this post was submitted on 12 Sep 2024
440 points (96.2% liked)
Technology
59958 readers
3441 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related content.
- Be excellent to each another!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
Approved Bots
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Why this instead of an industry-standard station like an entry level Weller? The Wellers got replacement parts, especially tips which are consumables. I have the pervious 50W model and it has worked well in any job that can be done with that power level.
In my experience with soldering, the quality of the tip is the most important part. Then the quality of the solder and flux. Then having a set of soldering tools like wick, pump, stripper, and most of all - a third hand. Then temp adjustability. I had a digital solder station before I had those tools and I did almost as shitty solder jobs as I did with the basic Weller soldering iron I had before it. Once I got the ability to keep the parts stable so I can hold the solder in one hand and the iron in the other, introduce the solder at the joint and melt it in-place with the iron, like the manuals say, the quality went way up. I could even do some functional SMD work using my phone's macro cam as a microscope.
I think it's as much about getting a soldering iron into every home the way that a hammer, multibit screwdriver seem to be. It's potentially a huge market to tap into. When I was doing this particular shopping I bought a usb-c powered soldering iron with an open source OS.
Oh I'm not questioning their motivation. I'm wondering if it's a good deal for prospective buyers, given the price, compared to known good tools.