Voultar recommended T12 soldering station, buyer beware

The place for all discussion on gaming hardware
thebigcheese
Posts: 707
Joined: Sun Aug 21, 2016 5:18 pm

Re: Voultar recommended T12 soldering station, buyer beware

Post by thebigcheese »

xwred5 wrote:
thebigcheese wrote:Back to the point, can I just say I love the hypocrisy of Voultar hounding on Metal Jesus for leaving up his video review of the zeldaxpro GC Video that was frying GameCubes but defending himself keeping up a video of a potentially dangerous soldering iron recommendation. One might fry your console, the other might kill you. Sigh. So much ego on the internet these days... I'm sure I will get flak for bringing this up, but he already doesn't like me so whatever.
To be fair, this conversation has only been active for about a week and there is a lot of bullshit in this threat. Right now there are a few random internet randos (myself included) saying it potentially has problems.
thebigcheese wrote:And thanks for correcting me about the AC/DC. I must have been getting something mixed up then. Some of those countries use DC transmission lines, right? Is it just converted to AC at the house then?
There has been talk about running DC lines in homes/colleges because of all of the AC-DC conversion we are doing, but there are not established standards and it's a huge effort to retrofit. Also, a lot of people already these nice power plugs with USB plugs right next to the standard power outlets.
I mean I'm no expert and there is certainly a lot of debate, but I feel like the potential for problems is enough to warrant at least a note on the video saying, "I know I said this specific one I linked to would be good, but it turns out quality control isn't great, so if you order one, please open it up and compare." That's all I'm saying.

And I guess I learned something today then :p I always thought Europe used DC, shows what I know. Interesting.
User avatar
maxtherabbit
Posts: 1763
Joined: Mon Mar 05, 2018 4:03 pm

Re: Voultar recommended T12 soldering station, buyer beware

Post by maxtherabbit »

based solely on the listed photos (which could of course be wrong, so take this with a grain of salt) the only amazon listing that matches the unit in voultar's video is this one:
https://www.amazon.com/KSGER-Soldering- ... 07MG9FCP8/
nmalinoski
Posts: 1974
Joined: Wed Jul 19, 2017 1:52 pm

Re: Voultar recommended T12 soldering station, buyer beware

Post by nmalinoski »

maxtherabbit wrote:based solely on the listed photos (which could of course be wrong, so take this with a grain of salt) the only amazon listing that matches the unit in voultar's video is this one:
https://www.amazon.com/KSGER-Soldering- ... 07MG9FCP8/
If I were to get one, I'd still want to open it to see; they might just be using that as a stock image.
User avatar
maxtherabbit
Posts: 1763
Joined: Mon Mar 05, 2018 4:03 pm

Re: Voultar recommended T12 soldering station, buyer beware

Post by maxtherabbit »

nmalinoski wrote:
maxtherabbit wrote:based solely on the listed photos (which could of course be wrong, so take this with a grain of salt) the only amazon listing that matches the unit in voultar's video is this one:
https://www.amazon.com/KSGER-Soldering- ... 07MG9FCP8/
If I were to get one, I'd still want to open it to see; they might just be using that as a stock image.
Absolutely. At this point I'd say anyone who buys one of these from any source should open it immediately to inspect for defects
User avatar
donluca
Posts: 852
Joined: Sat Feb 28, 2015 8:51 pm
Location: Italy
Contact:

Re: Voultar recommended T12 soldering station, buyer beware

Post by donluca »

thebigcheese wrote:To the point about house wiring, just because there are standards and codes doesn't mean your house is done right.
And this is exactly how one of my soldering irons made the "magical smoke". I've discovered that some of the main outlets in my house don't have the ground wire. Thank god the soldering iron was a cheap 15€ one but done properly (CE regulations, etc...), so what happened was just a puff of smoke, a small spark at the tip and that was that.

Regulations do exist but it doesn't mean that they are applied, so you always have to be careful.
leonk
Posts: 1080
Joined: Sun Mar 13, 2011 9:29 pm
Location: Toronto, Canada

Re: Voultar recommended T12 soldering station, buyer beware

Post by leonk »

CE, UL and other regulations mean nothing these days when it comes to this stuff. A lot of China made devices have these written on them and sold on places like eBay, Amazon, alibaba, etc. but haven't actually been tested or certified with these regulations. There's nothing these government bodies can do to prevent this from happening.

Lets be fair here. You are buying a copy/clone/pirated good of a product that has a copyright/trademark. The only thing that's missing is the word "Hakko" to be written on the tip. T12/T15 is a Hakko trademark. Complaining about quality of these stations is equivalent to complaining about choice of CD-R discs used by vendors at local flea market when you were buying Playstation bootlegs.
ldeveraux
Posts: 1113
Joined: Thu Mar 01, 2018 10:20 pm

Re: Voultar recommended T12 soldering station, buyer beware

Post by ldeveraux »

leonk wrote:CE, UL and other regulations mean nothing these days when it comes to this stuff. A lot of China made devices have these written on them and sold on places like eBay, Amazon, alibaba, etc. but haven't actually been tested or certified with these regulations. There's nothing these government bodies can do to prevent this from happening.

Lets be fair here. You are buying a copy/clone/pirated good of a product that has a copyright/trademark. The only thing that's missing is the word "Hakko" to be written on the tip. T12/T15 is a Hakko trademark. Complaining about quality of these stations is equivalent to complaining about choice of CD-R discs used by vendors at local flea market when you were buying Playstation bootlegs.
Good comparison, but I hadn't heard of the Hakko T12 prior to reading the recommendation, so I had no source for comparison. I read something like: "Best soldering kit money can buy" and jumped on it. I was fortunate enough to get a genuine unit, so no complaints. But still...
User avatar
ASDR
Posts: 825
Joined: Sat Aug 12, 2017 3:43 pm
Location: Europistan

Re: Voultar recommended T12 soldering station, buyer beware

Post by ASDR »

thebigcheese wrote: I mean I'm no expert and there is certainly a lot of debate, but I feel like the potential for problems is enough to warrant at least a note on the video saying, "I know I said this specific one I linked to would be good, but it turns out quality control isn't great, so if you order one, please open it up and compare." That's all I'm saying.
Exactly. The video goes over in detail how safe & well made the station is and the description says "These links (affiliates) will get you the EXACT equipment that I'm using, not the crappy ones!". I think it's hypocritical of Voultar to harshly criticize others over engineering mistakes (3.3 vs 5V flash, shorted SCART cables) but react to even good natured, polite criticism with an "OMG, forumz" tweet. Why not just give people a head's up?
xwred5 wrote:Retro Gaming: Where some are concerned about 3.3V flash potentially killing our consoles but argue against 115V being dangerous. :|
That's hilarious. But I mean, everybody knows how to make another human, but there's not going to be anymore Mega Drives...
retrorgb wrote: So, if someone were to buy one of these that were bad and ONLY plugged it in when they use it, what's the chance of REAL risk? Is there a clear and concise answer yet?
I'm happy to repeat the points from the thread so far. In a nutshell:

- In many places, there is no RCD/GFI. >40% of homes in the UK lack one. My house didn't have any. I specifically installed one for my electronic workbench cause I got nervous due to my cheap Chinese gear and my need to work on running consoles with open frame PSUs

- If you get a shock and there's no RCD/GFI you only have the mains fuse to protect you. In my house, that means 16A @ 220V. Yeah, 3500W baby. Not going to help you.

- In Europe, most countries don't have polarized plugs. That means you don't know which line is hot or neutral. The T12 station has a fuse in the plug case, a fuse on the board and an off switch. They're all on the same line. This means there's a 50% chance that none of them will actually disconnect AC (phase) from the station. Even if you have the station plugged into a turned off power strip (they usually just switch one side...) it might still have AC going all the way onto the PSU PCB. No switch, no fuse, nothing.

- The case is not grounded. So any potential on the case will go through you if you touch it. (again, no fuse, no switch might be on the hot line). See picture of exposed metal on my case.

- How could mains voltage get on the case the case? Some loose metal bits could short it to the case (see picture of what I found in my station), some bad solder work could break off and touch the case (see picture of unsoldered ground and cold solder joint neutral on my station) or all it would take is an untrimmed component leg (see picture) scraping against the case (remember the SCART pin against solder mask scraping controversy we just had? The one Voultar loudly complaint about?)

- xwred5 made some convincing arguments about the transformer & creepage potentially not being up to snuff, and I have to again point out the placement of the battery on top of it. If it leaks, it'll leak on an (allegedly) improperly isolated transformer. That could short to the front end, maybe the case, I haven't checked if the metal ring of the plug is connected, etc.

I think that constitutes a real risk. Like I said to you before, my electronics workbench is 90% cheap Chinese designed & made gear. This stuff can be great value, but if you just poke around a few EEVBlog gear threads and watch a few fixup videos on YT you can see how frequently these devices have serious safety flaws. Opening them up and checking for bad wiring, loose metal bits, grounding, fuses, insulation etc. is mandatory IMHO.

btw, I got the recommended stand today. It's pretty good, but mine came without feet and slides around. Make sure to spend another 50c on feet when you order yours :D
User avatar
Voultar
Posts: 550
Joined: Fri Jan 10, 2014 8:29 pm
Location: USA

Re: Voultar recommended T12 soldering station, buyer beware

Post by Voultar »

thebigcheese wrote:
Back to the point, can I just say I love the hypocrisy of Voultar hounding on Metal Jesus for leaving up his video review of the zeldaxpro GC Video that was frying GameCubes but defending himself keeping up a video of a potentially dangerous soldering iron recommendation. One might fry your console, the other might kill you. Sigh. So much ego on the internet these days... I'm sure I will get flak for bringing this up, but he already doesn't like me so whatever.
This is the problem; You haven't the faintest idea of what you're talking about, yet you're engaging in this conversation and are able to draw these long and tall conclusions in an effort to erroneously smear the character/integrity of someone. You do all of this while lamenting "the ego on the internet". You're making shit up, as I've not said anything to even mount a defense. You're a revisionist, and you're known to delete posts on this forum retroactively to save face. Nobody likes that, especially me.
ASDR wrote: The video goes over in detail how safe & well made the station is and the description says "These links (affiliates) will get you the EXACT equipment that I'm using, not the crappy ones!". I think it's hypocritical of Voultar to harshly criticize others over engineering mistakes (3.3 vs 5V flash, shorted SCART cables) but react to even good natured, polite criticism with an "OMG, forumz" tweet. Why not just give people a head's up?
You're getting all sore over a Tweet? I don't mean to sound rude, but most likely, it has nothing to do with you. And as for the quality/control consistency of BangGood. I'm looking into it. Keep in mind that I created that video last year in November. If there's a large discrepancy between what's being shipped between 5 months ago and today, then yes - I will address that. But I need data. That means that I'm going to collect resources and analyze what's before me. Not go off on some wild tangent on the internets.

Just to reiterate what I've already said. I absolutely agree with some of your criticisms, but this thread has remarkably (yet unsurprisingly) begun to de-evolve into something that isn't even remotely constructive.

- My integrity and character are worth much more to me than to entertain certain nonsense and silly fuckery.
RGB0b
Posts: 543
Joined: Wed Dec 05, 2012 1:52 pm

Re: Voultar recommended T12 soldering station, buyer beware

Post by RGB0b »

Image
Image

I'm out.
thebigcheese
Posts: 707
Joined: Sun Aug 21, 2016 5:18 pm

Re: Voultar recommended T12 soldering station, buyer beware

Post by thebigcheese »

Lol.
Forum: offers polite criticism.
Voultar: "I don't mean to be rude" goes on being rude.
Sigh as usual. All anyone said was that you should make mention of it. If it's enough to make you investigate it, then it's probably worth telling people to hold off on buying it for now. What's the worst that would happen? Seriously. Let's say you don't say anything and 20 people go buy this iron on your suggestion while you are investigating (having not told anyone you are investigating). Let's say of those people, just 1 gets a bad unit, but that bad unit does indeed short and electrocute this person. Maybe they die. So now one person's death is, in some way, on your hands because your ego wouldn't let you update your recommendation. And you want to say that your integrity and character are important to you? Please.

Obviously that's a bit of an extreme circumstance, but I don't think anyone here has suggested you take down your video. We've just suggested that you add a note to it that says you are looking into it and that maybe the one link you put your seal of approval on is maybe not perfect. You're not, I assume, getting any kickback from Bang Good anyway, so what's the harm in doing that? It makes no sense.
User avatar
Voultar
Posts: 550
Joined: Fri Jan 10, 2014 8:29 pm
Location: USA

Re: Voultar recommended T12 soldering station, buyer beware

Post by Voultar »

thebigcheese wrote:Lol.
Forum: offers polite criticism.
Voultar: "I don't mean to be rude" goes on being rude.
Sigh as usual. All anyone said was that you should make mention of it. If it's enough to make you investigate it, then it's probably worth telling people to hold off on buying it for now. What's the worst that would happen? Seriously. Let's say you don't say anything and 20 people go buy this iron on your suggestion while you are investigating (having not told anyone you are investigating). Let's say of those people, just 1 gets a bad unit, but that bad unit does indeed short and electrocute this person. Maybe they die. So now one person's death is, in some way, on your hands because your ego wouldn't let you update your recommendation. And you want to say that your integrity and character are important to you? Please.

Obviously that's a bit of an extreme circumstance, but I don't think anyone here has suggested you take down your video. We've just suggested that you add a note to it that says you are looking into it and that maybe the one link you put your seal of approval on is maybe not perfect. You're not, I assume, getting any kickback from Bang Good anyway, so what's the harm in doing that? It makes no sense.

Thank you for thoroughly proving my point. You clearly didn't read anything that I just said.


ASDR - I don't believe that you're creating drama here. But there are people who are clearly trying to turn this into something that it absolutely isn't. Unfortunately, this derails this thread further from any meaningful conversation. I'd rather not do the drama.
User avatar
Arthrimus
Posts: 106
Joined: Mon Apr 02, 2018 5:49 pm
Location: Arkansas

Re: Voultar recommended T12 soldering station, buyer beware

Post by Arthrimus »

thebigcheese wrote:Some of those countries use DC transmission lines, right? Is it just converted to AC at the house then?
No, there are no countries that use DC transmission lines. DC can't be transformed to high voltages for transmission so it would require incredibly thick conductors to move any significant amount of current over any significant distance.
plus ça change,
plus c'est la même chose,
The more that things change,
The more they stay the same.- RUSH- Circumstances

I install and sell mods at arthrimus.com | SNES RGB Bypass+Dejitter available now! | Watch me live stream my work on YouTube
zakk
Posts: 1405
Joined: Wed Jan 26, 2005 6:04 am
Location: New York, NY
Contact:

Re: Voultar recommended T12 soldering station, buyer beware

Post by zakk »

maxtherabbit wrote:
nmalinoski wrote:
maxtherabbit wrote:based solely on the listed photos (which could of course be wrong, so take this with a grain of salt) the only amazon listing that matches the unit in voultar's video is this one:
https://www.amazon.com/KSGER-Soldering- ... 07MG9FCP8/
If I were to get one, I'd still want to open it to see; they might just be using that as a stock image.
Absolutely. At this point I'd say anyone who buys one of these from any source should open it immediately to inspect for defects
Assuming that person even knows what to look for. People just starting out with this stuff aren't going to have the experience that allows them to identify issues, even 'obvious' dangerous ones.

Ideally we just find a supplier that has consistent quality, even if it's say, $75 instead of $50. Novices can spend $75 knowing they won't get some unit of unknown build quality. Those people comfortable with opening them up and modifying them to fix some of the more egregious grounding issues can save $25 if they really care.
leonk
Posts: 1080
Joined: Sun Mar 13, 2011 9:29 pm
Location: Toronto, Canada

Re: Voultar recommended T12 soldering station, buyer beware

Post by leonk »

ldeveraux wrote: Good comparison, but I hadn't heard of the Hakko T12 prior to reading the recommendation, so I had no source for comparison. I read something like: "Best soldering kit money can buy" and jumped on it. I was fortunate enough to get a genuine unit, so no complaints. But still...
Yes. I blame Hako for selling 2 identical products but with different model number. It’s probably to maximize profits. In the west it’s T15 tips. In Asia it’s T12. Surprise surprise all the clones are T12. ;)
nmalinoski
Posts: 1974
Joined: Wed Jul 19, 2017 1:52 pm

Re: Voultar recommended T12 soldering station, buyer beware

Post by nmalinoski »

zakk wrote:Ideally we just find a supplier that has consistent quality, even if it's say, $75 instead of $50. Novices can spend $75 knowing they won't get some unit of unknown build quality. Those people comfortable with opening them up and modifying them to fix some of the more egregious grounding issues can save $25 if they really care.
If we're just going to increase budget for peace of mind, then I'd say spend the $100 for a Hakko FX-888D and be done with it.
User avatar
Arthrimus
Posts: 106
Joined: Mon Apr 02, 2018 5:49 pm
Location: Arkansas

Re: Voultar recommended T12 soldering station, buyer beware

Post by Arthrimus »

I stand corrected. This is really cool technology. It's unlikely that HVDC is useful for anything other than very long distance transmission due to the cost of conversion hardware. AC is still used to get from substation to home and will likely stay that way for the foreseeable future.
plus ça change,
plus c'est la même chose,
The more that things change,
The more they stay the same.- RUSH- Circumstances

I install and sell mods at arthrimus.com | SNES RGB Bypass+Dejitter available now! | Watch me live stream my work on YouTube
User avatar
ASDR
Posts: 825
Joined: Sat Aug 12, 2017 3:43 pm
Location: Europistan

Re: Voultar recommended T12 soldering station, buyer beware

Post by ASDR »

retrorgb wrote:I'm out.
You asked for a concise summary of the issues, I gave you one. Did you at least read it? I don't see what was so dramatic about it that you have to bow out.

Don't really get what everybody is so mad about :D I guess I'm not convincing anybody here I haven't already, but I shared what I wanted to share. Make up your own mind what to do with it.
Voultar wrote:You're getting all sore over a Tweet?
Nah, not offended. Just sounded like a blanket dismissal of the concerns, which I found disappointing, that's all. If that's not the case, even better.
Arthrimus wrote:
I stand corrected. This is really cool technology. It's unlikely that HVDC is useful for anything other than very long distance transmission due to the cost of conversion hardware. AC is still used to get from substation to home and will likely stay that way for the foreseeable future.
Recently I've seen a video on China making some pretty fancy investment into their grid. That's actually the first time I've heard of DC transmission lines.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra-hig ... n_in_China
ldeveraux
Posts: 1113
Joined: Thu Mar 01, 2018 10:20 pm

Re: Voultar recommended T12 soldering station, buyer beware

Post by ldeveraux »

nmalinoski wrote:
zakk wrote:Ideally we just find a supplier that has consistent quality, even if it's say, $75 instead of $50. Novices can spend $75 knowing they won't get some unit of unknown build quality. Those people comfortable with opening them up and modifying them to fix some of the more egregious grounding issues can save $25 if they really care.
If we're just going to increase budget for peace of mind, then I'd say spend the $100 for a Hakko FX-888D and be done with it.
See, if I'd known about the Hakko prior to the review, I would have surely spent double on a known, quality device. But I didn't, so here I am.
User avatar
ASDR
Posts: 825
Joined: Sat Aug 12, 2017 3:43 pm
Location: Europistan

Re: Voultar recommended T12 soldering station, buyer beware

Post by ASDR »

ldeveraux wrote:
nmalinoski wrote:
zakk wrote:Ideally we just find a supplier that has consistent quality, even if it's say, $75 instead of $50. Novices can spend $75 knowing they won't get some unit of unknown build quality. Those people comfortable with opening them up and modifying them to fix some of the more egregious grounding issues can save $25 if they really care.
If we're just going to increase budget for peace of mind, then I'd say spend the $100 for a Hakko FX-888D and be done with it.
See, if I'd known about the Hakko prior to the review, I would have surely spent double on a known, quality device. But I didn't, so here I am.
Like I mentioned before, the performance of an old-tech iron like the 888 really can't be compared to something like the T12 station here. If you want a comparable product from Hakko (with their shitty 80s VCR UI) you need to buy an FX951. They're like 250 bucks. Weller/JBC/Pace would be even more expensive. So it's not like you can just spend 50$ more and get a major brand product with similar characteristics.
User avatar
Ed Oscuro
Posts: 18654
Joined: Thu Dec 08, 2005 4:13 pm
Location: uoıʇɐɹnƃıɟuoɔ ɯǝʇsʎs

Re: Voultar recommended T12 soldering station, buyer beware

Post by Ed Oscuro »

Voultar wrote:ASDR - I don't believe that you're creating drama here. But there are people who are clearly trying to turn this into something that it absolutely isn't.
It's almost as if this all could have been avoided by getting ahead of the criticisms in the first place ;)
User avatar
Voultar
Posts: 550
Joined: Fri Jan 10, 2014 8:29 pm
Location: USA

Re: Voultar recommended T12 soldering station, buyer beware

Post by Voultar »

Ed Oscuro wrote:
Voultar wrote:ASDR - I don't believe that you're creating drama here. But there are people who are clearly trying to turn this into something that it absolutely isn't.
It's almost as if this all could have been avoided by getting ahead of the criticisms in the first place ;)
Stellar advice. Thanks! :o :o :o :o
tusecsy
Posts: 156
Joined: Fri Jun 17, 2016 5:55 pm

Re: Voultar recommended T12 soldering station, buyer beware

Post by tusecsy »

Voultar wrote:
Ed Oscuro wrote:
Voultar wrote:ASDR - I don't believe that you're creating drama here. But there are people who are clearly trying to turn this into something that it absolutely isn't.
It's almost as if this all could have been avoided by getting ahead of the criticisms in the first place ;)
Stellar advice. Thanks! :o :o :o :o
I received the Voultar recommended tips & soldering station after a 2+ month delay. I can confirm that I got the crappy version as outlined in the first post. No replies from banggood, I'm basically just out the 80$ as they're straight garbage, and dangerous.

Recommending a product and having a company bait and switch all the people who order is one thing @voltar @retrorgb. Seeing the company bait and switch a ton of people and then CONTINUING to recommend said product, is just stupid.

I'm sorry you got a bunch of people to buy a piece of trash, but just because you anecdotally got a good one, doesn't change the fact that the production line has changed, and it's now straight up trash.

DO NOT ORDER THIS JUNK!
User avatar
maxtherabbit
Posts: 1763
Joined: Mon Mar 05, 2018 4:03 pm

Re: Voultar recommended T12 soldering station, buyer beware

Post by maxtherabbit »

tusecsy wrote:
I received the Voultar recommended tips & soldering station after a 2+ month delay. I can confirm that I got the crappy version as outlined in the first post. No replies from banggood, I'm basically just out the 80$ as they're straight garbage, and dangerous.

Recommending a product and having a company bait and switch all the people who order is one thing @voltar @retrorgb. Seeing the company bait and switch a ton of people and then CONTINUING to recommend said product, is just stupid.

I'm sorry you got a bunch of people to buy a piece of trash, but just because you anecdotally got a good one, doesn't change the fact that the production line has changed, and it's now straight up trash.

DO NOT ORDER THIS JUNK!
I'm not convinced the product line has changed - according to the amazon product descriptions the design featured in voultar's video is the "new 2018" design

I'm going to guess that banggood ran out of the new production models and is now selling old stock or something? Either way they obviously don't give a shit (banggood)
User avatar
Hoagtech
Posts: 939
Joined: Mon Apr 27, 2015 3:53 am
Location: Bellingham, WA

Re: Voultar recommended T12 soldering station, buyer beware

Post by Hoagtech »

tusecsy wrote:
DO NOT ORDER THIS JUNK!
He is not recommending it. The video is 6 months old. He has said that he did not know about the issues on the latest production until it was brought up. Removing or updating the recommendation could be plausible but people aren’t made of free time to edit videos either

He has no control over changing batches or possible reproductions under the same name.

@ASDR because Voultar is not responsible for changing products outside of the one he had in his hand, You should have no business putting voultar’s name In the title insinuating his recommendation is at fault and not a product changing outside of his recommendation. I would recommend changing the title to avoid accusation.

How would you like to see your name in the title when your product you recommended changed factories?
Copyright 1987
User avatar
maxtherabbit
Posts: 1763
Joined: Mon Mar 05, 2018 4:03 pm

Re: Voultar recommended T12 soldering station, buyer beware

Post by maxtherabbit »

Hoagtech wrote:
tusecsy wrote:
DO NOT ORDER THIS JUNK!
He is not recommending it. The video is 6 months old. He has said that he did not know about the issues on the latest production until it was brought up. Removing or updating the recommendation could be plausible but people aren’t made of free time to edit videos either

He has no control over changing batches or possible reproductions under the same name.

@ASDR because Voultar is not responsible for changing products outside of the one he had in his hand, You should have no business putting voultar’s name In the title insinuating his recommendation is at fault and not a product changing outside of his recommendation. I would recommend changing the title to avoid accusation.

How would you like to see your name in the title when your product you recommended changed factories?
for the record I hold voultar to be completely blameless in this - his video was made in good faith and was accurate at the time it was released

I really don't think there's any onus on him to edit it or take it down either, it's not like he's making money off of this crap

that being said, I think putting his name in the title makes sense simply because the most readily identifiable thing about this particular product was his prior endorsement
User avatar
unmaker
Posts: 139
Joined: Sat Jan 02, 2016 7:27 am
Contact:

Re: Voultar recommended T12 soldering station, buyer beware

Post by unmaker »

ASDR wrote:Like I mentioned before, the performance of an old-tech iron like the 888 really can't be compared to something like the T12 station here. If you want a comparable product from Hakko (with their shitty 80s VCR UI) you need to buy an FX951. They're like 250 bucks. Weller/JBC/Pace would be even more expensive. So it's not like you can just spend 50$ more and get a major brand product with similar characteristics.
There is no reason to get the Hakko FX-951 when the Pace ADS200 exists. The Pace station outclasses it in every way for the same price. Changing tips on the FX-951 is awkward and it has a terrible 80's alarm clock interface like you've mentioned. Even the older Pace ST 50 with a TD-100 handpiece would be the better choice. These can be had for not so much, like this unit that recently sold on ebay: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Pace-ST-50-Dig ... 7675.l2557

Despite the older technology, the FX-888D is more than suitable for a beginner or someone who solders only once in a while. It was my first true soldering station after my $8 Wal-mart iron. With the 888D I've done all sorts of soldering including UltraHDMI's, NESRGB's, complete recap of a PVM-20L5, various SMD soldering including completely assembling one of borti's N64 Advanced boards:

Image
Image

My main gripe with the 888D was when it came to changing tips. You have to power it off, wait for it to cool down, unscrew the thing, swap tips, power it up, then wait for it to get back to temp. But once the iron gets to temp it has solid performance.
User avatar
maxtherabbit
Posts: 1763
Joined: Mon Mar 05, 2018 4:03 pm

Re: Voultar recommended T12 soldering station, buyer beware

Post by maxtherabbit »

looks like he updated the video with a warning :D
Jdurg
Posts: 46
Joined: Tue Dec 13, 2016 1:52 pm

Re: Voultar recommended T12 soldering station, buyer beware

Post by Jdurg »

I had ordered mine a day or so after the video came out, I got it about 6-8 weeks later, and upon opening up the device it matched 100% what Voultar had shown in his video. Just opened it up to double check, and the one I have is actually very solidly built. No battery on top of a transformer, no suspect solder joints, just a solidly built device.
Post Reply