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I purchased and did a video review of one of the first units. I had problems with the original tips as I reported in the video. Pace had a representative at my door 2 days later to collect the faulty tips and replace them. Can't ask for much better customer service than that. Have been using it daily since then and have not encountered any other problems. A great unit that doesn't disappoint. As for the "no strain relief", Pace has never used them. I have Pace irons that are decades old and are still fine. They use really good quality cords. And FYI, they will be releasing a mini tweezer that works with this unit eventually.

8:01 "tight as a nuns nasty" casually thrown in there

Regarding the buttons maintaining their molding link. Reduction on BOM parts.....only need to manage (1) part vs (3) parts. Actually a very smart detail from someone at Pace.

I've been astral-projecting myself into your bedroom at night for the past several weeks, whispering suggestions while you sleep for you to review the new Pace ADS200 and you have delivered.

I did control work for many years. It looks like they are probably doing a closed PID loop control and are displaying the instantaneous temperature they driving to instead of the temperature of the tip. The drive will overshoot for a few moments of and on to try to reach the target temperature quickly.

I've had firmware 1.4 for a month, nice update. Display's not jumpy and ISB can be set for zero-delay, although I prefer less up-down heat cycling, since when finishing joints, I often test for strength and elect a reflow. Also, temperature set points are now 1 degree apart, not 5 as shown here (so I guess you can do science melt experiments with this too..). I'm also impressed by the realistic pricing on replacement parts. Example: The silicon o-ring near the front end of the handle costs just $3 USD for a pack of 5 (that's like a ten-year supply!), and I don't need to change mine yet, after almost 100-hour's of solid use.

Don't delay, buy today... oh, wrong channel, never mind.

What's wrong with leaving flux on the board? Besides the fact that they did not leave enough?

Glad the video is back. Really was looking forward to this review.

I actually upgraded from an fx888d and the Pace is a really great station. Great video by the way, to the point and no bullshit. Keep it up Dave!

A LED indicator of Fahrenheit/Celsius would be a good design change. Just light up a decimal point if you’re in Celsius mode. I’d recommend that change for sure.

I saw this video around the time it came out, and decided to order this station to replace an old style 70 watt Weller at work, and I've been very happy with it so far. Thanks for making this video, even though there are a few gripes listed, I haven't any issues of note. Though, in all fairness, I am used to old style tips, even on the old Pace stations where I used to work. This iron heats up faster, works better, and the cartridge tips are much easier to change when the iron is hot.

I have some very similar older model which works with no issues for last 13 years - and I'm still using original tips! I would say we soldered about 1h per week.

Marco Reps said "i know a certain australian who wont like that" for that 7805 and capacitor !! and it turns out to be true! xd!!

Bad Dave. I soon can not afford to watch your movies...... Now i have both a new JBC CD-BE abd this Pace ADS200 on order. Damm you... :-)

I’ve watched a few of your reviews on soldering stations and I know a few years have past but the $120-$200 etc prices stated are way under what I can find haha this one is currently $800+ Anyway love your work sir.

Wish this review was up a couple of weeks ago I just got my first station and it's a Weller but i would've spent the extra bucks and got this one it looks so nice.

I almost solder exclusively below 370 C unless I'm dealing with a large thermal mass, and even then a bigger tip does the business better than increasing the temperature

18:55 they got the german translation wrong.. they translated over-current error to Überspannung which means over-voltage xD

Hats off to the industrial designer. Simple and elegant. PACE needs to ditch the engineer who did the PCB. He will make a better clown in a circus, than an engineer. Ass soon as I saw the PCB, one word jumped out! "wtf"?

Hi Dave, thanks for another great video. At the end of this video you said you'd like to do comparisons to other irons in the $200 class. I hope you do, I'd be very interested to see where this new Pace falls in line.

Year 2018 and we still have VCR clock quality interfaces in soldering irons ;)

So glad you made this video. Ive been on the fence about this one after buying the pace desoldering station. I will say a few things about pace equipment. 1) all the equipment follows the same asthetic. Whether you love or hate... Its your opinion, but i like it. Solid and Shiny. 2) the case is also functional as the channels in the extrusion allow you to mount with some slide adjust capabilities. 3) pace has been around for a while; like the godfather of soldering. Their tech makes you imagine that the original engineering team is still alive and kicking as their features and advanvements in tech often seem behind the curve. 4) as basic as they are, they seem to focus on making products that work well, last long and dont break the bank on consumables. Tip cost and selection is what drove me to choose their desoldering station. Thats a different beast and has its own quirks. It still uses the older tech without direct drive, but im getting used to its nuances and limitations and learning to work within its realm of capabilities. Even though this review had some negatives, it showed me what i wanted to see... good and bad. I think im going to pull the trigger on this setup solely for the temp accuracy and within its price point no challenger for thermal recovery. However, i plan to call PACE and see if they have any updates planned based on several reviews calling out their bs board layout. Comparatively, the pace unit should get the job done with ease and i can use the tips like a boss without giving two fucks or feeling like ive commited sins against soldering. As far jbc goes... I like them, but i dont find them practical for general electronics repair due to price points and most certainly the price of its consumables. Maybe its just me but i want to be able to abuse my tips and feel good about it. JBC, in my opinion, is geared towards production environments (ie. Big biz and not independant repair shops) that can churn maximum value from every tip to where paying $40-$60 for a tip is not an issue. However, im pretty sure the new NASE-C is on the short list due to it being the only model that offers tweezers (or i should say good tweezers) for 01005 and smaller. their tip prices and lifecycle have always sent me screaming and running in the other direction, i think microsoldering streamer said he gets 2weeks from tweezer tips and those are about 100+ for a set. I plan to add the comment in every tip reorder... Frak you, heres my money.

It's super easy to take a fine spring and thread it onto the cord at the handle for a better strain relief. Looks cool too.

Wow! I remember watching this video when this first came out and was gonna look to purchase now, but the price has skyrocketed. Might just build my own now

The clunky extra cable for the stand sensor is a big fail for me. Should be done through the iron cable.

"THE METRIC REBEL AT PACE" I lost it, Dave...

Thanks for the great review! In our Aussie realities ADS200 is A$495 vs $A529 for JBC-CD-2BQE. No brainer :) And JBC tops are "only" twice as expensive (prices from mektronics)

Looks like your power meter stopped updating at 34:41. That would explain the rock-steady readings at that point. 😺 Integration on?

Just ordered one today! I can’t wait to try it out on my amplifier repairs.

I guess in 2021 this unit now costs $380. How the hell did it increase by $160?

Maybe I'm old-school, but I see no need for high-power (100W+) soldering stations that get used 99% for low-power soldering. What I own is a 60 year-old 300W Weller soldering gun (now called the D650) for the heavy stuff, and a varying number of 30W-60W soldering pencils for everything else. The Weller has a copper alloy tip: When it gets pitted or gunked up, I can take a file to it and quickly get to fresh metal with a sharp chisel edge, ready for tinning. No need to carry multiple tips around, just a small flat file. I also like my soldering tools to easily go from the bench to the tool bag. Presently, I bring my Weller gun and a TS100 pencil. Life is good!

Even Nippon Chemicon caps die when you put a heatsink so close that it's touching. Maybe that was the last minute change. They should have put the capacitors on their side if they needed to bodge a heatsink into the design without remanufacturing their PCBs.

I had this station on order when they had quit shipping it, took months for them to get the iron to me. I upgraded from a hakko fx888d and have been happy with the iron so far. I chose this iron as the tips were inexpensive, made in the USA, and has a short grip to tip distance for working under a microscope. I do notice yours does not have the huge Made in USA sticker on the back of the iron with an american flag like mine does ^^ Totally agree that for the price point (it puts it in the hobby market range) they should include a basic chisel tip. Thanks for the full teardown, I did not feel like tearing mine completely apart so just took a peek and saw the regulator sticking out and not secured. Yours bounces around as much as mine does on power on, I measured about 18C overshoot on power on. If you left it in a stand for a long time, I have had it once not return to temp so far where I had to cycle the power. The only reason at the time I did not buy this over the very close in price hakko fx951 station with the Hakko FM2032-51 is the price of the tips. I wonder if they are going to fix that bounce in the firmware and if they do, will they send a new programmed micro controller to everyone who purchased it? :P I wonder how long it will be before custom firmware will be released.

I'd love to see you do a review on the pinecil. As a hobbyist it has really changed my life. Small, cheap and powerful and the fact that I don't have to have a workbench dedicated for soldering makes my life so much easier. I just take it and my soldering mat out whenever I need to work on something and then chuck it in a drawer.

According to their own website it is $542 AUD + GST and the JBC is available from them for $547 + GST. The PACE looks like a clunky ugly lump compared to the JBC. Normal RRP is about 50% more on the JBC. Tips certainly seem cheaper but spares for other PACE gear like my tweezers is like buying gold. Also "$220USD street price" is interesting since that's $300AUD and we get slugged $542AUD!!!

In the US we usually slowly give up on pointing out the absurdity of hanging on to imperial and fractional inches and over time absorb a table of fractional inch to decimal conversions in our heads and get pretty good at multiplying by 25.4 just to get by in a day, when our definition of absurdity shifts to the number and letter gauges, though if you work with those long enough I'm sure the same thing happens. Metrological stockholm syndrome

I purchased a EDSYN 951SX in the 90's, and it is still going strong, with 220 watts I can solder 10 gauge wire then change the tip and solder a NAND chip.

I have a few JBC irons, both precision and standard and so far I have not found anything that comes close. As Dave mentioned in the video it is generally a trade off when setting iron temperature but with the JBC a lot of variables are removed so it is much easier to get consistent results. They are particularly good at reworking delicate old boards and with a good sized tip and de-solder braid they can suck the solder cleanly out of a through hole pad without damaging the board (or even the chip).

I think that the current-sense resistor mentioned here is for the purpose of measuring the resistance of the heating element. The heating element IMO is also the temperature sensor. Of course, you need an intimate thermal contact between the tip and the heater. Also notice that there are 4 pins in the connector. That is IMO a Kelvin (4-wire) resistance measuring circuit so that no significant current flows through the measurement wires. Pretty clever IMO. Notice that there are only 2 connections to the cartridge itself. No separate connections for a sensor. Thanks to this video I bought one and I love it. BTW, they turned the heat-sink screw around so that it is not so close to the cap. I have reverse-engineered a heating pad that uses the heating element as the temperature sensor.

Im a ameture , doing some research on soldering equipment. I really like the stuff from jbc . I really like the soldering tweezers , they look amazing .

I'm a bit of a pleb. I'm still happy with my OLD /USED/ hakko 936. got it over 10 years ago now, and it was used. works like a bought one as it were. Now I bet It'd be great to have the new style tips and better thermal mass. but so far, haven't really been annoyed enough with mine to bother getting a new one. Now if there was a good one with the new tips with a hot air reflow gun, that wasn't an arm and a leg, I'd think about it for the future.

Fun, (yep for me) ....“ACCU” is the Dutch language more or less the longtime used term for a care battery. So at first glanced “Accudrive” gave me the idea of a battery powered soldering station.

@ 25:00 you could say that the 10% higher wattage of the jbc is the reason for the Pace needing to be 10% hotter...

Now US$239 for base, $260 with set back. $275 with tips. Tips sold separately. July 2019. eBay.

Looks damn similar to the good old ST-50, slightly cost reduced. Oh the transformer has a tap for 115V, can modify it. I don't know why they didn't bother with a switch!

Dave, the thickness of the tip between the thermal mass/heating element and the solder surface greater on the jbc. This makes a big difference in temperature drop from the thermal couple/heating element and the solder. A different tip may make a big difference

Still rockin my Weller EC1002 with analog dial. Does all the hobby soldering that I need and been doing so for more than 12 years (I got it used at that time). Tips are few bucks. TCO has been VERY low =) I keep trying to talk myself into getting something new but damnit this does all I need. I'll wait for it to die before I get a new one.

The extra rubber on the button gaskets is left in place on purpose because it keeps the buttons from rotating and it makes assembling the unit easier. Easier assembly saves time and lowers production cost.

The current price (May 2021) is way higher than it appears have been when this video was made.

I think the rubber “mold bits” are called runners

I will stay with my Ersa Icon Nano for a long time. Heats up very fast, Big choice of good but cheap soldering tips, light iron perfect for SMD but capable of soldering huge wires. Heating behaviour (like overshooting), temperatures, buttonlock and standby timeout can all be configured on a microSD that you only have to plug in once. Has a nice black metal case and the tool stand is just perfect. All that for 170 bugs with free 2 day delivery for all accessories.

This looks pretty good. I suppose PACE could offer a tip for doing lower temp stuff with similar characteristics to the JBC one as an option. I've just looked in the UK and the price is about £300 with one tip so over $500 Australian! A desoldering station with this type of technology would be good :)

Ordered mine from farnell. I'm using it for a couple of weeks and I'm very happy with it. I tried to register my station, finding out that my country wasn't on the list. Sent them an email but pace never even bothered even to answer...

Assuming 370 is Fahrenheit, that is below 190 C needed to melt the regular PbSn solder. So, with a minimum setting of 400F (200C), I assume it will work fine every time. JBC may show a value on display and have a different temp at the tip. I worked with the PACE IntelliHeat version and is super Ok.

A lot of what is being evaluated here is thermal transient performance which only comes into play when soldering a really large joint or many joints rapidly, so the thermal drain is more than thermal resistance between the temp sensor and the tip, *freezing the tip*. In that case, the only option is to overcompensate the temperature. A bit of a special case for the Pace, but maybe a known scenario. The big argument for the JBC stability and response is DESOLDERING TEMPS with braid, which is that type of thermal load. I'm not sure that came up. It's interesting that the old style iron with the slug tip only differs in performance in the length of time of its thermal response. Seems to be the only difference. The Pace has probably got some "bounce". Sometimes the only way to get rid of that kind of stuff is engineering trial and error. Maybe some software buffering.

Pace explains why the extra $25 is worth it for the ISB stand (to extend tip life). see link: www.eevblog.com/forum/blog/eevblog-1106-pace-ads200-soldering-station-review-(jbc-killer)/msg1762742/#msg1762742

Dave, the PACE appeared to give full cycles (about 40:00) whereas rhe JBC only gave half cycles. The powercompanies won't be excited because of this!

All of the thermal performance difference can be attributed to the super thin plating of the JBC tips if this isn't the JBC "long life" series tips. It's nice that JBC gives you the choice, but other makers have designed their tips for durability and so they always have a thermal performance disadvantage. Hakko T12/T15 tips especially come to mind in this regard. Super long life. Somewhat muted performance as a result.

I'd think the temperature of the Pace could be set lower for low thermal mass joints. Thus avoiding damaged pads.

I've just realised you do a ground plane test at 280c in your comparison of the Hakko FX888D and the Weller WE1010 - and those both *could* do it, which seems pretty interesting?

That soldering station sure is built well. That switch on the front looks like a Carling. Again, quality stuff.

In Canada they are to expensive at $665.00 compared to the USA price point at $248.00 - $325.00 so if we want one we have to import it from usa and pay extra duties fees and import taxes ! All they ad to do with the heatsink cooking and touching the cap was to lay the cap down flat against the pcb at least if i bought one that's the first thing i would do and glue the cap with a touch of silicone against vibration ! The electronic display control jumping to much would trigger me fast enough

Just bought this. I mostly do rework and repair and this is my first higher end station. Upgraded from a hakko 888 so this is a big jump in quality and performance for me. I'm glad i learned on lower quality stations prior to using this.

EEVBlog 121GW multimeter also makes a handy power analyzer prop! Add it to the selling points!

I tried to post in your previously uploaded version of this video. I didn't see you confirm the actual temperature of the JBC with the Hakko temperature reader. How can you make any comparison about 270C between the two if you didn't show that the JBC was really at 270C and not 290C or higher? If I missed that, I apologize, but I didn't see it previously.

8:49 looks like JBC C245 is not pushed in all the way by the >| symbol. If pushed all the way in it could approx halve the difference

8:00 : Tight as a nun's nasty (almost spit my coffee lol)

Dave, I'm 58 years old, and our American schools, stopped teaching us the metric system, after my fifth grade level!

My works got some heatwise 100's if u can solder a resistor to a 1.5 analog jack for the temp controller, the station is$20 ax man surplus

Would be interesting to know if the thermal performance of the ADS200 can be improved using Unisolder or a redesigned control PCB? I wonder if tip plating is the real issue?

I quite like the JBC’s compact size compared with this beast.

Dave, do you plan to test the Ersa i-Con? It would be interesting comparison ERSA and JBC.

I just do not understand how they let the whole hestsink-capacitor collision go into full scale production??

It depends on the work you do, I like a lot of things about it but that circuit board should be better for a $200+ USD Soldering Iron

The cap is in direct contact with the heat sink?!? That will heat up the cap and reduce its reliability. Dumb.

im using an ERSA iCon now...love it!

Decaf guy, decaf! Say what you want about this accu-drive stuff, I’ll keep my MBT-250 and be happy in it. If you’re using that crap lead free solder, what could you possibly expect. There really is only one solder that consistently performs, low temp operation, excellent wetting properties and yields the highest quality and highest reliability joints and that is Kester 282 RMA solder in Sn63 or Sn62 formulations. With the Sn62, you get a lower temp operation to protect delicate smds and chips of all kinds. It can operate as low as 285 F. I use 300 F just fine. You’ll never get the high reliability and high quality joints using lead free. In medical, critical circuitry, military, defense and aerospace applications and even in high end audio, nothing beats RMA solder!

You forgot to tin the tip, first time. Not good practice, I have seen how you are...lol BTW I have the ADS200 on my bench too, love it with Imperial size tips!

£380 in the UK right now from official distribution

I love how it looks like a 1980s science textbook

It is 2018 and this looks like it was designed in 1980.

With you that the firmware could do with a low pass filter but tbh the speed that this thing stabilises probably stops you needing it. Similarly for the setting the temperature while staying in setback, not a practical issue because it's stabilised before you even finish picking the thing up. Visually it could be tweaked but performance and physical build quality looks excellent. The PCB however looks like a disaster. Swings and roundabouts but incredible for the price.

"Tight as a nun's nasty"....that's a new one for me! lol Instead of brass wool, I just bought some Brillo-style pads at the dollar store. I think they're copper, or copper coated aluminum or something. It works quite nicely for cleaning tips.

I'll hang on to my JBC-2EP if you don't mind.

Darn. I was hoping Dave would test it on 480v 3-phase! Takers, anyone? Beulah? This way, you really give it the smoke test...

I personally think the Hakko FM-2027 iron is far superior to both the JBC and PACE simply for the ease of changing tips. If you leave the sleeve/grip on the T-15 tip and have a separate grip for each tip, you don't need any finicky tip remover or hot pad to remove your tips on the fly.

in my opinion the station with the best holder is the one on the ersa ms 6000 i could proberbly stand a meter away and still throw it in the stand and have it land

So was waiting for “ but wait there’s more” comment, great video bud, not a nuns nasty. Lmao. Keep up the awesome work .. 🤙🏼🤙🏼🤙🏼

The PACE is too expensive in europe. PACE ADS200 355€ JBC CD-2BE (digital) 399€ JBC BT-2BWA (analog) 289€

So if Pace just made the Ultra-Performance tip cartridges have less iron plating they would be a JBC killer. No? You would get the Standard when you want longer life and the Ultra when you need to deliver more heat. Seems like a no-brainer for them.

Embarrassingly terrible layout in the PACE, that control board is shockingly bad, good thing it works ok... Good to see PACE finally offering something affordable.

The firmware was written by a guy who was stuck in the 60's. The UI was designed by the same guy.

Direct heat compared to old school is kinda like SSDs compared to HDDs.

that is one homely soldering station - I think JBC is safe.

They should sell them in the Eu I live in the Netherlands can buy it from German Amazon

pace is what I used in the ARMY MOS Training..89-90-91

On the power delivery front, as soon as the front cover came off the Pace, my first thought was "THAT dinky little transformer's supposed to deliver 120W? Pffffff... Fat chance..." That thing can't be more than 50-60W or so, probably in the physical ballpark of the transformer inside my 60-80W Ersa iCon Nano (if not a smidge smaller, even).

The big ground plane would call for my 200W weller soldering iron. Not a weanie pencil iron.

Dave, can you please say when quoting price if its aud or usd. At mektronics au the jbc and the pace are same price.