TOOLCRAFT ST-80A Analog Soldering station worth buying? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Robin
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: November 29, 2015, 09:09:47 pm
content: Hello everyone,I want to buy my first adjustable soldering station. I do have experience in soldering with a cheap iron.I'm looking for a station for under €100.This is what I had in mind. Does anybody know if it's any good?http://www.conrad.be/ce/nl/product/791785/TOOLCRAFT-ST-80A-Analoog-Soldeerstation-80-W-150-tot-450-C?ref=searchDetailIf someone has other suggestions, please let me know!Robin

author: Matje
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: November 29, 2015, 11:34:56 pm
content: Quote from: Robin on November 29, 2015, 09:09:47 pmIt is at least not bad.Halfway reasonable build quality, useful selection of tips (this is important!), separate iron holder, which I personally find a nice feature. Of course , it being analog, you can't very precisely select the temperature, but IMHO that isn't usually needed. It has been sold by Conrad in slightly different forms for some time, so unlikely to go "unobtainium" soon.If you later upgrade to a better station it will still be a useable second station - like with DMMs one station just isn't enough in the long run, think desoldering SMD resistors, caps or diodes.

author: GreyWoolfe
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: November 29, 2015, 11:56:27 pm
content: The one you are interested in has a single 1 star review. The site has a Vellemanhttp://www.conrad.be/ce/nl/product/077088/Velleman-VTSSC40N-Digitaal-Soldeerstation-48-W-150-tot-450-C/?ref=category&rt=category&rb=1that has 16 reviews with an average of 4 stars and 14 of 16 recommend it. It is under your 100 Euro budget.That said, cheap soldering irons are a hot button topic around here. Most of us will tell you to save your money and buy a quality unit. Whether or not you have experience with cheap stations, it's still a cheap station. The threads go on here ad nauseum on the pitfalls of cheap stations such as having to modify something to make it work half way decently. If you solder a lot, buy a better quality iron, it will save time, aggravation, and money by not replacing the equipment near as often. Buy OEM tips and good quality solder such as Kester 44 63/37, 66 core. You don't have to use lead free if doing projects for yourself.I started with a Hakko 936 and now have a Hakko FX-951 and a Metcal MX-500. There is no comparison between the 936 and FX-951. The Metcal is in a league of it's own.

author: Matje
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: November 30, 2015, 11:35:16 pm
content: Quote from: GreyWoolfe on November 29, 2015, 11:56:27 pmBut, but, but...BEWARE of reviews. A lot are fakes, and context matters a lot. At Conrad they are "national", IOW at conrad.de the Voltcraft 50W version has 3 with 4.5 stars, the 80W version has 1 with 3 stars, the 100W version has 0. The Velleman has 0 too.Given that Voltcraft is a Conrad house brand (so is "german" in a kind of way) and Velleman is, dunno, Netherlands I believe, this is not exactly surprising. Neither is the fact that there are more reviews for the Velleman than the Voltcraft in .be.Reviews at online stores are generally worth, well, not that much, unfortunately.I'm not saying the Voltcraft is as good or better than the Velleman BTW.

author: Robin
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: December 01, 2015, 09:10:32 pm
content: Thank you for all the reactions.I have one more question. Does it make that much of a difference if I buy a 50W or a 80W station? They can both reach as high as 450°C. Does the 80W heat up faster?

author: Cubdriver
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: December 01, 2015, 11:17:12 pm
content: The 80 W will be capable ofdeliveringmore heat. To use a sort of analogy, think of it like a water pump feeding a spray nozzle. A smaller pump and a larger pump could both be set up to regulate at a given pressure (the temperature, in the analogy to the soldering iron), but once you begin to open the nozzle and draw water from it (using the iron to heat a connection), the larger pump will be able to maintain the pressure (temperature) with the nozzle open wider than the smaller pump would - as you open the nozzle, the smaller pump's pressure would drop at a lower flow rate than the larger pump. Similarly, if you try to heat a larger connection with a soldering iron, heat may flow out faster than the lower powered iron can 'replace' it, and the tip temp will drop. The larger iron will recover its temp more quickly if used to heat a large connection.In short, if it's temperature controlled, in my opinion you're probably better off with the more powerful soldering iron.-PatEdit to add: Yes, the 80W will likely heat up faster, but probably not enough to make a huge difference for practical purposes as the iron is typically turned on at the beginning of the job then left on while in use.

author: dom0
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 03, 2015, 05:21:30 pm
content: QuoteOh please, no hand soldering system hasaccuratetemperature control. Digital controllers are solely around for comfort functions like 1-button temperature set points et cetera.--The overall design is identical to the first systems with continuously variable temperature and exchangeable tips:There is a very long, heavy tip with a lot of thermal mass and a heater + thermosensor combination relatively far down the "barrel" of the iron. This means that temperature regulation is always poor in these systems.If you look at the development of hand solder systems you'll notice, that the newer and more high-endish systems always aim to reduce heater-to-tip distance (i.e. effective thermal tip length = thermal resistance) and tip weight (= thermal capacity) to enable better temperature regulation and less temperature drop under thermal load. This is very much like output resistance and output capacitance of a power supply.Compare e.g. these cheaper systems with tips that are around 4 cm overall in length and weigh 8-10 g with a Weller WSP/WP 80 system, where tips are 1 cm and 1 g and then compare this with a JBC 245 system where the effective tip length is <1 mm (the sensor and heater are directly at the top of the tip) and the (thermally active) tip mass is maybe 2 g or so. In all cases the heater has somewhere around 80 W steady-state power capability.Still, they are totally fine for most work, but you will need to manually compensate for temperature drops when soldering large connectors, ground planes and the like.

author: continuo
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 03, 2015, 07:52:25 pm
content: Quote from: Robin on November 29, 2015, 09:09:47 pmI wouldn't buy it. I doubt it's much, if any, better than the typical Hakko clone you would find on eBay, for a lot less money. A typical basic iron people here recommend a lot is the Hakko 888D (genuine), but these are usually located in the US, where this thing seems to be a free giveaway at McDonalds, if you order 3 Cheeseburgers, a BigMac and a Coke. Not very attractive for us Europeans, because, including VAT & shipping, it's all but cheap for this piece of ancient technology. So my recommendation would be, either go with one of the cheapo eBay clones or shell out some more and get a Ersa i-con nano. Anything between isn't worth it, imo.http://www.ersa-shop.com/ersa-icon-nano-elektronisch-geregelte-l%C3%B6tstation-standby-antistatisch-p-364.htmlAnd if you want to get something really fancy, buy a JBC BT-2BWAhttp://www.chiemtronic.de/produkte/jbc-loetstationen-loettechnik/analoge-jbc-loetstation-bt-2bwa/Yes, good tools ain't cheap, unfortunately

author: neslekkim
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 03, 2015, 09:15:11 pm
content: that old jbc was old, better buy the newer digital models then?

author: continuo
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 03, 2015, 09:28:45 pm
content: Quote from: neslekkim on December 03, 2015, 09:15:11 pmWhy? This "old" model has the same performance as the "new" model, it lacks the lcd screen, yes, but that gimmick wouldn't be worth 120€ to me... In fact, I kinda like it better because of the rotary knob. Wanna change temperature? Simply turn it, no pushing knobs, no menus, just a quick turn and there you go. It's also microcontroller powered, not a simple analog iron

author: ciccio
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 03, 2015, 09:42:57 pm
content: Quote from: neslekkim on December 03, 2015, 09:15:11 pmI'ts old, but it works.... and the price is really good.I have my boards assembled by different professionals, and all of them use this JBC, not the newer ones.I've tested it, and it's great.In my work I've standardized on 80W Weller (there is a great difference in 80 W vs 50 W, in start-up time and thermal recovery) so I cannot buy a new JBC (I should stock two series of tips, and this is annoying), but sometimes I think about this.An option for you could be an HAKKO FX-888D fom the Italian distributor Batterfly, at 98 euros + VAT + Delivery:http://www.batterfly.com/shop/hakko_fx-888dBest regards

author: neslekkim
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 03, 2015, 09:59:31 pm
content: Quote from: continuo on December 03, 2015, 09:28:45 pmah, it's that much more expensive now, I thought I rember the price around that when I bought mine, but that's some time ago now.

author: mich41
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: December 03, 2015, 10:32:41 pm
content: It's a rebranded Atten ST-80A station. I never used one, but afaik they are one of the better Hakko knockoffs (by which I mean, Hakko-like handle and tips - the station isn't compatible with Hakko heaters).A 50W Hakko knockoff is sufficient for soldering small components and kinda-sorta-sufficient to occasionally solder some big THT component on a heavy PCB with lots of copper, although for this, the more power the better. It should heat up in half a minute or less unless something is wrong with it.The cheapest $30 Hakko knockoffs are actually 20W-30W (even though advertised as 50W) and they fail miserably at big components and big PCBs, but the better ones could be fine if you don't spend whole day soldering and believe that your money is better spent on parts, test equipment or chocolate instead of professional iron.

author: Rasz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 06, 2015, 11:38:10 am
content: its not terrible, its not good eitherlike others said its one of the better hakko clones, but sold at almost full hakko price :/at that price you can buy clon^^^counterfeit FX-951http://www.banggood.com/HAKKO-FX-951-Style-230V-AU-Plug-Solder-Soldering-Iron-Station-p-932704.htmlor a clone with set of 11 tipshttp://www.banggood.com/BAKON-950D-75W-Mini-Portable-Digital-Soldering-Station-with-T12-Tip-p-982824.htmlhttp://www.banggood.com/T12-Series-Solder-Iron-Tips-for-Hakko-Soldering-Station-FX-951-FX-952-p-932701.htmlboth using newer design tips, difference is huge between old style separate tip+heater.