I want to buy a soldering iron. Nothing fancy, just something that works, to solder a few wires here and there, maybe parts at some point. Should I avoid el cheapo brands, or any other good suggestions are welcome.
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I want to buy a soldering iron. Nothing fancy, just something that works, to solder a few wires here and there, maybe parts at some point. Should I avoid el cheapo brands, or any other good suggestions are welcome.
Tobias Klausmann
in reply to Marcos Dione • • •PINECIL – Smart Mini Portable Soldering Iron (Version 2) - PINE STORE
PINE Storeelogy
in reply to Marcos Dione • • •Szymon Bęczkowski
in reply to Marcos Dione • • •Elena ``of Valhalla''
in reply to Marcos Dione • •@Marcos Dione I'm really happy with my partner's TS100 (reflashed with open source firmware), but these days I think I'd buy a pinecil, which is basically the same kind of iron, but already comes with said firmware.
the cheap chinese one with analogue temperature regulation¹ we used earlier was also mostly fine, tbh, this one is just more portable, a bit more comfortable and not that expensive either
¹ i.e. an unmarked knob
Madagascar_Sky likes this.
Marcos Dione
in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla'' • • •Elena ``of Valhalla''
in reply to Marcos Dione • •@Marcos Dione I mean, you don't buy your tools based on the availability of free software firmware to flash them with?
I thought that was everybody did these days
(ok, not really. that's what we tend to do, however :) )
Marcos Dione
in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla'' • • •Elena ``of Valhalla'' likes this.
Gus
in reply to Marcos Dione • • •FWIW despite being someone who regularly flashes open source firmware onto things, I really like my TS-100 and have never touched the original firmware. For the price it's better than it has any right to be.
I keep mine in a bag as a "portable" iron but in most aspects it's as good or better than the analog circuit Hakkos on my electronics bench.
Being forgetful, the advantage of firmware vs analog irons is that if you put it down and don't touch it for a while, it turns itself off. Saves tips going bad, saves accidentally burning yourself later.
(I think the more modern versions in this category are the Pinecil - as already mentioned - and maybe the iFixit soldering iron.)
Elena ``of Valhalla'' likes this.
Madagascar_Sky
in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla'' • • •Wow, what an age. Activist users are re-flashing their soldering irons, and that there are soldering irons that can be re-flashed!