Wisdomshow WDS-420, First Blood
Once upon a time, the company that contracts me decided to speed up my work and gifted me a BGA rework workstation. But while that BGA station was in transit, an evil witch cursed it, and instead of turning on nicely, it began emitting a horrible sound like an angle grinder cutting through a stainless steel plane. Then I discovered a multitude of Chinese factories that do BGA soldering in-house, and the station sat quietly on a shelf until the mighty hero decided to fix it...
New microscope, or goodbye neck pain
Today I’ve received my new microscope. It’s a Chinese trinocular branded as Eakins. It has arrived very fast and was exceptionally well packaged. Overall, I’m very content with it. The picture quality is decent, it allows interpupillary distance adjustment, and has a long boom, so long that I had to drill two holes in a pedestal and screw it to the table for stability. The seller includes an x0.5 lens in the package, providing about 25cm of space between the board and the objective. I’ve seen a lot of negative feedback on cheap Chinese microscopes on Aliexpress, but I’ve been lucky. Mine is sturdy and works like a charm. I haven’t tested the camera yet, hoping it would work with no issues. I wish that LED ring had a polarized filter, but I’ll make one myself with a cheap polarizing film.
Goot RX-802AS soldering station
I've got a new soldering station - Goot RX-802AS. It might not have the best thermal recovery, especially compared to much more expensive temperature-controlled stations, but it's one of the leaders in its price class, and has its own perks.