BAKU 898D soldering station overview
Hello comrades!
This article is an overview of the Baku soldering station BK-898D. It contains many photos, objective data and the subjective opinion of the author.
Sooner or later, before each radio amateur there is a question of choosing the necessary tool for their occupation. And I did not become an exception. Recently, more and more often there is a need to drop several chips in a TQFP package, which was the reason for searching for a hot air soldering device, i.e. heat gun. The budget was limited but, at the same time, I wanted to get a sufficiently high-quality device that meets the following requirements:
1. The cost is not higher than $ 70 (2500 rubles), I am not ready to give more for such a tool in principle, since it is not so complicated apparatus to cost more.
2. The dryer must be equipped with a blower built into the knob, without a compressor in the control unit, since I do not like the thick hose. In addition, as a rule, the presence of a compressor in the control unit entails an increase in the dimensions of the latter.
3. Digital control (buttons and tsiferki), in principle, it is not so critical, but very desirable, 21 century after all.
4. Compact size, my table can not accommodate without damage to the workspace banuduru type AOYUE 968.
5. “Calm” colors, just not necessary, but desirable. I don’t really like the blocks in the yellow-blue coloring with the shiny, screaming “We are from China!” Buttons, because it is distracting.
')
At first there was the idea of ​​assembling the device on my own, but the lack of time, the presence of necessity and the indicated amount encouraged me to purchase a ready-made solution.
As a result of the search, a very interesting product of the Chinese industry was found under the name “Baku Air Thermal Soldering Station BK-898D”. The brand name “BAKU” in this case is purely relative. This device is also available under other brands. All of them are summarized by two points: the name has “898D” and appearance: they are all made in the same package with the same controls. This product is interesting because at a cost of $ 60 it is not just a hair dryer, but a whole soldering station! Ie, in addition to the hair dryer, it has a soldering iron with maintaining the set temperature of the sting. This unit was ideally suited for all conditions: the cost at the time of writing this review was 2100r, the “right” hair dryer, digital temperature control of the hair dryer and temperature display, small dimensions, and a “calm” design. What else should a novice radio fan? Right! Soldering iron. And he is here! And my old has long been asking for a replacement. The choice is made, the product is purchased.
Now about the consumer qualities of the soldering station.
Technical parameters can be easily found on the Internet. The main thing: the power of the soldering iron is declared 35W, the maximum temperature of the soldering iron is 480 ° C, the power of the hairdryer is 450 W, the maximum temperature of the hairdryer is 450 ° C.
Completion of my copy is as follows:
1. Control unit with hairdryer
2. Soldering iron
3. Stand for hair dryer
4. Soldering iron stand
5. Sponge for cleaning the soldering iron
6. Set of three nozzles for hair dryer
7. A set of some spare parts, it is very similar that this is some kind of extractor
8. Instructions in "native" Chinese and English
It is made of black plastic. In front and behind, apparently, metal panels painted white. On the front panel are located:
1. Two hair temperature control buttons
2. Three-digit 7-segment hair dryer temperature indicator - “TEMP”.
3. The regulator of turns of the hair dryer - “AIR”, which is a normal variable resistor, which, in general, is not bad. In my opinion, it is more convenient and faster to turn the knob than to press the buttons, controlling the indicator readings.
4. Trimming Resistor for Calibration - “CAL”
5. Soldering iron heater operation indicator - "HEATER", red LED
6. A soldering iron temperature controller, a variable resistor with a scale in Celsius and Fahrenheit temperatures. Here, of course, it would not be bad to make setting the temperature with the buttons. But, considering the price, it’s good that there is a soldering iron with support for a given temperature.
7. Hair dryer switch
8. 5 pin connector for soldering iron
9. Soldering iron switch
At the bottom of the unit, you can observe rubber feet, a sticker, apparently, with the date of manufacture of the product and the transformer mounting bolts.
On the sides there are holes for fixing the delivery for a hair dryer. The stand can be attached both on the right and on the left side of the unit, for whom it is more convenient.
The hairdryer lying on the stand looks upwards so that the table cannot be burned with hot air. Behind are the power cord, whose length is about 1 meter and it does not disconnect from the unit. Nearby is the fuse box. There is no switch of the entire device anywhere, the transformer is permanently connected to the network, which is not encouraging, since constantly pulling the plug is not very convenient.
There is nothing above.
The dryer has a built-in air blower. Holes for air intake are only on one side.
On the other hand there are no holes, but this is not obvious, since The shape of the case is the same as in the place with holes. When using, be careful not to close the air intake. The wire connecting the dryer to the control unit is soft enough, its length is about 85 cm, it will not disconnect from the unit. Included are 3 nozzles with mount mount. They are attached not very easily, it is especially difficult to remove them. But, since it is not necessary to do this often, it is difficult to call it a disadvantage. In addition, it is easy to fix podgibanie nozzles. The mounting design may allow you to connect other nozzles that are suitable in diameter, but because the author has no other attachments, it is not possible to verify this.
The thinnest nozzle, it is, as a rule, and the most popular, unlike other stations in this price segment, has a conical narrowing, which should have a beneficial effect on the amount of hot air leaving the nozzle.
Soldering iron
The soldering iron is lightweight, with a soft wire about 85 cm long. It can be disconnected from the unit using a GX16-5p connector.
For soldering iron fit stinger type HAKKO 900M. I acquired several different types at once.
A single needle-type sting is supplied as standard.
Many Chinese soldering irons have one major drawback - the heater does not fully fit into the sting. Read more about this shortcoming and the method of elimination have been written here.
This instance does not have this drawback, which is good news.
The heater, apparently, nichrome, rolled up in a ceramic rod, without any markings.
How to distinguish a ceramic heater from nichromovogo described here . In general, the usual Chinese soldering iron, no worse and no better than others.
The soldering iron stand is no different and is often found bundled with various Chinese soldering stations.
It comes with a sponge for cleaning the sting. Inside, you can also shove a metal sponge. Its significant drawback is that there are no rubber legs at the bottom, because of this, the stand can and will definitely ride on the table.
But there are rectangular holes in which you can insert gum, eliminating this drawback. Bath only one for the sponge. Although no one bothers to place there, for example, rosin, the blessing is made of aluminum alloy.
The hair dryer holder contains 2 magnets for the reed switch in the hair dryer and is attached with 4 screws to a metal corner, which, with 2 screws attached to one of the side planes of the case.
Immediately after turning on the plug, the network reveals a significant drawback, which can often be observed in low-cost soldering stations - the hum of a transformer. This indicates a low quality transformer. Moreover, different batches of the same device can be equipped with transformers of different quality. I was not lucky, in my case the buzz is so strong that it will be difficult to work. Transformer definitely should be changed or modified. Turn on the hair dryer. If it is cold and lies on the stand, nothing happens. If it is removed, the turbine starts working and heating starts to the set temperature, while the display shows the current temperature. Heating is very fast. The temperature can be changed in the range from 100 to 450 degrees Celsius with an accuracy of one degree. With a long press on the buttons, the temperature changes in increments of one degree. This is not very good because, in spite of the rate of change (approximately 5 grams per second), in order to quickly change the temperature from minimum to maximum, you will need to hold the button for about a minute. It is much better to regulate the temperature by a long press in increments of 10 degrees. The set temperature is stored in the EEPROM and is restored after shutdown. The heated hair dryer, placed on the stand, begins to cool. For this, the control unit turns on the maximum speed of the turbine and waits until it cools down to 100 degrees. If you want to change the nozzle, quickly it will not work, because The hair dryer will have to be further cooled when it is completely turned off. And it cools down without blowing out quickly - 20 minutes ... That is why I would like to be able to cool the dryer to, for example, 30 degrees, when it is turned off. But this possibility is not here. Also, it has been repeatedly noted that fluorescent lamps begin to blink at the maximum temperature. But this disadvantage can be eliminated by yourself. In the Internet there is information on how to do this. Another drawback that was noticed during the operation was a small leak of cold air through the gap in the hair dryer body. In my copy, the blow is not strong, I did not even immediately notice. But who knows how others are collected ... Otherwise, the work of the dryer did not cause any complaints and negatives. I immediately, without any special problems, soldered the necessary chips, now I regret that I have not bought such a hairdryer before.
The operation of the soldering iron is even easier, turn on, set the temperature and wait for the heating. The temperature is adjustable between 200 and 480 ° C. Wait for heating to 350 ° C will have about 30 seconds. During operation, the heating is indicated by an LED. The way of adjusting the temperature is not quite clear, it seems that this is low-frequency PWM, simple periodic switching on and off of the heater at full capacity. Moreover, during heating, a change in the sound emitted by a transformer is heard: this is how its low quality affects. Although, perhaps, PWM with a higher frequency is still there, but it does not work all the time. This question remains open.
In general, the station has left a good impression, and if it were not for the loudly buzzing transformer, I could recommend it to everyone with a limited budget. Now I can recommend only to those who are willing to spend money on a transformer and will be able to independently replace or modify it. On all it is clear that the emphasis in this station is made, above all, on the hair dryer, the soldering iron comes as an add. application: it does not have digital adjustment and temperature indicator. However, it works and is devoid of a childhood disease with a heater.
Positive sides:
+ price - $ 60 for a hairdryer with a soldering iron is not very bad.
+ not large dimensions.
+ Not a bad soldering iron.
Disadvantages:
- Not a quality transformer, the power of which, apparently, is not enough.
- before turning off the hairdryer remains very hot.
- there is no power switch for the entire product.
- not a big leak of air from the dryer.
The reluctance to put up with the buzzing, like a whole substation, a transformer and the desire to turn off the station with a switch and not with a plug, was forced to disassemble the device.
The transformer turned out to be small and very hot, which speaks, again, of its low quality.
After an external study, it became clear that the core was weakly pulled. Having tightened it in a yew from all directions, it was possible to pull together more feasibly.
The buzz did not completely disappear, but it became much quieter and noticeable only in complete silence. This could be tolerated. Therefore, it was decided to close the topic of the transformer until another suitable trance appeared.
Now about the switch of the entire station. He is not and that is bad. Lukey 702 type stations cut a hole in the plastic case and insert the missing part. There is also a plastic case. But I decided to go smarter. In the station described, there are already as many as 2 switches - for a hairdryer and a soldering iron. Why not make it so that when you turn on one of them, in addition to the corresponding unit, the power of the station itself is turned on. To do this, do not need to cut a plastic case. It is only necessary to replace one linear switch with two linear ones. The second lines are paralleled and plugged into the ~ 220V power supply circuit. As indicated in the diagram:
Were purchased and installed similar to the old new two line switches KCD1.
Their parameters allow switching the maximum power of the station. Now the disadvantage is completely eliminated. The station turns on when you turn on or hair dryer or a soldering iron and completely turns off when you turn off both blocks.
The insides of the product look like this:
Unfortunately, I didn’t manage to identify the controller by its appearance, the hope is that it is an ATMega8 in a DIP package. If this is true, then it will be possible to try to upgrade the firmware and introduce such useful functions as turning off the soldering iron when idle, completely cooling the hair dryer when disconnecting, etc.
That's all for now. I hope this information will be useful to you when choosing. I can answer exciting questions.
I wish you successful purchases and more time for your hobby!
PS: Video review with an example of work:
Part 1 .
Part 2 .
This article is an overview of the Baku soldering station BK-898D. It contains many photos, objective data and the subjective opinion of the author.
Sooner or later, before each radio amateur there is a question of choosing the necessary tool for their occupation. And I did not become an exception. Recently, more and more often there is a need to drop several chips in a TQFP package, which was the reason for searching for a hot air soldering device, i.e. heat gun. The budget was limited but, at the same time, I wanted to get a sufficiently high-quality device that meets the following requirements:
1. The cost is not higher than $ 70 (2500 rubles), I am not ready to give more for such a tool in principle, since it is not so complicated apparatus to cost more.
2. The dryer must be equipped with a blower built into the knob, without a compressor in the control unit, since I do not like the thick hose. In addition, as a rule, the presence of a compressor in the control unit entails an increase in the dimensions of the latter.
3. Digital control (buttons and tsiferki), in principle, it is not so critical, but very desirable, 21 century after all.
4. Compact size, my table can not accommodate without damage to the workspace banuduru type AOYUE 968.
5. “Calm” colors, just not necessary, but desirable. I don’t really like the blocks in the yellow-blue coloring with the shiny, screaming “We are from China!” Buttons, because it is distracting.
')
At first there was the idea of ​​assembling the device on my own, but the lack of time, the presence of necessity and the indicated amount encouraged me to purchase a ready-made solution.
As a result of the search, a very interesting product of the Chinese industry was found under the name “Baku Air Thermal Soldering Station BK-898D”. The brand name “BAKU” in this case is purely relative. This device is also available under other brands. All of them are summarized by two points: the name has “898D” and appearance: they are all made in the same package with the same controls. This product is interesting because at a cost of $ 60 it is not just a hair dryer, but a whole soldering station! Ie, in addition to the hair dryer, it has a soldering iron with maintaining the set temperature of the sting. This unit was ideally suited for all conditions: the cost at the time of writing this review was 2100r, the “right” hair dryer, digital temperature control of the hair dryer and temperature display, small dimensions, and a “calm” design. What else should a novice radio fan? Right! Soldering iron. And he is here! And my old has long been asking for a replacement. The choice is made, the product is purchased.
Now about the consumer qualities of the soldering station.
Technical parameters can be easily found on the Internet. The main thing: the power of the soldering iron is declared 35W, the maximum temperature of the soldering iron is 480 ° C, the power of the hairdryer is 450 W, the maximum temperature of the hairdryer is 450 ° C.
Completion of my copy is as follows:
1. Control unit with hairdryer
2. Soldering iron
3. Stand for hair dryer
4. Soldering iron stand
5. Sponge for cleaning the soldering iron
6. Set of three nozzles for hair dryer
7. A set of some spare parts, it is very similar that this is some kind of extractor
8. Instructions in "native" Chinese and English
Main unit
It is made of black plastic. In front and behind, apparently, metal panels painted white. On the front panel are located:
1. Two hair temperature control buttons
2. Three-digit 7-segment hair dryer temperature indicator - “TEMP”.
3. The regulator of turns of the hair dryer - “AIR”, which is a normal variable resistor, which, in general, is not bad. In my opinion, it is more convenient and faster to turn the knob than to press the buttons, controlling the indicator readings.
4. Trimming Resistor for Calibration - “CAL”
5. Soldering iron heater operation indicator - "HEATER", red LED
6. A soldering iron temperature controller, a variable resistor with a scale in Celsius and Fahrenheit temperatures. Here, of course, it would not be bad to make setting the temperature with the buttons. But, considering the price, it’s good that there is a soldering iron with support for a given temperature.
7. Hair dryer switch
8. 5 pin connector for soldering iron
9. Soldering iron switch
At the bottom of the unit, you can observe rubber feet, a sticker, apparently, with the date of manufacture of the product and the transformer mounting bolts.
On the sides there are holes for fixing the delivery for a hair dryer. The stand can be attached both on the right and on the left side of the unit, for whom it is more convenient.
The hairdryer lying on the stand looks upwards so that the table cannot be burned with hot air. Behind are the power cord, whose length is about 1 meter and it does not disconnect from the unit. Nearby is the fuse box. There is no switch of the entire device anywhere, the transformer is permanently connected to the network, which is not encouraging, since constantly pulling the plug is not very convenient.
There is nothing above.
Hair dryer
The dryer has a built-in air blower. Holes for air intake are only on one side.
On the other hand there are no holes, but this is not obvious, since The shape of the case is the same as in the place with holes. When using, be careful not to close the air intake. The wire connecting the dryer to the control unit is soft enough, its length is about 85 cm, it will not disconnect from the unit. Included are 3 nozzles with mount mount. They are attached not very easily, it is especially difficult to remove them. But, since it is not necessary to do this often, it is difficult to call it a disadvantage. In addition, it is easy to fix podgibanie nozzles. The mounting design may allow you to connect other nozzles that are suitable in diameter, but because the author has no other attachments, it is not possible to verify this.
The thinnest nozzle, it is, as a rule, and the most popular, unlike other stations in this price segment, has a conical narrowing, which should have a beneficial effect on the amount of hot air leaving the nozzle.
Soldering iron
The soldering iron is lightweight, with a soft wire about 85 cm long. It can be disconnected from the unit using a GX16-5p connector.
For soldering iron fit stinger type HAKKO 900M. I acquired several different types at once.
A single needle-type sting is supplied as standard.
Many Chinese soldering irons have one major drawback - the heater does not fully fit into the sting. Read more about this shortcoming and the method of elimination have been written here.
This instance does not have this drawback, which is good news.
The heater, apparently, nichrome, rolled up in a ceramic rod, without any markings.
How to distinguish a ceramic heater from nichromovogo described here . In general, the usual Chinese soldering iron, no worse and no better than others.
All the rest
The soldering iron stand is no different and is often found bundled with various Chinese soldering stations.
It comes with a sponge for cleaning the sting. Inside, you can also shove a metal sponge. Its significant drawback is that there are no rubber legs at the bottom, because of this, the stand can and will definitely ride on the table.
But there are rectangular holes in which you can insert gum, eliminating this drawback. Bath only one for the sponge. Although no one bothers to place there, for example, rosin, the blessing is made of aluminum alloy.
The hair dryer holder contains 2 magnets for the reed switch in the hair dryer and is attached with 4 screws to a metal corner, which, with 2 screws attached to one of the side planes of the case.
We now turn to the work of the product.
Immediately after turning on the plug, the network reveals a significant drawback, which can often be observed in low-cost soldering stations - the hum of a transformer. This indicates a low quality transformer. Moreover, different batches of the same device can be equipped with transformers of different quality. I was not lucky, in my case the buzz is so strong that it will be difficult to work. Transformer definitely should be changed or modified. Turn on the hair dryer. If it is cold and lies on the stand, nothing happens. If it is removed, the turbine starts working and heating starts to the set temperature, while the display shows the current temperature. Heating is very fast. The temperature can be changed in the range from 100 to 450 degrees Celsius with an accuracy of one degree. With a long press on the buttons, the temperature changes in increments of one degree. This is not very good because, in spite of the rate of change (approximately 5 grams per second), in order to quickly change the temperature from minimum to maximum, you will need to hold the button for about a minute. It is much better to regulate the temperature by a long press in increments of 10 degrees. The set temperature is stored in the EEPROM and is restored after shutdown. The heated hair dryer, placed on the stand, begins to cool. For this, the control unit turns on the maximum speed of the turbine and waits until it cools down to 100 degrees. If you want to change the nozzle, quickly it will not work, because The hair dryer will have to be further cooled when it is completely turned off. And it cools down without blowing out quickly - 20 minutes ... That is why I would like to be able to cool the dryer to, for example, 30 degrees, when it is turned off. But this possibility is not here. Also, it has been repeatedly noted that fluorescent lamps begin to blink at the maximum temperature. But this disadvantage can be eliminated by yourself. In the Internet there is information on how to do this. Another drawback that was noticed during the operation was a small leak of cold air through the gap in the hair dryer body. In my copy, the blow is not strong, I did not even immediately notice. But who knows how others are collected ... Otherwise, the work of the dryer did not cause any complaints and negatives. I immediately, without any special problems, soldered the necessary chips, now I regret that I have not bought such a hairdryer before.
The operation of the soldering iron is even easier, turn on, set the temperature and wait for the heating. The temperature is adjustable between 200 and 480 ° C. Wait for heating to 350 ° C will have about 30 seconds. During operation, the heating is indicated by an LED. The way of adjusting the temperature is not quite clear, it seems that this is low-frequency PWM, simple periodic switching on and off of the heater at full capacity. Moreover, during heating, a change in the sound emitted by a transformer is heard: this is how its low quality affects. Although, perhaps, PWM with a higher frequency is still there, but it does not work all the time. This question remains open.
In general, the station has left a good impression, and if it were not for the loudly buzzing transformer, I could recommend it to everyone with a limited budget. Now I can recommend only to those who are willing to spend money on a transformer and will be able to independently replace or modify it. On all it is clear that the emphasis in this station is made, above all, on the hair dryer, the soldering iron comes as an add. application: it does not have digital adjustment and temperature indicator. However, it works and is devoid of a childhood disease with a heater.
Total
Positive sides:
+ price - $ 60 for a hairdryer with a soldering iron is not very bad.
+ not large dimensions.
+ Not a bad soldering iron.
Disadvantages:
- Not a quality transformer, the power of which, apparently, is not enough.
- before turning off the hairdryer remains very hot.
- there is no power switch for the entire product.
- not a big leak of air from the dryer.
Now about the internals and improvements
The reluctance to put up with the buzzing, like a whole substation, a transformer and the desire to turn off the station with a switch and not with a plug, was forced to disassemble the device.
The transformer turned out to be small and very hot, which speaks, again, of its low quality.
After an external study, it became clear that the core was weakly pulled. Having tightened it in a yew from all directions, it was possible to pull together more feasibly.
The buzz did not completely disappear, but it became much quieter and noticeable only in complete silence. This could be tolerated. Therefore, it was decided to close the topic of the transformer until another suitable trance appeared.
Now about the switch of the entire station. He is not and that is bad. Lukey 702 type stations cut a hole in the plastic case and insert the missing part. There is also a plastic case. But I decided to go smarter. In the station described, there are already as many as 2 switches - for a hairdryer and a soldering iron. Why not make it so that when you turn on one of them, in addition to the corresponding unit, the power of the station itself is turned on. To do this, do not need to cut a plastic case. It is only necessary to replace one linear switch with two linear ones. The second lines are paralleled and plugged into the ~ 220V power supply circuit. As indicated in the diagram:
Were purchased and installed similar to the old new two line switches KCD1.
Their parameters allow switching the maximum power of the station. Now the disadvantage is completely eliminated. The station turns on when you turn on or hair dryer or a soldering iron and completely turns off when you turn off both blocks.
The insides of the product look like this:
Unfortunately, I didn’t manage to identify the controller by its appearance, the hope is that it is an ATMega8 in a DIP package. If this is true, then it will be possible to try to upgrade the firmware and introduce such useful functions as turning off the soldering iron when idle, completely cooling the hair dryer when disconnecting, etc.
That's all for now. I hope this information will be useful to you when choosing. I can answer exciting questions.
I wish you successful purchases and more time for your hobby!
PS: Video review with an example of work:
Part 1 .
Part 2 .
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/217675/
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