Fnirsi DWS-200 Soldering Station (Review)

The DWS-200 is a modern soldering station recently released by Fnirsi. You may remember the brand for their portable soldering irons or versatile USB testers, which are great products. Now, Fnirsi is stepping into the full-size soldering station market with the DWS-200, their first tool in this category. The manufacturer highlights the large color screen, the “intelligent” temperature control as well as a high power output of 200 W. It includes multiple preset temperature setpoints, and is compatible with two types of soldering irons: the F245 and F210 handles. In this review, I’ll focus on the F245 version. Let’s take a closer look!

Unboxing the DWS-200

The DWS-200 soldering station arrives well-protected in a rather substantial cardboard box. Interestingly, a quick-start guide is printed directly on this box, showing the first steps for setup, including connecting the iron to the base station and plugging the base station into the mains. Opening it up, the main station and soldering stand are secured in foam inserts to prevent damage during transport. The package is neatly organized, making for a pleasant unboxing experience! The iron handle and various accessories are placed separately in a small cardboard container.
 
  

Inside the package, besides the main base station and the soldering iron stand, you’ll find an F245 soldering iron handle, six soldering cartridges, a printed user manual, and a mains cable. Additional accessories include two flexible arms with alligator clips, intended to be mounted as helping hands during soldering. There is also a small banana-to-banana jumper, designed to connect the base station to the stand for detecting when the iron is in the stand. Finally, a steel rod with a clip is included for lifting the iron’s cable above the workbench to reduce wire drag on the bench.

 

Active Tip

Like all the other soldering tools I've tried out for Elektor, the DWS-200 is no exception to the new trend and uses the soldering cartridge system, where the heating element, temperature sensor, and soldering tip are combined into a single unit, referred to as a cartridge or an active tip. This design allows for more precise temperature control and efficient heat transfer, a step up from traditional systems where the tip is separate from the heating element. This improves heat transfer and ensures the iron responds quickly.

In this particular case, the design of the soldering iron and its tips (as well as their names and colors) is heavily inspired by higher-end soldering stations from JBC. While there may be some ethical debate surrounding this level of imitation, we’ll focus here on the technical aspects and the advantages it provides for users, like high heating power and high-performance temperature control.

 

The DWS-200 is rated by the manufacturer for a power output of 200 W, but this is most likely the rating of its internal power supply. With a heater resistance of approximately 2.5 ohms, the tip could theoretically achieve around 230 W on 24 V DC, though this is a peak value rather than continuous power output: the heater would probably overheat and burn itself very quickly at that output power. I’ll be measuring the actual power output later on. Speaking of cartridges, the DWS-200 could be compatible with genuine JBC tips, offering users even more flexibility. If you give it a try, be sure to share your experience with us!

Look and Feel of the DWS-200

The Fnirsi DWS-200 has a modern design that looks good on the bench. The station measures 160 x 95 x 105 mm and includes a 2.8-inch LCD screen, which provides clear visuals, although the glossy acrylic cover tends to pick up fingerprints easily. The base station is fairly lightweight (480 grams), thanks to the use of a switch-mode power supply instead of a linear transformer. This also makes the station compatible with all mains voltages worldwide.

 

The soldering iron stand is sturdy. Interestingly, the part where you put the iron is mounted on a pivot, allowing you to choose the angle you like best for the iron to rest. On that note, the hole that receives the soldering iron is slightly too small, making it a bit tricky to insert the iron in its stand, which sometimes results in a metal-on-metal scratching sound and feel when putting the iron in and out of the stand. The holder includes a metal rod terminated with a cable clip, intended to help lift the cable off the bench and reduce drag. It's an interesting idea, but both the iron’s cable and steel rod are a little too short to make any real difference. On the other hand, the soldering iron handle is lightweight (36 grams) and very comfortable, and its cable is thin and made of very flexible silicone, which makes it very pleasant to handle.

Additionally, two flexible arms with alligator clips are provided, allowing for use as a third hand or PCB holder. For this, you need to remove the rubber caps on the side of the base station and insert the ends of the arms. This approach implies that the station should be the central element of your workbench, right next to your hands. I prefer to keep the base unit of the station out of the way, off to the side of the bench rather than in the center of the workspace, so I haven’t found much use for the flexible arms. Finally, both the base station and the iron holder have silicone inserts in the upper part, allowing a total of 5 tips from the 245 series and 6 tips from the 210 series to be stored.

 

Using the DWS-200

When you plug in the station and switch the on/off toggle at the back, the unit powers on, and the large touch button on the front lights up. Pressing this button starts the device, initially displaying a Fnirsi splash screen, followed by a standby screen. In standby mode, the iron heats to a default standby temperature of 100°C (configurable). A countdown on the screen shows the time remaining until automatic shutdown (set to 30 minutes by default, also adjustable).

As soon as you remove the iron from its stand, the iron begins heating to its working temperature. The three main buttons in the center, highlighted in yellow, are the primary controls. The left and right arrows allow for temperature adjustment in 5°C increments (customizable). The central “mode/OK” button cycles through three display modes: a primary view focused on temperature, a mixed view showing temperature and a temperature graph, and an “oscilloscope” view highlighting temperature and power curves.

 

On first use, after setting the iron to 350°C, I noticed the provided heat felt insufficient, leading to poor soldering results. A quick check revealed a calibration error; although the display showed 350°C, the actual temperature was only 300°C, explaining the difficulty. Luckily, the "calibration" menu allowed for adjustment. The temperature can be corrected at three points (150°C, 250°C, and 350°C) using the left and right buttons. For this, a dedicated soldering iron thermometer is recommended for precise adjustment. After calibration, the iron performed reliably and provided satisfactory results for a variety of soldering tasks.

 

The station emits a beep with every button press, each time the iron is placed in its stand, and whenever the target temperature is reached. This is a lot of beeping! Fortunately, the beep volume can be adjusted or disabled in the settings menu. This menu is accessed by pressing the right “gear” button, and includes options for temperature settings, allowing users to adjust the temperature increment and enable a temperature lock. There are also settings for standby mode (temperatures and durations) and three customizable temperature presets. The calibration menu provides a three-point adjustment. System settings include options to adjust screen brightness, control beep volume, and select temperature units. Additionally, users can switch the language between Chinese and English, and a factory reset option is available for restoring default settings. The left button functions as a back button for navigating the menu and as a quick toggle between the three presets when in soldering mode.

 

Getting Off the Ground?

In general, the tip of a soldering iron is grounded (i.e., connected to the Protective Earth conductor of the mains cable) as directly as possible, aiming for close to 0 ohms. While there’s no absolute rule and fully isolated irons do exist, most modern soldering irons follow this trend. Grounding the tip serves two purposes: it prevents any electrical potential from building up on the tip, protecting sensitive components like small MOSFETs and fragile circuits, and it also offers additional safety. Although it is always strongly recommended to completely power off and unplug any device you are soldering, a grounded tip is generally safer than an isolated one. If you accidentally solder a live circuit with a dangerous voltage, contact with the grounded tip would instantly trip the RCD circuit breaker, protecting you from electric shock. With an isolated tip, however, you wouldn’t notice this dangerous contact, and would receive an electric shock when bringing the solder with your other hand.

With this in mind, it’s natural to check the grounding of the DWS-200. Surprisingly, I found that the tip is not grounded. During disassembly, I noticed that the PCB of the switching power supply includes an SMD footprint intended to connect the negative pole of the output to ground, but this connection was not made. Therefore, users have the option to leave it as is or to bridge the pads with solder to ground the iron’s tip.

 

Performance Testing

Here is a graph showing the DWS-200’s temperature rise to a setpoint of 350°C. The station heats quite quickly, reaching from 100°C (standby temperature) to 300°C in about 3 seconds, allowing Fnirsi to claim a 3-second “melting” time. The PID regulation prevents any overshoot: the heating power and heating speed gradually decrease as the iron approaches the target temperature.

 

Internal Construction and Output Power

Internally, the station consists of a 24 V switching power supply which looks very close to off-the-shelf units used in various soldering stations, as well as a main board that manages temperature regulation, the display, and button inputs. The main board is powered by an AT32F415 microcontroller from the Chinese manufacturer Artery. Two additional small PCBs are used for the front LEDs and the illuminated soft power button. The wiring is neatly done, and if the bright blue backlight of the power button or the front LED animations are too distracting, you could simply disconnect the wires corresponding to the LEDs.

 

To assess power output, I measured the current on the 24 V rail under various usage conditions. In the most extreme test, where the iron tip was submerged in a glass of water to force maximum dissipation, the peak current reached 6.8 A, equivalent to around 160 W. The type 245 cartridges with their 2.5-Ω heater would in theory dissipate more than that, but this cannot be sustained continuously. With this thermocouple-based cartridge type, the regulation circuitry usually needs to periodically interrupt the heating in order to measure temperature accurately.

Overall, the DWS-200 from Fnirsi is a powerful and fast soldering station with a sleek design. While it has some inconveniences, it remains an appealing choice for fans of the Fnirsi brand and users looking for devices with a large screen. If the flexibility of connecting two different types of soldering irons (with the optional type 210 handle) or accessing the extensive range of JBC (or compatible) tips appeals to you, the DWS-200 is worth considering.