I guess too late but yes you should check station/handpiece power and compatibility on any handpiece you buy. It happens all the time in electronics though there will be always something that slips under the radar or gets over ordered or not used.
Just a bit on testing, when you test the systems you will think the JBC micro system is amazing until you encounter something that takes more than a couple of seconds to solder. Which is a warning sign to check tip temp or mass (remembering to use a reasonable sized tip for the job). So while micro systems seem super fast it's because they have comparatively no mass to heat up. They are not necessarily better or even necessary at all. Mini/slim soldering handpieces and tweezers can be more versatile as long as they have a range of smd micro tips, rework tips and the regular and heavy tips. Because you can then have power and precision, power and mass and power and a full tip complement.
So when you compare the higher power stations, a slight difference in tip mass can make a large difference in "apparent" performance and it's easy to be fooled. Both Metcal and Pace are designed not to overshoot, so their stations ramp up in temp fast then slow the curve as they approach set temp. The JBC C245 will likely overshoot and may even tell you it has reached set temp while still delivering power, this isn't something to be too concerned about, just don't trust the software. Being a software dev you know that the software experience is tweaked for the users happiness.
For me most imported is the general recovery speed which is the ramp angle of temp vs time (excluding the settling time). There is no such thing as a tip heating to 350C and landing perfectly on temp in 2 seconds. Again don't trust the software or charts. I prefer no overshooting as when you are soldering low mass and changing soldering target often the overshooting fluctuates. I don't want to solder alternate pins then come back and solder the even pins and be 20-30C high on an already warmed PCB. At the opposite end, when you are soldering a high mass joint at room temp with a large pad and ground plane on multi layer board you don't care about overshoot. That tip may never get back to temp until you lift it.
Don't forget about calibration on comparisons and measuring the tip temp at the pcb reveals more than measuring it on the tip thermometer. Other than that, larger tips will naturally take longer to heat than smaller tips and if you can find a magic formula to work out their mass by cooling the tips without power and measuring them in a controlled fashion, or by using a thermal well with some kind of tip junction to measure performance, plus accurately measure the power dissipation through the handpiece rather than the station, then.... Congrats you are on the road to enlightenment! Much more scientific than reading the display.
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