Hi it's time for another look at a soldering station. This time we got the brand speaking New Pace 80s 200 a Kia Drive Thank you very much Pace for sending this one in. It is a new low-cost no it's not on direct heat iron and I've done a video explaining the difference between direct heat irons which are much better than your traditional ones. I Recommend it if you can afford it anyway.

it's was released actually some time back earlier in the year, so when they first came out, there's quite a lot of buzz about this. and Cliff Matthews on the eevblog forum got hold of an early unit, but then he started reporting issues with the tips ie. they weren't making contact inside here or something like that I don't know I didn't follow the whole thing. Pace to their credit acknowledged the problem and they didn't I don't think they actually record it, but they stopped shipment of them I think they hadn't shipped too many at that point and they said hey, let us look into it.

They investigated it and fix the issues and they are now reshipping So that took like three months to take care of all that business. So I love it when companies do that like they take responsibility for their products. They directly on the forums and they acknowledge the problems and they fix them. And you know everyone knows that.

You know stuff happens and it's what companies do to fix the problems when they come up that really shows what they're like. Anyway, that's what you'd expect a Pace an American company. They've been around since were like fifty years or something from Day Dot of modern soldiering and they are one of the top-tier brands. If you haven't heard of Pace, maybe if you're in Europe or something, you know you're more familiar with J-b Steel, one of the other European biggies.

But yeah, Pace are one of the big American manufacturers. And yes, USA USA USA So let's take a look at the new ATS 200 A Q Drive base unit A hundred and thirty watts our capability and they match in 130 watt new design Dart TD 200 iron. So it comes in two models. The base unit doesn't have this extra I cable at the back.

This is the setback model it's called, which when you automatically put the iron in here, it senses it and after a small time delay, it reduces the power to increase the longevity of the tips. So the base model unit without that is about two hundred and forty US dollars. Although Street prices currently about two hundred and twenty bucks, so that puts it right on par with the likes of the FX 951 and substantially cheaper than the competing JB Siwon the GBC to be unit which is also an equivalent what unit and 130 watts. And that's much more expensive at like four hundred plus dollars.

So this is actually really quite remarkable to get a top brand name. Our soldering station made in the USA with the instant heat tip technology for like just over two hundred bucks. Absolutely amazing and thanks to Pace they supplied a huge range of Tipsy so I've got no shortage of them. They come in the ultra performance type and also the standard tips as well.

And the other good thing is the price that the tips matches the price of the unit. They start from just over ten bucks, ten eleven dollars for the all of the standard diet tips I think and even but even the high capacity ultra performance tips, they range from like fourteen bucks to seventeen bucks or something like that. So the tips are really cheap. They're like on a third of the price of the JBC ones which is just crazy.

So right off the bat from a price and maintenance point of view than IE Buying new tips and stuff, this is a really cheap unit. but look at this isn't it Sexy as all area like extruded aluminium construction. and listen to this diecast alloy. None of that plastic rubbish.

So this is absolutely fantastic. So this feels absolutely first-class quality. built like a brick. Danny I Love it! I Think it's stackable because they've got the curve on the top, the matching curve on the bottom, and the big feet I think although I don't have a second one if you put a second one on top I'm sure they thought of that then they would stack nicely and it's quite actually quite common to have two irons because you know if you want to get in there and you don't have the SMD tweezer, you want to get in there with two irons and flip some parts off and stuff like that.

Very handy. So I'm sure they've are thought of the stacking part of that so that's by far the best quality. sorry Nine I think I was station I've ever seen really and especially for the price. It's absolutely remarkable.

Anyway, it does use a screw on didn't connector for the iron yes it is plastic I would have preferred some sort of metal, but that's you know. it's par for the course, so it goes in there well enough and nice. Feels fairly solid when it's locked in place. The three digit readout and just your basic temperature up down and preset.

Nice standard. IEC Mains input: a little ding connector for your instance set back our iron. You either buy that for like 30 bucks extra I'd recommend it. like if you're spending a couple hundred bucks and spring for the extra 30 and get the instant set back.

While it's well worth it grounding if you want to connect it through to your ground mat and your grounding system. No worries, and the tool stand here. I Rather like it. It's got a fair bit a heft to it.

It's angled fairly well to get in there like that as you can sort of like throw the I missed it so I guess you could. Maybe I would have preferred the angle a little bit down like that, perhaps. So further, it's not adjustable so there's nothing if you don't like the angle. Yeah, there's no I Maybe he can get in there and put something under there and manually tweak the angle of that if you wanted to hack it.

And it's got dust space for all your tips to whack in the back there. No worries. you've got both the steel wool and the sponge as well the steel wool holders. Actually, you can pull that out so you know if you don't like your steel wool.

I like having now both. Um, it's kind of like yeah, it's kind of like not quite big enough. like I'm gonna really push that in there so you probably want to looking to want to use all your steel wool. hmm.

Anyway, just clip clips in there. That's a very nice tool stand I like it now. the only problem I have with this is that you can see in there is a little micro switch pushes in like that. so no this maintenance good old micro switch that when you insert that that just switches off and that's your auto setback technology.

And here is a microswitch. You know if you let it sort of fall in, but that one didn't go all the way so that didn't engage it. You've got to let it fall all the way in like that could fall before that microswitch are not actually set it back. So yeah, it's a bit how you doing.

I Think they miss the boat a bit there. and as for the newer TD 200, I and I rather like it. It's good. It feels kind of.

It's like a rubbery around our blue anodized aluminium there and it's got a very nice short grip to tip distance. I Love that there's nothing worse and haven't long like this and just the angles don't work. You want to be really close to your work. You can get much more accuracy on there and these are the newer types to go along with it.

I Believe you know they had some issue with the manufacturing tolerance of the contacts in there or something and they weren't making proper contact. So these are integrated tip cartridges. which means that the temperature sensor is built into this so every time right at the tip right near the element so it can deliver the power much faster. and the control loop is much better for that.

And I've done a video on that can't see anything else down in there I Can't take that apart, so sorry about that. Anyway, they are keyed. just slide them in there like that. Know why? cuz it feels nice and tight.

tight as a nun's nasty and let's whip the back off here. They do have a grommet here. This is probably my only. It's not really a gripe, it's just it's not the best strain relief I've seen I Mean that's you know it's nicely engineered, but you know it doesn't have the nice molded rubber coming out like that.

See, there you go. There's the JBC one and you can see the rubber on the end. It's just like, you know, that's just much sexier. and if you want to know, like if you want to quit comparison between these two: I Probably prefer the JBC in terms of handling because if the cord is further back like this so it gets out of the way when you've got your hand there gripping this like the cause just further out of the way with this one.

but the new piece has a significantly shorter grip to tip distance, so pretty handy, although there's nothing wrong. JB See, it's still quite sure. The cable seems a bit lighter in comparison to the weight of the handle, so although they do use a nice burn proof silicon lead on this, it's just not quite as flexible. But still, that's that's a pretty decent iron.

I Like it. Ah, forgot to mention, when you buy this, you actually don't get a tip with it. tight-asses so maybe some dealers will like throw one in as a bundle. but officially you don't actually get the tip.

Unbelievable. Please give a small chisel anyway. You know we say you're on the Eevblog. don't turn it on.

Take it apart. Looks like the front panel is just gonna fall away. Expect the controller to be yeah. Touch the front.

There you go, we're in like Flynn Jesus Not much in there is there. Hello To-220 Is someone somebody goofed on the To-220 Check it out. Look at that. Just couldn't Could have fit it in there.

Looks like they're botched in the heatsink as an afterthought and just flapping around in the breeze. Yeah, fail. It's right next to the cap. Like if you look at all the room they got, maybe Cap over here.

It's not rocket science. Looks like we got ourselves a SMD current. Shut there. Nice.

I'm not sure why they need to need to know the current going through. The thing that's a lid on the front are that must be a bicolor. LED Not much else anyway. Is that a yeah, that is a regulator.

It's a 7805. Anyway, the cap is a Nippon Chemi-con Nice. That's not gonna last there long. Is it Old School 89 C 51 and of course in a match in old school? PLC SI Saket for the wind? Well that's hilarious.

Check it out. They couldn't even be bothered to trim them out of the mold. therefore the I'm not sure the stringy bits in the Mechs s moldy bits on there for the rubber buttons. Alerian Anyway, they are nice rubber baby buggy bumpers so that's great.

Know that plastic rubbish. So all that sort of stuff up there is related to the is that the drive or temperature sensor. Well this is interesting. a Microchip TC 500 This is actually a 17 bit analog to digital converter Wow Now you know where the name Akio Drive comes from because one of the selling points of this thing is that a it doesn't need calibration and B it's got you know, very accurate temperature control.

So there you go. They're obviously doing that but it is seventeen bit converter in there Wow Resolution: The other stuff is just some jelly bean logic and Ilyn 399 comparator. Just got some AP 177 op amps and another. Whoa! it's a flippy flop and pace.

One of the old school masters in solder in have left the flux on the board. Oh I'll tell you what I really don't like the layout of this look. We got four presumably MOSFETs there and what? What is that I don't know, but you know. Look, they've got a drop this right? So that's some sort of active bridge rectifier right? So they're gonna drop this down to the bottom here.

These single vias over to here, another single link over to here like it drops dead. Does it drop down to another via? I Don't get it. and the regulators right here. right in the path where you need to get the high current traces over to the heating element table over here.

That just seems like a crazy layout to me. I Don't know what the hell's going on there at all. Don't like it? Well, somebody had fun at the Pace Factory in the U.s. They've probably got some someone who's the Czar of crimps and they they've just gone berserk.

Look at that star point there for them. the ground. They really go to town Anyway, that is very nice. And also for the transformer plate, they've gone to the effort to put like another plate down.

They're not just and all-star washes, everything else all krypt nicely. it's just. it's beautifully constructed. No worries, that transformer just slides out of there and let me tell you, that looks like the Ducks guts.

Beautiful. Well that's really nicely engineered apart from the PCB which is kind of weird. I'm not sure what's going on there anyway. let's check out the performance of this baby and just be careful.

This is the 230 volt unit. It is not switchable. You have to get the correct transformer for your region. What's all this? Imperial Rubbish.

Loo this. 164, 132, 364 Give me a break. Bloody Hell 332. So one-quarter yeah there.

1364? Yeah, 164. Yeah. Good on you. but there's one Rebel there.

Look at that two point, four millimeters. the metric Rebel at Pace. Alright, first, turn on here we go or take it out of here so it doesn't do the instant setback. Could have some smoke and switch her on once.

Well I don't know what was jumping around there. Yeah, we have smoke. Ah, it's probably set to that. Fahrenheit Well, what was that jumped around? It said a high or something there.

Mmm. Anyway, let's do the sponge test. Yeah, drops down. not by a huge amount.

Yeah, not by much. Nice. And by the way, when you put it back in into the auto setback iron stand, you've got to wait 15 seconds apparently. Oh, there we go.

Fleshy flash. Yep, it's flushing to tell you that it's going into auto setback so we'll let that cool down. See little cools down - I think we're in. Fahrenheit Doesn't tell you that's a problem with the LED display, but I Like the simplicity on this - tell me the bloody temperature, temperature up down, and some presets.

Thank you very much. Okay, it looks like it jumps back to a set back temperature of 180 175. Still don't know if that's that's seven, Fahrenheit or Celsius But anyway, let's see how quickly it heats back up. Big overshoot I Know what? No, hang on, let's try that again.

We're only down to 300 foot jumps up to 415. Why does it do that? Like why does it do that? Find that rather disconcerting? Don't like that at all. See: I Gotta have to leave her 15 seconds. Bloody hell.

let's do it again. Just went into setback mode. Yeah. Three nighted? Yeah.

Does it really have that over shooter? Is that just some measurement artifact? I Don't know. Anyway, let's measure the temperature. No. I'll look at that 370.

It's bang on. That is bang on as you'd expect from an acute. The thing about this is is that they make the claim that you know you can change to any tip you want. any thermal mass, any size, any type of tip, and it is.

The accurate Drive Technology says that you don't never have to calibrate this thing so it doesn't even have a calibration mode which is fantastic. Okay, one thing I don't like is that when you're in setback mode and you adjust the temperature, I Would have expected to go out of set back mode and turn on the heater, but it doesn't say small thing. but I would have expected it to do that anyway. Five degrees Celsius steps I Don't think you can get anything less than that.

You hold it in. Oh yeah, it's got a velocity cool off. There you go. Whoa.

Look, you can actually turn software off. Nice. What? 260 minimum? What's that? See what it goes up to? Come on high, high, low. Go up there.

see it's in setback mode I'd like I Want it to like immediately? I - oh hi hi, we're overloading. Thanks for telling us that. Jeez seems all over the shop now. I Don't I think some firmware tweaks might be required? So we're in setback mode and let's just press that.

See, when you go to that it's your still is setback mode. Just do I turn the damn thing on. Why do that? 345 370 400 So there are three temperatures. Okay, cool bananas.

let's go to 400. it's still in setback. Let's go up there. You go.

We're back at 400 so it gets there quick enough, but just jump all over the shop. And if you follow the QuickStart guide, it's actually really quite good. And they're all the programming code. You hold down the button when you power it on and you can go into program your mode so you can set the password.

You can set the Celsius and all that sort of jazz. I Just set back timer. Cool if you're annoyed by it. just like a lot of people would prefer to have it on all the time.

It's only if like, you'll leave your iron off and your bugger off for you know, an hour or overnight or something. If you want these people who forget and leave your iron on overnight, you know you want to turn off in half an hour. An hour's time or something. Uh-huh.

We may be able to change our low temperature limit right? Change temperature preset settings. Store back to temperature match Temperature match. That sounds like the calibration. I Thought this thing didn't need calibration.

Mm. Oh and we found out what our current sense resistor on there was for overcurrent error. So if the tip shorts out or something like that, Nice. And there are the different tips for those playing along at home and the ultra performance ones.

By the way, the only difference between the standard tips here and the high performance tips here is the extra thermal mass inside there. You can see the physical bulge in there. They just, you know, everything's thicker and bigger. so they have a higher thermal mass.

They retain the heat better so that when you apply it to the joint, it doesn't dip as much. And really, unless you need to get into fine work I'd Recommend the higher performance tips. They're like at Tops five dollars more. but don't confuse thermal mass with power.

The higher thermal mass premium tips are 130 watts, but your standard ones are also 130 watts. It's just what heat is retained in the physical tip of it. And if you have a look at the manual here, they do claim and not lots of stuff. no calibration required and all the physical aspects of it.

but the new aqueduct yeah, Akhiya Drive technology and they reckon it's you. Advanced electronics provide instantaneous load sensing on-demand powered, a quick read and to quickly reflow solder joins the safe flow temperatures regardless of the mass of the application. Well, it's gonna have some difference. You can't just claim it as none, that's but anyway, yeah, they reckon it's the Ducks guts and the actual iron itself.

Ultra short tip to grip all that sort of jazz. Cool touch technology so you can have your fingers right near the tip like this and not feel a thing. nice sort of. The ridge at the front is enough to stop your fingers are sliding off the end there.

some people prefer like bigger. But anyway, the Cool Touch technology. I've got that on Four hundred Celsius and I can't feel a damn thing which my fingers right on the anodized aluminium end. So this cool Touch technology.

it's very nice. It doesn't heat up at all. It's the silicon lead burn proof. Well it's only one way to find out.

Yep, Four hundred Celsius Yep, No. I Start to smell certain. No, it's good. So I'm now adjusting the low temperature limit like that and sure enough, yep, Oh there you go.

177 minimum. Oh I Didn't notice It's actually got a just set back timer and adjust instant set back time of the year so it looks like it has regular set back timer plus auto-off timer. Very nice so you don't necessarily have to buy their instant set back iron. You can save thirty bucks and just set it in software.

It's probably not quite as flexible, but still. Anyway, the instant setback is minimum. I Presume that's in seconds? There you go. 240 seconds? Yeah, no worries.

So Pace claim that this thing has unsurpassed a thermal performance. I'm going to take that to mean thermal capacity our performance. So let's do a thermal capacity test. Let's compare it with the JBC because all the torque on the forum as I said is this is this thing a potentially a JBC killer in terms of thermal performance thermal capacity.

So let's try that now. The bit unfair because the JBC is a much more expensive iron like 400 plus dollar class. not quite twice as much, but you know, near enough. So anyway, let's give it a go.

Now the way we're going to do this is to actually turn the temperature down so that we can see the differences now. I'm using my standard Loctite 227 degree nominal melting point lead-free solder. so let's give it a ball. Now you normally wouldn't solder at such a low temperature on a big ground plane like this, but let's hey, we're going to see the differences.

So let's go for the GBC First, what we'll do is we'll just test the temperature out here on the GBC. There we go. 280 Near enough. Here we go 280 on to a ground plane.

As I said, you normally wouldn't solder at this low, a lower temperature and it flows no problem whatsoever at 280. Let's try the piece. and by the way, I've got nearly identical tips as I can get them here in terms of thermal mass. I'm using the ultra performance one on the Pace to give it the absolute best chance.

So I think they're pretty equivalent tips. Now to be fair, the JBC does have 130 watt capability compared to 120 for the pace, but you know there's not much in it and it's bang on. There you go. Yep, it's a Kia Drive Alright, it's bang on temperature, no worries.

And the good advantage of this one is that it doesn't need any calibration at all. That's their claim. You can change the tips from any from standard to the ultra performance with the higher thermal mass regardless of the size or shape or anything else. and it doesn't require calibration.

That's their claim anyway. I mean I Can try a few different tips and see if that's true, but I Have no doubt that they know what they're doing there. So yeah, that's a big advantage. Ok, two hundred and eighty degrees C and the pace simply cannot do it.

I Have tried this several times, but it just it just does not have the perform of the thermal performance of the JBC. So it that claim of unmatched thermal performance. Well, it's probably marketing bull because it's not even close to the JBC. We have to increase the temperature substantially.

Have a look. Okay, we're up at 300 here, and at 300 it's just getting there. But it's really it's sticky business. We're going to have to go further than that.

Let's go 3:15 and before we get a similar performance to the JBC. Still a little bit sticky there, but I'm going to call that a similar performance so it needs to go up by a good what is that 35 degrees before it gets a similar performance. So yep, I am gonna call mark in a bit of marketing BS There on that unmatched thermal performance may be granted unmatched thermal performance for the price. We'd have to compare it with a similar price system like maybe the Hakko Fx-888 cooler.

so that question is answered. But as I said, probably not a fair comparison because this is getting towards twice the price and it does have 10 watts more capability. But I I'm gonna call them pretty much equivalent. Now the reason for this like a great difference in thermal capacity performance.

the ability to get the heat from the tip onto the joint is paste. Kind of admit this on the Eevblog forum is that their tips are deliberately contain more iron in them, more iron, a thicker iron plating in them and they do that so that they get a longer tip life whereas JBC apparently have less iron in them. so a less thick and thinner I am plating so you get the better thermal performance for a given power input. But the problem is is that the Gbc's are a bit known for having a short tip life because of the thin iron plating.

Here's one of my older tips. it's the first one that I originally got with it. I've done some pretty horrible things to it and yeah, I had to get a new one. It's kind of a the way out.

it's not great and given the high price of these like two and a half, maybe even three times the price of the pace ones, the pace ones last longer and are cheaper so have a much lower cost of ownership so that's a huge benefit. Big thumbs up to Pace for the price of these tips. they're very realistic it you know, ten to fifteen bucks each or whatever. but the trade-off is the thermal performance isn't as good.

But like I said, you wouldn't use such a low temperature on something like this. Let's go up to a more standard 270 which pace our claim that you know you should basically use for everything. You shouldn't need to go below 270 and I'll talk about that in a minute and of course it just you know it goes through that like it's nothing so no problem once whatsoever if you're using a higher temperature on these things. but I'm a big proponent of using the and I have to be careful how I explain this using the lowest temperature you can to get the job done, but you of course don't sacrifice joint quality to do that.

You should of course use the right temperature that gives you the best quality joint in the shortest possible time. So it's always a trade-off Soldering temperatures, always a trade-off Yeah, you can increase the temperature right up, use 400 or whatever, and you just you know, breeze through anything that's no problem whatsoever. But then your risk lifting pads potentially damaging components. This is more important if you're doing rework and stuff like that little.

the worst thing you want to do is lift pads and I've lifted pads at well on at under 370 on like crap quality fiberglass boards or whatever. you don't know what you're repairing and you can easily lift those pads off, especially with the low thermal mass stuff. If you're instantly you know and tiny little you know, a SOT 23 or an Esso pad or something like that, you're whack your 370 or 400 on there your risk list lifting that up. but on the flip side of that and what pace actually advertised this as like a full-on production solder E9 that's really super quick in production and typically if you're doing production soldering which is different to rework, you might use a higher temperature in order to get a faster joint because you, you know you take that risk of you know, faster joint.

It's all a trade-off because it's it's its production. Time matters. so you know, temperatures all a big trade off. So yeah, this definitely does not match the thermal performance of the JBC no doubt about it, but that may be completely irrelevant if you solder at higher temperatures.

I Don't like the fact that the JBC just you know doesn't show you the set temperature until you lift the damn thing off. I Just think that's really annoying. And the other thing is is that you can't set the temperature with it on the stand. Hold the tool to change the temperature by.

up there we hold the tool to change the temperature bugger off Like you know, let me change the bloody temperature. Unbelievable. Heck, even my Hakko Fx-888 IPPs that will actually breeze through this soldering plane at three thirty as well. No problems whatsoever.

Let's give it a go. Sure, it will. Yep, no problems. So does that mean the 80s 200 has the same thermal performance as a Hakko Fx-888 that you will actually get a faster thermal recovery and everything else from the direct temperature and especially the ultra performance tips.

With the high thermal mass, there's no doubt about that, but it's not nearly as good. It's the JBC just saying. Okay, let's just try a thermal test at 370. I've got the wet sponge here just going to whack it on top and drops down to three.

You can see just showing the recovery here that it doesn't overshoot or anything like that. So yeah, it drops down the 330. Let's try the JBC Alright, JBC iron. same thing.

Oh yeah, do that drops the same. Is that recover quicker? I Think it recovers a little bit quicker. And my heyco, it's actually set to a 380. It's not exactly calibrated fantastically, so let's look at the dip on that so you can really see the difference between the direct tip technology and the old-style just contact technology.

I Guess for want of a better word on the hakko here and the recoveries. not nearly as fast of course. So yeah, it's it's chalk and cheese as I've done a video explaining these new modern cartridge our direct heater with the temperature sensor in the element much better than these old-style ones. So I could do more testing on that.

but I Really, you know there's no point it's going to do the business at the higher temperatures, but it was an interesting test that it really is. Not that JB circular. Everyone thought it would, but that may or may not matter to you depending on your particular soldering circumstances. It's a fine iron.

Let's just say that there's no worries whatsoever. You know what? as I said, you wouldn't use. You know, I'm 270 or you know, even 300. you'd go up to 370 400 if you do it like a big ground plane like this.

depends on the component that you're soldering though. if you're doing like a you know, a an actual you know wire to a ground plane or a like an RF can or something like that. Yeah, you're going to up the temperature, but if you've got like a delicate DPAC component that you're reworking or putting on, in my opinion, you're going to want to be doing a you know at the lower temperature that you can get away with because there's also the time as well. You know there's the argument that you can increase the temperature.

you do it faster, but yeah, it gets to a higher temperature, but it's all over with quicker so the temperature doesn't you know have time to? So Kim you use a lower temperature might take it, you know, a second or two more to get the job done, the temperatures lower, but then the heats on the component for longer so it's a bit of a trade-off anyway. Peyser Of the opinion that you know here, probably shouldn't be solder in anything under 370. Well, I think's pretty silly I've lifted pads away under that temperature so I could do further testing on that. You know, showing solder in like little Oh 402 s and you know SOS and stuff like that, but it's going to do the business.

It's a perfectly fine and usable cartridge-based soldering iron. It's just it's I think it's just not as good as claim. That's all. So replacing the tips on this thing, you can either use the supplied silicon mat like that and just whack it in whoa like that.

Careful with your fingers and it of course heats up almost instantly. Or you can use the little tweezer based ones and whip those out like that. Choose your poison. No workers, All right.

Let's just measure the power consumption here. We're talking about ten point seven watts just sitting there idle. It'll occasionally jump up to forty or fifty like that. So let's see what happens if we apply with our big ass tip.

There we go. Now we're on the ground plane, but look so much for delivery now. one hundred and yeah, there we go. 130 your sir.

at peak, you saw a peak up to 132 there. Yeah, it's just not doing it's it's not continually pumping that in. Wow Let's compare the GBC Alright, JBC Six and a half. Watts there on idle.

Let's take it off. It's heating up a little 186 peak. Let's put it on exactly the same spot and this is at 270. Don't know.

There we go. No, it's quite similar in Dad, but this is like continually look, it's continually pumping it out whereas the the pace just wasn't wasn't doing that. Wow Maybe it's worth having a look at the way for. Look that's continuous.

It knows I've got to keep pumping that power into the ground plane. Please to you know, to keep that temperature. the pace just doesn't seem to want to be able to do that. By the way, I do prefer the JVC's little power measurement thing there I know you, you know, usually too busy, solder and so I've got that on the ground plane now, but even there it's not delivering.

There we go. Yeah, I think it, You know it matches the hundred 30 watt capability. It's you. It's not even delivering all the power it can.

Alright, let's actually just take a look at the mains waveform and here it is and that's without no load. It's just sitting there idle so you can see it occasionally. Speak up, its gotta end. It should even know, doesn't.

Doesn't time with the lid? The art? Maybe. Maybe. Anyway, let's let's ground playing this baby. So we expect continuous power.

but it's not doing. it's doing a bit more, but not continuous. I Know that is probing the mains input. you know, before the active rectification and all that sort of jazz.

But anyway, still tells you something. Ok, we'll do the exact same thing with the JBC That's it in sleep modes. Do enough all there. Let's take it out.

Whoa. look at that. Look at that. Ok, so that's just sitting there idle doing Jack So that's just like we got on the on the pace.

There we go. It's just a couple of cycles here and there. no workers I Know it's doing a similar sort of business. It's not going.

it's not going the full monty, but it's still delivering that power better. There you go I Expect it's sort of like every peaked er to go. Well, it is only 17 days only delivering 17% power according to the parameter on here. I Guess there you go.

You can occasionally see it do better than that. Ok so I guess that experiment didn't tell us a huge amount. they're operating now. Very similar.

in terms of you know it means you know delivered from the mains I could take the thing apart and actually a current probe the power go into the element and stuff like that but the mains is a decent representation of that. So the things I do like are the you know the design and the construction is really like first-class made in the USA Terrific! It really feels like a quality bit of kit and I like that. The tips really very inexpensive and there is a decent range of them so no worries. So you know like cost of ownership having a wide range of tips is much better.

I mean if you buy you buy into the JBC system for example the tips are very very expensive on those. So my conclusion on the Pace 80s 200 it is very nice design and build quality. apart from that weird a PCB but anyway it does have the thermal performance. not as good as they claim.

It's definitely not a JB C kill'uh but it is very nice. I Like you know the design in the action, the user-interface I think you know. quite usable. It's got the three presets.

it's just minimal what you are need and it's made in the USA It's top quality. its pace. Usually you know pace excuse very expensive but they're done awesomely to bring the price price point down on this. So to get them made in the USA built like a brick Danny all aluminium construction, everything else I am the direct heat iron for which is real for 200 and like 20 bucks U.s.

street price is really remarkable and done a fantastic job with all the tips as well for keeping those low price. As I said, you probably want to spend a few bucks more and just get the ultra performance, but you probably want some of the other ones because they're a little bit thinner so you know you might. That might help you getting into tighter places and stuff like that so you don't burn the components around you and stuff like that. especially if you're doing rework on boards.

you know you've got all the components sticking up out of the board. You got to get your iron in there at the right angle and having the little bulge in there could make the difference between hitting a component and not. But the downsides. As I said, the thermal performance isn't as good as claimed, so you know it's not gonna win any awards there.

but it is certainly better than like a Hakko Fx-888 in the cartridge based systems. So I have a bit of a problem with the display as well. Jumps around like a jackrabbit under certain circumstances. Not a big fan of that.

I Think they need to work on that I'm not sure what's going on doesn't seem to be the PID control loop. you know, like this thing doesn't seem to overshoot so the thermal performance is fine, but the display just jumps around so I'm not sure what's doing there I think they need to look into that and I don't think they've implemented the the instant setback in this thing very well. So I I would probably as of the opinion that you should probably pay the 30 bucks extra, but now after using it for a bit I don't think you probably should I Think you know, probably better off saving your 30 bucks by an arranged by answer three extra tips and not worrying about the instant setback, but some people might like it. I Just don't think it's implemented as well as the JBC and it's not instant, so it's worth considering.

I think if you're in the market for, you know, a two hundred dollar class I'd like to do comparisons with other ones in that class as I said hey, Co Fx1 maybe you know, an hour or something like that. but anyway, it's worth considering just a few little niggles. but yeah, I Like the design and feel of it. It's quite nice.

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