Welcome to a new Voltlog, it’s November and that means the biggest shopping event happening in Asia is coming up, I’m talking about the 11th of november. There are some numbers published for last years event and it seems they registered more than 30 billion in 24 hours in sales, yes you heard right, billions. So it’s a very big event with nice discounts and opportunities for makers like us to get some new gear. That’s why I prepared this video which will be published 1-2 days before the event so you can get some ideas of stuff that you could purchase. I assembled a list, these are products that I’ve tested and used myself which I think are good value for money and a nice addition to any hobbyist lab.
Tag: Desoldering
Voltlog #256 – Best BST-863 Hot Air Rework Station (Alternative to Quick 861DW)
Inside the box of the BST-863 we have the station, a really nice and heavy stand for the tool piece, a total of 3 nozzles, a grounding strap and a power cord. The first thing I notice is the hose which pretty thick, certainly thicker than what I had on my old Gordak station but seems to be softer material. The way it’s designed with the tool standing vertically in the stand makes the air hose forms this loop which depending on your bench setup might or might not bother you but it’s something to consider. But I like the quality of the stand, it’s heavy and feels very sturdy, you get this accessory here which allows you to remove the nozzles while hot and the station has a sensor to detect when the handle is in the stand.
Adjustment of temperature and air level is made through this touch screen control. I’m a bit anti touch screen control on test gear so I would’ve preferred some switches on the front panel but don’t get me wrong, the touch screen works well on this unit, it has nice big touch keys and after setting up your presets you are likely not going to need to adjust the temperature you will just be using the presets like leaded, lead free and another one for heatshrink maybe.
Is this cheaper station a good alternative to the Quick 861DW? This video review should provide you with enough info to decide which one to buy.
Here are some high resolution images from the teardown:
Voltlog #210 – 946C Hot Plate Review & Teardown
Welcome to a new Voltlog, today we’re gonna do a review and teardown of this hot plate which was supplied for free by banggood.com. So you would use something like this to preheat a pcb, to prepare it for desoldering an IC or even for reflow soldering a board. As usual there will be links placed in the description below which I encourage you to check out. There is a 100x100mm version at 400W and a 200x200mm version which I have here at 800W.
If you haven’t worked with a multi layer pcb you might ask yourself why do I need to pre-heat the board. Well modern devices uses a high number of internal pcb layers so desoldering something from those might be harder if you only heat the board from the top with hot air, it might take some time until the IC reaches desoldering temperature because the heat is sucked away by the internal copper layers.
This could be bad for the board and the IC because you will need to increase the temperature of your hot air station above the normal working temperature to compensate for that and in the process you might damage the board or the IC. Such a tool allows you to bring the board to a higher temperature without creating any hot spots, and then you can just heat with hot air from the top the are where you need to work.
Voltlog #102 – S-993A Desoldering Gun Teardown
In this video I am doing a teardown of the S-993A desoldering gun to check if there are any problems with the wiring inside.
Voltlog #101 – S-993A 90W Desoldering Gun
This is a short review of the S-993A 90W Desoldering Gun which was sent to me for free by banggood.com. I was planning on getting one of these for a long time and I’m happy that I finally got it, it’s very useful in repair jobs as I’m showing in the review video below.
Links for buying this desoldering gun:
VoltLog #25 – How to Salvage Electronic Components For Reuse
In this video I am showing various techniques I use for desoldering and salvaging electronic components like: inductors, tantalum capacitors, connectors, ceramic capacitors, op-amps, comparators, switches, battery connectors, dc jacks, mosfets, fuses and ferrite beads from old motherboards.
I am also taking a look at some laptop optical drivers and lcd pannels to see if there is anything usefull we can save before taking them to the recycling bin.
Here are links to some tools you can use for desoldering jobs: