3 ms·
The PineCil looks like a TS100 clone, though I'm not too sure which came first. The huge benefit of these microcontroller irons are their monolithic heating ele
by picture 4y ago
The PineCil looks like a TS100 clone, though I'm not too sure which came first. The huge benefit of these microcontroller irons are their monolithic heating element that integrates the temperature sensor. This allows for much better temperature control compared to cheap Hakko-style irons where the tip is a metal piece that sleeves over the heating and sensing elements. It makes a very meaningful improvement in terms of the time it takes to heat up parts with high "thermal inertia"
- stavros 4y agoThe TS100 came first, but the Pinecil is better.
- MivLives 4y agoTS100 was first. I believe the Pinecil also takes TS100 tips. I've liked the Pinecil except sometimes mine crashes in the middle of me soldering. I need to update the OS but I'm lazy. It does fail cold (Says it's hot but it's not heating) which is probably the better of the two ways it could go.
- type0 4y agoLet's get to the most important questions, can you play Tetris on Pinecil with the new OS update?
- squarefoot 4y agoThere have been reports of defective Pinecil batches, this was after I bought mine and before the newer ones were introduced. There are also reports about fakes sold around, which is not a good thing in this case since the original is already very cheap and 100% Open Source, bot hardware and firmware, and fakes are of inferior quality. The defective batches were among the originals though, but it seems they already solved all problems.
- Steltek 4y agoIMO, the killer feature of the Pinecil is that it takes both direct DC power input (like a TS100) and USB-C (like TS80). It's a great versatile little iron. While I have both a Hakko and Weller, I often reach for the Pinecil because it just feels fun to use.