> Maybe I'm out of touch, but I think I'll stick to my thermostat-controlled Weller soldering station and FTDI UART converters. Regarding FTDI products, after

> Maybe I'm out of touch, but I think I'll stick to my thermostat-controlled Weller soldering station and FTDI UART converters. Regarding FTDI products, after the well known controversy (1) I avoid them as much as I can. I also have two Wellers and will keep them until they die, which given their reliability should equal to never, but a few years back I purchased a Pinecil (1st model) out of curiosity and because I wanted to support Pine64 some way, and have to admit the device works really well even with non trivial joints that require a decent thermal mass (something many of those Hakko clones fail at). I have never installed anything onto it or even used any other function than plain temperature control though, but as a portable solder iron it just does the job without hitches. 1- https://www.reddit.com/r/amateurradio/comments/43q3vt/ftdi_does_it_again_screwing_end_users_of_their/ https://www.reddit.com/r/amateurradio/comments/43q3vt/ftdi_d...