Metcals are probably the best irons around, but something like the Weller WES51 is much more affordable for the average hobbyist while still providing decent performance.
I use a second-hand Metcal system. It cost about the same as a new Weller.
Leon
Philba:
Nice work Winston. Xilinx says to use 4 layer boards but your’s is obviously 2 layer (at most). Have you had any problems from that?
It is a 2 layer board (most of the other side being ground plane, but I’ve needed to route a couple of traces on the back side). No problems so far for what I have been doing, but you can get ground bounce problems given that I can’t get the decoupling capacitors quite as close as I’d like to the pins and being a breakout board usually connected to a breadboard, there’s a fair bit of parasitic capacitance to deal with. (A friend who used my board had some trouble with ground bounce but solved it by using the shortest wires possible from the breakout board to the IC socket that it was going to).
crocu:
Thank you very much silic0re for this link.It is exactly what i’m looking for .
However, board cost about 9$ and shipping cost ~ 75 $ for France !
Is there a cheaper place to order ?
yes