I have several Soldering irons, including an expensive soldering station, but the one I reach for mostly is this Mustool one:
It is cheap as anything (around £6.20 or $8 delivered!- make sure you order the correct voltage 120 or 220) it takes Hakko 900m tips (6 supplied!) is powerful enough for most things (60w) and has temperature control (this moves easily, so set it how you like and tape over it, or put an elastic band on it). For UK, cut the EU plug off and put on a 13amp and you’re away. If I could only have one of my irons, it would be this one!
All I need to do is unsolder the 2 wires on the Emisar D4, flash the new UI, and solder back the wires…. but of course, I’d like some nice (but inexpensive) kit to play with, and I may want to do other tasks another day so a bit of investment now pay pay off later …
I could be wrong but I believe some of the KSGER units may have an accelerometer in the wand to allow it to signal auto-off if the wand is sitting in a stand. The pages I saw weren’t very clear but that is what they seemed to be suggesting so that might be why it has a 5th pin.
I use KSGER soldering iron with real Hakko T12 tip (JL02, bent, sharp) to soldering almost all my small project including Gxb172 driver, so I can say it works very well.
Can’t provide much advice on specific soldering irons as I don’t have that much experience; I bought a Hakko FX-888 two years ago to build an advanced electronic kit (DIY geiger counter), it does everything I need it to but it’s obviously much more expensive than the above suggestions.
Advice I can add is: Whatever iron you go with, get some decent solder and a flux pen. I tried cheap solder from Banggood and couldn’t get a single good joint, bought a roll of Multicore brand and it’s infinitely easier to work with.
Other soldering tool I use a lot is a solder sucker.
I found that once I had the above tools in a small ‘flashlight toolbox’, I started swapping drivers and LED’s more than I anticipated. It’s nice to be able to improve lights to your liking.
I’m still soldering in the stone age with a Radio Shack 64-2071B 40watt soldering iron. Of course, I don’t solder every day like some. Still works good. Has to be so much better than the crapola cheapy irons they sell today.
That's pretty cool TomNMich. I need one of those for outdoor work. Something I don't have to worry about accidentally smashing or getting grease on. Looks like just 2 wires to the T12 handle. Just power to the T12 handle, no connection to the T12 temp sensor?
I used two Radio Shack irons. One was 15W, the other 15/30W for years. The 15/30W is okay, but finding tips isn’t easy or cheap (takes 5/32nd screw in tips). Plus they don’t last long. The 15W is useless and the 30W really only adequate. I recommend minimum 40W. I’ve got tired of waiting for the iron to reheat after cleaning the tip or soldering thick wires and it struggles to solder wires on mcpcb’s that are mounted on heatsinks.
Here’s some points to consider.
I ordered a Quicko 942 T12 station from Aliexpress (still in transit) that takes the external power supply. I hear the internal supplies are dodgy and unreliable. You can use a 19.5V 4.5A (90W) laptop power supply that is much higher quality and reliable. The controller users a 5.5x2.1mm connector so your power supply needs one one of those.
T12 tips are easy to find come in all shapes and are under $10 in the USA, under $5 from China.
The M900 tips that go on just about every Chinese pencil iron are even cheaper.
Get a temperature controlled iron like a digital one, not a linear one that’s one temperature all the time. Also, get one with a sleep feature that lowers the temperature of the iron when idle. The tips will last longer and they heat up really fast.
You can find ones that take M900 with those features, or T12 type with those features.
Weller is good, Hakko is really good, but the Chinese ones ate hit-and-miss, plus quality is often an afterthought, but for what to pay, I think it’s worth it.
I recommend it. Parts are easily swapped if the handle breaks or the controller board goes. Get the one with the external power supply. You can find one that uses 230V for your UK power. Put for a different T12 tip too. The K type isn’t good for anything but BGA SMT. I ordered tbe quicko in January. Still waiting for it to get here.
is an absolute dream. this even led me to ditch my soldering station which has served me well for years. it has enough power for dtp boards as well and it’s so light, quick and handy.
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