I'm doing some upgrades in my existing workbench. I don't have any good/powerful tools and instruments with me yet so I decided to do some shopping from Banggood.
Here's a quick look at items that I ordered.
1. A 8W USB soldering iron - USD 11.99
2. T12 soldering station - USD 21.66
3. XR2206 signal generator kit - USD 5.49
4. USB power meter - USD 7.56
5. Digital panel meter (3 pcs) - USD 8.26
USB Soldering Iron
The 8W USB soldering iron is quite handy and light weight. It comes with a handle which contains the heating element and the circuit. A fine tip for soldering, some soldering wire, a small stand with sponge and a USB cable.
I have tried the iron it works pretty well. It can work in 3 temperature modes - 330 C-350 C, 370 C- 400 C, and 430 C - 450 C.
The handle has a single switch with embedded LED to power it on/off and change the modes. I bought this for small and portable soldering work where I cannot carry my soldering station.
T12 Soldering station
Though I recently bought a Tenma digital soldering station, I wanted to give the T12 tips a try. After looking up on YouTube for various T12 soldering station, I came across a lot of videos on this inexpensive T12 soldering station. There are various versions - 8051 based, STM32 based and brands available for this station like KSGER, Quicko. I found this inexpensive Quicko T12 soldering station on Banggood and decide to give it a try. I didn't go for the KSGER STM32 based ones as they were out of my budget and I already own a decent soldering station.
The T12 soldering station is a compact sized station, it comes with a handle, a T12-K type tip, 4 rubber pads and a tip fastener. The station does not have an inbuilt power supply and can be powered using an external 12V 3 A supply.
The main unit of the station has an OLED display and a rotary encoder for selecting menu options and setting the temperature. One the back side, it has a ON/OFF switch.
The handle is made up of plastic and has a silicone wire.
XR2206 Signal Generator Kit
XR2206 is an obsolete IC, but still there are various cheap signal generators built around this IC. I always wanted to have a signal generator and this works for most audio frequency experiments. It can go upto 1MHz only and hence is of not much use if you want to do RF projects. Another such popular signal generator IC is ICL8038 by Intersil (Now Renesas). This is a DIY kit. It comes with all the required components, knobs for the pots, a clear casing and the PCB. I'm yet to test it.
USB power meter
This tool is very useful to analyse the power consumption of USB devices. I remember seeing a similar USB meter in some video of either Electronoobs or GreatScott's YouTube channel.
This meter can measure- voltage, current, power, energy consumption, impedance and the time. All of the measured results are displayed on a colourful display. One can also save up to 9 readings in the USB itself.
Digital panel meter
Again, a useful instrument for use in simple projects. This panel meter can measure DC voltages and currents of up to 100V and 10A respectively. I remember seeing it in some YouTube videos and it worked pretty well. Hence, I decided to buy one for my projects. I bought a pack with 3 pieces of the meter. It has a bright and large 7 segment display of current and voltage. It also has a calibration pot on the back side.
I will post separate blogs for each of the products and write a review of how well they work.
