dahnz
New member
Hello all
I've read through a bunch of soldering station threads but because a lot of the stations discussed are hard to come by here in New Zealand or just cost heaps, I hope you'll indulge me by posting a few opinions.
I have three Williams games (Robotron, Defender, Stargate), and need to do some basic work on them (recapping monitors and maybe power supply, battery fix, replacing 4116s with 4164s, fixing any cold solder joints, etc), so I figure I need a better soldering iron than my old simple no-temp-control Hakko 504. I looked at Dick Smith (sort of an Australian-NZ version of Radio Shack) and they have these two:
http://www.dse.co.nz/dse.shop/4a837cb2016de2362740c0a87f3b071e/Product/View/T1976
http://www.dse.co.nz/dse.shop/4a837cb2016de2362740c0a87f3b071e/Product/View/T2250
The first seems to be the same as the Xytronic 379 (word for word product description) and the second may be the same as the Xytronic 137:
http://www.howardelectronics.com/xytronic/379.html
http://www.howardelectronics.com/xytronic/137ESD.html
I've been told the Dick Smith T2250 digital station at 55W/60W is too hot for game work, but I've seen a lot of people here recommend the Hakko 936, which is 50W. Does that 10W make a lot of difference? I can also get the Hakko 936 for twice the cost of the above (ie, about US$135). Of the three and given my limited needs, what do people recommend?
Thanks in advance, Dominic
I've read through a bunch of soldering station threads but because a lot of the stations discussed are hard to come by here in New Zealand or just cost heaps, I hope you'll indulge me by posting a few opinions.
I have three Williams games (Robotron, Defender, Stargate), and need to do some basic work on them (recapping monitors and maybe power supply, battery fix, replacing 4116s with 4164s, fixing any cold solder joints, etc), so I figure I need a better soldering iron than my old simple no-temp-control Hakko 504. I looked at Dick Smith (sort of an Australian-NZ version of Radio Shack) and they have these two:
http://www.dse.co.nz/dse.shop/4a837cb2016de2362740c0a87f3b071e/Product/View/T1976
http://www.dse.co.nz/dse.shop/4a837cb2016de2362740c0a87f3b071e/Product/View/T2250
The first seems to be the same as the Xytronic 379 (word for word product description) and the second may be the same as the Xytronic 137:
http://www.howardelectronics.com/xytronic/379.html
http://www.howardelectronics.com/xytronic/137ESD.html
I've been told the Dick Smith T2250 digital station at 55W/60W is too hot for game work, but I've seen a lot of people here recommend the Hakko 936, which is 50W. Does that 10W make a lot of difference? I can also get the Hakko 936 for twice the cost of the above (ie, about US$135). Of the three and given my limited needs, what do people recommend?
Thanks in advance, Dominic