I got a new soldering station. I received the following along with the station. I am not sure what is the purpose of it. Please tell me.
Update:
Soldering station details:
Aoyue 888A
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20
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Which soldering station is it? The accessory might be named in the included inventory list. – Eugene Sh. Nov 02 '21 at 20:16
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Brand, model, link to user manual? – Transistor Nov 02 '21 at 20:23
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@EugeneSh., I updated my question with details. – SKGadi Nov 02 '21 at 20:31
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1@Transistor, It is Aoyue 888A – SKGadi Nov 02 '21 at 20:32
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3You have already got the answer, but from the same station sold on amazon, it is listing "1 x IC Popper" among the stuff in the package. – Eugene Sh. Nov 02 '21 at 20:53
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It doesn't really look like an antenna (or like a very bad one)! More like a fork, or a wishbone. – Dmitry Grigoryev Nov 04 '21 at 14:30
1 Answers
48
It's a chip lifter or pick-up wire.
You can shove it underneath a row of pins from a big QFP to lift it up when heating it.
Since tweezers can't usually open that far.
Example video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wd8MY9_bDTY
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6Interesting, have never seen one of those before. I hope you don't mind that I added a pic from the linked video. – JYelton Nov 02 '21 at 20:30
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19Never seen one before! Much better than flicking it up with a screwdriver! The things one learns lurking in StackExchange. – Kartman Nov 02 '21 at 22:54
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1Neat! Never seen one ether. Could be quite clever, or quite dangerous. As shown on the illustration it could leverage over the PCB edge - that seems like a recipe for lifting pads. Heat + force = lifted pads. If I were to use one of these I would be very careful. – Arcatus Nov 03 '21 at 11:59
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4my money was on "cheap stand attachment for the iron" but i like this a lot more. @Arcatus agreed, this will give very uneven heating across the IC. – Z4-tier Nov 03 '21 at 22:04