On Fri, 11 Feb 2011 18:49:55 -0800 (PST), you wrote:

>It seemed the Metcal 500 family is about to obsolete, and the new 5000 fam=
ily is=20
>out. The MX-5010 looks very promise.
>After some research I also found there are "PS-900" and "MFR-2211" are new=
 too=20
>and the PS-900 only cost half the price of MX-5010 (about US$650).
>The major difference I can see is the price and RF frequency, the MX-5010 =
is=20
>using 13MHz, while the  other two uses 450K Hz.
>I was wondering if anyone has tried any of those new machines and what do =
you=20
>think?
>There is even a dedicated PS-900 for solar panel manufacturing, isn't it=20
>interesting?

I have an MX500, MX5000 and STSS-002 I've not used the low-frequency Metcal=
s but one significant
difference is that the range of tips available is much wider for the MX ser=
ies. If you do much SMD
rework then MX is definitely what you want.
The 5000 has more output power than the 500, but in practice the main benef=
it is slightly quicker
heat-up - about 5 secs for a small tip. You'd only see the benefit of highe=
r power on large tips and
tricky multilayer boards.
The  built-in power display is nice if you like gadgets, and slightly usefu=
l when using large tips
to indicate when they are up to temp.=20
A minor downside is you can't turn off the auto power-down - you can set th=
e timeout up to I think 1
hour. The tipsaver magnetiic workstand means there's little reason to power=
down when not in use (my
5000 is fairly early so they may have changed this)=20
The handpiece that comes with  the  5000 is a bit nicer than the old ones, =
but the rubber grips,
though more comfortable, wear out in a few months. You do get three though,=
 with different types of
ribbing for your soldering pleasure...

You may also want to look at Thermaltronics http://www.thermaltronics.com/ =
who do their own similar
products which are compatible with Metcal tips - I have some of their tips =
and they are as good as
Metcal's ones.

--=20
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