Hey! i was wondering, what is your view on yihua soldering stations, do you think they are good, or no? thanks!

@@no_aa08 I have a Yihua 952D+ and it's quite good. Make sure you buy the additional set of tips though. The airflow on the hot air side is a bit weak, at least on mine. I think it could be increased a bit but then that's based on using it for heat shrinking and not exactly it's intended purpose. What I find, and it may very well be the solder I'm using, is that the temperature has to be set quite a bit higher. As I said it could be my solder - not the best stuff - not even close. That's next on the list.

@@richardperritt i jusy bought the 939d+ it seemed like a a good deal, and mine gets up to 990 degrees f so i think it will be okay, thanks tho

I’m going to use a aluminum plate between the surface and the board I want to solder, gonna do a test run with just a bare pcb with a thermocouple to dial in the right temp to set the hot plate to, might use some hot air aswell.

Glad I could help

SOT89 and even that big power chip as shown aren't actually a drama at all, i've done that quite a bit. You can just heat the tab with a normal soldering iron, and the whole chip will get hot enough to lift from all pads simultaneously about as quickly as the solder under the tab gets molten, maybe after just a handful more seconds. Then you can clean up the pads with a braid, and you can even single-pin solder the new device in place. Paste is a nicer way to solder the tab, but even if you just heat one corner of it with an iron and feed solder wire from the other, the solder will wick underneath it evenly no problem if you use flux! Sure it'll take a bit longer but if you aren't doing them all day every day, the extra time doesn't really justify getting an expensive extra tool that you'll just spend time retrieving when you need it. Either way the main challenge is just manipulating the devices into place, so you must get some sharp tweezers and must become mentally one with your tweezers.

Agreed, I prefer my semi-conductors medium rare, not well done ;)

That concept is called "preheating". If you're following your solder paste's reflow curve, you use a hotplate to get through the "preheat/soak" part of the curve and use hot air for the rest.

I'm hoping I'll have some success doing that. I have an absolutely tiny QFN part I'm soldering to a board (2.5mm by 4.5mm with 30 pins - 0.4mm spacing) that has a soldering temperature tolerance of 260C. The solder paste has a melting point of 220C and a recommended peak soldering temperate of 250C. Plan is to get the hot plate up to the 150C - 175C soak temperature, leave it for the 150 seconds, get it to the 250C peak, then turn it off and wait for the solder to solidify a bit and pull the board off the hotplate.

@@Schematix lol

I know right! :)

Components actually have temperature/time ratings in their data sheets, and realize they are assembled in factory by a very similar process.

@@albertogregory9678 hmm makes sense. I usually try to be on the safer side to not over heat my components.

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Universal input range, so covers 120 to 240VAC, and as it comes with an Australian and an EU adaptor set yes it will work on 230VAC. Look at 99 seconds in, when the label on it is visible.

That was exactly my thought. Heating components up this way will probably risking damaging them.

@@p_mouse8676 It's use for micro pancakes seems enticing though. Odd seeing all the nice design miniware are known for in a dumb concept.Certainly has semi-original features. OLED, RGBLED, ceramic surface, detachable plate. I'd of purchased it, if it was 150-180mm square plate.

Also strikes me as risky having something that small with a large board on it: uneven heat distribution must risk warping the board, ignoring the obvious risk of something toppling over while moving components about and the possibility of blowing it over if you use in in conjunction with hot air! Does look cool though - maybe ideal for reflowing SMD to DIP adapter boards, if you can't be bothered getting your full-sized hotplate out, that costs less. A bit too niche for me.

Yes, if you're not careful & aware of specific component temperature's limits

Actually almost less of an opportunity of destructive soldering than hot air if not experienced. You do have to set it only as hot as you have to and operate as swiftly as you can - and please don't try to solder with a screwdriver, or i will be gravely offended and you probably won't be too happy either. But 300°C setting is about adequate In fact i think most of this video is best seen as a how-not-to. You want to bake your PCBs at a safe temperature below 100°C for a while to drive off the moisture, you want to braid off the solder that's already on the pads before you add some paste solder, and no-no screwdrivers with magnetic tips or magnetic bit retention near high heat. Sharp cheap 7sa tweezers are amazing at manipulating components swimming in molten solder, though they are a bit consumable.

If you strap a metal block onto Hakko FX-888 it's gonna be equally slow.

@@momoware Well at least at the price it comes with a great soldering iron with it. I don't mind the waiting time at all because it's not like we use the hot plate all the time. Only a certain that we ever use it. So that's fine with me.

Amazon takes away your affiliate privileges if you talk about the price.