers with usable tools and supplies so prohibitively expensive?

Paying for good tools means the owner of the sweatshop can afford one whore (aka ernai) less.

And training? Training is dangerous. A trained employee might ask for more money, for being treated properly, thinking he is actually a valuable human being and all that stuff. Capitalism or communism, both are based on exploiting and suppressing workers to the maximum extend possible.

Hitler? I thought you were dead ....

[SeanB]

Should never have given him that cloning set just because he only had a single nut..............


Godwin's law strikes again!

[Fraser]

I bought a 936 as an emergency back-up but have since pushed it to the back of a cupboard unused. I was a Weller Magnastat user before moving onto PACE temperature controlled irons. I liked them so much that I now have several with different tips fitted. I have a hot air/soldering station that had the same handpiece as the 936. I quickly discarded it as it felt light and cheap in the hand. Performance wasn't too great either.

I am no tool snob, but I can honestly state that once you have used a well made and correctly weighted handpiece, the cheap plasticy Chinese handpieces just don't feel 'right'. That is even before switching it on ! If you can possibly afford a decent soldering iron, buy one in preferance to the likes of the cloned 936, you will not regret it in the long run. AND do not forget, you can buy very good named brand soldering irons on the used marketplace. A quality used soldering iron is still a lot better than a new Cheapo unit  There is absolutely nothing to be ashamed of or worried about in buying used equipment that has been cared for.


I attach pictures of some of the models of PACE soldering station that I own. They all use the same handpiece design so are great if you like the feel of them. They would all wipe the floor with the Clone 936 and very likely the Hakko irons as well. All cost me less than US$80 each, even the three New Old Stock ones ! (pictures are just grabs from the internet). The newer models are cased in quality cast aluminium enclosures and the ST115 has a vacuum pump included in it for desoldering and 'pick & place' handpieces

[tszaboo]

Used LM358 <- this is probably the saddest thing in the word if it actually exist.

[senso]

Not if you are into audiophoolery, its already burn-in dude, much better results! lol

[PA4TIM]

Aurora, I agree. I have a complete Pace MBT250 station besides a Weller WS-81 station. I did not know why I liked the Pace so much but you got me thinking. I think you are right with the balans. It just feels right. I had a few cheap irons and stations befor these. They were very expensive if you devide the price by the time they last  ;-)

[quarros]

Now a big worry is the esd stuff . Zero ohms from tip to mains ground ? That should read 1 meg !

One would think so (Myself included). But the truth is: Zero Ohms from the tip to the mains earth Is correct. Form the ESD safety viewpoint.

I know I know it is sound stupid (I ranted about it in another topic). But I tested it with 2 ESD safe soldering station, a Hakko FX888 and a Metcal MX500. Both show zero ohms from tip to mains earth.

[NiHaoMike]

A little surprising they didn't use a switching supply to save cost. Maybe they realize that would make it way too suspiciously light...

[calexanian]

We still use weller wtcpt stations at work for the assemblers. We had demo hako and Paige units over the years but they like the weller's more. Their higher temp tips seem to last longer and they use the biggest tips practical for higher thermal capacity. Being all nice new clean boards and components they can really fly. My station and the tech station have mx500's and at home I have one of the old wtcpt's I fixed and nobody wanted to I just brought it home. Works fine for me. If I could only have one station and the metcal was off the table I would go with the wtcpt with the temp control.

[abdullahseba]

yi haa swearing free     

[Prizmatic]

Production business?.. Get a durable iron built for the job. Hobbyist?.. Beats a mains iron, works, isn't unsafe. Why the hell not at that price. Heat-up/recovery time? who cares if its better than the one you've got.
Makes me chuckle reading some comments, most hobbyists have more pressing things to spend their cash on than an expensive iron.

[Bored@Work]

isn't unsafe.

How do you know? How good is that thing protected against overheating? The station, the handpiece or the plastic stand melting / catching fire?  No hazardous materials in the handpiece? Proper isolation of the transformer?

The thing with a brand product is you can trust them that they thought about all this and have it mostly under control. Occasionally they get it wrong. With a $16 crap product you can be sure they didn't think about any of this and give a flying fart through a rolling doughnut about is. It is a $16 lottery ticket and you are betting the farm on your luck.

[VK3DRB]

Why can't these comrades invent something decent rather then copying someone else's work, and doing a crap job at it? Violating intellectual property seems like the only thing the communist Chinese are good at. They have has not progressed much further than making and flogging copy watches, as far as ethics and quality goes.

Westerners should not be buying this sort of crap on principle. People in poor countries might not be able to afford a good soldering iron, but people in rich countries have no excuse.

Besides, quality is remembered long after price is forgotten.

The $16 soldering iron is probably illegal. If "Yeehaa!" lied about the ESD Safe, it would make you wonder if it is CE marked honestly. There are plenty of back alley sweatshops in red China illegally marking equipment. In this case it is illegal here in Australia if it does not carry a C-Tick or RCM mark. Our government has lost control of this rubbish entering the country. I think you will find the soldering of the wires onto the transformer tab does not comply with UL-60950 and other safety standards either.

DON'T BUY IT.

[VK3DRB]

rod elliott has a good write-up on grounding to the chassis:

http://sound.westhost.com/earthing.htm



that seems to make sense even though it looks like a lot of extra 'rules' to follow.

I think you will find most test houses (eg:Comtest in Melbourne) will tell you a toothed washer between the chassis and the ring terminal is not allowed for consumer product safety compliance. But a toothed washer between the nut and the ring terminal is OK. Also, nyloc lock nuts are definitely not legal for securing earth connections on mains equipment. Two nuts in a locking configuration are the alternative.