UK Lidl - Solder Station 26 Jan 16

From Tue 26 Jan looks like they will have an adjustable heat solder station for £8.00. Thought I'd mention it - looks decent in the catalogue. I will be trying to get one.

All the money I save in there they take back off me with their "gadget" aisle :)

this is offered in Germany at LIDL solder station
will get one and come back with test results ...

That's the one. I think we get it in red though but same unit for sure

I'd be interested to see what it's like... it's nice that something with a relatively fine point on it is so cheap - although the optional screwdriver bit looks a bit scary! :)

Is there a cheap temperature sensor that can handle up to 350°C to adjust this station ?

Actually it's identical. Ours is green too. Must be the other things they'll "make" me buy which are red ;)

Based on the price, I would expect a cheap potentiometer knob only,
without a temp sensor to regulate temp.

@JumJum ohh, that'd be nasty! Maybe someone could take a look inside and check? If so, getting the temperature even remotely stable could be tricky.

@MaBe there was a post on the MLX90614 - a non-contact temperature sensor that'd do up to 380 degrees. Making something using that would be extremely cool.

... actually a bit of an aside, but a PID temperature controller using that would be amazing for things like 3D printer hot ends. Assembling them is always a bit of a faff as the sensors usually have really delicate wires and need including in the heater assembly somewhere.

Got one .....

yes it has a cheap potentiometer with min,1 to 5 x 100 °C , set to 2.5 and started some soldering

o wire is relative stiff
o pen is large and heavy, compared to Xytronic LF-3200
o no temp reached feedback
o soldering works fine, tried some SMD 1206 and one SO20

@Gordon will buy this MLX90614

@Mabe You don't hang about :) Worth the £8.00? My iron has no temp adjustment at all, so I figured this would be better, potentiometer or not?

@Ollie True, this one is better than any station without temp adjustment, so go and get one ;-)

That thing looks like a piece of garbage.
You need some form of feedback in the temperature control if you want to be using it for precision electronics work.

As always, I advise grabbing an used greenish weller (even the kind that use the magnetic tips for temp control) over new production crap (even with the weller brand - it's just a name now, the quality isn't there anymore) - you can get em on ebay.

Get off the fence @DrAzzy tell us what you really think :)

I'll check ebay for the kit you mention. I suppose the appeal of this thing is the price. It looks better than the iron I have, and I paid more for that. I'm guessing it's not anything professionals would use, but for the entry level bods like me maybe it's ok. I don't know. I'll get one anyway. £8.00!!!!

I do see a lot of people on forums complaining about how hard soldering is. After seeing this and other threads where people compared the resistor-in-a-plastic-handle that they used with the resistor-in-a-plastic-handle that the other guy who also had trouble soldering used, and show pictures of boards where they've turned the solder mask into black crumbles, basically boards that look worse than I could make a board look if I tried, using a weller soldering iron older than I am. And that's counting the soldering I've done on friday evenings after a night at the local pub.

I am inclined to think that, even more than experienced solderers, the entry level electronics people are the ones that need a decent soldering iron. Where I could use some flakey soldering iron, that didn't hold temperature very well, by playing with the adjustment dial if it "felt" too hot or not hot enough, and keeping the tip clean (because the tips on the cheapo ones don't seem to hold up - meanwhile you can leave a weller on and go away for the weekend, and come back and it'll be ready to use - wipe the tip, tin it and go), and get away just fine using it. Someone who wasn't good at soldering though might not be able to "feel" that the tip was getting too hot for the job or be able to compensate.

Of course, the entry level people are the ones less likely to go out and buy a nice iron.

I started on a Weller with the magnetic tips for temp control.
This one, for example. My father has I think two or three of these:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Weller-TC-202-Soldering-Power-Unit-With-TC201P-Iron-WTCP-Series-Made-in-USA/272112368401?_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851&_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIC.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D35218%26meid%3D6d7f05d9e25d45e7928e8e10f9e8226d%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D6%26sd%3D291662474441

I used one similar to that, only narrower (only one spot for sponge) for a bunch of years, only recently got a few electronically temp controlled ones - and honestly I barely use the temp control feature. Usually you just want it to hold at like 700 degrees, so the magentic tip kind does what you want anyway.

Get off the fence @DrAzzy tell us what you really think :)

Okay, that soldering iron is garbage, and you're an idiot for considering it! (am i doin it right? :-P )

Okay, that soldering iron is garbage, and you're an idiot for considering it! (am i doin it right? :-P )

I think you nailed it!

Seriously though, do appreciate anyone that takes the time to offer info that will help me and maybe others move up the curve. I will be looking at the kit you mention.

Cheers.

Just for completeness: The MLX90614 would not be the right sensor for measuring the temperature of a soldering tip. The sensor does not measure the maximum temperature but integrates the emission over a certain angle (70°-80°). Thus it is better for getting the temperature of larger things like an oven. Otherwise you have to put the sensor very near to the object like a medical ear thermometer.

I think the other two items that can dramatically help soldering is a flux pen and a spun brass "sponge" to wipe the soldering iron tip. The flux really helps clean stuff and make the solder flow, specially if you've goofed and messed around on a spot for a bit and all the original flux is gone.
The brass tip cleaner is amazing, I only recently discovered it and had always used wet sponges in the past. It's like night and day to clean the tip!
Finally, every time you set the soldering tip down, apply a dab of solder so the tip doesn't oxidize and then wipe that off on the brass later when you pick the iron up again.

Having a potentiometer rather than proper temperature control makes it a no-go for me. While it might be ok for some things, other stuff like the WS2812B lights are amazingly temperature sensitive, and will just die if you try and solder them with something that's too hot.

You can get hot air rework stations for less than £60 (with postage) in the UK. I bought one for the hot air but it does have a proper temperature controlled soldering iron. Having said that I still use my old magnetic tip Weller, as the cheap one seems to have very little thermal mass (it feels like it cools down too quickly).

I did get given one of these, and I could highly recommend them. As well as being amazingly cool, it seems to work well, and you can even run it off 12v if you're away from a socket. If anything it's just a bit too small to hold easily.

Thanks all for the info and tips. Very useful. Had a bash at hard wiring my MQTT temperature controller at the weekend. Made a right mess of it. Wrote off two ESP8266-01 in the process with my Maplin "lava lance"

I'll be investing in something better, and give the Lidl one a miss.

Tell me, does the quality of solder matter, is there a brand those in the know all use?

Also wire, do you just chop up the jumper cables and use those?

I'm not sure about solder - I'm still using the same roll I was given 25 years ago!

For wires, I have some rolls of un-cut multicore wire (I think you can buy kits with a few metres of each colour?). However if I know I'm connecting to something that's got pins/socket on it, I'll use those dupont jumper wires. For a few £ you can buy blocks of connector sleeves like this - then you just unclip the connectors that you soldered from their single blocks, and push them into the multiple ones in the right order. Makes everything nice and tidy :)

Don't know, if you can still get leaded (lead metal) solder, but that has a lower melting point. (obviously not for production && wash your hands after).
Flux can help a lot. Even if you have rosin cored solder.

^^^ that - use leaded solder, I didn't mention that.

Also solder does 'go off'. The stuff I have isn't quite as good as it should be I think... I guess it gets corroded and maybe the flux in it isn't that good - for nice clean (small) joints I end up adding flux.