12 ms·

Pine64 announce the Pinecil, TS100 compatible RISC-V soldering iron

194 points by taylorfinley 6y ago

tekstar 6y ago
Probably a dumb question to some but why does a soldering iron need more than temperature regulation?
- lhoff 6y ago
  As far as i understand it, its basically that. But you want the temperature to be controllable and oberservable. So the microcontroller is controlling the display, heating element and user input.
- ThatPlayer 6y ago
  A lot of modern irons also have motion sensors built into the handle. Allowing it to cooldown or even turn off when it detects no activity, and automatically heat back up when it does. I can't be the only one who has left an iron on overnight by accident. The TS100 custom firmware, https://github.com/Ralim/ts100 https://github.com/Ralim/ts100 , also has features like detecting incoming voltage for use on lithium battery packs to prevent overdischarge. Pine64 even mentions they've sent a prototype to this developer.
- spuz 6y ago
  The TS100 and the subsequent TS80 soldering irons were innovative for a few reasons. The heating element is in the tip rather than the body of the iron. This means it can reach a high temperature (e.g. 350C) using much less power than a traditional iron. This means that it can be powered with a USB power bank and makes it a great iron for using off the grid or in the field. This also means it's very lightweight which makes it easier to handle for delicate soldering work. Even if you're working at your desk, being able to power it with a portable power bank means you can more easily move the power cable so it does not get in the way (also I believe the TS80 comes with a silicone USB cable which is really flexible and easy to manipulate). Another nice feature is that it has an accelerometer which means it can automatically drop to a lower temperature when it's placed down making it a bit safer. Lastly, the firmware can be replaced and people have added features such as a temperature boost mode, power level monitoring and so on: https://github.com/Ralim/ts100 https://github.com/Ralim/ts100 Normally, you can get these irons for $80-$90 so a $24.99 iron that uses the same tips and software would be an absolute bargain.
  - noir_lord 6y ago
    Makes it less likely to accidentally pick up by the hot bit something I’ve done several times when concentrating on what I’m working on and not on the insanely hot thing I just picked up.
  - formerly_proven 6y ago
    > The TS100 and the subsequent TS80 soldering irons were innovative for a few reasons. The heating element is in the tip rather than the body of the iron. That's not their innovation, since they copied JBC's cartridge design to do that. Their innovation is that they're selling an incompatible Chinese copy of JBC's system that's self-contained in the soldering iron and powered by a laptop power brick or USB-C.
    - bb88 6y ago
      > Their innovation is that they're selling an incompatible Chinese copy of JBC's system that's self-contained in the soldering iron and powered by a laptop power brick or USB-C. So did JBC create a soldering iron compatible with a Hakko power station? My understanding is pretty much all pro-level soldering irons are not compatible with each other.
  - squarefoot 6y ago
    > The heating element is in the tip rather than the body of the iron. That was an innovation compared to old pen shaped irons, but our old beloved gun shaped solder irons were much better wrt heat transfer: the heating element wan't just inside the tip, it was the tip. that's why they could deliver insanely fast heating times like two or three seconds from turned off to maximum temperature. I still have a couple of them, and they literally spank my Weller styluses asses when soldering heavy stuff, but alas their shape and big tips aren't suitable for use on very small stuff, not to mention SMT devices.
    - KMag 6y ago
      > they literally spank my Weller styluses asses The ass-end of the stylus is pretty obvious, but where's the appendage that the gun uses for spanking? Also, you may want to cut back on the psychedelics while soldering.
ncmncm 6y ago
NB: Cannot buy it yet; give it a few months. But you can pre-order a PinePhone. If you do, make sure the phone is the only thing in the cart, or the order won't work.
axegon_ 6y ago
Overall I've been very impressed with pine64 lately. They've been really stepping up their game. The tablet, phone and now this. All in the span of a month and a half, during quarantine/lock down. Good job pine64, keep it up!
- peterbmarks 6y ago
  I worry that they're doing too much. Surely shipping PineBook Pros in quantity should be the top priority.
127 6y ago
Unfortunate that they didn't improve the handle, but really nice effort nonetheless.
- spuz 6y ago
  The post says they have improved on the ergonomics and the grip.
ThatPlayer 6y ago
Looks interesting, especially USB-C input. There's a TS80 (and TS80P) which does Qualcomm Quick Charge (and the P for USB-PD) USB-C input, but the Pinecil's flexibility of both seems better. The TS80s also uses different tip form factors, so I would need entirely new tips compared to this.
- sbx320 6y ago
  The TS80P also supports Quick Charge in addition to USB-PD, although QC3 limits you to around 18W (versus 30W for USB-PD). I wonder how the ergonomics on the production Pinecil will end up. I never ended up liking the TS100s feel for soldering, which made the TS80 my go-to iron. The wide tip availability is great, but I'd rather take a limited tip selection and better ergonomics.
- topspin 6y ago
  I love the idea of using my lab power supply to power my soldering iron. I will gladly take back the space of my soldering station, it's separate power plug and wires, etc. Plus I'll be able to see current draw in real time.
  - myself248 6y ago
    I do this with my TS100 right now, when I'm gonna be running it for long enough that the Ryobi battery, which serves as its steady base, would not have a good time. The TS100 can show you the input voltage and duty cycle, I wonder if there's firmware that calculates watts...
anderspitman 6y ago
Does anyone know if the current crop of FLOSS phone companies (pine64, Purism, etc) have sustainable/profitable businesses? That seems to me the most important variable when setting my hopes of getting a usable Linux phone anytime soon.
- the_pwner224 6y ago
  pine64 has been making open source hardware for a while, with a bunch of single board computers similar to the raspberry pi. They're probably going to be around for a while. Purism appears to be having hardware issues with the Librem, and from what I've heard their laptop hardware is also pretty bad.
  - RealStickman_ 6y ago
    Do you have any sources for problems with Purism Laptops? Just out of curiosity as I only heard about problems with the Librem 5, never about problems with their laptops.
    - the_pwner224 6y ago
      https://anarc.at/hardware/laptop/purism-librem13v4/#hardware-reliability https://anarc.at/hardware/laptop/purism-librem13v4/#hardware... And the third top level comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/hr8hvi/not_recommending_purism/ https://old.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/hr8hvi/not_recommend... I've heard similar things in the past, but can't remember where.
syntaxing 6y ago
At the price point of $25, it's super tempting. Honestly not too sure what I would do with the RISC-V functionality. But I guess it would be fun trying to program a RISC-V based uC which I never done before. Would be very interesting if they add some I/O pins to it.
- mycall 6y ago
  For another $25 RISCV unit that is fun, take a look at the MaixCube [0]. It is loaded with tech and I've had some good success with YOLO object detection [1]. [0] https://www.seeedstudio.com/Sipeed-Maix-Cube-p-4553.html https://www.seeedstudio.com/Sipeed-Maix-Cube-p-4553.html [1] https://www.hackster.io/dmitrywat/object-detection-with-sipeed-maix-boards-kendryte-k210-421d55 https://www.hackster.io/dmitrywat/object-detection-with-sipe...
  - nl 6y ago
    Your article is really, really good. Thanks for writing that. I was actually looking at the seeedstudio AI development platform products last weekend and trying to work out what was actually usable and you've made that simple. Any other tips for someone who knows their way around neural networks and python but not microcontrollers?
- StavrosK 6y ago
  Holy shit, if this thing is anywhere close to a TS100 for $25, it's going to be amazing. The TS100 is by far the best soldering iron I've ever used (though I haven't used any $200+ ones). If you can get one for $25, don't even think about it.
  - agumonkey 6y ago
    25$ is low indeed I wish someone designed flat tips for desoldering small multipins
    - myself248 6y ago
      I've been using these in my TS100 and they work great. Sticks out too far, but still works: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32849007766.html https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32849007766.html Photo: https://i.imgur.com/v0HV86r.jpg https://i.imgur.com/v0HV86r.jpg
mkl 6y ago
> The PinePhone can now achieve 100hrs standby time without modem Is it really standby without the modem? Sounds more like sleep.
- MartijnBraam 6y ago
  It's both, it's more like a baseline. I think modem-on sleep time can still be better than 24 hours.
kd5bjo 6y ago
> Obviously the one crucial bit of having the Pinecil actually functional is having software support for the device. Personally, I would’ve thought the one crucial bit of a functional soldering iron is to deliver enough thermal power at the tip to melt solder. All the software in the world won’t help if the hardware can’t manage that.
- leoc 6y ago
  Apparently the quality of the temperature control also matters quite a bit. It seems the TS100 has little problem in either of those departments https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgrB5P-rDLw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgrB5P-rDLw https://hackaday.com/2017/07/24/review-ts100-soldering-iron/ https://hackaday.com/2017/07/24/review-ts100-soldering-iron/ , especially if you use a 24V power supply. It's also embarrassingly cheap compared to the mid-spec soldering irons from prestige brands which it tends to match.
  - quaa55 6y ago
    ts100 with a 4S lipo at ~14v has no issues getting to temp or staying at temp. it's great kit, highly recommend. this pine64 pencil looks awesome.
- imtringued 6y ago
  Delivering enough power is the easy part. As a kid I bought a bunch of unregulated soldering irons that cooked their own tip.
m0xte 6y ago
Meanwhile on planet Earth, my Metcal production iron doesn’t even have a computer in its brain. The important bit of the iron is not really the brain but the latency of the control loop and the absolute power delivery which is easy enough to solve with a couple of lm358’s on the ts100 element/sensor.
- sigmaprimus 6y ago
  This device does not appear solve any problem, other than poor quality soldering irons made from QC failed components being sold by unscrupulous vendors. Maybe Pine64 should work on making their site load faster rather than putting BT in a paperweight.
  - imtringued 6y ago
    I'm sure these irons are a thousand times better than those I bought as a kid.
    - m0xte 6y ago
      They're really not. They're quite dangerous. I flirted with the "T12" ecosystem for a bit and the designs are marginal to say the least. From a mechanical design perspective it's not uncommon for the mount to short the supply out which will blow the MOSFET in the unit to bits. Secondarily, if the power supply browns out, the devices tend not to fail safe and will quite happily give you a bright orange glowing fire hazard for a tip. Not only that some of the Quicko ones have firmware crash bugs which can trigger a reset while the MOSFET is turned on. Woosh.
  - taylorfinley 6y ago
    Their site has recently switched over to running on a cluster of 24 of their own RockPro64 single board computers. As of their June update (https://www.pine64.org/2020/06/15/june-update-postmarketos-ce-pinephone-shipping-pine64-cluster/ https://www.pine64.org/2020/06/15/june-update-postmarketos-c...) the site, forum, IRC channel and Matrix servers were running on just 8 nodes of the cluster. Given the notorious Hacker News hug-of-death, I think they're doing pretty well!
kristopolous 6y ago
As someone who has an 80% chance of destroying whatever I'm trying to solder, any improvement in what I'm using would be super welcome.
squarefoot 6y ago
Wait, no WiFi? How do I signal my coffee machine to make a cup every 2 hours of soldering? That's a fail! /s Seriously, I'm not for putting too much silicon into a thing that should only keep control of the tip temperature, but the price makes it very tempting, and I'd love to support Pine64 for their work on open source devices.
lsllc 6y ago
The Pinecil sounds interesting! I have a Antex Gascat 75P [0] propane powered soldering iron that I absolutely love! I keep it in my "primary" toolbag along with a few feet of Sparkfun's 0.020" "special blend" solder [1] (which is also excellent). It can be a bit finicky to ignite, but it heats up super-quickly and can be refilled easily from a common-or-garden propane refill. I'll definitely have to try the Pinecil, even if it's just because "RISC-V!". [0] https://www.antex.co.uk/products/cordless-soldering-irons/gascat-75p-kit/ https://www.antex.co.uk/products/cordless-soldering-irons/ga... [1] https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10242 https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10242
- exmadscientist 6y ago
  That "special blend" solder is interesting; it appears from the MSDS to be a standard water-soluble flux core paired with an almost-standard SAC305 lead-free solder (there's some Sb added). I'm not sure what's so nice about that, but I'll take their word for it. What I would NOT do, though, is choose this stuff for general purpose use, especially "tool bag" use. Water-soluble fluxes are powerful, but they must be cleaned or you'll have corrosion troubles. Maybe I'm just getting old, but I'd prefer a RMA-type flux here.
  - lsllc 6y ago
    Actually I have been using the special blend with a Hakko FX888D soldering station on my workbench for a few years now and haven't had any problems with corrosion with this solder/flux (mostly for through hole on headers etc).
- zaarn 6y ago
  If you want to experiment now, I can recommend the TS100 or TS80. The TS100 requires a beefy power brick but it's one of the nicest all-rounder irons one can have for under 100$. The TS80 isn't as beefy in power terms but runs of USB so you can power it from a standard phone battery bank or USB-C charger. IMO for any hobbyist a TS100 is probably the best bang for the buck unless you go for rather expensive soldering stations.
eointierney 6y ago
Tinkering electronically Let's celebrate and explore
charliebrownau 6y ago
Are the pine stuff actually made in UK or USA locally or is it more shit manufactured in Asia (China/Vietnam/etc)
ladberg 6y ago
For anyone else who's wondering why a RISC-V soldering iron is special, it's not necessarily for soldering: > This means you can use the Pinecil as a platform to create something completely different based on this platform, such as a drill or a multimeter.
Waterfall 6y ago
If you don't already have a soldering iron this is not a bad idea if you have a low budget. You should get a heat gun instead if you want something useful in today's modern age though to work with SMDs unless you prefer baking all your components. A heat gun is much better for removing smd components and is a lot more useful than a clunky iron even if it's risc-v
PostThisTooFast 6y ago
What the hell is that page even about?
Alexander729 6y ago
This calculator ought to not be made use of in circumstances where the warm resource is much smaller sized than the base of the heat sink <a href="https://heatscape.com/">Custom https://heatscape.com/">Custom Heat Sinks</a>
Alexander729 6y ago
This calculator ought to not be made use of in circumstances where the warm resource is much smaller sized than the base of the heat sink https://heatscape.com/ https://heatscape.com/

194 points by taylorfinley 6y ago

tekstar 6y ago

Probably a dumb question to some but why does a soldering iron need more than temperature regulation?

lhoff 6y ago
As far as i understand it, its basically that. But you want the temperature to be controllable and oberservable. So the microcontroller is controlling the display, heating element and user input.
ThatPlayer 6y ago
A lot of modern irons also have motion sensors built into the handle. Allowing it to cooldown or even turn off when it detects no activity, and automatically heat back up when it does. I can't be the only one who has left an iron on overnight by accident. The TS100 custom firmware, https://github.com/Ralim/ts100 https://github.com/Ralim/ts100 , also has features like detecting incoming voltage for use on lithium battery packs to prevent overdischarge. Pine64 even mentions they've sent a prototype to this developer.
spuz 6y ago
The TS100 and the subsequent TS80 soldering irons were innovative for a few reasons. The heating element is in the tip rather than the body of the iron. This means it can reach a high temperature (e.g. 350C) using much less power than a traditional iron. This means that it can be powered with a USB power bank and makes it a great iron for using off the grid or in the field. This also means it's very lightweight which makes it easier to handle for delicate soldering work. Even if you're working at your desk, being able to power it with a portable power bank means you can more easily move the power cable so it does not get in the way (also I believe the TS80 comes with a silicone USB cable which is really flexible and easy to manipulate). Another nice feature is that it has an accelerometer which means it can automatically drop to a lower temperature when it's placed down making it a bit safer. Lastly, the firmware can be replaced and people have added features such as a temperature boost mode, power level monitoring and so on: https://github.com/Ralim/ts100 https://github.com/Ralim/ts100 Normally, you can get these irons for $80-$90 so a $24.99 iron that uses the same tips and software would be an absolute bargain.
- noir_lord 6y ago
  Makes it less likely to accidentally pick up by the hot bit something I’ve done several times when concentrating on what I’m working on and not on the insanely hot thing I just picked up.
- formerly_proven 6y ago
  > The TS100 and the subsequent TS80 soldering irons were innovative for a few reasons. The heating element is in the tip rather than the body of the iron. That's not their innovation, since they copied JBC's cartridge design to do that. Their innovation is that they're selling an incompatible Chinese copy of JBC's system that's self-contained in the soldering iron and powered by a laptop power brick or USB-C.
  - bb88 6y ago
    > Their innovation is that they're selling an incompatible Chinese copy of JBC's system that's self-contained in the soldering iron and powered by a laptop power brick or USB-C. So did JBC create a soldering iron compatible with a Hakko power station? My understanding is pretty much all pro-level soldering irons are not compatible with each other.
- squarefoot 6y ago
  > The heating element is in the tip rather than the body of the iron. That was an innovation compared to old pen shaped irons, but our old beloved gun shaped solder irons were much better wrt heat transfer: the heating element wan't just inside the tip, it was the tip. that's why they could deliver insanely fast heating times like two or three seconds from turned off to maximum temperature. I still have a couple of them, and they literally spank my Weller styluses asses when soldering heavy stuff, but alas their shape and big tips aren't suitable for use on very small stuff, not to mention SMT devices.
  - KMag 6y ago
    > they literally spank my Weller styluses asses The ass-end of the stylus is pretty obvious, but where's the appendage that the gun uses for spanking? Also, you may want to cut back on the psychedelics while soldering.

ncmncm 6y ago

NB: Cannot buy it yet; give it a few months. But you can pre-order a PinePhone. If you do, make sure the phone is the only thing in the cart, or the order won't work.

axegon_ 6y ago

Overall I've been very impressed with pine64 lately. They've been really stepping up their game. The tablet, phone and now this. All in the span of a month and a half, during quarantine/lock down. Good job pine64, keep it up!

peterbmarks 6y ago
I worry that they're doing too much. Surely shipping PineBook Pros in quantity should be the top priority.

127 6y ago

Unfortunate that they didn't improve the handle, but really nice effort nonetheless.

spuz 6y ago
The post says they have improved on the ergonomics and the grip.

ThatPlayer 6y ago

Looks interesting, especially USB-C input. There's a TS80 (and TS80P) which does Qualcomm Quick Charge (and the P for USB-PD) USB-C input, but the Pinecil's flexibility of both seems better. The TS80s also uses different tip form factors, so I would need entirely new tips compared to this.

sbx320 6y ago
The TS80P also supports Quick Charge in addition to USB-PD, although QC3 limits you to around 18W (versus 30W for USB-PD). I wonder how the ergonomics on the production Pinecil will end up. I never ended up liking the TS100s feel for soldering, which made the TS80 my go-to iron. The wide tip availability is great, but I'd rather take a limited tip selection and better ergonomics.
topspin 6y ago
I love the idea of using my lab power supply to power my soldering iron. I will gladly take back the space of my soldering station, it's separate power plug and wires, etc. Plus I'll be able to see current draw in real time.
- myself248 6y ago
  I do this with my TS100 right now, when I'm gonna be running it for long enough that the Ryobi battery, which serves as its steady base, would not have a good time. The TS100 can show you the input voltage and duty cycle, I wonder if there's firmware that calculates watts...

anderspitman 6y ago

Does anyone know if the current crop of FLOSS phone companies (pine64, Purism, etc) have sustainable/profitable businesses? That seems to me the most important variable when setting my hopes of getting a usable Linux phone anytime soon.

the_pwner224 6y ago
pine64 has been making open source hardware for a while, with a bunch of single board computers similar to the raspberry pi. They're probably going to be around for a while. Purism appears to be having hardware issues with the Librem, and from what I've heard their laptop hardware is also pretty bad.
- RealStickman_ 6y ago
  Do you have any sources for problems with Purism Laptops? Just out of curiosity as I only heard about problems with the Librem 5, never about problems with their laptops.
  - the_pwner224 6y ago
    https://anarc.at/hardware/laptop/purism-librem13v4/#hardware-reliability https://anarc.at/hardware/laptop/purism-librem13v4/#hardware... And the third top level comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/hr8hvi/not_recommending_purism/ https://old.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/hr8hvi/not_recommend... I've heard similar things in the past, but can't remember where.

syntaxing 6y ago

At the price point of $25, it's super tempting. Honestly not too sure what I would do with the RISC-V functionality. But I guess it would be fun trying to program a RISC-V based uC which I never done before. Would be very interesting if they add some I/O pins to it.

mycall 6y ago
For another $25 RISCV unit that is fun, take a look at the MaixCube [0]. It is loaded with tech and I've had some good success with YOLO object detection [1]. [0] https://www.seeedstudio.com/Sipeed-Maix-Cube-p-4553.html https://www.seeedstudio.com/Sipeed-Maix-Cube-p-4553.html [1] https://www.hackster.io/dmitrywat/object-detection-with-sipeed-maix-boards-kendryte-k210-421d55 https://www.hackster.io/dmitrywat/object-detection-with-sipe...
- nl 6y ago
  Your article is really, really good. Thanks for writing that. I was actually looking at the seeedstudio AI development platform products last weekend and trying to work out what was actually usable and you've made that simple. Any other tips for someone who knows their way around neural networks and python but not microcontrollers?
StavrosK 6y ago
Holy shit, if this thing is anywhere close to a TS100 for $25, it's going to be amazing. The TS100 is by far the best soldering iron I've ever used (though I haven't used any $200+ ones). If you can get one for $25, don't even think about it.
- agumonkey 6y ago
  25$ is low indeed I wish someone designed flat tips for desoldering small multipins
  - myself248 6y ago
    I've been using these in my TS100 and they work great. Sticks out too far, but still works: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32849007766.html https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32849007766.html Photo: https://i.imgur.com/v0HV86r.jpg https://i.imgur.com/v0HV86r.jpg

mkl 6y ago

> The PinePhone can now achieve 100hrs standby time without modem Is it really standby without the modem? Sounds more like sleep.

MartijnBraam 6y ago
It's both, it's more like a baseline. I think modem-on sleep time can still be better than 24 hours.

kd5bjo 6y ago

> Obviously the one crucial bit of having the Pinecil actually functional is having software support for the device. Personally, I would’ve thought the one crucial bit of a functional soldering iron is to deliver enough thermal power at the tip to melt solder. All the software in the world won’t help if the hardware can’t manage that.

leoc 6y ago
Apparently the quality of the temperature control also matters quite a bit. It seems the TS100 has little problem in either of those departments https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgrB5P-rDLw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgrB5P-rDLw https://hackaday.com/2017/07/24/review-ts100-soldering-iron/ https://hackaday.com/2017/07/24/review-ts100-soldering-iron/ , especially if you use a 24V power supply. It's also embarrassingly cheap compared to the mid-spec soldering irons from prestige brands which it tends to match.
- quaa55 6y ago
  ts100 with a 4S lipo at ~14v has no issues getting to temp or staying at temp. it's great kit, highly recommend. this pine64 pencil looks awesome.
imtringued 6y ago
Delivering enough power is the easy part. As a kid I bought a bunch of unregulated soldering irons that cooked their own tip.

m0xte 6y ago

Meanwhile on planet Earth, my Metcal production iron doesn’t even have a computer in its brain. The important bit of the iron is not really the brain but the latency of the control loop and the absolute power delivery which is easy enough to solve with a couple of lm358’s on the ts100 element/sensor.

sigmaprimus 6y ago
This device does not appear solve any problem, other than poor quality soldering irons made from QC failed components being sold by unscrupulous vendors. Maybe Pine64 should work on making their site load faster rather than putting BT in a paperweight.
- imtringued 6y ago
  I'm sure these irons are a thousand times better than those I bought as a kid.
  - m0xte 6y ago
    They're really not. They're quite dangerous. I flirted with the "T12" ecosystem for a bit and the designs are marginal to say the least. From a mechanical design perspective it's not uncommon for the mount to short the supply out which will blow the MOSFET in the unit to bits. Secondarily, if the power supply browns out, the devices tend not to fail safe and will quite happily give you a bright orange glowing fire hazard for a tip. Not only that some of the Quicko ones have firmware crash bugs which can trigger a reset while the MOSFET is turned on. Woosh.
- taylorfinley 6y ago
  Their site has recently switched over to running on a cluster of 24 of their own RockPro64 single board computers. As of their June update (https://www.pine64.org/2020/06/15/june-update-postmarketos-ce-pinephone-shipping-pine64-cluster/ https://www.pine64.org/2020/06/15/june-update-postmarketos-c...) the site, forum, IRC channel and Matrix servers were running on just 8 nodes of the cluster. Given the notorious Hacker News hug-of-death, I think they're doing pretty well!

kristopolous 6y ago

As someone who has an 80% chance of destroying whatever I'm trying to solder, any improvement in what I'm using would be super welcome.

squarefoot 6y ago

Wait, no WiFi? How do I signal my coffee machine to make a cup every 2 hours of soldering? That's a fail! /s Seriously, I'm not for putting too much silicon into a thing that should only keep control of the tip temperature, but the price makes it very tempting, and I'd love to support Pine64 for their work on open source devices.

lsllc 6y ago

The Pinecil sounds interesting! I have a Antex Gascat 75P [0] propane powered soldering iron that I absolutely love! I keep it in my "primary" toolbag along with a few feet of Sparkfun's 0.020" "special blend" solder [1] (which is also excellent). It can be a bit finicky to ignite, but it heats up super-quickly and can be refilled easily from a common-or-garden propane refill. I'll definitely have to try the Pinecil, even if it's just because "RISC-V!". [0] https://www.antex.co.uk/products/cordless-soldering-irons/gascat-75p-kit/ https://www.antex.co.uk/products/cordless-soldering-irons/ga... [1] https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10242 https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10242

exmadscientist 6y ago
That "special blend" solder is interesting; it appears from the MSDS to be a standard water-soluble flux core paired with an almost-standard SAC305 lead-free solder (there's some Sb added). I'm not sure what's so nice about that, but I'll take their word for it. What I would NOT do, though, is choose this stuff for general purpose use, especially "tool bag" use. Water-soluble fluxes are powerful, but they must be cleaned or you'll have corrosion troubles. Maybe I'm just getting old, but I'd prefer a RMA-type flux here.
- lsllc 6y ago
  Actually I have been using the special blend with a Hakko FX888D soldering station on my workbench for a few years now and haven't had any problems with corrosion with this solder/flux (mostly for through hole on headers etc).
zaarn 6y ago
If you want to experiment now, I can recommend the TS100 or TS80. The TS100 requires a beefy power brick but it's one of the nicest all-rounder irons one can have for under 100$. The TS80 isn't as beefy in power terms but runs of USB so you can power it from a standard phone battery bank or USB-C charger. IMO for any hobbyist a TS100 is probably the best bang for the buck unless you go for rather expensive soldering stations.

eointierney 6y ago

Tinkering electronically Let's celebrate and explore

charliebrownau 6y ago

Are the pine stuff actually made in UK or USA locally or is it more shit manufactured in Asia (China/Vietnam/etc)

ladberg 6y ago

For anyone else who's wondering why a RISC-V soldering iron is special, it's not necessarily for soldering: > This means you can use the Pinecil as a platform to create something completely different based on this platform, such as a drill or a multimeter.

Waterfall 6y ago

If you don't already have a soldering iron this is not a bad idea if you have a low budget. You should get a heat gun instead if you want something useful in today's modern age though to work with SMDs unless you prefer baking all your components. A heat gun is much better for removing smd components and is a lot more useful than a clunky iron even if it's risc-v

PostThisTooFast 6y ago

What the hell is that page even about?

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