They are comparable, but the main quality problem is the aftermarket tip quality. The one that comes with the TS100 is great for most soldering jobs, but for more diverse jobs, you need other tips.
You either need to use the real Hakko tips, which are excellent, or the alternative ones.
The ones I linked are the only good ones that I tried that are still going after a year of using them, unlike the other cheap ones.
Temperature control is excellent on the TS100 and the PX988. The advantage of the big soldering stations are mainly integration with cleaning brass sponges, iron holders, and analog temperature control.
Otherwise, the TS100 is great from what I’ve tried it 3 times with it. If there was a 100-150w fat iron version of it, I would’ve probably bought one for bought you and me already :partying_face:
Also, my friends bought 3 of these tips. Original and very high quality. I can guarantee it:
But they were too expensive to me, so just bought the generic ones from the link from the last post.
Finally, it is kind the BLF Q8 of the soldering iron world. Great at everything, but not the best unless you are wanting to pay much more.
Very interesting, I will have to consider it, I would prefer a combo unit but I am open to suggestions particularly if open source firmware is possible. Kind of like my Imax B6, stock firmware is just eh but with custom firmware it is quite nice.
I need more power and better tip temperature control (aka, the tip does not get colder then the temp sensor under load).
It does need more power, but from my experience, the tip temperature is constantly adjusted, and works well.
However, I would like a big version of it as I stated before, since it makes big jobs, like soldering button tops, and thick springs for battery holders, and big spring bypasses, like with the MT09R and BLF Q8.
One question though: what do you use for reflowing LEDs onto MCPCBs? I personally bought a 32cm electric skillet, and I think it’s going to do the job great.
Do you use a dedicated reflow station like Lexel, or do you go the slightly DIY route?
I tried a DIY reflow station at one point but found it to take longer and just be harder to work with them using hot air from under the mcpcb. Since the hot air is already there and ready it is just much faster for the limited space I have available since a hot plate would need to be in another location.
The hot air gives me temperature control, so besides only having one hand free to work on the reflowing, it does the job just fine.
Did some out door video today. And this is insane!!
MT03 is a pure flood but hits the tree on the back which are 213ft away
Remember to turn your screen brightness up so you can see the real effect of the video!
Ok. So yea. My favorite charger. There are many fake nitecore charger out there. Mine charger is an authentic. I use nitecore d4 and also gyrfalcon all-88.
Just a quick note for anyone on the fence. I have 9 total left of the MT09R blue and green
When those are gone that is all of those colors that will be manufactured. Also when I am finally able to get another shipment of the standard color MT09R models they will be at full retail which is about 50 dollars more than the current price I have them for.
Ok, I got another light done this morning. I do not have a user name for this one but it is a Blue light with 5700k LED’s, dedomed, Spring bypasses, 50% ramp and tailcap spring.
Final output is just over 20k lumens.
He also wanted the laser engraving so I will be doing that either today or Monday.
I have one more light here ready for mods, Gonna try to knock that out before I officially start my weekend.
Ok, this is just a quick and dirty test of the Orbtronic 18650 30A 3120mah Cells that I was sent by O26Rcr for testing. Thanks for the cells! I know they are rewraps, just no idea what cells are underneath. I am guessing VTC6 based on the numbers.
Turns out the timing is perfect, I just sold my last spare set of matched high drain cells with one of the XHP70.2 GT so these will most likely be my test cells until I am able to order more high drain cells (got to make sure I keep enough money for shipping the spheres on hand, that could be $600+ depending on what method works out best, boxes could be hard to find).
So first thing I did is toss them on the LII-500 to test the capacity, they came out fairly well matched at 3000-3050mah, which is about right since I always run capacity tests at 1A.
Next I put them through my load test. Basically I hook the cells up to a steady load and see what the voltage does. It is a very good indicator of internal resistance.
In this case my used and abused 30Q’s maintained ~3.25v - 3.30v under load.
These Orbtronic 18650 30A 3120mah Cells maintained 3.40v - 3.45v! So a pretty significant improvement. In fact they are the first cells I have used that match my HE2 and HE4 cells on this load test.
This is with the button tops as well so I would say these are quite good cells.
I will try them in a light next week and see what the output difference is.
Ok. So i am going to be honest… i made a big mistake… i cant blame it on skylumen. i upgraded my acebeam x60 xml dedome to sst40 dome on… its a nightmare… now the light goes dimmer then came back to full power. Its more like slow fickering issue… i am using lg mj1… the light have a stock driver… anyone know why this is doing… should i switch the battery to sony ? Thanks
I am done man. I tried high drain Samsung 30q and it still giving me the same problem. I have 14 acebeam lights. I like most of them except x60 and x65 battery pack. Stock acebeam L16 have been great.
I don’t know if I want to purchase modded acebeam light or x70 in the future… I might stick it with thrunite or lumintop…
Thrunite tc20 stock is good.
Lumintop odf 30 is good too…
I would like to get myself an Acebeam in the future, but so far X80 is the only one that attracts me the most. It’s the UI that’s keeping me away… I personally don’t like to click through all those modes and colors for a specific brightness…
which other Acebeam do you like the most in your collections?
NewLumen—the only time I’ve had flickering problems and fading low to high etc—It’s usually a grounding problem—check the driver plate etc—every where ground/neg passes through
