Hey guys
Looking for a soldering station and multimeter kit for under $100. Im a DIY user (just cables and arduinos)
Thanks
Soldering iron kit and multimeter kit for under $100
Bargain4Days on 15/05/2017 - 11:34
Comments
multimeter - I bought one of these for $2.90 delivered
soldering iron - I bought one of these for $1.95 delivered
the soldering iron has been used at least 3 dozen times and is still going strong.
I had one of those multimeters - DSE branded from 15-20 years ago. Upgraded it a year back when the battery ran out as a new one was cheaper than the battery.
Although for the soldering iron, I got a fake Yihua station from Hobbyking and spent a few bucks on some fatter tips.
Probably not what you are after, but I got my multimeter from a chinese seller on ebay. The price was ridiculously cheap. It came with probes, I ended up getting additional crocodile clips a few months after.
I think there were some good reviews of the soldering station from hobbyking. You can try them. I got mine from one of Aldi's special buys.
I have a couple of Acco 936 knock-off soldering stations s from eBay, and they are around $25 posted in Oz.
A dozen assorted tips will cost you around $5.Multimeters vary in price with their features, but $50 (on eBay, again) will get you something auto-ranging with good resolution.
Buy a decent set of test leads, as the included ones are generally rubbish.Multimeter - get one with autoranging
Unless you're testing with high accurary and/or high voltages, you should have no problems with those sub-$10 meters
I bought an auto-ranging one recently from AliEx. The cheapest I could find was $15.
I feel so filthy now :(It arrived in just under 2 weeks though; very surprised given it was AliExpress. You can see it working in how it changes the scale on the display, but yeah for all intents and purposes it's "good enough". I do have a (very slightly) better DMM one I got from Jaycar many years ago. Same as what I call those 2nd level ones from AliEx - you can tell from the dial layout there are those 2 or 3 distinct different ones at the various price points.
As others have said get the Hakko 936 knockoff soldering iron, and a few chisel tips. They work fine, I've got a real Hakko 936 which is a bit nicer, eg the lead is silicone whereas the knockoff is PVC, but eh, it's $30.
Get a couple of those really cheap little sub-$5 meters, they're ok for most electronics stuff but often you want to measure a few things at once. Don't put high current (say >3A) through them. Annoyingly they use a 12v battery. (Most use a 9V, some use AAA.)
For your 'main' meter something like a UNI-T UT136B might suit: http://www.uni-trend.com/productsdetail.aspx?ProductsID=571&…, about $25. The 'B' model has capacitance.
Accuracy-wise it's hard to make a bad meter these days. The difference between a 'good' & 'bad' meter these days is things like will it survive when you do something silly, how fast to make a measurement and so on.
Also consider one of these: http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=30&doc_id=13293…, about $20.
Get some 'helping hands' as well ($10), some cheap flush cutters ($3) and a solder sucker ($5).
You can get all the above for around $100.
https://m.banggood.com/Mustool-MT223-60W-Adjustable-Temperat…
I have similar to this, tips are better without screw at end style. Also super cheap Tips so if you damage one you don't feel bad just throwing it, and using another. I mainly use fine tip for PCB work, and it's excellent.
aliexpress