<$100 "hobby" digitally controlled soldering station, Hakko FX-888D, is it any good?

[Hideji]

"It's a 70W unit and comes in a fisher-price blue and yellow color scheme. I understand they make a more subdued adult-themed color"
It's actually already in an adult color scheme. It's just that Hakko is a Japanese company, from a strange and wondrous world where adults are allowed to enjoy colors beyond gray and beige, heheh. ; )

Jokes aside, I'm glad you liked the unit. Beyond enjoying colors, the Japanese are also famous for making high quality stuff. Looks like Hakko continues that trend.

[AZguy]

"It's a 70W unit and comes in a fisher-price blue and yellow color scheme. I understand they make a more subdued adult-themed color"
It's actually already in an adult color scheme. It's just that Hakko is a Japanese company, from a strange and wondrous world where adults are allowed to enjoy colors beyond gray and beige, heheh. ; )

Jokes aside, I'm glad you liked the unit. Beyond enjoying colors, the Japanese are also famous for making high quality stuff. Looks like Hakko continues that trend.

Hahaha... I guess that having spent most my life in the US (I spent a few months in Japan and several years in several other countries) I'd still much prefer the gray and beige... the blue/yellow just doesn't look professional to my eye

Regardless, last two years I used the unit for a lot of professional work and it's a really solid unit. The super fine points were able to deal with tiny little SMT parts (1005 - 0402) very well and I had to remove and solder down a bunch of RF shields that were soldered down to grounds that were huge thermal sinks and the large chisel tips worked well although I had to turn the unit up to the maximum (480C) which I don't like to do - it's hard on the tips and elements but at least they don't cost much and it's great it could do that.

During that time I've had to change the settings a lot and after doing it a few times I now find the interface super easy and don't forget how to change them. I've also really gotten into the habit of as soon as I know I'll take even a short break I immediately turn it down to P1...

[AZguy]

BTW - I also did several XT90's and with the 3.2mm chisel at 450C were a complete breeze... takes only as long as it takes to feed the solder in - they are immediately hot enough to melt it (I really hate waiting for under-powered units to get to melt) and in seconds you can feed enough in to make a perfect joint without overheating the connector... it's really a pleasure compared to the cheap pencils and guns...

[ahmarali]

I will give 10/10 marks to the HAKKO, Incredible soldering iron. see the latest details about HAKKO at https://www.bestsolderingirons.com/b...oldering-iron/

[stts]

I got stations, but they are usually at the station. Hah. I solder with whatever I can get to heat up. Tin the tip, put flux on the spot, and hit it with a melted blob of solder. The flux makes any working iron work. And I got some seriously under powered irons on hand too. Freebies from an auction. I bought a locked cabinet and found an electronic gold mine inside.

[AZguy]

FWIW most irons using good solder (I will always use leaded, most of the time Sn63 but also some 2% silver bearing for some applications) and flux on the joint will work out... it's the really large or really small stuff where they will typically let you down... soldering 8-10AWG into connectors with a iron with too low an output, poor thermal conductivity to the tip and/or too small a tip will likely leave you with a lousy solder joint and a melted connector... trying to do 0.5mm pitch IC's or 0402 passives (SMT) with a 1-2mm tip isn't going to make someone happy either...

[stts]

Oh yea, I got a 250watt gun for all the heavy soldering. Even with PC boards. Some of the ground plains are so beefy they suck the life out of irons. Then I have to go hunting for that gun. Thats the hard part. Hah.

[AZguy]

Hot air tools and preheaters can be your friend although I try and avoid the preheaters...