====== Review of Digital Soldering Station BAKON 950D ======

This soldering station is quite interesting, especialy for that price. \\ I got it for about 35€ plus 13€ for 5 extra tips. 
  - [[http://www.ebay.at/itm/Portable-Electronic-SMD-Soldering-Station-BAKON-950D-Solder-Iron-T12-Tip-75W-/171863535111?var=&hash=item2803dd6e07|Soldering Station, from eBay-user: vst-store]]
  - [[http://www.ebay.at/itm/Kit-5-Panne-De-Rechange-Solder-Tip-Fer-A-Souder-T12-BC2-T12-I-T12-B-T12-K-T12-24-/321838104023?|Soldering Tips, from eBay-user: zqualj]]

The tips have the ceramic heating element included. 
The temperature is measured via the resistance of the PTC heating element. 
In cold state it has about 8Ω, @ 330°C (measured) it has about 16Ω. 

This design has 2 major disadvantages: 
  - Every tip has its own heating element, with it's own characteristic. Therfore there is allways a different temperature error. I have measured 6 different tips with a thermocouple temperature sensor at a constant setting of 400°C. The results were between 335C° and 365°C. \\ As a workaround one can use a lookup table for each tip, which is a bit unpractical. \\ Edit: there is an adjustment potentiometer at the controller. Therefore the Error can be reduced to about ±15°C. 
  - Since the temperature is measured in the heating wire, that wire is held at a constant temperature. Due to the thermal resistance from the wiire to the tip a big temperature drop is the result on heavy thermal loads. Numerically spoken: The thermal power is reduced by 60%, compared to the ERSA Multi-TC, which has also a nominal power of 75W and a dedicated temperature sensor behind the tip.