My USB $5 soldering iron from China gave up its life. It was silly of me to expect it could power through 2h of soldering without taking any breaks. It’s OK, I have ordered spare tips and the soldering iron will get resurrected eventually. Since I have a secret project coming up, and I will spend about 3 times as much welding stuff together I bought a cheap rework station from Amazon. If you Googled the YIHUA 992DA+ already, you know it’s not cheap, and that I will have a story to tell.
Not YIHUA 992DA+ rework station
Because things are time sensitive, I limited my options to Prime items on Amazon. I needed it as quick as possible. KATSU 852D seemed like a perfect candidate with some promising stars in the reviews.
Turning a long story into short one, I switched on the heat gun to test it. The metal end lights up like a lightsaber. I haven’t planned to become a Jedi that night, the result was rather unexpected, to say the least. I guess ‘The Force’ told me to quickly turn this god-dammed thing off before the metal was able to burn through the plastic handle. I had to balance my new ‘lightsaber made in China’ upright for a while to make sure no damage would be done to my hands. As appealing as it may be to become real-life Luke Skywalker, I like my hands, and I’m intending on keeping both of them intact.
Amazon picked the item up the very next morning.
YIHUA 992DA+ rework station
My Prime options were limited now and I could calculate it with a sophisticated mathematical formula (n-1), where n=3. Empowered by the Force, I logged in to my Amazon account once again to commence my angry shopping spree. I’d like to say that the gift-card given to me for birthday took the edge of the price, but let’s face it, I’m not milking it on YouTube anymore (YouTube Demons) and the rework station has been paid by the ‘neverToBeClearedCreditCard’ payment option in my Amazon account. What made things worse, I was not mentally trained to spend that much that night and the YIHUA 992DA+ had not a single review. Not even a fake one! Null.
Meet the YIHUA 992DA+ rework station
Absolutely terrified of the potential outcomes, I took the unboxing to the conservatory. I will lead you to believe, that it was the fear that drove me to that room, not the complete lack of sunshine in the UK. Winter is coming! Technically speaking, this post should surface within the first few days of the actual winter.
Since I’m writing this, you probably assumed already I still have my hands and the kids in the neighbourhood are not following me with screams “I’m your father” just yet.
The whole thing can be watched on YouTube and since nothing got lit on fire, I highly doubt that this clip will ever go viral. I guess I’m footing this bill on my own.
Conclusion
I’m prepared to go the extra mile for you guys and risk my life. I will write a proper review once I get to test the YIHUA 992DA+. So far I used it to add an ESP8266 to an AUKEY charger. It was a really pleasant experience – so go ahead and check that one out. If you want to express the gratitude, or you are ARE MY FATHER – you will find the ways to fund the ailments below. You can read the review of the soldering station here.
