Radio Shack does product design?...

B

bitrex

Guest
I have a couple of these 60W soldering stations I got for $40
each when my local Radio Shack brick and mortar went out of
business a few years back.

<https://www.radioshack.com/products/60w-digital-soldering-station>

I had assumed they were re-badged Atten stations like the previous
model, the 64-053, or the similar unit from Harbor Freight. The display
is the same as the Atten AT938D.

<https://www.eevblog.com/forum/reviews/radio-shack-digital-soldering-station-64-053-atten-at209d-harbor-freight-96531/>

It uses two-wire sensing. But when I went to change out a heater,
nope, it\'s not that.

Then I thought maybe it\'s a Hakko-knockoff station as it seems to be
using true 4-wire sensing unlike the Attens. Nope, not that either,
heater resistance is wrong it uses the low-resistance A1322 heater.

Maybe Weller knock-off it looks superficially like the WE1010. Nope, not
that either.

So I did what I should have done first and look thru the paperwork and
it says \"Custom Manufactured for Radio Shack in Taiwan.\" Open it up and
it\'s true, this isn\'t a cheap Shenzen job with LM324s and a PIC it\'s got
a bunch of relatively swish parts like TI OPO7C precision op amps and an
ATMega88. It\'s using the Atten display but they\'ve bolted what looks to
be an entirely novel controller board onto it and pretty well-engineered
one at that as compared to mainland-China ones at around this price.

Well, whaddya know.
 
On 9/1/2020 4:07 AM, bitrex wrote:
I have a couple of these 60W soldering stations I got for $40
each when my local Radio Shack brick and mortar went out of
business a few years back.

https://www.radioshack.com/products/60w-digital-soldering-station

I had assumed they were re-badged Atten stations like the previous
model, the 64-053, or the similar unit from Harbor Freight. The display
is the same as the Atten AT938D.

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/reviews/radio-shack-digital-soldering-station-64-053-atten-at209d-harbor-freight-96531/


It uses two-wire sensing. But when I went to change out a heater,
nope, it\'s not that.

Then I thought maybe it\'s a Hakko-knockoff station as it seems to be
using true 4-wire sensing unlike the Attens. Nope, not that either,
heater resistance is wrong it uses the low-resistance A1322 heater.
Click to expand...

Rather, it doesn\'t put the heater in series with the thermistor to make
a 2-wire interface, which is a crappy cost-cutting move.
 
On Tuesday, 1 September 2020 09:07:10 UTC+1, bitrex wrote:
I have a couple of these 60W soldering stations I got for $40
each when my local Radio Shack brick and mortar went out of
business a few years back.

https://www.radioshack.com/products/60w-digital-soldering-station

I had assumed they were re-badged Atten stations like the previous
model, the 64-053, or the similar unit from Harbor Freight. The display
is the same as the Atten AT938D.

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/reviews/radio-shack-digital-soldering-station-64-053-atten-at209d-harbor-freight-96531/

It uses two-wire sensing. But when I went to change out a heater,
nope, it\'s not that.

Then I thought maybe it\'s a Hakko-knockoff station as it seems to be
using true 4-wire sensing unlike the Attens. Nope, not that either,
heater resistance is wrong it uses the low-resistance A1322 heater.

Maybe Weller knock-off it looks superficially like the WE1010. Nope, not
that either.

So I did what I should have done first and look thru the paperwork and
it says \"Custom Manufactured for Radio Shack in Taiwan.\" Open it up and
it\'s true, this isn\'t a cheap Shenzen job with LM324s and a PIC it\'s got
a bunch of relatively swish parts like TI OPO7C precision op amps and an
ATMega88. It\'s using the Atten display but they\'ve bolted what looks to
be an entirely novel controller board onto it and pretty well-engineered
one at that as compared to mainland-China ones at around this price.

Well, whaddya know.
Click to expand...

I picked up an aldi soldering station on impulse reduced to $9 on clear out a year or so ago. How bad can it be I thought, it claimed to do 200-400C in 10C steps. Well, it\'s hopeless, my wooden Solons are more useful. Set to 400 it struggles to get hot enough, and the nonstandard fitting tips oxidise excessively fast.

Wish I\'d picked up more of the 2.99 multimeters. Those go for 20 or so elsewhere. Piles of cheap things have their uses.


NT
 
On 9/1/2020 6:35 PM, Tabby wrote:
On Tuesday, 1 September 2020 09:07:10 UTC+1, bitrex wrote:
I have a couple of these 60W soldering stations I got for $40
each when my local Radio Shack brick and mortar went out of
business a few years back.

https://www.radioshack.com/products/60w-digital-soldering-station

I had assumed they were re-badged Atten stations like the previous
model, the 64-053, or the similar unit from Harbor Freight. The display
is the same as the Atten AT938D.

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/reviews/radio-shack-digital-soldering-station-64-053-atten-at209d-harbor-freight-96531/

It uses two-wire sensing. But when I went to change out a heater,
nope, it\'s not that.

Then I thought maybe it\'s a Hakko-knockoff station as it seems to be
using true 4-wire sensing unlike the Attens. Nope, not that either,
heater resistance is wrong it uses the low-resistance A1322 heater.

Maybe Weller knock-off it looks superficially like the WE1010. Nope, not
that either.

So I did what I should have done first and look thru the paperwork and
it says \"Custom Manufactured for Radio Shack in Taiwan.\" Open it up and
it\'s true, this isn\'t a cheap Shenzen job with LM324s and a PIC it\'s got
a bunch of relatively swish parts like TI OPO7C precision op amps and an
ATMega88. It\'s using the Atten display but they\'ve bolted what looks to
be an entirely novel controller board onto it and pretty well-engineered
one at that as compared to mainland-China ones at around this price.

Well, whaddya know.

I picked up an aldi soldering station on impulse reduced to $9 on clear out a year or so ago. How bad can it be I thought, it claimed to do 200-400C in 10C steps. Well, it\'s hopeless, my wooden Solons are more useful. Set to 400 it struggles to get hot enough, and the nonstandard fitting tips oxidise excessively fast.

Wish I\'d picked up more of the 2.99 multimeters. Those go for 20 or so elsewhere. Piles of cheap things have their uses.


NT
Click to expand...

Well the angle I was taking was that in this case I am pleasantly
surprised! I thought it was going to be a cheap China knock-off. And it
is Chinese made but the other China, not China, China.

At $40 it was a good buy, because it\'s not a poorly-made soldering
station at all and does the business very well, been using one as my
main iron for about a year now. $99 seems a fair price for it. Not the
absurd Rat Shack markup of a knock-off I was expecting at this point in
the company\'s history... :cool:
 
On 9/1/2020 6:43 PM, bitrex wrote:
On 9/1/2020 6:35 PM, Tabby wrote:
On Tuesday, 1 September 2020 09:07:10 UTC+1, bitrex  wrote:
I have a couple of these 60W soldering stations I got for $40
each when my local Radio Shack brick and mortar went out of
business a few years back.

https://www.radioshack.com/products/60w-digital-soldering-station

I had assumed they were re-badged Atten stations like the previous
model, the 64-053, or the similar unit from Harbor Freight. The display
is the same as the Atten AT938D.

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/reviews/radio-shack-digital-soldering-station-64-053-atten-at209d-harbor-freight-96531/


It uses two-wire sensing. But when I went to change out a heater,
nope, it\'s not that.

Then I thought maybe it\'s a Hakko-knockoff station as it seems to be
using true 4-wire sensing unlike the Attens. Nope, not that either,
heater resistance is wrong it uses the low-resistance A1322 heater.

Maybe Weller knock-off it looks superficially like the WE1010. Nope, not
that either.

So I did what I should have done first and look thru the paperwork and
it says \"Custom Manufactured for Radio Shack in Taiwan.\" Open it up and
it\'s true, this isn\'t a cheap Shenzen job with LM324s and a PIC it\'s got
a bunch of relatively swish parts like TI OPO7C precision op amps and an
ATMega88. It\'s using the Atten display but they\'ve bolted what looks to
be an entirely novel controller board onto it and pretty well-engineered
one at that as compared to mainland-China ones at around this price.

Well, whaddya know.

I picked up an aldi soldering station on impulse reduced to $9 on
clear out a year or so ago. How bad can it be I thought, it claimed to
do 200-400C in 10C steps. Well, it\'s hopeless, my wooden Solons are
more useful. Set to 400 it struggles to get hot enough, and the
nonstandard fitting tips oxidise excessively fast.

Wish I\'d picked up more of the 2.99 multimeters. Those go for 20 or so
elsewhere. Piles of cheap things have their uses.


NT


Well the angle I was taking was that in this case I am pleasantly
surprised! I thought it was going to be a cheap China knock-off. And it
is Chinese made but the other China, not China, China.

At $40 it was a good buy, because it\'s not a poorly-made soldering
station at all and does the business very well, been using one as my
main iron for about a year now. $99 seems a fair price for it. Not the
absurd Rat Shack markup of a knock-off I was expecting at this point in
the company\'s history... :cool:
Click to expand...

And the heating elements are readily available, just have to make sure
to get the one with the low resistance thermocouple and not the 55 ohm one.
 
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