Trakpower TK-950 vs. Sigma 60D vs. Yihua 936...

[Greywolf74]

So I love doing videos for my RC YouTube channel and I love being able to recommend good quality products to folks that cost the least amount of money, so to that end and some urging from a couple people here I bit the bullet today and I ordered the Sigma 60D ($40 USD including shipping) and I went above and beyond and also ordered the Yihua 936 ($33.51USD including shipping) in order to not only make a YouTube review video comparing these two budget models against one another but I'm going to compare both of them against my Trakpower TK-950 as well. All three of these units appear to be (the TK-950 is for sure) clones of the tried and true Hakko 936.

So stay tuned for not only the video but I'll also probably be unloading these for less than retail after I'm done seeing as how I dont need 3 soldering stations. I may do a give away with one of them on my YouTube channel I'm not sure exactly yet but either way if youve been thinking of buying one of these stations you may be able to pick one up barely used in a couple weeks.

 

[Greywolf74]

Ok, so it may be a few weeks...I went to order a soldering iron tip temp gauge a discovered the real Hakko units are like $200...so I just ordered a chinese knock off from ebay. Even if its less accurate I will still at least be able to calibrate them all the same and check the irons thermal rebound with it. just have to wait on delivery from China.

 

[sur3fir3]

some high end multimeters can take the temp for you

 

[Greywolf74]

My Multimeter isnt high end and while it does take temps it doesn't go up high enough. Besides I'm curious to see how well this thing works...if it reads close to what my trakpower is set at then I'll know its reasonably accurate and then I'm good to go with it. If it seems like its way off then thats fine at least I can use it to calibrate all the stations to the same setting. It was only $12.88 so if its even accurate within 10-20F I'll be happy with it.

 

[Greywolf74]

Ok, got my temp gauge finally came in so I'm gonna try to get a video out this weekend vs these three stations.

 

[sur3fir3]

hows the review coming along?

 

[Greywolf74]

I havent started it but I will have it done this week sometime. I'm in the middle of doing like 12 things atm...I'm off for the next 9 days though so I should be able to get my house hold projects done and I have a diff video to finish up and I have some other projects on my hobby bench...I was hoping to get some of that done today but I ended up working on upgrading my routers firmware in order to set up a VPN for my home network and i ended up having to work on my shower in the main bathroom today. Plus half the day just kinda disappeared on top of that and i dont even know where the heck it went lol...So much to do so little time...but soon though my friend as I'm anxious to do this video

 

[roger25186]

I'm anxious to see the vid also. I need a new iron.

 

[Greywolf74]

I should be able to do this this weekend. I just have one other video and one small project to finish up before i can start on this.

 

[Greywolf74]

OK, I'm sorry for taking so long to get this together but finding time to do stuff seems to be an ever increasing challange and its gotten even worse since I got married and since I took on yet another Hobby (helis) lol. Over the next two days I plan to get the rest of the video footage,pics, etc that I need to finish this up and get it edited and up on my youtube channel. I'll upload it to youtube Sat. night and it should be on here Sunday. This is actually one of the more in depth reviews I've done as I'm not only reviewing 3 items but also comparing them in every way I can think of. If anyone has anything specific they would like to know or make sure I test please mention it now before Saturday so i can make sure I include it in the video.

As a side note, I managed to score a Real Hakko FG-100 on ebay brand new for $55 so I will be coming out with another video shortly after this one that compares the real one against the fake one in order to see the differences and also see how accurate it is. I also found out some rather interesting (or so I thought) information out about the "fake" FG-100's but you'll have to watch the video to find out what it is!

 

[Greywolf74]

Its coming guys I promise...Friday and Saturday I didnt get very much time to work on...the wife decided to change my plans I did get all of the video shot over Sunday and Monday, and Monday and a good chunk of time yesterday has gone into editing. I still have some editing left to do. The video ended up being really long so it not only makes editing take for ever since I still havent finished my massive $6k video editing PC build yet (waiting on some parts that are on back order and I've decided to put a new video card in it so I'm researching what to use. At any rate the moral if the story is that my back up PC doesn't do to well video editing 19.7GB of video and audio feeds. It takes forever to make even a single change. That and as I'm sure you guys have figured out ever since i got married it seems like I never have time to do anything anymore lol. Anyway...bear with me! were almost there!

 

[Greywolf74]

Ok guys I need some input...I have finally finsished the video and its uploading to youtube as I type this. This video ended up being really really long. Even after trimming all the extra and even some of the meat outta this video its still like 50 minutes long. I have 3 choices the way I see it and I need to know what you guys think I should do with this.
1) I can post the long video with a link to the last 10 minutes of the video which is just kind of a summery and conclusion bit.
2) I can scrap that video and redo it and just tell the results of the various tests I did without actually showing any of the testing footage or the step by step comparative points. So basically it would be like watching the last 15 minutes of the video i have now where i just give some thoughts and tell my conclusions.
3) I can do the second video and post both videos to youtube and I can link the other version in each vieo incase someone would rather watch a condensed version or the long version depending on what video they come across first.

3 Seems like the best thing to do i guess it just seems like a waste of effort but I'm thinking most viewers wont appreciate a 50 minute long review regardless of how much info in packed in to it. IDK what do you guys think? Or does anyone have any different ideas other than those above?

 

[Greywolf74]

Does anyone besides Roger and Sur3fire have any interest in this? I keep posting here with questions and updates and hardly anyone has even replied with 555 views?

 

[sv250]

I do. I figure you post the results in some sort of table form.. kinda like a side by side comparison that youd see on bestbuy.

then link your vid. Anyone with further interest can watch, fast foward as they see fit..

Thanks for doing the comparison. I'm using a pos radio shack iron. I've always found that better equipment results in better work..

maybe everybody is absorbing the wealth of knowledge on facebook lol

 

[Rolex]

I keep posting here with questions and updates and hardly anyone has even replied with 555 views?

Actually, the total views of 555 is in error. Nobody ever reads your threads.

 

[Alexander_0_1]

I've popped in to not read it everyday since it started.....in all truth I've been having the pre soldering anxieties. I'd hate to send a new ESC away for repairs.

 

[Rolex]

Well, okay. So 3 people have read it.

Not that it matters, but if you want my opinion there aren't many people that will sit for 50 minutes for a review. Not even a movie review since another half hour would have been the entire movie.
I wouldn't watch a review on a new paint if it included the real time drying footage.

 

[Greywolf74]

Actually, the total views of 555 is in error. Nobody ever reads your threads.

ahhhhh that sounds about right!

Not that it matters, but if you want my opinion there aren't many people that will sit for 50 minutes for a review. Not even a movie review since another half hour would have been the entire movie.
I wouldn't watch a review on a new paint if it included the real time drying footage.

you're opinion does matter, so does everyone elses thats why I ask the questions. i know that the 50 minutes version (I had no idea it would end up being 50 minutes when I started) wont be well received thats why I was asking people for alternate ideas. I've decided to make a second short short version (hopefully around 15 minutes) just giving the basics and I'm gonna put a link in the beginning of the video to the longer one for people who are truely interested in every little minute detail and seeing how I performed the tests etc. I think thats probably the best option.

JUST an FYI for the 3 people that follow this thread, I have the long version done and up all though I havent made it public yet. I'm working on an outline for the short version which I have about 2/3rds done and I will finish that, shoot the video, and edit it tomorrow. Hopefully I'll have both videos posted, made public, and a link here once its all live.

 

[Greywolf74]

Ok, so i uplaod this video to my youtube yesterday but didnt have time to get the file all set up and ready to be published and opened for public viewing until today. As I was doing that though I hit a snag. Theres a completely blank section in the video. IDK if the video got corrupted or what but I'll have to go home tonight and bring it back up in my video editor and find out what the problem is. Once I've done that then tomorrow I can re-upload the video and hopefully get it released. Sorry for the delay.