| ▲ | sitzkrieg 2 hours ago | |
the hakko fx-88 series is great. use one full time with zero issues. not sure what parent is on about, this is not a shared opinion in industry | ||
| ▲ | zamalek 39 minutes ago | parent | next [-] | |
The FX-888D is known to have a significant time delay between tip temperature and reported temperature, which is a newbie landmine. https://www.reddit.com/r/soldering/comments/1le2y4l/comment/... https://www.eevblog.com/forum/beginners/is-the-hakko-fx-888d... (#7) https://www.reddit.com/r/AskElectronics/comments/qcofiq/comm... https://www.reddit.com/r/soldering/comments/1282gci/comment/... It was maybe the best at the price tier 10 years ago, but smart tips make things much more predictable. The FX-888D is dated and suggesting it is bad advice; you overcame its shortcomings while learning and years later are left with "the good parts." Try do something with it when it reports that it's at temperature, bonus points for changing the calibration by mistake or straight into a large copper pour. Smart tips have a much more forgiving learning curve, and then the user might subsequently have more success with something like the FX-888D. I personally ran into this when starting out, not knowing what I was doing wrong for literal months - until I got the Pinecil, which was night and day. I just don't know why anyone would suggest something that's "good enough" over something that's genuinely good. | ||
| ▲ | ssl-3 an hour ago | parent | prev [-] | |
Indeed. I haven't ever heard any complaints about any Hakko irons, except for cost. I'm a huge fan of the (now kind of old) version 1 Pinecil irons I have. If someone put me at a bench to work on a project, I'd be very happy with either of these soldering irons. Both the FX-88 and the Pinecil are miles and miles ahead of the low-power, not-temperature-controlled soldering irons I used when I was a kid. (I do want to buy a v2 Pinecil, since that can run directly on the 24v-nominal batteries that I use for everything from my power tools to my lawn mower. That would allow for very portable soldering using stuff I already have. v2 tips also have a lower resistance and that provides a bit more oomph at any given voltage, but lack of oomph hasn't been an issue for me at all with v1.) | ||