A thorough look at the assembly of the generic Chinese soldering irons often supplied with thermally controlled soldering stations. These are a very refined design with lots of neat features in the assembly.
Whole soldering irons or their various components like heating elements and bits can be bought at staggeringly low prices online.
It's a bit galling that for the cost of one pack of spare bits for my older style mains Antex iron I can buy 30 or more replacement bits in a wider range of styles for these generic irons. I guess they must be considered a disposable item in the Chinese electronics manufacturing industry
It's worth noting that the soldering stations have a calibration facility on them to fine tune the thermocouples. If you inadvertently set the calibration to an extreme level and get distracted the iron can reach a red hot state!
I've not tested the iron at this stage due to waiting for my preferred style of bit (3mm chisel) and the disconcerting smell of hot transformer and surprising case temperature on the base unit!
Whole soldering irons or their various components like heating elements and bits can be bought at staggeringly low prices online.
It's a bit galling that for the cost of one pack of spare bits for my older style mains Antex iron I can buy 30 or more replacement bits in a wider range of styles for these generic irons. I guess they must be considered a disposable item in the Chinese electronics manufacturing industry
It's worth noting that the soldering stations have a calibration facility on them to fine tune the thermocouples. If you inadvertently set the calibration to an extreme level and get distracted the iron can reach a red hot state!
I've not tested the iron at this stage due to waiting for my preferred style of bit (3mm chisel) and the disconcerting smell of hot transformer and surprising case temperature on the base unit!
Love my Yihua station.
yep those are robust and nice to use when the station is roughly accurate in managing the temperature. nice old video 😉👍
Im sure the actual pronunciation is "yee whaa"
But "yeehu-ah" is good enough. Lol
i would like to try less than 120 volts on a red soldering iron. maybe 60 – 80 volts.
Does the air gap between the element and the tip matter that much?
Wait you need to solder the soldering irons circuit board to repair it…but your soldering irons broken… Noooooooo
I have one Yihua 939D+, I use it for 3 years 7 days per week without any issue.
This is a very good option if you are in budget.
I have a Hakko FX-888D but I prefer the Yihua because it have 3 memory easy to reach.
Best Regards.
Hi Clive! Did you come across the SH72 iron?
Well don't be shocked if the design is good, if it is indeed based off Hakko, which are Japanese soldering irons that probably are the best quality ones in the world. And this Chinese company Yihua is indeed a proper company, so there will be quality involved, it's not like an unbranded ripoff for example. I think Yihua is what most Chinese use, so for example in China they don't generally use the unbranded ripoff stuff that some naive foreigners waste their money on, in China they usually find a good Japanese or other foreign design, and have a legit Chinese company try to clone it at a decent level of quality, so the domestic Chinese workers can have a reliable product etc.
Is this Antex ok for smd work
You should go on ebay and search for those tips there You have better luck finding them There What about size you looking for.
I've had this soldering station for almost five years now and it has been working perfectly, I have never had a problem with it.
Mine is the same as all the basic 936 clones with a black plastic face and plastic knob to set the temperature, but mine says "W.E.P. 936 ® sol dering station," printed exactly with that space between "sol" and "dering." Perhaps a limited edition. I have no idea what could W.E.P. mean. But I can definitely recommend the station, it is great value.
I've had this soldering station for almost five years now and it has been working perfectly, I have never had a problem with it. Mine is the same as all the basic 936 clones with a black plastic face and plastic knob to set the temperature, but mine says "W.E.P. 936 ® sol dering station," printed exactly with that space between "sol" and "dering." Perhaps a limited edition. I have no idea what could W.E.P. mean. But I can definitely recommend the station, it is great value.
I got a 3 pack of the 2mm slanted tips for about £12
I have learnt to hate these Yhiua irons. I bought 2 one after another. After one use i now get the 5-E error.
hi Clive. Up until today, i had a maplin soldering station – precision gold A55KJ – looks exactly like the iron you dissected. Today, it tells me
" – 5 -E -" [without quotes] which, according to the manual is faulty element. trouble is, if i apply 19 volts at 1.6 amps to it, it heats enough to desolder the triac that should control the temperature to it – for testing – it too is fine. My question is – how can the unit detect the temperature of the iron – with pins 1+2 and 4+5 shorted out? [no thermocouple] I cant find a diagram for it anywhere and im not clever enough to reverse engineer it as its quite complex.
cheers in advance – Andy
Don't bother with the cheap tips. Get some hako tips and you will have yourself a good iron.