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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

#371

Post by ryukafalz »

kwiens wrote: post #354
ryukafalz wrote: post #141

Any plans to make a hot tweezer tip for this? It's hard to come by those for a reasonable price and that would be very appealing since I've often found myself needing to desolder surface-mount components. I was initially skeptical about the cap vs. a traditional stand until I saw that it mounts to the side of the battery pack to double as a stand. I like that idea! Also, is there documentation on the serial protocol…

Hot tweezers is a fun idea we've been talking about. How would you like to see it implemented? Yes, we really love the cap. It instantly safes the iron when you're done. We'll post more documentation on the serial interface, it's pretty straightforward. A temperature control program would be no problem.

> Hot tweezers is a fun idea we've been talking about. How would you like to see it implemented?

I suppose probably as a separate USB-C soldering iron. I was initially thinking of them as an attachment to the existing iron that would add an extra grip section, but now that I'm thinking about it a bit more that might be a bit too unwieldy. (And it would be helpful for hot tweezers to also have swappable tips for working with different components.)

> We'll post more documentation on the serial interface, it's pretty straightforward. A temperature control program would be no problem.

Thank you! I wish more companies would be this open about their products' interfaces.

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

#372

Post by cthalupa »

Kon-Peki wrote: post #305
Larrikin wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you cook? There are dozens of obvious examples. A crappy knife will tear instead of cut. You'll ruin tomatoes, have uneven dices, crush and smear delicate herbs, have ripped apart meat and fish that you'll destroy more trying to get rid of the trim. That's not counting the downtime you'll have when the knife slips instead of cuts and you can't cook at all due to injury. Giving an expensive knife to a new cook that…

> Giving an expensive knife to a new cook that has never cooked before will not make them a Michelin chef Pick any Michelin-rated restaurant at random and visit the kitchen. You'll find plenty of $50 knives in use. It doesn't take a lot of money to build a good-enough-for-world-class-cooking knife. Once you get beyond a certain price point, it's mostly about personal preferences and "situations that apply to me but m…

Hmm. I'm far from an expert, but I have seen chefs at work in person in about a dozen michelin star places over the years, and in videos/books/etc. of many more. My anecdotal experiences have lead me to believe that no, the knives they use for the majority of tasks day in and day out are not $50 knives. They might have some cheaper knives (usually victorinox from what I've seen) for specific purposes but when it came to chef's knives/gyutos, they were all more expensive. Not necessarily super expensive - I've seen tons of Globals, Macs, and Misonos over the years and their stuff is more like the $150-$200ish range. But I've also seen people with high-end small production Japanese blacksmiths, too.

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

#373

Post by cthalupa »

dpedu wrote: post #167
kwiens wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agree. It's kind of like a chef's knife: a better tool makes you a better chef. A sharp knife is also quite a bit safer than a dull knife. By heating to operating temperature in 5 seconds and rapidly pouring heat into the material, you don't have to hold the hot iron as long. As soon as you're done, pop on the safety cap and instantly shield the hot metal. Soldering isn't remotely mainstream, and part of that is the…

I am completely confused by your example. Buying a better knife doesn't make you a better chef. Buying a faster car doesn't make you a better driver. Buying a more powerful laptop doesn't make you a better developer.

The problem is that bad tools can be a limiting factor, regardless of skill level. The more skilled you are the more likely you are able to compensate for bad tools, but you'd still be more productive with good ones.

A knife that won't hold it's edge will mean you are explicitly going to perform worse as a chef - you will get ragged cuts, you will be more at risk for injuring yourself, etc.

A slow laptop will mean you learn more slowly - doubly so if you are working with compiled languages or anything where you spend significant processing time before determining the outcome of whatever you're working on. The quicker you can get feedback on your work, be it from compilation errors, manual review of the output, your tests running, etc., the more you get to iterate and the more you get to learn.

A cheap soldering iron explicitly can make soldering more difficult and result in worse outcomes, particularly for a beginner.

Be it cooking, soldering, photographing, programming, whatever, there is frequently a point where going from a cheaper tool to a more expensive one will make the life of a beginner easier and let them produce better outcomes. As you get more skilled you can learn how to more quickly and easily sharpen knives, or produce fewer bugs in your code, or how to better handle aperture vs. ISO or whatever. But in those cases there will still often be productivity/efficiency gains from using nicer tools

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

#374

Post by cthalupa »

epalm wrote: post #302
kwiens wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The LED on the iron turns orange once it reaches your target temperature. It glows purple while it's heating, and blue when it's safe to touch.

> It glows purple while it's heating This is not correct, it pulses blue indicating the iron is heating, and when turned off, pulses purple while cooling.

You appear to be replying to the co-founder of iFixit, so presumably he knows what he's talking about.

https://www.ifixit.com/Document/CPMKU1yOZAYVXbpB/FixHub_Sold...

What he says matches their documentation as well:

>Blue LED: The iron is below 40° C / 100° F and is safe to touch.

>Purple LED: The iron is actively heating up or cooling down. Iron tip is not safe to touch.

>Orange LED: The iron has reached the user-set temperature and is ready for soldering. Iron tip is not safe to touch.

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

#375

Post by jve »

themoonisachees wrote: post #219
anamexis wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only $80 for the iron itself though, compatible with any USB-C PD power supply.

The pinecil is $25.

Visiting US shop pinecil is 26$: https://pine64.com/product/pinecil-smart-mini-portable-solde...

EU shop? 65 Euros... https://pine64eu.com/product/pinecil-smart-mini-portable-sol...

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

#376

Post by Kon-Peki »

cthalupa wrote: post #372
Kon-Peki wrote: post #305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Giving an expensive knife to a new cook that has never cooked before will not make them a Michelin chef Pick any Michelin-rated restaurant at random and visit the kitchen. You'll find plenty of $50 knives in use. It doesn't take a lot of money to build a good-enough-for-world-class-cooking knife. Once you get beyond a certain price point, it's mostly about personal preferences and "situations that apply to me but m…

Hmm. I'm far from an expert, but I have seen chefs at work in person in about a dozen michelin star places over the years, and in videos/books/etc. of many more. My anecdotal experiences have lead me to believe that no, the knives they use for the majority of tasks day in and day out are not $50 knives. They might have some cheaper knives (usually victorinox from what I've seen) for specific purposes but when it came…

Fair enough :)

I'll just point out that your standard workhorse Global 8" is easily available for $80ish. Probably even cheaper in Japan with the exchange rates.

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

#377

Post by RankingMember »

cruffle_duffle wrote: post #76

Soldering is one of those things where the tools you use have a direct impact on the quality and enjoyment of the work. Shitty $20 soldering irons from Home Depot not only produce awful results but they are incredibly frustrating. I’m pretty sure most people who think they suck at soldering and hate it only feel that way because their tool sucks. A good quality soldering iron and high quality, thin solder make a huge…

> …I should also mention a solid, heavy parts holder factors into this as well.

I'd just like to note for anyone googling for one after reading this- the Harbor Freight "helping hands" holder and its ilk are the exact opposite of what you want, unless your goal is to have your target falling over endlessly.

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

#378

Post by neallindsay »

urda wrote: post #205
samatman wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a Firefox problem, not an iFixit problem.

Mozilla didn’t make them implement a browser feature that is not widely available. Believe it or not there are plenty of better soldering irons that don’t require a web browser to configure.

You don't have to have Chrome to configure it (the story talks about this). It's configured over a serial interface and among browsers only Chrome on desktop implements WebSerial (and probably other browsers based on Chrome). That said, they did go out of their way and make the Chrome experience nice.

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

#380

Post by omgtehlion »

ssl-3 wrote: post #365
ssl-3 wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pinecil V2 is specified to be 88w -- less than 100, but not very far off. And with a (simple) firmware change and the appropriate 28v EPR charger, it can do 140w.

I goofed up. It can do 126w (not 140w) with the appropriate charger. https://wiki.pine64.org/wiki/Pinecil#Power_Chart

Yes, and your link shows that the power delivered is dependent on tip resistance (which can vary with temperature). Hence pinecil --or almost any other usb-c iron-- cannot control real power delivered.

And you cannot fix this with updates, no firmware can magically grow buck converter with beefy inductor inside the iron...

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