With all the different technical specifications and types of Soldering Stations available, choosing a station that will suit your needs and requirements can be a very daunting task, however, by simply breaking down the main components of a soldering station and the accessories needed to complete a soldering project, you will easily be able to select a soldering station and accessories that will suit your budget and soldering requirements. Listed below are some of the things you might want to consider when buying a soldering station.
What is a soldering station?
A soldering station is made up of a variable power supply, soldering iron, and iron holder. Soldering stations have many advantages over standard, fixed-power soldering irons, such as the ability to accurately set the tip temperature, LCD readouts, pre-set temperature settings, and ESD (electrostatic discharge) protection. Another major plus point for the soldering station is having all your soldering equipment in one place.
The price
Soldering stations start from around $20 for a very basic station and go up into the thousands for a professional setup. For the very occasional user, the low-priced stations will cope with light electronics repairs. For the more frequent soldering enthusiast, the medium-priced stations would be more appropriate due to the better build quality, higher temperature ranges, digital displays, and higher wattages. As with most things, you do get what you pay for.
Makes of Soldering Station
There are several soldering station manufacturers that all produce quality stations at affordable prices, these include; X-Tronic, Hakko, Weller, and Aoyue. The X-Tronic range of stations is very good value for money and includes a range of accessories to get you soldering straight away.
Station Specifications
Wattage:
A higher wattage station does not mean more heat, what it does mean is that when the soldering iron tip is in use the heat will be transferred from the tip to the component that is being soldered, making the tip cool down. A higher wattage station will get the tip back to the pre-set operating temperature quicker than a low wattage one.
If you are going to be soldering small electronic components then you probably won't need a high wattage station, a 30 - 50 watt station will be adequate for this type of soldering. If you are going to be soldering large components or thick wires it would be better to choose a station in the 50 - 80 watt range.
LCD Display
Most of the medium price ranges of Soldering stations have LCD displays; this gives an accurate visualization of the set temperature and the actual tip temperature. The lower-priced stations have a dial to adjust the temperature and as such tend not to be as accurate as of the LCD models.
ESD protection circuit, diode array, what is a diode arrayESD, or electrostatic discharge, is an energy transfer between two objects that are differently charged.
ESD can short out or cause damage to electronic devices, which is why several electronic manufacturers protect their devices against ESD.
High frequency applications, digital logic circuitThe PN junction of a small signal diode is usually encapsulated in glass in order to protect it and generally has a black or red band at one end of its body identifying it as the cathode end of the terminal.
Small signal diodes have lower current and power ratings in comparison to rectifier diodes but can function better in high frequency applications or in switching and clipping applications which deal with short-duration pulse waveforms.
