i have this unit, and this is my honest opinion, i bought a hakko 951 before i bought this A902 and i was extremely displeased at the cost of the unit plus every move you made costs money plus the heat up time is 8 to 10 seconds from the time you remove it from the stand then i purchased the SUGON 36 and the tips kept going bad not to say the unit was at fault AND then i bought the A902 the best investment ive ever made, it was way cheaper then the Hakko and the SUGON 36 and it works flawlessly having 2 options for nano soldering is always a plus. get this unit save time and money
Nice any disadvantages you found on this unit, I'm interested how it performs when soldering on ground planes, if it's doing well compensating power on tips, simialr to jbc. Or when you place it on a ground plane where it needs more power its not noticeable?
Nice looking unit, Steve. Great for a hobbyist. But for those looking for a precision piece of kit. Then, perhaps something a little more robust, would be the better option. But I do like the range of equipment sold on this website. Thanks for sharing.
Wow.. I love your detail reviews. I subscribed. Please consider doing the best or recommended award once a year or half a year. The purpose is make it easier for user to find the top 5 or more products of each category that you recommend. Just a simple pros and cons. Put this videobunder Recommended or Award playlist. Right now its very time consuming going watching all the past soldering stations to find one I like.
Love the form factor i.e. 2 stations in 1, and it would sit nice on my workbench.......but the electronic design is a bit sub-par as Steve says. Maybe a candidate for upgrade though such as adding linear PSU to keep noise levels down.
You stated that the station lacks support for setback temperatures, but it does. It’s just not obvious how to activate the feature. Aifen calls it “standby”. The instruction booklet isn’t clear, but here’s the trick. Hold down the CH3 button while turning the power switch on. Keep the CH3 button held down until the lower numerical display is blinking. Release the button and then use the TEMP up and down buttons to set the standby temperature to one of six choices. They're all in degrees Celsius: 000, 150, 180, 200, 250, 280. Press the CH3 button again to save the setting and exit. If you have the station on Fahrenheit mode, you’ll still have to set the standby temperature in Celsius. That doesn’t make much sense to me, but it’s just the way it is.
I got the Aifen with the single hand piece. It's really is more than OK for hobby work. But maybe I should also check it for heat dissipation then. I really wanted to build a DIY JBC. Even had some parts like a transformer, but never got around to figure out the best circuit for it. The Aifen was so cheap and I am using it with original handles and cartridges. It's a good stand in for when/if the DIY project ever happens :)
@@sdgelectronics It would still like it for the opensource, extensibility and repairability aspect but... with my little EE knowledge it just takes way too long to make sense.
The instruction booklet claims it supports C470 cartridges. Haven't tried it yet, but I'm curious. The station claims 350 watts, but it's dual SMPS, so probably 175W max per handle.
AIFEN A902 double welding station with automatic sleep function and compatible with JBC C115 C210 C245 soldering iron tips, very suitable for daily mobile phone electronic components welding repair.
Very nice review. There're not a lot of good tests/review of Aifen soldering-stations. Now I got a feeling what may inside a Aifen A9-pro. I likely to avoid there products.
This is a really nice soldering station. My only concern is going above the 350c recommendation in the user manual. For these tips should we stay at or under the 350 or is it safe to exceed 350 as I see you going to 380c.
I'll receive my Aixun 420D in 3 days, hope the build quality, precision and performance will be worth the extra 200€. To be honest this station looks too cheap for me and the attached cradles are a big meh but for 200€ it's a very attractive price.
This is the station on the video is not great, I had it and got rid of it, it uses switching dc power supply and build quality isn’t great, performance you can get better
@@sdgelectronics From your video and other sources it seems like the 420D is the closest you can get to Genuine JBC performance without paying the JBC price (If you get JBC cartridges) And that's what made me buy it. I wanted to be able to use the JBC cartridges because of the tip variety.
the 420 is excellent and honestly a better station then this. I really don't think you will be disappointed imo its the closest to a real jbc quality wise out there
For its price, it's a pretty nice station. Certainly not among the best out there, but it's more than capable enough for serious hobby-level work. Some of the comments here make it sound terrible. It's not. As long as you stick with genuine JBC cartridges, it performs just fine. But if you only use the "Magma" branded cartridges sold with it, or any of a zillion other crappy clone cartridges, you'll hate using this station. I see that the price gap between the 420D and A902 has closed quite a bit since last year. So Aifen's value proposition isn't as attractive anymore. If you can get a good discount on the A902, and you still want it, skip the combo packages that include the clone tips and just get the station itself. The clone tips are garbage. Take the 200 you saved and buy some genuine JBC cartridges.
Theoretically, could you replace the switch mode PSU with a proper toroidal transformer, just making sure you're supplying 2x24V and 5V, for a more solid PSU setup?
does this model save calibration settings when you switch the unit off?Mine Aifen t-S2 doesnt,and Sugon tech support says it doesnt have to,meaning you have to calibrate again on your next use,isnt it a joke??? ))))
Steve, i had a feeling right from the time i saw you used left channel with smaller handpiece and right channel with bigger one if those channels are equal each other, isnt there possibility that the right channel is power limited ?
I don't care how good it performs. I wouldn't pay a nickel for that cheap plastic box with the cheesy chrome plated plastic buttons. The iron stands looked like they were about to crumble when you played with their knobs. Awful build quality!
i have this unit, and this is my honest opinion, i bought a hakko 951 before i bought this A902 and i was extremely displeased at the cost of the unit plus every move you made costs money plus the heat up time is 8 to 10 seconds from the time you remove it from the stand then i purchased the SUGON 36 and the tips kept going bad not to say the unit was at fault AND then i bought the A902 the best investment ive ever made, it was way cheaper then the Hakko and the SUGON 36 and it works flawlessly having 2 options for nano soldering is always a plus. get this unit save time and money
Nice any disadvantages you found on this unit, I'm interested how it performs when soldering on ground planes, if it's doing well compensating power on tips, simialr to jbc. Or when you place it on a ground plane where it needs more power its not noticeable?
there's a video of a guy using it on ground plane and it did amazingliy well
That 7805 which will get hot is also very nicely placed next to the caps to warm them up as well🙂
Yep and Squeak !!!!!!!!
@@andymouse Cheese!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Nice looking unit, Steve. Great for a hobbyist. But for those looking for a precision piece of kit. Then, perhaps something a little more robust, would be the better option. But I do like the range of equipment sold on this website. Thanks for sharing.
thanks
Another great review...cheers. RIP Calculon
Wow.. I love your detail reviews. I subscribed.
Please consider doing the best or recommended award once a year or half a year. The purpose is make it easier for user to find the top 5 or more products of each category that you recommend. Just a simple pros and cons. Put this videobunder Recommended or Award playlist.
Right now its very time consuming going watching all the past soldering stations to find one I like.
Love the form factor i.e. 2 stations in 1, and it would sit nice on my workbench.......but the electronic design is a bit sub-par as Steve says. Maybe a candidate for upgrade though such as adding linear PSU to keep noise levels down.
id like to see power switch at the FRONT
You stated that the station lacks support for setback temperatures, but it does. It’s just not obvious how to activate the feature. Aifen calls it “standby”. The instruction booklet isn’t clear, but here’s the trick. Hold down the CH3 button while turning the power switch on. Keep the CH3 button held down until the lower numerical display is blinking. Release the button and then use the TEMP up and down buttons to set the standby temperature to one of six choices. They're all in degrees Celsius: 000, 150, 180, 200, 250, 280. Press the CH3 button again to save the setting and exit. If you have the station on Fahrenheit mode, you’ll still have to set the standby temperature in Celsius. That doesn’t make much sense to me, but it’s just the way it is.
I got the Aifen with the single hand piece. It's really is more than OK for hobby work.
But maybe I should also check it for heat dissipation then.
I really wanted to build a DIY JBC. Even had some parts like a transformer, but never got around to figure out the best circuit for it. The Aifen was so cheap and I am using it with original handles and cartridges. It's a good stand in for when/if the DIY project ever happens :)
Same with the DIY project - I was going to design one, but there isn't much motivation since many of these lower cost systems already work very well.
@@sdgelectronics It would still like it for the opensource, extensibility and repairability aspect but... with my little EE knowledge it just takes way too long to make sense.
After looking at your videos, the Aixen is the best budget JBC style soldering iron. Just make sure to use Genuine JBC tips.
The simple display is nice. I'd like to see a linear power supply for better reliability. Would be great if it was compatible the T470 handpiece too.
The instruction booklet claims it supports C470 cartridges. Haven't tried it yet, but I'm curious. The station claims 350 watts, but it's dual SMPS, so probably 175W max per handle.
Are you sure there's no option to set standby temperature? The manual mentions configuring that by holding CH3.
AIFEN A902 double welding station with automatic sleep function and compatible with JBC C115 C210 C245 soldering iron tips, very suitable for daily mobile phone electronic components welding repair.
Very nice review. There're not a lot of good tests/review of Aifen soldering-stations. Now I got a feeling what may inside a Aifen A9-pro. I likely to avoid there products.
Yo recién lo compré. Tengo también la Sugon T26D
This is a really nice soldering station. My only concern is going above the 350c recommendation in the user manual. For these tips should we stay at or under the 350 or is it safe to exceed 350 as I see you going to 380c.
Is it still working?? I want to know the quality of the station.
I doubt he ever uses it, since he has better equipment at hand.
My question is the 6 pin connector is the same as JBC ?
I was think to order jbc tweezers and use it on this machine?
I'll receive my Aixun 420D in 3 days, hope the build quality, precision and performance will be worth the extra 200€. To be honest this station looks too cheap for me and the attached cradles are a big meh but for 200€ it's a very attractive price.
This is the station on the video is not great, I had it and got rid of it, it uses switching dc power supply and build quality isn’t great, performance you can get better
The 420D is pretty solid, I think you'll find it great to use.
@@sdgelectronics From your video and other sources it seems like the 420D is the closest you can get to Genuine JBC performance without paying the JBC price (If you get JBC cartridges) And that's what made me buy it. I wanted to be able to use the JBC cartridges because of the tip variety.
the 420 is excellent and honestly a better station then this. I really don't think you will be disappointed imo its the closest to a real jbc quality wise out there
For its price, it's a pretty nice station. Certainly not among the best out there, but it's more than capable enough for serious hobby-level work. Some of the comments here make it sound terrible. It's not. As long as you stick with genuine JBC cartridges, it performs just fine. But if you only use the "Magma" branded cartridges sold with it, or any of a zillion other crappy clone cartridges, you'll hate using this station. I see that the price gap between the 420D and A902 has closed quite a bit since last year. So Aifen's value proposition isn't as attractive anymore. If you can get a good discount on the A902, and you still want it, skip the combo packages that include the clone tips and just get the station itself. The clone tips are garbage. Take the 200 you saved and buy some genuine JBC cartridges.
Does it come with a UKAC sticker or do you have to print your own 🙂
Squeak !!!!!!!
@@andymouse boys, we got a rat problem
@@userPrehistoricman LOL !
Just how many soldering irons do you have now🙂
yes
Not as many as me. 🙂
Too many - probably around 30, and there is a large pile of boxes awaiting review.
@@sdgelectronics HA! HA! that is called over stocking🙂
Maybe you should do a subscriber giveaway. 😉
Que marca de soldadura usa ?
Theoretically, could you replace the switch mode PSU with a proper toroidal transformer, just making sure you're supplying 2x24V and 5V, for a more solid PSU setup?
Phone Repair Tools (AliExpress): s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_Dm18fc9
AIFEN A902 Soldering Station: www.diyfixtool.com/products/aifen-a902-double-welding-station-c210-c245-c115-soldering-tool
Phonefix Giveaways: www.diyfixtool.com/collections/all?sort_by=price-ascending
Support the Channel with Patreon: www.patreon.com/sdgelectronics
does this model save calibration settings when you switch the unit off?Mine Aifen t-S2 doesnt,and Sugon tech support says it doesnt have to,meaning you have to calibrate again on your next use,isnt it a joke??? ))))
Does it have reliable handles, most the other cheap JBC copies have faulty handles.
I had no issue with the Chinese jbc type handles
I've not had any issue with any clones.
Are they compatible with original jbc pencils?
я такой купил год назад))
Hello I have this device and I have a problem,
My device gives error s_e,
Where is the problem?
Change bit
can you use this for ps5 hdmi ports
If you didnt show the price in the beginning, my guess would be 300-500
Steve, i had a feeling right from the time i saw you used left channel with smaller handpiece and right channel with bigger one if those channels are equal each other, isnt there possibility that the right channel is power limited ?
No they're both identical, it's just the display must have been re-used from something else.
Can it be used a therapy on humans
I don't care how good it performs. I wouldn't pay a nickel for that cheap plastic box with the cheesy chrome plated plastic buttons. The iron stands looked like they were about to crumble when you played with their knobs. Awful build quality!