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Show HN: iFixit created a new USB-C, repairable soldering system

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Re: Show HN: iFixit created a new USB-C, repairable soldering system

#14

Post by bogwog »

fragmede wrote: post #9

Pretty cool, but it has to compete with the P80, and also with Fanttik's soldering iron, which has a battery and thus doesn't have the cable leash. https://fanttik.com/products/fanttik-t1-max-soldering-iron-k...

I'm very much a noob at soldering so idk if I'm missing out on anything, but the Pine64 Pinecil[1] has worked great for me so far and is surprisingly cheap. It also uses a RISC-V chip and even has open source firmware[2]

1: https://pine64.com/product/pinecil-smart-mini-portable-solde...

2: https://wiki.pine64.org/wiki/Pinecil_Firmware

Re: Show HN: iFixit created a new USB-C, repairable soldering system

#15

Post by alnwlsn »

Well done! I'm mostly a TS100 user, so I'm looking at it from that angle.

Why no boost button (unless I missed it)? That's the one on-iron UI feature I'd be missing - very useful for GND planes. I'm guessing its not a matter of rated power, but just the thermal resistance from the physical size of the tip which restricts heat entering into a heavily-heatsinked joint. Helpful to increase the iron temperature momentarily for such cases. Then again, I can't see heat transfer - happy to be told I'm wrong.

Is this your own tip design or is it the same as the TS80? Can't speak to the TS80 but I've found the TS100 tip quality to be somewhat lacking (I've had tips plainly break off before).

Re: Show HN: iFixit created a new USB-C, repairable soldering system

#16

Post by jareklupinski »

i literally just bought a pinecil and usb-c battery pack (with carry case) to make basically a DIY version of this three weeks ago, but would have gotten this one instead if it existed back then

after a few days trying to turn that into a daily driver however, i've had to go back to my weller desktop station, for one weird reason: i dont have anywhere to put the hot iron in between uses!

i dont know if it's just me, but my work cadence involves me using my soldering iron about 30-40 times over the course of an hour or so, for about 3-4 seconds each time. sometimes i'm soldering a row of headers, or just one or two joints, but then theres 3-4 minutes where i'm moving wires around or programming something quickly, and i dont want to wait for the tip to cool each time so i can set it somewhere and work on the board a bit, if I can just leave it in a safe place while hot, which my weller always had.

I got one of those bent sheet metal desktop 'holders', but the iron is so light compared to the cable, there's no way it's not falling off the table at some point.

Re: Show HN: iFixit created a new USB-C, repairable soldering system

#18

Post by moffkalast »

I always see these USB-C irons marketed a lot, but I've recently bought a travel iron that's the same form factor with adjustable temperature and all that jazz but just ends with an outlet plug for $16 and couldn't be happier with it tbh.

Unless you're somewhere out in the wilderness, finding an outlet to do any on the road repairs is pretty trivial and you don't need to lug around a large heavy box that does grid to USB-C DC conversion nor a powerbank.

Re: Show HN: iFixit created a new USB-C, repairable soldering system

#19

Post by cassianoleal »

fragmede wrote: post #9

Pretty cool, but it has to compete with the P80, and also with Fanttik's soldering iron, which has a battery and thus doesn't have the cable leash. https://fanttik.com/products/fanttik-t1-max-soldering-iron-k...

And the Miniware TS1C

https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/miniware-ts1c

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