This looks like a heavy rebrand of the Pine64’s Pinecil soldering iron.
For 250 dollars. iFixit is turning to the Apple of repair.
Soldering stations that are fixed to an outlet are also expensive. It’s not a cheap tool kit. If it is cheap, it’s a garbage iron that will likely do the job but you will struggle.
I’m trying to buy one for work and every station worth considering is easily over 200 dollars US.
That is pricey… However, as someone who has an ifixit toolkit that contains just about every shape and size of screwdriver bit ever imaginable (and several that defy explanation), and it has been the most useful tool I have ever purchased. I can’t even count how many times I’ve used it.
And the quality is outstanding.
I’ll gladly pay a premium for something that will be “buy it for life” or at least last decades. Phones and computers have inherent obsolescence, but most tools don’t. I don’t buy chinesium tools, I buy reputed European, American, or Japanese tools, the lifetime stuff.
same. no more knuckle busters for me. I’ve got spanners that are 20 years old that I bought, not inherited.
Does it matter if the products last longer than an apple product and can likely be repaired?
Of course it does, I was talking more about price than repairability.
Just curious what do you think a reasonable price would be for this product?
I’d say an absolute maximum of 100 USD
A pinecil is 25$ and a 40kmah battery pack is 35$, so the combination… 60-70 bucks.
I’ve never used one but I just looked up the specs and it looks like it maxs out at 75 watts. Is that enough to keep it hot with like 16 gauge wires?
Spam.
I just blocked OP, “Ghostal Media”, but I liken it more as essentially an adblock
Look at their post history. They arent a spammer by trade. The article posted does read like a paid review, though. And the other posters here have done similar while offering counterpoints.
So basically a copy of the battery pack T12 devices from China. Well done. You fixed an already fixed problem.
The Smart Soldering Iron will set you back $80, while the Soldering Station, which includes the soldering iron and the battery pack, costs $250.
Most interesting to me is that they put the display on the soldering station/battery pack thingy instead of the iron itself.
Temperature is measured in Farads.
Very non-standardI bought my soldering station with air solderer and iron solderer for about 40$ from AliExpress, the ones with IR bottom heater cost around 90-100$
What’s the IR bottom heater for?
IR bottom heaters are usually not strong enough for reballing. They’re for boards that are hard to solder, because there’s a lot of copper or a heatsink for example.
The bottom heater preheats the whole board, not to soldering temperatures but enough to make soldering a lot easier.
Reball of chips on gpus and motherboards of PCs and gaming consoles
Ah. Other than fixing the old Xbox360 RROD , I’ve never needed to do any BGA work, just circuit soldering
Those Nvidia cards used in mining and AI need reballs regularly, also ps4 south bridge often falls off, also intel sockets sometimes need reball, also you can upgrade ram on your phone and Nintendo switch
Oh for sure. I’m not knocking those that can do it, just that my regular soldering skills are shit enough that I’d probably be hesitant to reball something more complicated even with the right gear :-)
Having used an expensive Metcal, I would like someone to develop that level of performance for less. I want the precise thermostat and high quality tips, but I don’t solder enough to justify the expense. I am happy to see iFixit driving innovation in this market though. Weller needs some real competition.
Love my Hakko. Paid a little over $100 for it several years ago. It costs 10x as much as the cheapest option but is 100x better.
Pinecil is 26$ and has a screen.
Pine have so many neat things.
I use a pinecil and it’s great. Tips are cheap and a standard size, it takes usb-c power and has a good user interface.
Not really sure what ifixit is trying to accomplish with this overpriced iron.
You’re probably adding $25-35 to that for a USB-C power supply that can handle it, but yes, it’s cheaper than this. $50-75 if you want it battery powered.
But yeah, I’m not sure what iFixit is bringing to the market that’s better than what exists.
It’s 80$ and doesn’t include a battery. But the ifixit one does include a USB cable and a bevel tip (cone tips are bad)
So it’s more like $26 plus $4 for pine USB cable, plus $6-11 for a ts100 bevel tip. $41 vs $80
The Pinecil uses a standard tip as well. So, you can get cheap ones on aliexpress. That’ll pay for it for me tbh.
I have one of these https://webcat.cornwelltools.com/JP213123-Cornwell®-Cordless-Soldering-Iron-p371692246 as well as a traditional wired soldering iron. While I like the cordless soldering iron’s portability and it’s fine for solder cups or solder splicing wire, it’s not adaptable enough for me to use on a PCB or for micro solder and if I’m honest I’d want a micro solder setup for that anyway. I’ve owned expensive soldering irons and cheap ones (my current corded model I believe is one of ifixit’s), the general problem is that I have too many random tips lying around that I don’t know which iron they go to. Some are junk (because the iron broke etc). Some probably could be used interchangeably.
At least with the cordless one the tips are replaceable, and pretty unique in appearance so I know exactly which iron they go to.
The problem with the cordless one is the heat it can generate and the fact that it’s not adjustable. The problem with the corded one is that I have to lug a 50’ extension cord up to every plane to use it, and often there’s not a safe place to put it down while it’s hot so I have to prep every solder cup, joint, splice etc and then plug it in and turn it on. I’ve got stands galore and none of them is the safest.
I’d be willing to try this out just for the sake of the added protections it provides.
Why this instead of an industry-standard station like an entry level Weller? The Wellers got replacement parts, especially tips which are a consumable item. I have the pervious 50W model and it has worked well in any job that can be done with that power level.
In my experience with soldering, the quality of the tip is the most important part. Then the quality of the solder and flux. Then having a set of soldering tools like wick, pump, stripper, and most of all - a third hand. Then temp adjustability. I had a digital solder station before I had those tools and I did almost as shitty solder jobs as I did with the basic Weller soldering iron I had before it. Once I got the ability to keep the parts stable so I can hold the solder in one hand and the iron in the other, introduce the solder at the joing and melt it in-place with the iron, like the manuals say, the quality of the joints went way up. I could even do some functional SMD work using my phone’s macro cam as a microscope.
I think it’s as much about getting a soldering iron into every home the way that a hammer, multibit screwdriver seem to be. It’s potentially a huge market to tap into. When I was doing this particular shopping I bought a usb-c powered soldering iron with an open source OS.
Oh I’m not questioning their motivation. I’m wondering if it’s a good deal for prospective buyers, given the price, compared to known good tools.
I love my ifixit precision screwdriver, so I’d be a fan and would try this out.
The thing is once I switched to a butane iron (portable, hot in 20 seconds, awesome fire) I don’t have any interest in anything with a wire coming off of the back of it. battery or no, the wire being in the way is ass and is also crap
edit: maybe it doesnt have a wire?
edit 2: maybe I shoulda read the article before typing? 5 second heat-up time, wow… seeing as I am a fucking idiot and am also very tired, can someone who is smart tell me if the iron has a battery itself? the pack is for recharging the small battery in the pen?
Electronics usually wants to control the temperature range more tightly than a butane soldering iron could do. Fine for plumbing work, though. Electronics soldering irons usually don’t have the thermal mass to handle plumbing work.
My biggest complaint about the ts100, Pinecil, and the iFixit station is that the tips are specialized and rather expensive.
It does not have an internal battery but can use any battery pack that can do 100W output.
I pre-ordered this for a few reasons. One, my experience with butane irons was very different than yours I guess. I hated how long they took and how finicky they were. Then I had to find a safe place to put it while it cooled. This has a cap that can handle the high temp with no issue.
When I need a portable iron it’s to do small quick soldering with long waits in between. This seems perfect for that.
This Antex is about 30 years old, has a heat resistant cap and is still going strong :) Don’t know what they’re like these days but I’d recommend on my experience.
fair enough, thanks for the response.
my ‘extra hands’ station w/ the two alligator clips to hold the subject, magnifying glass w/ led also has a holster for a hot iron, so I pop the hot iron in that after soldering.
the wire coming from the iron, whether it goes to a battery pack or the 250 eur smart battery is still the hangup for me. I build large things with nicrocobntrollers in them, so I need to soldier in super awkward places. a wire connecting the iron to anything is a massive liability.
Id be interested to hear how you get on with it though
Give it a replaceable battery and I might consider it.
It has one
[considering intensifies]
I’ll give it a shot. Seems interesting to have something USB powered that can solder.
I’ve been using a Pinecil which is USB-C powered. It heats up in seconds and the temp can be adjusted easily. The big plus to me is how small it is. It’s so much easier to handle than a standard iron, and the tips are push-in and can be locked with a screw so they’re easy to swap.
Let us know how it works. It sounds pretty cool, but ive been disappointed with battery powered soldering irons.
pinecil can be battery powered too and I’ve had a good time with mine. granted the battery is either a laptop power bank or a drill battery, but it’s still portable enough for me
Ah any reason why Firefox decided not to include WebSerial?
Maybe you don’t want to buy the Station, or you left it at home. In either event, you can simply plug the iron into your computer and configure it via WebSerial.
You’ll need a browser based on Chrome to pull this trick off, as Mozilla has decided (at least, for now) to not include the capability in Firefox. In testing, it worked perfectly on both my Linux desktop and Chromebook.
Unfortunately, plugging the iron into your phone won’t work, as the mobile version of Chrome does not currently support WebSerial. But given the vertical layout of the interface and the big touch-friendly buttons, I can only assume that iFixit is either banking on this changing soon or has a workaround in mind. Being able to plug the iron into your phone for a quick settings tweak would be incredibly handy, so hopefully it will happen one way or another.
The WebSerial interface not only gives you access to all the same settings as plugging the iron into the Power Station does, but it also serves as the mechanism for updating the firmware on the iron.
What does a browser have to do with a soldering iron?
Just download exe
Or better yet, buy something that isn’t as over-engineered as this thing.
I believe this is one of those Google “F it I am going to make this protocol my own way without anyone else’s input” which results in security concerns and also Mozilla prioritizes it being a browser more.
Searching serial looks like this is still the case. There are security and privacy concerns over it.
For those not wanting go search:
Mozilla’s Position
Devices that offer serial interfaces often expose powerful, low-level functions over the interface with little or no authentication. Exposing that sort of capability to the web without adequate safeguards presents a significant threat to those devices. A user deliberately installing a site-specific add-on may be adequate, given sufficiently understandable consent copy.
Seems reasonable to me.
Google mainly built this WebSerial shit because they HAVE TO to make Chrome OS more than just a useless web browser.
Good news, I guess?
https://github.com/kuba2k2/firefox-webserial
I’ve only used it to do some esp32 stuff with homeassistant, but it does work.
I’ve also used this for the esp32 and firefox and it worked just fine in that case
I wonder if you can run it off any USB C PD that will do 100w+ without buying the battery pack. I know my MBP USB C power supply does at least 100, if not more on MagSafe.
USB C PD is a standard so yes, as long as the device you purchase to power it supports 100w PD via USB C then will work.
The article seems to say it can, though they’re promoting their own, of course
I always thought the “fix” to a traditional soldiering iron was a hot air pencil.
Do those exist?
