[Duke309]

I'm looking to get a new soldering iron, and its going to be used for making cables, amps, and modding a wii. I would like to not spend that much money on it, because I really won't be using it that much. Although I do want to get something decent this time. Right now I'm trying to choose between the 20 or 25 watt Hakko Dash or the Circuit Specialists Station. Both are about the same price and have readily available tips. How does the temperature setting work on the circuit specialist, does it keep the iron constantly at the temp you set?

Also what solder and tips should I get, the points on the wii are pretty damn small.

 

[sejarzo]

I have the CSI digital station that sold for $50-ish last year.

It senses when the knob is turned and the LED readout switches from the actual temp to the set point until the knob is still for a few seconds. The display then switches back to the actual temp.

That knob/potentiometer assembly seems a bit "spongy" on mine--I don't think the casing of the pot is quite right. However, it does work as advertised. Control of the temp sure appears to be very stable.

I normally use the small chisel tip supplied with the iron for most work on small interconnects, etc......I can't remember the exact size of it off the top of my head. I also bought what must be the "long conical" tip, and I can't imagine that anyone could possibly use anything smaller than that very effectively for hand soldering. I haven't used it at all yet, never had the need for such a small joint.

I don't quite get the design of the holder, though. The handle on the top of mine keeps coming off, but it really doesn't even need to be there.

I use the very thin Radio Shack silver solder most of the time (RS Catalog #64-035.) I can't imagine fumbling around with a thicker diameter when soldering mini plugs, etc. It's probably not a good bang-for-the-buck item, but I'm not the type of guy to go through lbs of the stuff in a year!

 

[pinkfloyd4ever]

ha, use the search feature, just search the DIY forum for the thread titles "soldering" and/or "iron". This is only like the 65746th time this question has been asked since I joined in January, at least one of which was by me

FWIW, I've got a xytronic 379 on the way, should be here tom according to the UPS tracking. I'll le tyou know how I like it when I use it a lil

 

[Duke309]

I did use the search feature, thats how I came to the choices between these two. The majority of the posts on the subject are just "get this one" and no actual review of the product. Serjazo's description is the first one I could find on how the digital station actually operates.

Hmm xytronic, I don't think I've heard of those, 50 is getting over my price range though.

 

[pinkfloyd4ever]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Duke309 /img/forum/go_quote.gif I did use the search feature, thats how I came to the choices between these two. The majority of the posts on the subject are just "get this one" and no actual review of the product. Serjazo's description is the first one I could find on how the digital station actually operates.

ahhh mybad, that's understandable. I almost got the Dash and have read nothing but good things about it, but of course its drawbacks are that it's "fixed" temp, which is not regulated, meaning the heating element is always on and it probably only gets up to its listed max temp after its been sitting in the stand for awhile; by the same token the temperature on a fixed temp iron drops (sometimes a little, sometimes alot depending on what you're soldering) as heat is transferred to your solder joint. A temp-controlled station however, cycles its heater on and off to maintain the set temp, whether its tranferring a ton of heat to a solder joint on a large ground plane, or sitting idle in the stand. Maybe you already knew all that tho

Anyway, since my xytronic just came like a half hour ago, I can't give you much of a review, but mono definitely knows his stuff. I'd read all his posts in that thread, lots of info on budget soldering stations including CSI & Xytronic, as well as detailed answers to my same question about tips. Im assuming the stuff you're modifying on the Wii is surface mount, right? If you don't have any experience soldering I would probably build a cmoy or something, maybe an Alien DAC (mostly surface mount) to practice before you get in the Wii with the iron. Just a suggestion, I fried the first SMT chip I tried to solder but I have very shaky hands.
Quote:

Originally Posted by Duke309 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Hmm xytronic, I don't think I've heard of those, 50 is getting over my price range though.

Did you see that price @ howard electronics? you can get em elsewhere for $42, I wouldn't order from the place mono has the link to the xytronics tho cause, as he said, their shipping is sky high. There are a few other places that sell it, just google xytronic 379.