somewhat related, I always lusted after those combo DMM/Soldering Station/power supply dealies that they sell at like jameco and on Ebay. If I had to start a kit for bare minimum dollars, it would include one of those things along with a MCU programmer and some LED's, Resistors, Opamps and some other sundry items.
you would be referring to:
http://www.jameco.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&productId=695025&catalogId=10001&freeText=695025&app.products.maxperpage=15&storeId=10001&search_type=jamecoall&ddkey=http:StoreCatalogDrillDownViewI would save your money...
*The DMM have an AC and DC range of 200mV to 600V not very low when dealing with fine electronics
*DC current range is 200uA to 10A, not a range that i look for, i would say if it went down to 10uA it would be worth a better look.
*Resistance, a minimum of 200 Ohm, I have done projects where 200 Ohm would have dissipated to much power
*This unit also features diode, transistor and continuity tester.
It also is CAT I (600V) and CAT II (300V) complaint... however i would not put 300V in that thing let alone 600.
It also is not auto ranging... why the heck not?
You can also check out your transistors in it... but if you remember Dave's rant on cheep DMMs you will know that means nothing.
you also need to put in a 9V battery... and have it plug into the wall?
? they have the 9V power supply right next to it, why cant they feed that power into the DMM?
It also uses glass fuses
It also is not true RMS
*The Power Supply has set ranges, 3 4.5,6,7.5,9 and 12V... nice if your working on a project that will be ran on batteries, but sometimes you need to test to see how it will run on low batteries, it would be nice if i could select 3.25V, other times it is nice to see when something happens at what voltage if it happens at 3.25 you wont know unless you hook up a pot to measure it.
*The specs say it has "Low Ripple" Well its a DC power supply, it should have almost no ripple (on the order of uV to less then 10 mV)
*It also supports up to 1.5A, that's not bad
The soldering iron... 150C to 450C, a very nice range, but how good is the iron? can you find replacement tips? how good is the plating on the tips? will the tip last? I once had a friend who bought a cheep soldering iron with a cheep tip, when the chip was made the metal had an air bubble in it, when the tip got hot the air expanded and blew the tip into shrapnel, my friend was lucky and no harm was done, to him other then a few minor burns from being hit with hot metal, nothing big. but it could have been worst (side note, always ware safety glasses)
Although the price tag is amazingly cheep... but cheep usually means to good to be true.
Basically, this unit (IMO) is not worth it you may be getting 3 devices which could be very expensive, but none of them are worth it
I use a Fluke 87V before I got that I used an old Fluke 77, it works fine and i really like it and still use it. you can get one online for about 90USD on ebay used that is where I got mine 3 years ago, brought it into the lab to test if it was still accurate with more expensive equipment. and although it is like 15+ years old, it works like a charm.
I have a radio shack digital soldering station.
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3132686 I am looking for a new one but mine has served me well thus far however the tips where hard to find but they are out there from a company called Madell. (they make the iron with out the radio shack logo on it for a little cheaper
If you want a soldering iron similar to what you see in this product, it would be easy to make. you can use a LM317 linear regulators (or find switching regulators) you can find samples of them though TI, get a nice transformer and some bridge rectifiers along with some nice caps and pots you can have the same thing but better and have the pride of making it yourself. (add a 337 and you can take pride in making a dual output +/- power supply.
wow i wrote a lot more then I expected point is don't buy it its not worth it.
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