Bench Multimeter for £30

[Clive S]

Rob you are forgetting that the Fluke lets out scented magic smoke.

[Robin Hewitt]

My £30 multimeter has arrived from Maplins and it's freaking enormous...

Compared it to my Fluke on the thing I am fixing...

Fluke 1.888V UNI-T 1.887V
Fluke 1.792V UNI-T 1.794V

Close enough, possibly true

[Boyan Silyavski]

Guys, could you help me a bit with sth else please? Now that i learned about Fluke and Maplin , could sb point me to a soldering gun? I have about 4 crappy ones, and i am still not happy. Most welding that i do is CNC wiring and similar. Fine stuff i bring downtown to repair shop.

I have currently:
-German made 40W straight simple one, its a bit shaky and the cable is old and hardened. Otherwise its a wonderfully working but now tip also is hacked
-Same as above 80w from Lidl. Good one but cable is hard again, and i hate that.

the above 2 are ok for electronics but i always forget them on and could not find good new tips.

- have 2 Guns. One smaller and 1 bigger. Aldi and Lidl. In my childhood my father had one like these / Russian maybe/ and was doing all with it. It was such nice and easy to use. Problem is that the smaller is not heating enough and the bigger is heating too much and tips burned faster of the big one. The smaller has tips that do not attract well the solder flow..


So having all that in mind, i am not happy. Today i had to solder all day. So i went to repair shop and asked for advice, my friend was not there, his wife said she could order one JBC, like the simple one they use. I looked at it , nice, but 50euro. Ok , not that i am cheap but it again will be forgotten and will not be usefull for connecting together 3 thick cables, for example.

I was browsing now ebay and saw that baby: JBC2100





So the question is :
-will that cover my needs? at least to me it seems that it will
-this or a clone. leaning towards the original, though clone is mere 12 euro here localy


Anybody uses this one?

[Clive S]

Boyan If you are serious about soldering you need a temperature controlled one I have two of these type http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Profession...-/252506802608
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Profession...-/282136153280
They can be left on all day without problems the bits are replaceable with different temperatures and automatically switch the current on and off.

I more modern one has the temp. control on the box. But will cost about £200 + The lead is made of silicone and flexible
I have had mine more than 30 years and still going strong they heat up in seconds.

[cropwell]

I have used an Antex TCS50 for years* and if it gives up before me I would replace it with this https://www.rapidonline.com/antex-t4...d-iron-85-0555
For big joints I use a large tip to transfer heat quickly, but the tips go down to needle point, 2.3mm is the tip supplied, but I find this one useful https://www.rapidonline.com/antex-b1...s-iron-85-0511

I have a dislike of the rapid heat guns, I used to have a Russian one with a bakelite case - it was downright dangeroos.

Cheers,

Rob

*Held together with cable ties and superglue now

[Boyan Silyavski]

Thanks guys, i think it will be either the Antex TCS50W with the digital control integrated /wow/ , either both / JBC2100/

[Neale]

I used one of the earlier model Antex irons (with analogue temperature control in the handle) for quite a while and with a range of different size bits, it worked quite well. However, it does suffer from "stiff cable" problems - it's a lightweight iron and it's difficult to put it on the bench without it moving - you need a heavy stand to hold it when it is not in use. I now use a (probably more than 30 year old) Weller temperature-controlled iron which came from a scrap bin at work. I had to design and build a new temperature controller for it (Arduino-based) but it works very well, feels good in the hand, and has a very flexible silicone cable that is also heatproof. I don't know if there are any second-hand irons like this still around, but mine is the best iron I have used. You can still buy new bits for it as well. I don't know what the cheap soldering stations from Maplin are like - haven't used one.

[JAZZCNC]

I've got one of these and love it.
I can also vouch they are strong.?? . . . Because if you drag it off the bench and run over it with pallet truck they still work. . .Lol

http://www.circuitspecialists.eu/csi...l&utm_content=

[Doddy]

I'll agree with Clive here.

I've used the traditional, cheap solder guns in the past and I hate them. Truly hate them. They're okay to dump heat into a mass of metal but there's no precision, and they are clumsy at best.

Now, the one Boyan linked, I know nothing about, but it's clearly designed to operate as an iron, rather than a gun (45 second heat-up time, "maintenance wattage" and so on). So, non of the advantage of a gun (not that there are many) and non of the finesse of an iron.

Boyan, if you want a crude iron for soldering big cables, why not look at the flexibility of a gas iron? (I've had good work out of a Iroda iron - e.g. ebay item 191949694792), which will double as a hot gas torch for heat-shrinking and a hot knife for cutting plastic fabrics/mesh). And it's completely portable, of course, and the bits are varied and cheap. About as cheap as the solder gun.

If, however, you want something all together different and suited to all-day operation then, as Clive says, a temperature controlled iron, or soldering station. I've grown up with Antex irons so I eventually plumbed for an Antex 660A station (e.g. ebay 380947367317) - though these cost about twice as much as the gun. A good choice of bits and plenty of power - it does anything I want of it. But, irons are very personal items, different people prefer different irons - Weller are well respected but I've never found them comfortable to use - and overpriced IMHO.

[Jonathan]

These are my most recent choices:



I got the JBC soldering iron after using some in the lab. I've been doing a LOT of soldering recently. They are so nice to use I couldn't resist. It heats up faster than you can pick the iron from the stand and move it to the PCB on your desk. I can't fault it at all, but even now I've had it for a few months I'm not sure if I should have got it - just so expensive, even via eBay as this one was.

Also pictured are two desoldering options - the ZD-985 is a relatively low cost one with a vacuum pump, which is good but the guns are a bit delicate. I mainly got it because I soldered about 100 fake transistors on to something. Otherwise, for most thing's you're good with a conventional pump, but heated. You can get those for £6 here - well worth it.

I do have an antex iron aswell - had it practically since I was in nappies. Several new tips and a new element, but it's still the same iron ;)



Regarding flexible cables - you can buy the cable separately:

https://www.rapidonline.com/Antex-W0...rSearchScope=1

For bigger stuff I use this:

http://cpc.farnell.com/weller/sp80nu...-uk/dp/SD01900

Buy a few and you can solder very big stuff:



If all you're doing is soldering for CNC machines, I don't see much point in getting anything fancy - it's only really worthwhile if you're soldering delicate PCBs, or just doing an awful lot of soldering. Just make sure you have an iron with enough power to deal with the bigger wires and connectors, but not something that will make a mess of anything more delicate.