As part of my home Electronics workbench that I’m building. I’m also collecting and buying some new tools to go with it.
The latest purchase is my Hakko FX-951 soldering iron station. This was a new genuine soldering station purchased from their UK supplier. I haven’t looked into this site much, but I believe they used to be called Dancap Electronics as I remember this site being a UK registered Hakko dealer, and then this domain appeared
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The iron is a 70W soldering station, and professional grade. I opted out of purchasing the lower FX888D model, because I didn’t like the tips that you use with this type of soldering iron. They’re screw on that you normally get with lower quality ones. Although Hakko isn’t really a low quality make, I still opted to purchase the higher end FX-951 soldering station.
How long did it take to receive my item?
I ordered my Hakko on 1st January 2024, and received it about 3 days later.
What comes with the Hakko FX-951?
The soldering station itself that I purchased was very minimal.
When you order the Hakko FX-951 soldering station, you DO NOT receive a cartridge/tip for it. so make sure you buy at least one
The box when received comes with the FX-951 soldering station, soldering iron, power cable, communication cable, soldering iron stand, manuals, Hakko key module for programming, sleeve lock, and heat resistant pad for removing hot cartridges.
That is everything you receive. Nothing more or less
Problems to watch out for with the FX-951
I’ve only come across one problem so far since buying my FX-951 soldering station from Hakko, in that after inserting the tis and switching on the station, it was making a loud continous beeping noise and displaying S-E or 5-E on the Hakko FX-951 soldering station when it would be attempting to heat up the iron.
I had a look on the manuals, and interwebs like you do and there’s only a couple of things suggested
- Check the resistance of the cartridge to make sure it’s around 8Ohm
- Check the connections to make sure they’re fully seated
This happened on more than one tip, but I just got out the multimeter and measured the two metal connections at the rear of the cartridge tip to insert to make sure they measured 8 Ohm, sure enough they did. They’re new genuine cartridges so didn’t figure it was this.
On further investigation, the problem was caused because the cartridges weren’t fully seated. I noticed this when trying to lock the sleeve in, as the cartridges kept sliding out which was weird (and a good first sign they’re not installed properly).
The Hakko T15 soldering cartidges click into the sleeve once fully inserted. If they slide out they’re not properly locked in. Once fully inserted you shouldn’t be able to see the band in the picture. Just the plastic stretched outwards, and there will be a solid click once inserted.
If you can see the band highlighted in the 2nd picture, then the tip is NOT fully inserted into the locking sleeve. PUSH it harder, you should hear it click, it will then be inserted. You will be able to then lock the handle in, and the iron cartridge on the FX-951 should heat up this time.
Please note, that it can still come out once inserted. You will be able to recognise it quickly however if this does happen. Just something to watch out for error codes
