What’s your thoughs on making a similiar setup the upcoming ifixit solder kit? I have no affiliationwith ifixit. I still plan on buying one when they come out, but… in the meantime.
What’s your thoughs on making a similiar setup the upcoming ifixit solder kit? I have no affiliationwith ifixit. I still plan on buying one when they come out, but… in the meantime.
the form factor and all that are good, but i’m not really convinced about the soldering tip configuration. In my experience there is a huge difference between the different soldering tip configurations because the very tight feedback required to keep a stable tip temperature. JBC and Metcal are clearly leading in this area, and the TRS-plug tips like on the TS80, that are also used by this ifixit-station, can’t compete with them.
So when you want a portable station, how about the portable variant of this one instead: GitHub - AxxAxx/AxxSolder: STM32 Based soldering station for JBC cartridges, 9-24 VDC and USB-PD power
Combine this with any USB-C power bank capable of delivering 100W.
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I think this is all great feedback and is very much appreciated. I am starting to look into the project further. I threw the idea out there, not anticipating any response.
Now I have to put something together that is worthy of my pretty brazen post that caught some attention, although may not gain any traction.
Anyone want to sponser or contribute to a portable solder iron build challenge against iFixit? 
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For what it’s worth, I’ve been using the new iFixit iron for the last couple of weeks, and have been extremely impressed. It’s very well made, and has a ton of hacking potential.
I think the iron for $80 is a good price, and puts in it line with the TS101. But the combo with battery at $250 is definitely on the high side.
If I had to guess, I think one of the first things we’re likely to see from the community is a cheaper base/battery for the iron. Communication with the iron over serial is simple enough, so it will be no problem putting together a little box with display and controls. Then just combine that with whatever kind of USB-C power solution works for your needs.
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I’ve got multiple battery banks to evaluate for the project, including one solar that folds out, as well as displays. I’m trying to determine the best parts to use. I really want to use the board from dirtypcb.com in the photo. I need the project to gain some traction with iFixit in order to contribute the time immediately. But am excited to hear your feedback about theor iron. I use theor business toolkit, and love it. I agree with your statememt on pricing. But it’s on par with the rest of their equipment.
Your the second individual to prov8de positive feedback on their iron. May i ask if you received a demo or if supply is available earlier in your local? Id love to actually put the two against each other in a challenge to see what results we would see.
The limited options and non standard tips is what I see the most complaints about. The iron in the photo I posted is from dirtypcbs.com. See more info on that below. Id really love to actually put one together to follow through and see responsrs from iFixit! Several have rescted to my post challenging them, including their CEO, Kyle Wiens.
They sent one out to me to review for the site. Originally the embargo date was to be at start of the month, but then there was some difficulties and they pushed it back to the 12th. Which was fine by me, as it gave me more time to play around with it before I had to write anything up.
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My standards are surely lower than those of many here, but I’ve been happy with my Pinecils. The source code is already open (and easy to work with). The new ones (BL602 instead of GD32V03) had some solid improvements after the first batch (improved regulator, more tolerance to 24 VDC, etc.) and powering portable banks OR laptop-class bricks with barrel connectors or even from (larger) USB-C chargers solves my own rare needs for portabiity and use where I may not have brought everything.
At $26USD (shipping is harsh), it’s just hard to beat.
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Any links? Im still interested in other irons. Looking fof the right one. But never have had enough feedback directly to convince myself to purchase a pencil style.
Like most Pine64 products, it’s available in two prices. Retail is around $35 and has some amount of warranty and support. The Starving Hacker price is $26. (They don’t quite call it that…) You can pay more and save shipping and get it from Amazon if thats your liking.
It uses the same little tips as several other irons (not the headphone jack one) and they get some criticism for the default tip with lots of people recommending k1 knife or bc2 a cone/wedge. I’m still on the factory tip but have carried around some $4 replacements in my Ali cart for months that I’ve still not justified actually checking out. (I haven’t played with my last batch of toys, so I don’t deserve new ones…) At launch, there was something about new 6 vs 8 (?) ohm tips that was a source of mixed grief and joy. I think they heated faster or something but I’m impressed the factory one heats as fast as it does. My use isn’t professional, so 3 vs 5 seconds (whatever) doesn’t change my day meaningfully.
If you don’t have a silicone USB cable, add a red one to your order. I have tons of USB cables, but these are super flexible, so it lies flat and doesn’t tip up when you sit it on a table. Being melt proof is a nice bonus. I ordered more to use for development on dumb little prototyping boards because the same traits are valuable when your dev board can fit in your mouth. (
Do not eat the dev boards. 
) They’re now often too light to hold down a rowdy coiled cable so flesh cables are a nice quality of life comfort feature.
These hit about the same time the GaN chargers entered the market. The 65W chargers that feed this are 221.25 AND charge a MacBook 13 are awesome for travel, though in some travel bags I opt for larger versions with multiple simultaneous ports. The tablet chargers (25W? 35W?)will work, with a longer ramp time, but not all such chargers provide the 20V mode that makes these shine. 20V and 3.5A is the sweet spot…or a 19V brick from a dead HP or Dell or similar laptop with a barrel jack as broken Dells are plentiful. Quadcopter geeks like to make cables from that barrel jack to an xt60 so they can power their iron from the working battery pack to repair the other one.
Inside it’s IronsOS. The lead dev (Ralim) treats Pinecil as his primary dev platform these days, expressing grumpiness at others using hacked up versions of his firmware with no attempts to upstream, comp him hardware, etc., but pushing support problems with random tips and power sources his way. Under the hood is a bl702 (of the bl602/604/706 family from Buffalo Labs) with a fusb302 for USB-c PD power management. Firmware can be built with commodity RISC-V tool chain (no stupid t-head proprietary nonsense here) but you need BLs stupid SDK. It has orientation sensors so it knows when it’s been put down and they keep the screen right side up. There are blank pads and firmware support to add a magnetic flux sensor (free sample from vendor for asking) if you want it to idle down to warm when you put it in your stand, presumably with a magnet added.
The device has been cloned. There are zero legit sellers on Ali and there’s a way to check authenticity via serial number. Ambitious devs have added real-time Bluetooth graphing of temperature (why?) and, I think, some setup from your modern browser with BT support. Somehow having a 100Mhz cpu in a soldering iron doesn’t trouble me, but a browser interface to change the temperature seems weird to me. I’m fine with the old school up and down buttons. I guess I’m a semi-boomer.
The first batch had problems with 24v PD, IIRC. There was some diode or cap rated at 25v near, but not in, the critical path and it’s failure case was a dead short on the power rails so one “solution” for those early ones involved wire cutters or an exacto to cut those pads or something.
I’ve done surface mount with mine and have been happy with it’s ability to source a furnace for those few times I’ve needed to remove a package with a metallic shield or heatsink. I’ll also say that my standards are surely lower than yours. You strike me as a $200 Hakko guy and not a $30 "toy"user for such things. I’m a mere software guy.
I may have done some of the early porting work on this model and it’s predecessor and been really active in the *community", but being open source and with public schematics, I’m sure everything I’ve said is public. My involvement coasted to halt, so my info is a bit dated.
There’s the $100 sales pitch on a $26 iron…
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I come from aircraft. I havent gound hakko to be my style. Im still looking for something that does the job and is not oversized. I know what I’ll probably end up eoth in the long run, but im ready to start trying some other options. I want to be able to control the temp, open source firmware seems cool, portable seems interesting but im not convinced it’s worth beimg open source if I have to tweak it more than I’m using it.
I’m going to purchase a pen style, just trying to figure out which one is best so thay it doesn’t put me off of them for another 3-5 years. I’ve waited this long, but I want to start working on a project that is going to require precision soldering. I may as well try out some other products than a $1,300.00 Weller or similiar. I dont mind the Yihua I can get off Amazon as a backup. But wjen im down to my backup, I’m open to tryong some of the new options available to see if i can find the right iron that makes me want to solder, not that makes me dread it.
Hot iron tweezers are definitely something im also looking for options other than Weller, wich has small precision tweezers. I will take in uour information. Thank you for all the detail. I need to catch up on it after work.