Electronic Circuits and Projects Forum

Originally Posted by Funny NYPD

I really like the idea of "built-in smoke extractor" on Aoyue 968, but I did see some of the user think that's a con. What's your opinion on this function?

Sometimes I use it, sometimes I don't. It's fairly noisy and there's no way to adjust the amount of vacuum, it's always full on. It's odd because it uses the same air pump as the hot air gun and you can adjust the air pressure of the hot air gun.

Originally Posted by Funny NYPD

Do you use any needle? or just the syringe itself.
I have used a few syringe with needle on solder paste and found the needle I have used is too easy to be jammed. And the ID of syringe is too big to be used without a needle or luer lock tip.

I am using the needle, which is only possible by adding the flux to the solder paste to thin it out. Without the needle the solder paste would come out too much for me. The needle in this ink refiller syringe is fairly big. I've also cut it off so it's only about a centimeter long so I'm not pushing paste through a long needle.

Originally Posted by Funny NYPD

Those tips can last very long time under heavy duty usage, even for the low cost ones. Anyone know what's the special coating on the tip?

I'm not buying tips because the old ones are used up, I bought other tip shapes that people have recommended, like chisel tips.

I just went though dx, and found the following item interesting:
DealExtreme: $1.44 Adhesive Injecting Pinheads for Electronic DIY (Different Size 6-Pack)

This is a bit off topic: Anyone know where can we buy glycerin (for solder flux) in Canada?

Originally Posted by Funny NYPD

I really like the idea of "built-in smoke extractor" on Aoyue 968, but I did see some of the user think that's a con. What's your opinion on this function?

It worked well, removed the majority of the smoke, but I didn't like it. It makes the handle for the soldering iron non-round which bothered me. I don't use that iron much anyway, i just mostly wanted the the hot air pencil on it. The fact that it has an iron too was just a bonus (especially when my Metcal died on me and I had to wait for a new one).

especially when my Metcal died on me

Metcal normally are super expensive (One Metcal price normally can buy you 2~5 Aoyues depends on which model you like). Do they have a decent warranty?
How fast can the Metacal iron heat-up compare with Aoyue's ceramic heater? Are they close? I heard the Metacal doesn't consume much power if you didn't heat the solder joints, and it uses RF technology to heat up the heating element. Not sure how the ceramic heating element works in Aoyue models.

BTW, I just found another low cost on DX (it seems nice, but it is 220V only, any 110V units in this price range (with shipping)?):
DealExtreme: $44.32 Kada 936D Digital soldering Station with English Manual (60W 24V AC)

If I recall right, the Auyue 936 are 35W, and the Kada one above is 60W.
Are those max power really matter? I believe the ceramic heater maybe the same, it is just the AC/AC transformer power ratings are different (on DX web, some Kada user take it apart and found only a 30W transformer is used, how can they get 60W power from a 30W AC/AC transformer?). It shouldn't be too hard to hack a 35W unit to a 60W. Or am I wrong?

It worked well, removed the majority of the smoke

Remove the smoke is a major concern when using the solder iron.

but I didn't like it.

Is the smoke absorber tip a challenge to use the iron tip?
The product does look professional and nice.

In tight quarters, the smoke absorber could get in the way, but for the most part I think it would be OK.

Are you asking about Metcal warranty or Aoyue? When my Aoyue "failed" I was able to send it back to the seller on Amazon for them to check it out. They found no defect and sent it back. The next time it "failed" I let it sit for a while and tried it again and it worked. As someone else earlier in the thread suggested, it may have been something in the air pencil handle that overheated and it went into an overtemp safety mode.

If you were asking about Metcal's warranty, I would expect them to have a really good warranty. The problem with my (employing comapny's actually) Metcal was that the tip on it died. I bought a whole new Metcal unit and a replacement tip for the old one. Replaced the tip and it went back to working perfectly. I didn't look into trying to return the unit under warranty as it was relatively old.

I am glad to see both can be supported or covered by the supplier.

The next time it "failed" I let it sit for a while and tried it again and it worked.

One other possibility could be just a lose solder joint, when the unit is hot, the contact is off, when it is cold, the contact is good. You probably can verify this theory by using another hot-air gun heat the whole unit up, or simply check the circuit boards on the unit see if there is some solder joint malfunction.