Soldering Station that's not crap? ("advanced hobby" use)

[TinkeringSteve]

Howdy,

so I have the red analog Weller hobby station for which not a lot of tips are available, and which does not have an earthing jack, so not so ESD friendly.
(I have soldered a bunch of QFP STM32's etc with that thing, apparently was lucky that it worked, or I have broke something I don't use inside )
So I'm looking to upgrade.

I was looking at some lower end Ersa which are available from 115 to 220 or so EUR.
So I was preparing myself for a price in that range...
until I then saw some common complaints about those, which might kinda put them in the "does suck" category for me, which is:
- stiff cable.

Now some reviews for any of these claim "no longer stiff cable" a year ago, while this year there were some again "yes stiff cable".
Even my hobby Welller for 70€ or so back then, has a nice, very flexible cable that's basically not any worse than of the $$$ stations at work (that I'm allowed to touch, even though I'm a software guy! Not every software guy is, though!)

https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B008HPD0L6

I can see the stiffness out of the photo, lol
https://www.amazon.de/ERSA-RDS80-elektronisch-geregelte-Lötstation/dp/B0009QX386


Well. I guess I'm looking for a station that has these features:
- non-stiff cable
- chisel tips available from 1.6mm to 5mm or so (I hate pencil tips, I really do)
- temperature sensor close to tip, like in the one affordable Ersa (this is supposed to be an upgrade, after all!)
- grounding jack
- commonly available in Europe

Suggestions?

[thm_w]

Surely the cable on ersa i-con pico is better than the Weller no?
I don't think you can really tell from the photo.


https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/ersa-icon-pico-vs-icon-nano!-is-esd-protection-important-soldering-station/
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/reviews/(tip)-best-budgetcheap-soldering-stations-and-tools/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fc4hqw0p6kI
Some comments under that video:

I’ve had an Icon Pico with an i-Tool as a starter station for some time now. It works fine for what it is. I’ve not had the collar problem you mentioned, they sit loosely around the tip. A niggle I have with the handpiece though is that it gets quite hot in the finger area on prolonged use. I’m still using the Pico as a secondary fitted with a very fine high mass special tip from Ersa for smd soldering. Thanks for the video.

[Cerebus]

Any of the Metcal/OKI/Thermaltronics RF driven curie point irons would fit your criteria. I don't know of a single person who has adopted Metcal who has been dissatisfied.

Very, very robust, so safe to buy secondhand. Mid priced to expensive new, real bargains can be had secondhand if you exercise a little patience. My Metcal SP-200 station with handle, stand and one tip cost me £70 secondhand and has given plenty of good service over the last 4 years or so. By sheer chance I got a real bargain this week, the Thermaltronics equivalent (compatible), TMT-2000 station, handle and stand (but no tips) for £35 secondhand (couldn't resist at that price).

Leads are excellent and flexible, nicest I've handled. You can change tips in < 5 seconds. Grip point on the handles is much closer to the tip than on any other irons I've ever used, more like using a pen than a soldering iron.

Depending on the exact system you go for there are a large range, or a huge range of tips available. On the particular model that's my daily driver which it so happens probably has the smallest range of tips (the 470 kHz ones) there are 11 different chisel tips from 1mm to 5.3mm, and an even larger range of conical tips available for the perverts that like conical tips. The 13MHz irons, MX series etc, have a huge range of tips including specialised rework tips for QFPs and other packagaes in various sizes.

Temperature control is essentially at the tip because of the way the curie point system works and they will throw much, much more heat into a workpiece than you'd ever expect without ever overheating the workpiece (it's literally impossible, a curie point tip can't go overtemperature). I've soldered leads onto solid ground planes (a 100 x 160mm piece of bare copper clad) with a 1.78mm tip.

[TinkeringSteve]

I don't see much of Metcal / Thermaltronics on German ebay, and what I see is around 500 EUR, if it actually seems to have a tip holder and tip and you can actually solder with it, lol.
Used... nothing.
Except from USA with silly shipping costs.

[ferdieCX]

Hi,

With the ERSA i-con pico, you will have access to the same tips that the normal i-con/i-tool
In the ERSA page says Silikonkabel, so I suppose it is the same cable that uses the normal i-tool, very comfortable

https://www.ersa-shop.com/ersa-icon-pico-elektronisch-geregelte-l%C3%B6tstation-zeitstandby-p-8705.html

I have the i-con 2 since 2009 and I am very satisfied with it

[thm_w]

I don't see much of Metcal / Thermaltronics on German ebay, and what I see is around 500 EUR, if it actually seems to have a tip holder and tip and you can actually solder with it, lol.
Used... nothing.
Except from USA with silly shipping costs.

Yeah, its not as common in europe, and some of the older supplies are 120V only. Whereas Ersa is common and cheaper there.
There seems to be a few items here: https://www.amazon.de/s?k=thermaltronics

[amyk]

Hakko/clone? Plenty of parts availability.

[tooki]

Howdy,

so I have the red analog Weller hobby station for which not a lot of tips are available, and which does not have an earthing jack, so not so ESD friendly.
(I have soldered a bunch of QFP STM32's etc with that thing, apparently was lucky that it worked, or I have broke something I don't use inside )
So I'm looking to upgrade.

I was looking at some lower end Ersa which are available from 115 to 220 or so EUR.
So I was preparing myself for a price in that range...
until I then saw some common complaints about those, which might kinda put them in the "does suck" category for me, which is:
- stiff cable.

Now some reviews for any of these claim "no longer stiff cable" a year ago, while this year there were some again "yes stiff cable".
Even my hobby Welller for 70€ or so back then, has a nice, very flexible cable that's basically not any worse than of the $$$ stations at work (that I'm allowed to touch, even though I'm a software guy! Not every software guy is, though!)

https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B008HPD0L6

I can see the stiffness out of the photo, lol
https://www.amazon.de/ERSA-RDS80-elektronisch-geregelte-Lötstation/dp/B0009QX386


Well. I guess I'm looking for a station that has these features:
- non-stiff cable
- chisel tips available from 1.6mm to 5mm or so (I hate pencil tips, I really do)
- temperature sensor close to tip, like in the one affordable Ersa (this is supposed to be an upgrade, after all!)
- grounding jack
- commonly available in Europe

Suggestions?

The i-Con pico is NOT ESD-safe. That’s the main difference between the pico and nano (which is ESD-safe). I have had the nano for 7 years and it’s great. Neither one has a separate grounding jack, but I can verify that the nano’s tip has a low-impedance connection directly to the ground pin of the mains plug.

If you absolutely must have the banana jack for grounding, then you have to step up to the i-Con 1, which has the advantage of a backlit display and easier to set rotary encoder for temperature, plus a bit more power (which I never noticed in day to day use). I mean, that or opening up the Nano and hacking a banana jack into it!

The RDS80 is an antiquated model I wouldn’t recommend. The cord on it is indeed maddeningly stiff, at least on the units I’ve handled.

[jonpaul]

Bonjour my first soldering iron was in 1950s (!) as a 10 yrs old. It was an ungar.

 in USA we used Weller in 1970s..1980s,  then the excellent Hakko Japanese old styles (before the Chinese made microcontroller yellow blue junk sold now) old Hakko 926,,935, are stills on eBay.

In1990s I designed the Metcal SP 200 which still is in use, silicone cable, grounding and heating are all superior.   Many other Metcal models existing

I had only limited and poor experience with English irons, Antex(?) Ersin(?) in 1970s.

Hope my experience is interesting

Bon courage et bon chance


Jon

[mastershake]

some of the guys who work for me have been using the aixun t3a for a solid few months now and they have had zero issues with them using real jbc tips. a few of them even brought their actual jbc stations home to use the t3a at the shop for their daily work. 3 of them have been in use all day 5-7 days a week since around nov. i know its not a brand name unit but they are def a solid less expensive choice and have been very reliable.

[GnomeZA]

I recommend you watch

The reality is that price and brand doesn't mean you are getting something good.
People were raving about "Pace ADS200" and I saw his review.

Let's just say a Chinese Aixun T3a will blow a lot of these seriously expensive units out of the water.  They update it regularly (software), it matches the JBC station in performance and you can use genuine JBC T245 tips.

I wouldn't want to spend $300+ on an iron and then have it be completely outpaced (no pun) by a chinese part