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Japanese 'Engineered' Solder Sucker

Dave over at YT eevblog did a review of the ZD985 desoldering station (and there are some other YT vids on it).

If I did a lot of rework, I might consider getting one.

funny this thread comes to the surface. I just got one of those units last week: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07542D82F/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

well not EXACTLY the same unit, its 95% the same. It actually works very well. I actually just removed 2x 387-pin pentium pro sockets from a funky motherboard and got it working again with new sockets.

zero lifted pads.
 
I've got an Aven 17536 that I got from Digi-Key, which doesn't work TOO bad after 1 or two tries if I can get the solder hot enough without lifting the pads. What do you guys use to lubricate them with?

Solder wick has it's uses, but isn't the be-all-end-all either.

I'm thinking of getting an actual desoldering pump iron, but don't want to spend the $350 if I can avoid it. Anybody got experience with one of these: https://www.amazon.ca/YaeCCC-Electr...&qid=1552062980&s=gateway&sr=8-99-spons&psc=1 It doesn't look too bad from what I've seen, but probably needs to be rewired with a ground lug.

I bought an S-993A made by Gaojie a few weeks ago and have tried it out on a few ICs on a PCB with plated through holes. It does the business okay with no damage to the IC or board but it looks like the consumables aren't easy to get, so I'll probably only use it on bulk tasks removing the hundreds of ICs that I need for my project and use my old spring-loaded hand sucker for the occasional job. It's not so much about efficiency as thumb fatigue when I'm doing bulk work. I have a thousand old boards with some five thousand ICs that I may need to remove, so that's a lot of sucking work.

By the way, mine was the 220 volt version, which had a Chinese three pin plug on it that I've replaced with a UK one, so some do have a ground wire.
 
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I'm thinking of getting an actual desoldering pump iron, but don't want to spend the $350 if I can avoid it. Anybody got experience with one of these: https://www.amazon.ca/YaeCCC-Electr...&qid=1552062980&s=gateway&sr=8-99-spons&psc=1 It doesn't look too bad from what I've seen, but probably needs to be rewired with a ground lug.

By the way, looking closely at the picture on that Amazon page, the S-993A depicted does have the Gaojie label on it the same as mine, so I don't know who YaeCCC are. Maybe they do the 110 volt equivalent as Chinese power is 220 volts. Mine arrived in its original Gaojie box and has the holographic Gaojie authenticity mark on it, so is most likely the genuine article from them. It didn't help that the equally authentic instruction manual was in what I assume was Chinese though ... There is an English version available online fortunately.

The S-993A is handy to use in my limited workspace as it doesn't have a separate workbench vacuum unit, just the stand, being self-contained.
 
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By the way, looking closely at the picture on that Amazon page, the S-993A depicted does have the Gaojie label on it the same as mine, so I don't know who YaeCCC are. Maybe they do the 110 volt equivalent as Chinese power is 220 volts. Mine arrived in its original Gaojie box and has the holographic Gaojie authenticity mark on it, so is most likely the genuine article from them. It didn't help that the equally authentic instruction manual was in what I assume was Chinese though ... There is an English version available online fortunately.

The S-993A is handy to use in my limited workspace as it doesn't have a separate workbench vacuum unit, just the stand, being self-contained.

Well, I've got one on the way. Looks to have a pretty good stand too, better than the one I got for my iron!
Of course, being Chinese, the rule of thumb is what they say on the EEVBlog: "Don't turn it on, TAKE IT APART!"
 
Well, I've got one on the way. Looks to have a pretty good stand too, better than the one I got for my iron!
Of course, being Chinese, the rule of thumb is what they say on the EEVBlog: "Don't turn it on, TAKE IT APART!"

Well, why should I worry? Mine is officially rated for 220 volts operation, but the UK supply is 230 volts +10% -6%, and often 240 volts in practice, so the device is likely to usually be used at 10% over voltage. It'll hardly be the manufacturer's fault if it bursts into flames in my hand but at my age worse things can happen, like getting a stroke from trying too hard to design my computer circuits. At least my left thumb will stay healthy, which it wouldn't if I kept using a manual sucker for long periods. Nietzsche called this attitude to life amor fati I believe but it can take a good seven decades to develop it.

The whole thing is solidly made, so hopefully reliable unless abused by a mad Brit.
 
I worry about everything made in China.

The most worry I've had about this was descending in a glass elevator in the Oriental Pearl Tower, being able to see the structural components of the building.
 
Well, why should I worry? Mine is officially rated for 220 volts operation, but the UK supply is 230 volts +10% -6%, and often 240 volts in practice, so the device is likely to usually be used at 10% over voltage. It'll hardly be the manufacturer's fault if it bursts into flames in my hand but at my age worse things can happen, like getting a stroke from trying too hard to design my computer circuits. At least my left thumb will stay healthy, which it wouldn't if I kept using a manual sucker for long periods. Nietzsche called this attitude to life amor fati I believe but it can take a good seven decades to develop it.

The whole thing is solidly made, so hopefully reliable unless abused by a mad Brit.

A 10% variance isn't anything to worry about in this case, I'm more worried about the factory worker not terminating his ends properly, especially if he got too zealous with the wire stripper.

I looked at a video review where the guy disassembled it. It was the 220v version, and had a ground lug going straight to the iron (as you should), but I noted that there wasn't any snot around where the wires were soldered to the controller board. Given that these things vibrate, that's where the first point of failure would be, so that's the first thing to fix. If the 110v version I've got coming doesn't have a grounded plug, I know that at least the iron itself should have a screw hole ready made for that purpose.

I'll post pictures once mine arrives.
 
Well, why should I worry? Mine is officially rated for 220 volts operation, but the UK supply is 230 volts +10% -6%, and often 240 volts in practice, so the device is likely to usually be used at 10% over voltage. It'll hardly be the manufacturer's fault if it bursts into flames in my hand but at my age worse things can happen, like getting a stroke from trying too hard to design my computer circuits. At least my left thumb will stay healthy, which it wouldn't if I kept using a manual sucker for long periods. Nietzsche called this attitude to life amor fati I believe but it can take a good seven decades to develop it.

The whole thing is solidly made, so hopefully reliable unless abused by a mad Brit.

I blame the manufactures, They should know by now that the voltage at the wall sockets in the UK can vary quite a bit, It's been going on for years, I had another power adapter failure yesterday with my Integral 3.5" USB hard disk enclosure, I thought the hard drive had died as it was just clicking, My DMM was reading a good 12v and 5v at the connector with drive connected, Luckily the drive is fine, It was the Chinese power adapter, I cracked it open and the main 400v tank cap is swollen and another on the output side, I'll re-cap it, Annoying as it's had little use.
 
I blame the manufactures, They should know by now that the voltage at the wall sockets in the UK can vary quite a bit, It's been going on for years, I had another power adapter failure yesterday with my Integral 3.5" USB hard disk enclosure, I thought the hard drive had died as it was just clicking, My DMM was reading a good 12v and 5v at the connector with drive connected, Luckily the drive is fine, It was the Chinese power adapter, I cracked it open and the main 400v tank cap is swollen and another on the output side, I'll re-cap it, Annoying as it's had little use.

Sounds like they used the cheap capacitors. I've still got a bunch of 2200uf, 1600uf, 1000uf and so on from when I was recapping the motherboards from my old school's labs. Made more sense to just order them in bulk, it's always the same caps that go.
 
All caps are KSD, I'll replace them all with panasonic or nichicon and see how long it last's, It doesn't look like a bad psu otherwise.
 
Reading these replies, I feel much better about having bought a cheap, used Hakko 472D base and going through and servicing it -- at least I was replacing wear items, not correcting design problems :p Sounds like it cost me about the same, too.
 
Reading these replies, I feel much better about having bought a cheap, used Hakko 472D base and going through and servicing it -- at least I was replacing wear items, not correcting design problems :p Sounds like it cost me about the same, too.

Why was somebody getting rid of a Hakko? I thought everybody swore by those?
 
So my Gaojie S-993A arrived. I promised pictures. This isn't a proper "review," but might help inform anybody looking to pick up a desoldering iron on a budget.
IMG_20190320_184856096.jpg

It does come properly grounded (I tested continuity), so that's not an issue.
IMG_20190320_190509554.jpg

The stand it came with is heavy duty. It comes with a small tray and sponge, but also has room inside to stuff in the stainless steel scouring pad that I pilfered from the kitchen (That's what I use to clean the tips. Sponges suck!).
IMG_20190320_185319596.jpg

A quick shot of the inside
IMG_20190320_191415031.jpg

For CDN $150 on Amazon, it's actually not that bad for hobbyist usage. But, of course, there are a few cons to consider. Mainly around the circuit board design.

IMG_20190320_191953509.jpg
I'd have put a physical gap between the hot and neutral pads. Shouldn't be a problem unless you get a power surge while you're using it, but you'd have bigger problems anyways.
IMG_20190320_194100803.jpg

Notice that there's no RTV silicone around the solder connections. This unit has the pump integrated, so vibration loosening the solder joints or breaking the wire at the ends may become an issue over the long run.
IMG_20190320_192005228.jpgIMG_20190320_191633407.jpg
That, if anything, is the one thing that ought to be fixed if you have something on hand to reinforce the solder joints. Some RTV instant gasket ought to work in a pinch if you have some in your toolbox. High-temp hot glue might also work if you don't have anything else on hand, the handle doesn't appear to get that warm.

The unit only comes with one 1.0mm (inner diameter) tip, and I've read reviews saying that it ought to come with a couple other sizes, but 1mm is good enough for most desoldering jobs.

Other than that, I'd say this is a good deal for a hobbyist like myself who doesn't want to pay too much for something that's not going to see heavy usage. It has a few flaws, but they're not what I'd consider deal-breakers.
If anybody wants higher-res pictures, I've linked a folder from my MediaFire
 
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Thanks for the info on the internals of the S-993A. They confirm my own view that it's the real deal soundly made and it's just a question of how long it will last.
 
For those PCBs, you'd probably want something made for the purpose, such as this stuff or this stuff

How much does conformal coating build up around solder connections? I'd go with J-B Weld 31314 just because I happen to already have it in my toolbox. The RTV silicone adhesive used in electronics is a bit more expensive, and this is easy to find at the hardware store.
 
That's not its purpose--the idea is to seal off your board from moisture and vibration. Think of it as a thick varnish. I'm sure you've seen commercial PCBs with conformal coatings.

Personally, if this were my equipment (and it's not, obviously), I'd replace the cheap Chinese wire with something a bit sturdier with more strands.
 
That's not its purpose--the idea is to seal off your board from moisture and vibration. Think of it as a thick varnish. I'm sure you've seen commercial PCBs with conformal coatings.
Personally, if this were my equipment (and it's not, obviously), I'd replace the cheap Chinese wire with something a bit sturdier with more strands.

Thicker wire isn't a bad idea, but you'd still have the stress at the solder pad. I've seen conformal coating used in LED taillights, and they put it on pretty thick. I don't think moisture is much of an issue in this case though.
 
Not so much thicker wire, but better quality wire--i.e. stuff with more strands for the same gauge.

The MITS Altair 8800 used very cheap stranded wire with few strands that would fatigue-break in very short order. For example, AWG 20 hookup wire specified as 10 strand of AWG 30 is pretty decent.
 
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