I recently picked up one of these from Ebay (link):
I have been very pleased with it. It heats up rapidly, it remembers the last temperature setting and it stays within a few degrees of that setting very well. So far, I have only used the pencil tip with it, so I can't comment on the other tips. But the pencil tip has worked very well for me so far.
Setting the temperature is easy, there are some presets and the readout switches between C & F with a click of the switch. Moving the temp up or down just takes pressing and holding the button. There are two readouts on the display. One for set temperature and the other for actual temperature. So simple a caveman could do it.
The downsides to it so far have been minor.
1) the solder sucker they send with it, in a word, sucks. The Radio Shack one give much more pull and works much better.
2) In the picture it looks like the soldering iron holder is attached to the main unit, but it is not. I am probably going to get some double stick tape and attach the two. I am tired of the iron holder "walking" across my desktop every time I set it back in.
3) Like many "low mass" tips, it takes a little technique to get the pads hot enough to solder/desolder when they are attached to the ground plane or very thick traces on the circuit board.
Overall, I am quite happy with it. It is not a $300 Pace or Hakko unit in quality, but I hope I don't have to drop it on the floor very often. And it didn't cost $300.
The Ebay transaction went very smooth. Just BIN and it will show up on your doorstep a few days later. It was reasonably well packed and survived the shipping process without any issues.
ken
I have been very pleased with it. It heats up rapidly, it remembers the last temperature setting and it stays within a few degrees of that setting very well. So far, I have only used the pencil tip with it, so I can't comment on the other tips. But the pencil tip has worked very well for me so far.
Setting the temperature is easy, there are some presets and the readout switches between C & F with a click of the switch. Moving the temp up or down just takes pressing and holding the button. There are two readouts on the display. One for set temperature and the other for actual temperature. So simple a caveman could do it.

The downsides to it so far have been minor.
1) the solder sucker they send with it, in a word, sucks. The Radio Shack one give much more pull and works much better.
2) In the picture it looks like the soldering iron holder is attached to the main unit, but it is not. I am probably going to get some double stick tape and attach the two. I am tired of the iron holder "walking" across my desktop every time I set it back in.
3) Like many "low mass" tips, it takes a little technique to get the pads hot enough to solder/desolder when they are attached to the ground plane or very thick traces on the circuit board.
Overall, I am quite happy with it. It is not a $300 Pace or Hakko unit in quality, but I hope I don't have to drop it on the floor very often. And it didn't cost $300.
The Ebay transaction went very smooth. Just BIN and it will show up on your doorstep a few days later. It was reasonably well packed and survived the shipping process without any issues.
ken
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