Fixing a common fault with the 936D style solder stations.

The very common Hakko-themed digital soldering stations seem to have a common fault that causes a sensor error (S-E), erroneous temperature readings and failure to reliably heat the iron.
These are all down to a very simple design fault, where the front panel and PCB are connected by the solder pads on the soldering iron connector. It appears that the solder connections and PCB pads at that stress point can crack.
Here's how to fix the issue permanently and get your iron working properly.
If you enjoy these videos you can help support the channel with a dollar for coffee, cookies and random gadgets for disassembly at:-
www.bigclive.co...

[@KeanM]

Soldering stations that haven't been soldered together properly. How ironic!

[@ChristopherPerrin]

Solder iron(ic)

[@michael-gary-scott]

Kean Maizels love the profile pic!

[@cup_and_cone]

Commander Keen!

[@WaltonPete]

It's not so much that they haven't been soldered properly but that the mechanical design for support between the PCB and the front panel can cause the socket connections to break due to excessive movement. Not very ironic but more accurate.

[@GegoXaren]

OhTheIroning.png

[@hairypaulmm7wab195]

I have a WLX-936D that worked fine for a few months then one day just failed to power up. On investigation I found the soldering on the board was good, all connections and components checked out fine. I was amazed to discover the mains power cable was not passing power into the unit! On looking closer at the mains cable it was marked up as '3CX0.75mm but only had a few very thin strands of copper. Even attempting to strip the insulation snapped the conductors. Fitted proper mains cable and the unit has worked perfectly ever since. The naff cable had 6 strands in Earth conductor, and only 4 in the Neutral and 3 in the Live.. Lesson learned, check and replace power cable on ALL cheapo products, not just the dodgy 'sleeved pin' plugs..

[@raydavison2972]

So just buy something decent in the first place?!

[@raydavison2972]

@@merlinthegray I agree with you partially, it gives satisfaction to repair something and give it further life when others would just replace it and I'm certainly one of those who detests the modern throwaway society. However, you buy a tool to do a job and the last thing you want when you need it is to find the tool does not work or worse still further damages the thing you were trying to fix in the first place. You don't need to pay a fortune (Although you of course can) to by decent tools but these videos show the folly of buying the Chinese junk. Now we all know the Chinese are capable of quality manufacturing (Much of the top brand electronics is manufactured there) but when left to their own devices they often cut big corners off the product quality and manufacturing standards, and then they cut corners off the corners.

[@WizNick7]

I hadn't used my YCD-936D (identical to your WLX) for almost a year and when I needed it, it wouldn't power up. I checked it and suspected there was something wrong with the cable. Then I read your post so I checked my cable and it was not passing power from the brown cable, so I replaced it. Now it works perfectly fine! So, thanks for your post! It helped me find the source of my problem.

[@amojak]

if you need a backup soldering iron then an ersa 75 gas one is ideal. self igniting and uses lighter gas.

[@trebushett2079]

Who in their right mind would really want a couple of buttons to nudge the temp up or down, rather than a rotary dial knob!

[@dzarren]

Are you okay with inhaling the solder fumes? it seems like quite a lot of smoke.

[@mango3586]

very good bit of imformation

[@simonhopkins3867]

Thanks noted for future reference.

[@kokodin5895]

is using contaminated desoldering wick an overkill? this video made so many chinese workers cry, who is going to buy another stations now if we know how to fix it?

[@NotRealNamesAgain]

Soldering station's down. Thanks to Big Clive, I know how to fix it. I'll just get my solde- oh.

[@Bishka100]

Wouldn't be the first time I have had to buy a soldering iron to fix my soldering iron...I now own three of them !

[@RicoElectrico]

I fixed mine with a classic Polish Lutola transformer iron ;)

[@peterlc8166]

Doesn't everyone have another cheap iron or two lying around? I know I have a few including a couple of battery-powered ones.

[@petersage5157]

Finally, a legitimate use for the crap hardware store soldering irons!

[@uni-byte]

@@peterlc8166 Oh yeah. I have 4 small irons and two biggies. How can one live with just one iron?

[@PandaMan02]

lead free? not anymore!

[@Thermalions]

21.7 C - Having a heat wave there Clive? Quite a bit above your preferred low teens isn't it.

[@Split10uk]

LOL I thought the same. I bet he hates it!

[@ahettinger525]

"Electricity has this really annoying habit of hurting" --Big Clive 2017

[@waywardwarrior]

@@andrew_koala2974 ee33t5ß

[@grendelum]

Back in the day when I fixed TVs for a living, a certain manufacturer did something similar by connecting the button panel circuit board *with one screw on the **_opposite end_** of the power button !!!* I did this exact same fix dozens of times, good to see that old mistakes never go out of style...

[@Tommyinoz1971]

You need to scrub off the word 'free' from the front panel to finish the job properly.

[@Bostish2]

you should be careful about holding them upside down. wouldn't want the electrons falling out. (as dave would say)

[@DigitalYojimbo]

Bostish2 magic pixies ?

[@PuchMaxi]

Good fix Clive! Sometimes you see the same problem on laptop power jacks (soldered directly on the motherboard).

[@retrocomputeruser]

Hi Clive my fist comment here (and rather late). I bought one of the plain black 936D's with red buttons and trim pot calibration. Mine was so far out of calibration that the trimmer wouldn't adjust it. I think it was still about 20 deg too high on full adjustment. I ended up swapping a resistor on the pcb. Now it calibrates about half way on the trim pot. I also used a Hakko 191 knock off sensor like you have. The 936 type units look stackable to me. I also have a 898D+ (similar to your other station with a heat gun) but the irons are not compatible as the 898D+ uses the thermistor and the 936D uses the thermocouple type elements. Also I had to change the polarity of the thermocouple wires on a spare iron for that to work for some reason. Love your uploads and I've still loads to watch. Subbed.

[@eLuke455]

Great fix, but I'd make one change to further improve it. I'd use solder wick instead of solid core wire. The solder wick conducts with low resistance (like the wire) but remains flexible (providing you don't fill the entire length of it with solder). It's easier to use than multi-strand wire as you don't need to deal with insulation or the strands unraveling. I've done this on heaps of handheld radios where the RF connector center pin was soldered direct or with solid copper wire onto the PCB and there was enough flex after a few years for the connector center pin to eventually break the solder joint. That extra flex in the solder wick solved that problem. Cheers Luke

[@tjn2647]

Put some hot glue or silicone between the board and faceplate to help support them.

[@stinkycheese804]

Keeping in mind that it's a generic (low) quality station, I'd go with something a little easier to service later like proper screwed-in standoffs.

[@phils4634]

The 888D knock-offs seem a little better built (after seeing this vid. I had another closer look at mine's "insides"!) Let's be honest - unless you're soldering for 8 hours a day every day these "budget" thermostatic stations are a very good deal, and even if you ARE in the marathon soldering league, be mindful that these are also used by many commercial Chinese electronics companies, so they HAVE to be reasonably "fit for purpose".

[@johnhill5745]

Hello clive, Helpfull video keep them coming. I notice that you have been given 11 thumbs down, I am not understanding what there was to not like.You have showed people how to repair their soldeiring stations.There are a lot of f-king idiots out there.

[@tythagoras5787]

The board needs to be reinforced to stop the flexure. All this did is to make it more resistant to flexure, the fundamental problem still exists. The real idiots are the ones who couldn't reflow the joints on their own.

[@phils4634]

Not entirely necessary. The 5-pin connector is reasonably firmly attached to the front panel (which is in turn well-supported by moulded channels in the outer casing). The "fix" would seem more to do with correcting initial slap-dash assembly / impatient soldering rather than a major mechanical deficiency. Nevertheless it would be pretty easy to mount rigid insulating spacers between the fascia and PCB in order to provide mechanical support.

[@R3loaded1313]

@@phils4634 I agree. Dude just had to be the Mr know it all. He is right... I had one that was down. I did it the hard way but the better way and got that fucking lead free of the board, then re flowed the components. Works great now

[@stevesm2010]

Always have a spare soldering iron.... Great vid Clive!

[@sarkybugger5009]

It's all your fault, Clive! You made us buy those things. ;o)

[@Kholaslittlespot1]

I feel doubly dumb as I just picked one of these up. Ah well. At least I know how to fix it if there's a problem.

[@YugoZex]

Hi, can you tell me please where I can find that front panel (I didn't find it on ebay), I have Baku 936D same type transformer and I want to try to put this panel on my soldering station to see if it suits me better. I prefer pot instead of push-buttons but I wish to try this panel just for fun...

[@needforsuv]

now you need to take a big sharpie and cross out the lead free bit

[@experiencingtechnicaldiffi5184]

I have purchased a 898D+ reflow station which is basically that iron, a hot air gun and some accessories. After an exciting episode of unboxing and admiring my purchase I figured I should test and adjust it. The air gun worked really well and could be adjusted to burn or not burn my fingers with ease. The iron also works quite well and so I adjusted it for temp by starting at 200°C and raising it by 10° increments until it would melt tin solder easily and then adding another 10°C. That way I am assured it will have the temp and thermal capacity to solder all but the biggest power connections without the tendency to lift tracks or let out the smoke from even the smallest diodes. Then I thought "you (meaning me) should check and see if the tip is grounded, just to be thorough". Imagine my surprise when it weren't! OH NO! I had already waited long enough to get this thing what with one seller absconding with my money and having to file a claim with ebay, wait for a refund and then order it from someone else. US sellers, but still it took longer than if I had bought it from "the peoples republic". I was not about to wait for a replacement. Besides, I had grown attached to it, what with the burns on my fingers and oodles of admiration already bestowed (see above). So it was determined I was to investigate. I disconnected the iron and using a meter I measured the connections to find out what was what. Everything checked out fine so I moved on. Measuring the connector on the case I found no ground for the iron but the hot air gun was grounded. Upon opening the case I discovered I still can't see shit without a loupe so back into the house I go. Besides, I needed more coffee and to scratch my... well, you know. A quick study of the internals revealed that the well attached ground wire wasn't attached to the ground plane of the board, just screwed through to the front case and the hot air gun. The iron ground connection was jumpered to the board, however the resistor that was supposed to connect to the ground plane was not there as marked on the board. It may have been left out due to some issue with noise or stability. But still, no ground on the sheath of a heating coil that can act as an inductor. For use on sensitive components? It doesn't say much for the fine art of Chingineering. Since it appeared to function just fine all afternoon I just soldered a wire in where the resistor would have gone and connected it to the ground lug for the hot air gun. Thanks be to Weller,eh. A quick check showed continuity from cord to iron and when I plugged it in and turned it on the only smoke was from the iron where I had left it laying on the table. Oh well, all is good. It works and now I can finish some projects without all that cursing, maybe. Now don't get me wrong, I really like this 2in1 Soldering Iron Rework Station. And I certainly don't blame the importer for this little snafu. After all they didn't make it they just got it to me. Except the first one, who should take a.... I am glad actually that I now know how well this thing is built. It should easily last the rest of my life. Unless the zombie apocalypse happens because I will be too busy making brain pokers and zip guns to work on very much chintronics. If I need more flashlights or garden lights or even toilet paper I can always raid the stores that were staffed by zombie food. If you think this little diatribe is too long then how come you're still reading it? But seriously, since ebay is bugging me to write a review of this device I figured it should be a doozy and serve multiple purposes. And besides Clive has made me smile more than once. So fair is fair. Mike (o\!/o)

[@MrGeoffHilton]

Experiencing Technical Difficulties- I like the cut of your jib

[@mbaker335]

Not using the strain relief holes for the power wires?. OK I am being picky. A hot glued lego brick under the board would also help.

[@amojak]

i did that years ago, ended up with DVT :o

[@mbaker335]

Step on a lego brick strategically placed at the top of a flight of stairs. That adds danger to the experience.

[@electronicsNmore]

Great video

[@BritishBeachcomber]

This so reminds me of a call-out last year. Yamaha piano/synth keyboard, power plug snagged, socket lifted, pcb pads broken. Simple fix? No... had to strip it right down. 128 hex bolts later, all different size/length - whole thing dismantled. Reflowed with thick copper wire, 2 minute job. Only took another couple of hours to rebuild it!

[@frankowalker4662]

Same with my Casio keyboard! 15 small headed Phillips screws with long threads for the metal base, then another 20 shorter ones for PCB! Just to reattach 12v socket! LOL

[@tonybrock5288]

I love your usage of the word "modest" in many of your videos :-). Modest usually means limited or small. In your case it means large or possibly (and preferably?) life threatening! Is that a Scottish thing? :-)

[@johnfrancisdoe1563]

Tony Brock It's basic irony. The word still means the same, he just uses in a joke. It's like talking of that small computer company from Armonk (IBM), or that small company from Redmond (Microsoft).

The one with the funky pad looks like it might be a "refurbished" one where someone with a broken one returned it, they fixed it and sold as new.

[@stevenbiars6212]

I made a small fortune as a teen reflowing solder on old electronics, fixing CB radios mostly.

[@boldford]

I'm glad I found your channel. Such a pleasure not listening to that squeaky antipodean slagging off products that are quite usable by the hobbyist..

[@zx8401ztv]

I think i would desolder the socket from the pcb and use flexable wire loops, and cement two blocks of plastic on the pcb to the inside fasia by the switches to take the force of button pushing.

[@sebimoe]

I would hot glue 2 bottle caps or the like between the board and the front panel and bigclive's springy wires seem like they should be very robust

[@zx8401ztv]

Yep sounds strong enough for pressing buttons :-D. Over the years i've had a lot of crap designs to fix, allowing pcb's to flap about has never been good for them. Sockets are not designed for mounting things on, also headphone jacks are never mechanically fixed to the pcb, just hanging there by its solder connections, snap lol.

[@jusb1066]

talking of wonky....my internet radio wasnt connecting, finally decided to take it apart before i gave up, good job i did, the wifi part is on a usb card connected to main board, well it wasnt. usb had worked loose. nothing but the usb socket held it in , nothing else to stop it vibrating or whatever coming out.

[@zx8401ztv]

Quality engineering lol, but well done on the repair :-D. The company that made that radio just didnt give a stuff about it lasting, bloody shame :-(. I hate modern crap.

[@johnfrancisdoe1563]

zx8401ztv Or they did care and made sure repair would be dead easy. Just forgot to brag about it.

[@overheardatthepub1238]

Wait... did you just calibrate using a flux capacitor? Because you just calibrated using a flux capacitor.

[@WaltonPete]

It would be quite straightforward to 3D print some supports or maybe a shroud to hold the PCB firmly in place and correctly alighted with the front panel. As I don't have one of these solder stations there's no need for me to bother and, in any case, I don't have the necessary dimensions. Now I have a 3D printer I'm always looking for things to make or fix with it.

[@williamthomasmi10]

Just thinking the same thing haha. Bigclive Get a 3D printer!

[@williamthomasmi10]

True, but designing simple parts is not too difficult really if you've got a 3D printer and then you can share your fix with the internet

[@ThumpertTheFascistCottontail]

You could cut a few bits of something to length and glue them in there, in a fraction of the time it would take to print something.

[@Anvilshock]

Because people need something to justify their newest WhatevrBot clones they jumped at to be part of the craze.

[@gordonlawrence3537]

@Pete Allum, I believe there are some on the market which are suitable already. They have a sticky pad base and latch on to the board edge. They are like the sticky pad pillar type.

[@TomCee53]

Good practice would have been to replace the blue before removing the yellow stubs, or vice versa. Just in case you get a phone call 😵‍💫 Also, I’d look into adding a couple of supports between the board and panel, even if it’s just a block of plastic and hot glue. In this case there a number of holes in the board and I wouldn’t mind screw heads showing on the panel.

[@ianide2480]

Been using a Weller EC1002 for somewhere near 10+ years. Oddly enough it has never needed a fix. Thanks for the cool videos Clive

[@abigguitar]

You've just invalidated the LEAD FREE icon. ;)

[@locouk]

Ordering stuff from China is like a box of chocolates.. I think their stuff is getting a better QC now, some of the companies have realised that we in the west don't mind paying a bit more if the products last. Such prospects are a disappointment to Big Clive, this channel couldn't do without the shoddy shit! Lmao.. pass the Gin.

[@Inertia888]

I recently got a second soldering station from China. From what I have gathered in personal experience and online research, these inexpensive Chinese products come with the basic skeleton and the concept is usually decent but will not hurt at all to at least go through and tighten up any loose strings and if you're feeling ambitious, a complete rebuild.

[@ChrisD4335]

idk about buying a solder station from a company that dose not know how to solder

[@Marc83Aus]

Ironic like when a plastic part breaks off your 3d printer. Broken plastic? No problem! It's ok I'll just print a replacement part with my ..... Oh damn it.

[@ilaril]

Oh how I hate electronics that say "lead free" like it's a good thing.

[@Bishka100]

" Oh how I hate electronics that say "lead free" like it's a good thing." About as good as lead free pencils

[@jojoposter]

ilaril why would that be bad?

[@onometre]

lead based solder works WAY better than any other type

[@WhateverMan35]

If people actually disposed electronics to a WEEE bin, lead in electronics may have not been a environmental concern.

[@Crux161]

ultimatebman for electronics... lol in jewlery, using something like silver solder... well they're not compatible to say the least:3

[@amojak]

for the ground connection i would probably cut the track and stick a 100k or 1 meg resistor in series. A directly grounded iron can be a problem if you happen to use it on a live circuit, even low voltage, if it is earth referenced :)

[@nealwright5622]

7 years later... I just fixed my trusty Katsu-chicken soldering iron using this method. Thanks!

[@willybee3056]

I really like what you do,, it gets my technical juices flowing. .. tanx keep up the good work. ..

[@paulhammersley4562]

the 936D came today, only thing i found was the earth screw was a bit loose, apart from that everything is fine,

[@djhenjin3425]

Ah yes, bodge wiring a flaky connector. One of my favorite repairs!

[@hartofwave1904]

mine had an impact that pushed the display in and broke it's tracks, fortunately the iron still worked and I could resolder the display using it's own iron, only slightly dangerous I suppose.

[@bigclivedotcom]

The circuitry itself isn't referenced to ground, so soldering it back up with its own iron only really posed a slight shock risk from the mains switch PCB.

[@jusb1066]

you could heat up, unplug, solder one joint, plug back in . etc. lol

[@throttlebottle5906]

who doesn't have multiple old school irons and stations laying about?

[@hartofwave1904]

throttle bottle sadly they were properly dead

[@paulsengupta971]

I have no idea where my old soldering iron is. Probably up in my parents' attic, along with my first Weller soldering station. Keep meaning to get someone to go up there and bring the things down. The one I use mostly these days is a Weller station I took home from work for safe keeping about 20 years ago.

[@twocvbloke]

When it comes to soldering irons, more is better, that way you're never tuck without one, I think I have 5 irons myself, a 30 watt burn-everything one, a 12v one that barely works, two of them USB irons (one a spare), and my station I got from Rapid, the latter of which I've modified with cloth-covered wire cos the stock PVC stuff was too inflexible... :)

[@TheZinger69]

After running out of solder i went to sunny Maplins , was told they dont do lead solder anymore only unleaded. Tried it , yup proper crap. Was so lucky to spot 2 rolls of lovely leaded 60/40 on the market ,1.25mm and 1.75mm 5 quid a roll . 1 kilo of leaded loveliness will last me years .

[@gordonlawrence3537]

You can still get it from Banggood.

[@MrGarethG]

Wilko still do 60/40 solder in the little tubes.

[@GGigabiteM]

You can still buy 60/40 leaded solder by the pound in the states, though it has warning labels "KNOWN TO CAUSE CANCER" which is ironic because flux in many lead free solders is more toxic. Though in recent years, 63/37 leaded solder is supplanting 60/40 stocks. I don't like 63/37 because it's harder to melt and doesn't flow properly. It usually leaves tails on the connections pointing whichever way you pulled the soldering iron tip away from which is annoying.

[@thewolfin]

I just buy it in bulk from China. Might take 3 months to get here but I only need to do it once every half decade or so!

[@amojak]

I still have some 60/40 lead rolls here from the early 90's , definitely far better for hand soldered stuff.

[@paulwatkins2601]

You keep saying in your videos about lead based solder am I correct in assuming you mean 60/40 tin lead or is there another type because I have always used 60/40 and never had any problems. The next video I watched was May 2018 and you explained the different solders you have so that answered my question LOL.

[@MattTester]

I haven't had a problem as such but I know mine was too far out of calibration to compensate for. It was a comfortable temperature for me so I just left it but I might have a look and see if I can perform this fix. Thanks.

[@amarulicorius]

Pequeño capacitor de 10uf en cercanias de r13 -r15 en modelo clon han bo,zhaoxin todos 936d,causa inestabilidad de temperatura,un filtro que estabiliza la tencion de referencia para el microprocesador,y ocaciona en modelos similares su mal funcionamiento,e(sta es la solucion para una falla bien compleja que me dio un duro trabajo y estudio),que obliga a los proveedores bajar el precio del equipo por la mala calidad de componentes de equipos que se importan en Argentina desde china a 20 dlrs y los venden a 40 dolares, supuestamente,es preferible en estos casos comprar marcas reconocidas como Hackko.MARIO mauricio Paz ,Tecnico.

[@DoRC]

looks like the board to board connector barely had any solder on it as well.

[@stanmarsh14]

Strangely enough, I got one of these from a drop-ship supplier based in Coalvile, Leicester (Probs from the Amazon warehouse based there), and I also got the same thermocouple test unit you have shown in a previous video, and tried the calibration mode, and no matter what I try, I can not get the display on the iron to match what the themo test unit was showing, so at the time, I dismissed the test unit as being faulty..... Clive, what you have shown here, would the issues I have mentioned explain the issue I have?

[@Watchyn_Yarwood]

In the market for a new soldering station, I was glad to see your video on this particular one. However, I find it interesting that the Hakko 936D is not listed on eBay US!

[@jedrhoades9192]

I'm quite happy with my Weller WES51. It's old-fashioned, but it's good.

[@stinkycheese804]

Not all that interesting. The real Hakko 936 isn't digital, and went out of production years ago, so there is no such thing as a Hakko 936D. What there are, are clones that were named 936, then when the clones switched to a digital front panel, put a D at the end for the digital version.

[@thelol1759]

Jed Rhoades I have the same iron. It's a real trooper!

[@slawor4]

William Garrett If you solder large connections, I recommend getting the 936P. It's the same as the regular 936, but can deliver more power.

[@MobiusHorizons]

If you are in the market now, i'd look at one of the T12 based Hakko clones. they cost about the same ~$40 assembled or slightly cheaper as a kit, and have higher thermal mass than the 936 clones (at least the one i had).

[@kasnitch]

why fuck around with a manky piece of crap. Clive can you recommend a quality , yet not absurdly overpriced soldering station that will work on 120 ?

[@bitteroldskunk]

I bought, or was gifted a clone of the Hakko. Its a Kendal 937D, the only issue I had with this this the cable for the iron itself. I had some scrap cable from a load cell, felt to be high temp rubber/silicon coated cable heavily braided I think 20 maybe 18 gauge 4 conductor wire. That solved my S-E error. After seeing this video I half wonder if I should pop mine apart and check that connector.

[@Pyridox]

There is a guy on KZbin (12Votlvids) that did a review & tear-down of the non-digital version (It's black in color). And he noted that the solder connections on the board were terrible, some had cracks and others had cold solder joints. He recommended taking the board out and re-working the solder joints with a good quality 60/40 rosin core solder, just to prevent these problems.

[@Seegalgalguntijak]

Somehow ebay Germany doesn't even sell these cheap Hako clone soldering stations. Instead we get no-name ones like this: www.ebay.de/itm/381573075655 - which are OK (I bought one), but don't even show the temperature they're at. The manual just says "wait 10 to 15 minutes for the iron to be up to temperature" ... and a proper measuring device for calibrating it would probably even cost more than the solder station itself ;)

[@Johny666EU]

ive got 937D+ and when i open it i was shocked, quality of work was horrible, also was like some kind of bad fluid on it on half of the board. so i clean up everything, i have replaced the poor china capacitors for decent panasonic 105'C, i desolder the wires, also there was still climfilm (protector) on a led (temp) dispay. now is working really nice. also the screen is much brighter and now i feel safe and now is truly ESD Safe. i think most of cheap china products need to be corrected. i had the same with audio mixer and audio swither, poor job which needs rework.

[@MrSpazzard]

For all that messing around, I'd much prefer to not buy a clone and pay the difference, like a lot of commenters have said "My solder station is down, ok just need to solder something to fix it" - Apart from that, thanks again Clive, was disappointed that you didn't find a pink version of the 936D though.

[@JackZimmermann]

Had the dreaded problem with the S-E Error message on my Atten 8502D soldering station. Turns out that most of the replacement irons you buy on eBay are connected wrong. www.jackenhack.com/atten-8502d-pinout-replacement-iron-element/

[@Milosz_Ostrow]

This looks like a typical problem with small-volume production from obscure manufacturing companies. They ordered a big pile of printed circuit boards before thoroughly vetting their prototype and rather than scrapping a bad design, need to use up the big pile of defective parts to avoid going bankrupt. It may have been exacerbated by outsourcing their manufacturing, so the PCB designers and engineers responsible for the design don't get a hands-on feel how -shitty- unmanufacturable their design is. I've seen it all before in my career. Such companies tend to go out of business in short order anyway, because they ship unreliable products and acquire a bad reputation.

[@sickvic3909]

I cut my iron cord to lengthen it, ooops! had a backup :)))

[@spamlobster]

I guess I'm lucky, mine is a digital version with knob adjustment. Too bad the actual iron is pretty big and the lead is short and stiff, and it could be more powerful......

[@lachlan1971]

I've ordered the 937-D. It has the digital display, but a dial instead of the buttons. Hopefully that will negate this problem.

[@robert574]

I was watching a video from China showing them making circuit boards by hand. They were all using the knife type soldering tip. Maybe, they think that's what everyone does and that's why they always give us one of those first or that's the only one they get.

[@D3faulted1]

My Yihua 898d knockoff ended up having an issue where the solder joint of one of the capacitors failed causing it not to get hot and have random problems. I went to the horrible frieght and bought the cheapest soldering iron i could find to fix it. Works great now.

[@michaelhornby2961]

how the feck do they get shit on the moon

[@JuanHerrero]

My uncle assembled radio kits on the kitchen table using a iron nail held in a set of pliers, heated in the gas range. I myself have done something similar with thicc copper wire and a lighter.

[@mickkennedy1344]

Toasted, buttered, soft thick-slice wholemeal bread, gouda slice, roast ham, sliced tomato with black pepper and celery salt ----- yes

[@edwardgilmour9013]

One of the Hakko soldering Irons that U used last year was near 90degrees lower than the display temperature. Cause unknown but I'll take another look at the controller. the Iron itself was fine on a different controller.

[@81five]

Could you use an alcohol-soaked Q-tip to hold down the first connection so the BTUs won't rise up enough to be unsoldered while you're soldering the Second Side and it won't pop off.?

[@daverich2499]

I just got one of these and the display stuck at 76 but the soldering tip started glowing very bright orange...god knows what temp it was but turning it down did nothing. Then, when i tried it again a few times, it would not heat at all....is this likely the issue? Also im unsure what soldering to varios places on the board that appear to have no track is doing to stop it relifting at the connection points and still not working. Is that just an attempt to give original joints strength? Wouldn't hot glue be better to stop board moving?

[@SamDeeksRelovedGuitars]

Excellent - thank you. That's what I'll be doing today - pulling this base unit out of my rubbish bin and taking it apart to make some fun new solder tracks. On my guitar set up / upgrade videos I regularly talk about how movement is the enemy of circuits in guitars and its true of all appliances.

[@dooronron69]

I've bought a maplin soldering station, pressision gold, and some ebay handles, my handles look to have 5 separate wires, 2 for heater, 2 for sensor and 1 for earth but in my station the connector only has an earth which is centre pin and 2 pins either side are shorted together so 2 pins in left are together and 2 pins in right are together, will I need to rewire the handles so heating element works without the sensor because as they are in getting an s-e error code

[@akcesoriumpc6421]

Did this mod to mine soldering station and... nothing changed, this thing barely heats up to 300C even i set it up into 450C. Good lesson for me dont buy, cheap chineese shit soldering stations.

[@HakunaMiataOfO]

Couldja purchase and take apart the Aoyue counterpart? They're priced to be upmarket, would be interesting to see if the Chinese understand but definitely don't care on a cheaper model, or if they don't get you're not supposed to build it like that at all.

[@nyprince5922]

Looks like the pcb already has mounting holes...epoxy some standoffs on to the faceplate and line them up with the holes so you can screw the pcb in securely. Without stabilization of the pcb, it is just a matter of time that these units will fail because of the button-pushing that flexes the pcb.

[@MrBrymstond]

I had a aqua stat for a furnace smoke and stop working so I killed the power going to the furnace a removed the part. The problem is the used a cheap amount of copper and that liquid tin and it fried the pads and the tracks leading to them for at least 1.5 inch so I just bridged some silver solder, still works like a champ and there was fractures where they used cheap tin solder on many of the connections, I used silver. Sometime you can hardly see the fractures and ones that have the wire without solder due to the wire not being clean so it needs to be clean to solder to

[@MrTurbowankel]

Maybe thats the problem with mine... the iron has been running so hot that the rosin core have boiled violently, splashing solder everywhere. Quite unsafe, so its just been sitting on the shelf, while ive used a cheap iron from biltema

[@Racing_Fox]

I don't get this problem for the majority of soldering I do I use my trusty butane soldering iron ... A fair few years old but works great

[@SuperLoops]

so my soldering iron is like this one but black except mine has a little screw hole under the display that you turn to do the calibration and it works fine but its probably the same inside and now Im wondering if I should open it and do this thing with the bits of wire because if it does go faulty I havent got another one to mend it with but that would mean having it open and doing things inside it with it switched on so thats probably a really bad idea isnt it. also if it isnt faulty now it might probably be ok because I never take the soldering iron bit out of its socket anyway i did once to take it somewhere but I can just as easily leave it connected. so yeah maybe I'll just leave it

[@patrickmertz2426]

Many thanks for your video, I have an intermittent error 5 but the soldering on my PCB is OK.

[@6F6G]

The best tool for scraping off solder resist is an abrasive fibreglass pencil such as KR61R from Maplin.

[@JohnDoe-es5xh]

Bridging broken pads to solid new ones with stiff wires isn't a good idea, because even these connections don't live long. Better use a bunch of soft wires.

[@squat224]

When/if you buy these, just take it apart and hit it with a hot glue gun. Heck, even if you have to repair one, hit it with a hot glue gun, a couple areas.

[@johnsamu]

That's the future coming; robots making robots, soldering stations making soldering stations.

[@MarkWatsonY]

How do I fix my soldering station by resoldering if the station is already broken though 😢

[@sedrickgates1]

you could also drill 4 holes in the front panel and PCB and add nylon screws and spacers to keep them aligned?

[@clownrock9558]

why make new pads instead of going to the nearest connector (like the ground pin being jumped to the pad the ground wire is soldered to or even just soldering the ground wire to the pin

[@carolmartin7042]

Thank goodness for simple fixes! Good video.

[@MyBigThing2010]

WOW, THANK YOU FOR making this video. I was literally days away from saying "screw it" n ordering one of these cuz I'm sick of the $3 mains knew that takes forever to heat and the usb one doesn't get hot enough for certain stuff. you just saved me from wasting money on gear I don't want problems with once I pay good money for it! thanks again Clive!

[@HuntersMoon78]

The front of those solder stations say Lead Free yet you used Lead based - Need to get a marker out and delete "Free"

[@sparkyprojects]

I wonder if you desolder the connector, add a screw on that spacer, whether the board would sit correctly I would also be tempted to at least add some spacer blocks that are double sided taped in place. But then i have never owned a temp controlled iron, i prefer my Antex X25's

[@realflow100]

HEY I HAVE AN AWESOME TIP FOR YOU!!! Incase you dont have your desoldering braid with you or dont feel like using it. I havent got any yet so I do it this way! If you need to desolder something with multiple pins Turn the PCB upside down. so your soldering iron is pointing towards the sky with the solder joint on the bottom and you sort of soak away the solder away from the PCB joint. I got a 4 lead component out really easily by doing this!!!!! Only took a few seconds! Then i just wiggled the component a little bit and it slide right out! It basically soaks all the solder away from the PCB onto the soldering iron. then you can diposit the solder elsewhere or leave it on the iron (as long as its not a HUGE glob of solder) Its super useful. just make sure your quick!

[@Syntax.error.]

I bought mine soldering station for 10 euros at Lidl and it works fine.