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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 22 ก.ค. 2018
- There's been a bit of discussion about these new OLED equipped soldering irons from China. This is a 1994 RF soldering iron from Metcal. An optional RF power meter is inline between the power source and the rework handle, which shows the flow of power into the work. With 45W of RF, the metcal doesn't need to "recover", even when soldering large objects, like this penny, or power pins feeding multiple pcb plane layers without thermal vias.
- วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
I fell in love with Metcal when I worked at Intel. I had to have my own and got a PS-800 I still use today
. You should also note the work holder. When you put the iron in the stand magnets in the holder disrupt the induction heating and cause the tip to drop to about 150°F increasing tip life.
I fell in love with mine back in the early 1990's - they didn't have that feature at the time. I've thought about investing in a modern one - are there any other features that came about in the last decade or so?
I was working for Intel many years ago and I saw many Metcal stations there.
Metcal is the industry standard.
Best Regards.
The Metcal and these asian "high frequency" irons actually use different technologies. Metcal uses the curie point of the tip and the base unit blasts RF at the handset which the tip absorbs or not depending on it's temperature. There's no need for active temp control because it's just physics. If you want to change the temperature you have to change to a different tip with a different curie point. The asian high frequency irons use 36v (sometimes 45v) 400khz AC running though a coil in the handset which heats the tip by means of eddy currents. Sort of like an electric motor with one phase and a fixed rotor core (which is the tip). A temperature sensor in the handset inserts into a channel in the back of the tip and presses against the end just behind the soldering point. Temp control is like a traditional tip over heater iron but control is much better because of how close the sensor is to the soldering point and because it heats the metal in the tip directly (heat doesn't have to cross an air gap and be absorbed by the thermal mass of the tip). They're not as good as a Metcal but they are still on a whole different level than resistance heated irons, and the temp is adjustable. They are also available in some very high watts, Xytronic (out of Taiwan) for example has a 180W unit (LF3300)
Where they really shine is the high wattage units on massive ground planes, large power connectors on 6 or 8 AWG wire and other things that sink a lot of heat and benefit from the high watt output with good temp control. The curie point irons are umatched for precision temperature but the high frequency induction irons still have very good temp control (at least the good ones do there's also plenty of crap out there) The best are the Xytronic units those are the originals that everyone else copied. (though Quick makes some tips that Xytronic doesn't have for their own irons like a 5mm chisel tip that fits the HF90 handset, Xytronic wants you to buy the HF150 handset for the bigger tips)
China does a great job copying designs, and often improves on the original. I used to have (1985) a weller with the twist knob and 3 digit LED display, plus a switch for setpoint reading, or feedback reading of the thermocouple they put down inside the tips. There are some metcal long, slender tips that sort of defeat the purpose because the heat must travel from the heater down the LONG tip (thermal resistance) - I designed an 8TB ram board design in 1995 for a 250 processor supercomputer. The ram board weighed 75 lbs loaded with memory chips, and also had a custom Vicor dc/dc converter that powered it. Since the power plane(s) used well over 100 amps, I did not put thermal vias on the big 3/16" diameter pins - and since I was the liaison between lab and manufacturing in Ft. Collins CO, I gave myself permission to violate that design rule. The mfg. engineer from CO came to my desk in Cupertino CA yelling about they'd have to solder pot remove that part if it needed rework, there'd be scrap losses, etc... I bought the Metcal vacuum venturi desoldering gun - and sitting at my desk heated and vacuumed out all the solder from around the pins in less than 45 seconds causing the big heavy part to fall off the board with no assistance. I told the mfg. engineer "if a design engineer can desolder this in 45 seconds, I expect your staff can do it in 30" -- I also bought him a metcal desolder tool, which was customary for the R&D lab to buy any special tooling for a design. Everyone walked away happy, and the board didn't have a thermal fuse, i mean, via on the power / ground planes.
Metcal stations are good for assembly line work and repititive tasks mainly that's were they shine the most because of their accuracy, but for someone that does a lot of different projects and needs to do mainy different solder points on the same board a JBC/Hakko is eazier to work with. In my opignion, Different tools for different tasks
I've used many irons in the past 4 decades, and the one feature Metcal has that I've come to appreciate the most is the ability to dump energy into a joint faster than anything else I've used, regardless of the tip size. I was soldering a PL-259 (big RF connector) onto some RG-8 coax cable using a surface mount Metcal tip, which I didn't think would work -- but much to my surprise, it did, and faster than a resistance iron! On other irons, I've had to wait for the tip to heat up again after soldering a large part such as a copper heatsink. The one iron I do use that's not a Metcal is a hot air 'pencil' because sometimes ya just gotta recreate a manufacturing process that uses hot air. The other huge plus factor is how lightweight the iron itself is, along with the coax silicone rubber cable that feeds it. It feels like a toy in the hand at first, but once switched on you can see it's serious business. I do wish Metcal had come up with a better nomenclature for naming their tips.
I agree the JBC system has soldering just plain easy now; also the JBC clones comming out of china at a third of the price of a JBC are pretty good for the money & can do the penny test just as quick with my £80 Yihua C245 solder station .....................
We have the mx 5200's at my work, I don't care how much they are I WILL BE BUYING ONE ASAP these irons are AMAZING!
They are amazing, but that aren't the only ones that are. JBC, PACE, ERSA, HAKKO and others all have performance comparable to the Metcals in several models. Given that you don't have to go Metcal to get excellent performance, maybe you should consider others? Also, instead of looking just at station cost or cost of station plus a handpiece, I'd suggest considering the total cost of all the features you need. Do you need tweezers? Hot air? Microsoldering? When you look at what it takes to assemble those capabilities, you might find that one particular brand can cost a bit more or a bit less than others. Depending on your needs, an Ersa or JBC might be a better value. Or maybe a JBC setup is most cost-effective. For my use, Hakko was best, but I don't do SMD or rework, so I can't say a Hakko solution is best for your desires and application.
I can say unequivocally that almost every brand has a model now that can equal the performance of a Metcal. They were start of the art in the 1980s. They are old tech now and not only has everyone caught up, in some cases they have surpassed.
That’s truly impressive!
Almost went Metcal, until seeing the $600.00 + price tag plus tips.
Replaced my dead Weller with an Edsyn, which has been very good.
Still dreaming about the Metcal too.
One word: Ebay. I have bought 6 power units and the most that's been "broken" was an older model that had an incandescent light behind the metcal logo that burnt out prompting the user to label it 'bad' even though it still worked without the light. Another one had a "broken" on/off switch because you must cycle the power every time you change tips or else it won't reheat the next tip after shutting down when the in-use tip gets removed. I've never had any component of the RF power unit go bad, which is the only critical part. I did have a power unit that was 100% functional (labeled "BAD") because the handpiece and cable had a momentary fault in the coax tube/cable. Any ham radio operator can fix the 13.56 MHz CW linear amp but it's never happened in my fleet of metcals, some of which I've traded to friends for other gizmos and they are pleased as can be years later with no problems either. The units have a power line buzz due to the switch being after the transformer and that buzz is always on regardless of the switch position. Right now, with the new models being introduced, people are selling their old ones as they upgrade so they are on the used market. My rule of thumb is buy the beat up looking power unit because that means it WORKED and didn't have an out of the box failure. Note, however, I don't recommend buying heater cartridges from ebay / used as that's the part that does have a nonzero failure rate - I get mine from amazon in the temp and size for the job. The 700F 'hoof' and 'mini-hoof' tips will cover 90% of your soldering needs - add in the 800F hoof tips for lead free formulas and there's very little you can't do. I advise against the super fine 1/128" pointy spike tips that techs buy thinking they need the smallest things made because its surface mount. I also like the conical 45 deg. nose point tip because there is very little metal between the heater and the work, meaning i can install PL259 connectors on RG-8 coax faster than if it were a propane torch. Be sure to get the kestler alcohol based no-clean flux for ease of use. What you give up in a brand new unit is the idle-down temp when placed in the workpiece holder and the new green-light means good-joint indicator that Metcal came out with since the old ones on ebay were made which still get the job done. And for desoldering, there is nothing that beats the venturi RF heater design from metcal that makes pesky solder disappear and clean pins fall out of the plated through hole like magic.
Your post is bad for my wallet😁
Searching now!
Im new yo the trade, I'm buying a second hand metcal unit on ebay for everyday use and im buying the jbc nano tweezers for micro soldering and repairs on expensive products.
Thermaltronics is great as well
Yes! FINALLY a clone of Metcal (patent ran out) that's 100% compatible, so much so you can use a thermaltronics tip in a metcal iron. A friend just got their solder sucker and used it with his metcal power supply perfectly - $120 cheaper but 100% of the performance, and again tips are interchangeable even in the fat desoldering tips. Even the paper "boats" that catch the molten solder are 100% identical to metcal. I just don't understand why people plunk down good money on a USB 5 watt soldering iron when they could have a 13.56 MHz 40 Watt high performance iron.
are you selling some tips ?
Nope - I buy them and hold them. I've got quite a few - but not the new temperatures for the lead free solder.
@@swsuwave
:( this is sad.
Yea, but they never go bad!
@@swsuwave
lol
i got my self an 26 years old metcal station with some nice tips and soldering handler.
Actually im searching more stuff to accomplish my needs :)
@@gregandark8571 I just laugh at all these paid reviews for USB powered OLED soldering irons that the paid reviewer keeps bragging about waiting for it to warm up forever! I see them pop up on ebay then go away now and then - funny thing is a 26 yr. old metcal works the same as a new one - I have several power units and all measure the same on my metcal wattmeter - some have the 2-port switch built in. That one in the video has a buzz in the transformer 24x7 if its plugged in even when powered off up top on the switch. I have one of the really old ones with the incandescent light prior to LEDs - people would sell them when they didn't light up any more thinking they were bad - just replace the bulb behind the metcal logo plastic and they work fine. The only new feature I would sort of like is the idle handpiece temp rollback. I've fixed power units with the only problem being the switch wore out from being turned off & on 400 times a day every time a tip got changed or they didn't want to oxidize the hot tip.
Very impressive, but my Hakko FX-951 gets as close to this as I'll ever need and cost only $250. It won't initially heat up as fast, but that's partially because the tips have higher thermal mass. I'm confident that if I set my 951 to the scorching hot 413°C of their standard tip, the Hakko would have equivalent thermal recovery. If you are interested, I'll try to post a video of the FX-951 attempting this feat using a similar tip and temperature setting. UPDATE: Video of similar penny soldering by Hakko FX-951 is here: th-cam.com/video/ttaXISddvC8/w-d-xo.html
Metcal will recover faster because it heats up quicker. Curie point technology allows instant recovery with less thermal mass and no overshoot. An advantage in a production environment with sensitive electronics.
@@acoustic61 the Metcal can recover heat when not under load very quickly, like when warming up. But in terms of actual heat flow, there’s basically no performance improvement. How do I know this? I bought a used FX-100 that uses the same 13.56mhz RF technology. It’s 50w vs the 70w of my fx 951. This Hakko RF station even takes thermaltronics tips. So it’s a good representation of what a Metcal could do. With some tips, it has a small advantage over the 951. With other tips, the 951 wins. I have to get a tip for the fx100 that’s directly comparable to the fx951 for true apples/apples. Suffice it to say, the fx100 is very nice but does not show a significant thermal advantage to the 951.
@@G5Hohn IMO Metcal is hard to beat for production. Simple to use and works well. Part of what you pay for with Metcal is warranty. And for my use, I've found NOS MX500P-11 units at good prices. Those units are workhorses. Good prices can be found on various refurbed units too. I also have Pace, older Hakko and Weller. I'm thinking I'd like to use one family of products for everything.
@@acoustic61 I agree. I have two Hakko stations and an fix-601 iron. I have access to a 300w fax-801. I’ve yet to encounter anything I couldn’t solder to my satisfaction.
Yes - in a production environment, time is money, so any tool that speeds up production is an asset. @@acoustic61
Потом JBC перенесла большую часть опыта metcal на нихромовые картриджи с термопарой.
Проблема с термопарами в том, что их необходимо калибровать. Metcal использует металлический сплав в качестве постоянной калибровки NIST. Поскольку на заводе используются сотни паяльных станций, отсутствие необходимости калибровать каждую каждые один-два года - это огромная экономия рабочей силы.
20 seconds is dam quick.. Mad impressive. I just did this with my el cheapo 50 dollar ksger, and was wet on the penny at 27 seconds.. I failed the first attempt though, I only had it set to 300 degrees C.. took it to 400 degrees C and I ALMOST caught up (mine was sitting on a cast iron trivet.. I have to assume it's a factor here lol. That is one sexy station man...
th-cam.com/video/gqZ_mV1cGZo/w-d-xo.html
not bad for an iron that cost what.. 1/6 of the metcal. It's not RF, it's using a direct drive heater though, cartridge type very very similar to the jbc or the hakko t12.
As to the no need to recover temps..if you watch the video.. you see me put the tip on the penny several seconds, then it beeps. Temp was ~ 300 C when I put it on the penny, and 400 C when it beeped.. its capable of pouring enough heat to maintain temps on most of the largest ground planes you'll encounter. It was able to raise temps 100 C in about 3 seconds while in contact with what is a larger heat sink than most will ever encounter (yeah, I did cheat, I used a K tip with a larger surface area to transfer heat.. but I have actually soldered .1mm pitch headers with that same tip.. ).
It's all a trade off though.. you have more accessories available, and I really want some of them lol... I have the ability to change temps on the fly with a twist of my wrist. We both have rapid tip changes.. I watched yours.. and our tips exchange identically. You have one hell of a soldering station, one that will continue to be useable for decades to come.. I dont know the long term reliability of my chinesesium station.. but a difference in 5 seconds on a massive plane, and a few seconds at startup isn't much really when you consider the $$$ differences. That said, one tip in mine can operate anywhere form 250 (down to actually 50C, thats not really useful is it) all the way up to 400C without ever swapping tips... I can work on pins, twist my knob to the right and jump 100 degrees for a big ground plane connected center pad, then back to normal temps without ever swapping tips. I wish I could afford the metcal, but dont sleep on the chinese stuff out there.. It's not nearly as deficient as folks would think.
In 1995, I was the liaison between the LAB engineers, myself included, and the manufacturing line - both parties trusted my judgement, even though I was half everyones age. I was the only one who hadn't pissed off mfg. I had a big Vicor dc/dc converter with like .200" pins if you can call a .200 a pin, in pth vias with zero thermal relief in the power planes because of the high current I was running. Manufacturing failed my design (I was my own liaison) and said they'd NEVER be able to unsolder that part. I had them fly out to cupertino where I worked, sit down at my desk, and watch me desolder the Vicor part in about 50 seconds, with the metcal vacuum tool. My colleague in mfg said, OK - but you gotta buy us that vacuum tool you used and the tips. Done deal. No stinkin inductive thermal vias, pin to power planes, lots of them, vicor firmly mounted in place, mfg happy. Doesn't get better than that - thanks to metcal!
Metcal have hands down very good soldering stations for power/temperature demanding scenarios, downside is pretty pricey tips and stations. But, there is some other solution too for power hungry joints - soldering gun. It costs fraction of price of Metcal, soldering tips made out of copper wire costs almost nothing (if you do them for yourself) and they have exact same speed results as Metcal (if not better). Watch 😉- th-cam.com/video/lnFY2xZlF3A/w-d-xo.html (I made a test with the copper coin - same scenario as in this vid, but with 75W/$25 soldering gun instead of soldering iron).
The JBC´s CD-**** can do the same in 8-9 seconds, and its easier to switch tips
Metcal is the industry standard, I never saw a JBC in the electronics companies, nobody uses them.
Metcal and Pace are the winners.
@@treadmillrepair754 I worked in a shop that did bespoke circuitry and electronic controllers. Not a single metcal or pacce in the room, but 4 or 5 jbc rework stations in there...
@@AlanDike Did he seriously believed that lie that nobody uses them? unbelievable.
are you silly or what. I use Metcal Hot Air and solder/Desolder equipment. I use Hakko as well. Your killing your own test, your iron should be on the penny then you through switch and quickly touch solder to penny close to iron. I can wet the penny is half your time with my MX-5051, quickest time from room temp 0:009.54 just by not talking and waving the iron around for 8-10 seconds after power is on. My hakko 951 is beating your Metcal time by 5-6 Sec. Mostly do to the wasted time. Just some friendly criticism.
Heat up time isn’t always important more important is temp regulation which is what I believe he is trying to show
Metcal are so overpriced it’s not funny, and for the beginners into electronics it’s not feasible, but I’ve tried them and found the company I worked for wasted their money on these.. they are sh*^…
Soldering irons are like pianos - lots of people can play, but few are concert pianists. For everyday soldering, anything that gets hot will work, but for high throughput production work with complex parts, you don't want an iron that is cycling its heater on/off while trying to solder. Assembly line managers also appreciate they don't need to check a metcal for accurate temps as per iso 9001.
You just can’t control temperature it’s one size fits all.
Temperature is controlled by the metallurgy - you can select in increments of 100F which admittedly seems broad, but I only use 3 temps, low (Bismuth solders) Med (lead/tin) and high (lead free & silver). In manufacturing, repeatability is more important. Before metcal, I used a weller with a knob/display setting and found the only time I set it "up high" was to solder big metal items, which the metcal does at any temp due to the short thermal path.