Plenty in our local Lidl, just bought the one, certainly not going to be as good as my solder station with hot air, but looks good as a spare :wink: maxmix (No where near Antex or Weller quality)

tried our local lidl on the day this was posted but no joy :disappointed: Shame, could really do with a higher watt one too.

I wish lidl would sort their horrid website out too

I can't find these either online or in store. What date were they on sale?

Is the wire connecting the iron with the station soft, slilicone-like?

I bought this last time it came around. Was £7.99 then I think. The tip is too large for delicate PCB work unless your components are spread far apart, which isn't likely these days. Ended up having to buy again with something more suitable from Maplin.

Your soldering Iron most likely sucks, everywhere I've worked the make of choice has been Weller. You could be doing something wrong, but if your iron isn't even ding anything then it's not hot enough. I assume you have solder on a reel, which means it's most likely got flux in it, so just put the soldering iron tip on the joint and then add the solder to the tip and if it's not doing anything to the joint then it's not hot enough.... that's if it's doing anything to the solder.

You don't need to buy separate flux tbh, really you only need it for chips that have multiple legs close together, it just makes it easy and stops you from shorting them legs out.

But most likely the Iron isn't hot enough, the solder on those boards is rated at a high temp, probably need to crank it up to 400c.

They've been selling these for about 10 years (on and off)
i bought one around 10 years ago and i clearly remember it blowing up after about 1.5 years, but ill be honest it was kept in the shed when not in use.
It has put me off getting another one mind.

Thanks for the help
I checked a video on youtube on how to replace and repair the card reader i watched the person do it and he was using a standard solder "/
He simply touched the points that were soldered and it then came loose pulling it off then soldering the connections with the new part
Looked simple to me haha

worth it for the 3 year guarantee.. although if you only need to use iot once a year then pick something up from ebay for about half that price.. heat added for guarantee and immediate collection (as opposed to waiting for a month delivery from ebay china)

If you mean flux paste then yeah?? Like i said im complete noob

Right im a complete noob here but i broke a 2ds and needed to unsolder some connections, i got a 30w solder that didnt even un-solder the connections
Im guessing i need a 50-60w to do this??? Thanks

Note that these will not be temperature regulated, meaning that they can't react to the varying demands made on them during the soldering process and the temperature will thus vary a great deal.

Youtube electronics videos offer the full range of experiences - Uncle AVE is just the BEST source of manly man-skills and Big Clive is the Bob Ross of electronics but Louis Rossman offers both advanced Apple repairs and a disintegrating personality disorder which is hard to not watch and be horrified at...

Assuming you're not trying to unsolder spot-welds ( :smiley: ) a hotter iron MIGHT help but it MIGHT also melt/destroy the components you're trying to remove, care will be required.

Biggest issue with unsoldering SM (surface-mounted - likely in the 2DS?) components is getting multiple connections off at the same time (otherwise each re-solders as you unsolder the other) - and for that, a hot-air-rework station is required (and they're not cheap!)

I can not see it on there website?

Thanks dude. That's a tonne of information thrown at you in an hour - love it!!

just picked one up thanks! hopefully this will give me a kick up the ass to do something with my arduino

Clive didn't like the methylated spirits...

Although may be a YouTube thing to like a drink. Clive likes his whiskey and beer... Ashens likes his Gin.....

Hot! When switched on.

This will be perfect to mend my kids train set which I bought from Lidl. One of the wires connecting to the battery came off :confused:

Big clive is brilliant, hes a lunatic, drinking methylated spirits and setting things on fire... great channel.

Have you been watching the AVE channel on youtube then?!!

The tips for this one are screw in as well, thanks for the Tip... see what I did there... :laughing:

With these where would you get extra spare tips from?

Had one of these a couple of years now. Can't complain. Decent enough iron for the price and paid for itself with money saved from things I've repaired. Handy having little drawer with solder in it too.

He seems like a right tool. Get some Big Clive down you, much more fun.

Voted hot! I'm one of those people that is guilty of practicing what some might call a false economy, I don't need one but I'll surely be buying one tomorrow. when you compare the quality of some the items sold at Lidl, to some of the rubbish that is sold by other retailers at twice, sometimes three times the price, you can't help but wonder...How do they do it?

Getting this as it's one of those things that are sure to come in handy , Heat added :smile:

Looks good!

I've had one of these from lidl for a year or two now, I use it a couple of times a month and think it's great.

I am slowly becoming obsessed with this channel....

If you are into soldering then you might find it interesting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVoBZqlvCKo

PS. I have no idea what he is talking about (I bake cakes for a living)!

I've got one. Haven't used it but seems to be decent especially considering the price for some basic needs.

I had a look at this in store and in fairness it looks like a bargain. Heat.

good find op, heat added