https://hackaday.com/2024/09/12/review-ifixits-fixhub-may-be-the-last-soldering-iron-you-ever-buy/ Skip to content Logo Hackaday Primary Menu * Home * Blog * Hackaday.io * Tindie * Hackaday Prize * Submit * About * Search for: [ ] [Search] September 12, 2024 Review: IFixit's FixHub May Be The Last Soldering Iron You Ever Buy 54 Comments * by: Tom Nardi September 12, 2024 * * * * * Title: [Review: IFixit's Fix] Copy Short Link: [https://hackaday.com] Copy [fixhub_fea] Like many people who solder regularly, I decided years ago to upgrade from a basic iron and invest in a soldering station. My RadioShack digital station has served me well for the better part of 20 years. It heats up fast, tips are readily available, and it's a breeze to dial in whatever temperature I need. It's older than both of my children, has moved with me to three different homes, and has outlived two cars and one marriage (so far, anyway). [fixhub_radioshack]When I got this, Hackaday still used B&W pictures. As such, when the new breed of "smart" USB-C soldering irons started hitting the scene, I didn't find them terribly compelling. Oh sure, I bought a Pinecil. But that's because I'm an unrepentant open source zealot and love the idea that there's a soldering iron running a community developed firmware. In practice though, I only used the thing a few times, and even then it was because I needed something portable. Using it at home on the workbench? It just never felt up to the task of daily use. So when iFixit got in contact a couple weeks back and said they had a prototype USB-C soldering iron they wanted me to take a look at, I was skeptical to say the least. But then I started reading over the documentation they sent over, and couldn't deny that they had some interesting ideas. For one, it was something of a hybrid iron. It was portable when you needed it to be, yet offered the flexibility and power of a station when you were at the bench. Even better, they were planning on putting their money where their mouth is. The hardware was designed with repairability in mind at every step. Not only was it modular and easy to open up, but the company would be providing full schematics, teardown guides, and spare parts. Alright, fine. Now you've got my attention. Best of Both Worlds Before we get too much farther, I should clarify that the FixHub is technically two separate devices. Officially iFixit calls the combo a "Portable Soldering System" in their documentation, which is made up of the Smart Soldering Iron and the Portable Power Station. While they are designed to work best when combined, both are fully capable of working independently of each other. Smart Soldering Iron The star of the show is, of course, the Smart Soldering Iron. It's a 100 watt iron that comes up to operating temperature in under five seconds and can work with any suitably beefy USB-C Power Delivery source. The size and general proportions of the iron are very close to the Pinecil V2, though the grip is larger and considerably more comfortable to hold. The biggest difference between the two however is the absence of a display or configuration buttons. According to iFixit, most users don't change their settings enough to justify putting the interface on the iron itself. That doesn't mean you can't tweak the iron's settings when used in this stand-alone configuration, but we'll get back to that in a minute. [fixhub_pinecil] The only control on the iron is a slide switch on the tail end that cuts power to the heating element. I like this arrangement a lot more than the software solution used on irons like the Pinecil. The click of the switch just feels more reliable than having to hold down a button and hoping the iron's firmware understands that I want to turn the thing off and not adjust some setting. Of course, this is still a "smart" iron, so naturally there's also support for accelerometer based idle and sleep modes that you can enable. While there's no display, the illuminated ring behind the grip does provide a visual indicator of what the iron is doing: solid blue means it has power but the heating element is off, a pulsing blue indicates the iron is heating, and orange means it has reached the desired temperature. If you flick the heater switch off, the ring pulses purple until it cools back off and returns to blue. It's a simple and effective system, but the visual distinction between the blue and purple isn't great. Would love to see the ability to customize these colors in a future firmware update. https://hackaday.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/fixhub_ring_demo.mp4 The iron has a couple of clever portability features for those who often find themselves hacking on the go. The magnetic cap can be placed over the tip even when it's hot, which means you don't need to wait for the iron to cool down before you pack it away in your bag. The included USB-C cable also comes with a locking collar that mates with the groves in the tail of the iron -- this keeps the cable from pulling out if you've got yourself contorted into some weird angle, but doesn't prevent you from using your own cable should you want. fixhub_cap fixhub_tip As for the tip, it can be easily removed without tools and uses a 3.5 mm TRS plug like the Miniware TS80, although I don't have a TS80 handy to test if the tips are actually compatible. For their part, iFixit says they plan on offering an array of styles and sizes of tips in addition to the 1.5 mm bevel that the Smart Soldering Iron ships with. Portable Power Station While it's not required to use the Smart Soldering Iron, for the best experience, you'll want to spring for the Portable Power Station. It's essentially a 5,200 mAh battery bank capable of powering devices at 100 W, with a single USB-C port on the back for charging and two on the front for whatever devices you want to plug into it. The trick is, once the Station detects you've plugged a Smart Soldering Iron into it, you're given the ability to configure it via the OLED screen and rotary encoder on the front of the device. There's even support for connecting a pair of Smart Soldering Irons to the Station, each with its own independent configuration. Though in that case, both would have to share the total 100 W output. https://hackaday.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/ fixhub_station_demo.mp4 Assuming a single Smart Soldering Iron, iFixit says you should expect to get up to eight hours of runtime from the Portable Power Station. Of course there are a lot of variables involved, so your mileage may vary. If you're spending most of your time at the bench, you can keep the rear USB-C port connected to a Power Delivery charger and use it more or less like a traditional station. The Internet of Irons Plugging the Smart Soldering Iron into the Power Station is the most obvious way of tweaking its various settings, but as I mentioned earlier, it's not the only way. [fixhub_web] 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. Incidentally, the Power Station has it's own nearly identical WebSerial interface. Primarily this would be used for upgrading the firmware, but it's not hard to imagine that some users would prefer being able to change their settings on the big screen rather than having to squint at an OLED not much larger than their thumbnail. Solder At Your Command But wait! I hear those gears turning in your head. If the Smart Soldering Iron into the Power Station both feature WebSerial interfaces that let you play around with their settings, does that mean they might also offer a traditional serial interface for you to poke around in? [fixhub_serial_border] Hell yeah they do! There was no mention of this terminal interface in any of the documentation I received from iFixit, but thanks to the built-in help function and tab completion, I was able to make my way around the various tools and functions. I never knew how badly I yearned to adjust the temperature on my soldering station from the command line before this moment. There's clearly a lot of potential here, and I'm really looking forward to seeing what the community can come up given this level of control. A Look Under the Hood iFixit offered to give me a peek at the in-development repair guides for the Smart Soldering Iron and the Power Station, but I passed. For one thing, there's no doubt in my mind that the finished product is going to be phenomenally detailed. Just look at any of their in-house guides, and you'll know what to expect. But more to the point, I wanted to see how hard it would be to take the two devices apart without any guidance. [fixhub_iron_open] I'm happy to report that the iron and its base station are some of the most easily dissembled devices I've ever come across. No glue, weird tape, or hidden fasteners. No little plastic tabs that break if you look at them the wrong way. Just two pieces of hardware that were designed and assembled in a logical enough way that you only need to look at them to understand how it all goes together. [fixhub_base_open] Of course, this should come as no surprise. Imagine the mud that would have been slung had iFixit had dropped the ball here. You can't very well campaign for repairability if you don't hold your own products to the same standards you do for everyone else. Presumably they designed the Smart Soldering Iron and the Power Station to hit a perfect ten by their published standards, and from what I've seen, they nailed it. I also got a look at the schematics, exploded diagrams, and parts list for both products. Like the repair guides, these won't be made public until the hardware ships in October. But don't worry, this isn't some crowdsource bait-and-switch. They've got the goods, and it's all very impressive. Now to be clear, we're not talking open source hardware here. Don't expect to pull Gerbers from a GitHub repo so you can crank out your own Power Station. But the documentation they're providing is remarkable for a consumer device. The schematics especially -- they're filled with all sorts of notes in the margins from the engineers which were fascinating to go through. Investing in the Future If I've not made it abundantly clear so far, iFixit really blew me away with the Portable Soldering System. I knew they would put a solid effort into the product from their reputation alone, but even still, I wasn't expecting the hardware and software to be this polished. iFixit didn't just raise the bar, they sent it into orbit. But all this comes at a price. Literally. The Smart Soldering Iron alone will set you back $79.95, and if you want to get the Power Station along with it, the combo comes in at $249.95. You could get a nice soldering station from Weller or Hakko for half the price. Then again, it's hard to compare what iFixit is offering here to anything else on the market. In the end, this is one of those times when you've got to decide what's really important to you. If you just want a quality soldering station, there are cheaper options that will meet all of your needs and then some. But if you want to support a company that's working to change the status quo, sometimes you've got to reach a little deeper into those pockets. * [share_face] * [share_twit] * [share_in] * [share_mail] Posted in Featured, Interest, Reviews, Tool HacksTagged ifixit, repairability, soldering iron, soldering station, USB C, webserial Post navigation - 2024 Tiny Games Contest: A Flappy Seagull Game With Sound In Only 500 Bytes Building A Subwoofer Box Out Of Decking Material - 54 thoughts on "Review: IFixit's FixHub May Be The Last Soldering Iron You Ever Buy" 1. Rob T. says: September 12, 2024 at 7:11 am I think the future of soldering irons is going to be compact but full power cordless that rapidly charges when placed on the stand. Say you had an iron that gives you a stand alone runtime of 5-10 min but can charge/top off after only 30 seconds of being on a stand. Report comment Reply 1. June says: September 12, 2024 at 9:14 am That's already what JBC has called the B iron. Quite impressive, actually! Report comment Reply 1. Tweepy says: September 12, 2024 at 12:46 pm Never used but would love to give a try! But knowing that after trying a Mantis at Elektronica fair I knew I had to get one, I m not sure anymore... Report comment Reply 2. 0xDEADBEEF says: September 12, 2024 at 7:19 am I am quite happy with Miniware TS1C. Because it is wireless and I hate effin wires. Once I had a wired dremel, I installed a cut off wheel, started cutting something and before I knew I had a wireless dremel that didn't work anymore. Report comment Reply 1. The Commenter Formerly Known As Ren says: September 12, 2024 at 10:07 am But as a Hackaday reader you quickly fixed it, right? Report comment Reply 2. Jii says: September 12, 2024 at 2:04 pm Did you also cut the mouse cord when trying to unpackage it? I myself do not like everything being cordless. I'd rather suffer the limited range and hassle of a cord, than the constantly keep managing all the damn batteries, which i already have too many of. Report comment Reply 3. pierremuth says: September 12, 2024 at 7:26 am Now I tasted induction Metcal iron station, my opinion is quiet biased... Report comment Reply 1. psuedonymous says: September 12, 2024 at 7:42 am Same! Not very portable (hence the ubiquitous Pinecil) but having 40 watts of RF immediately shoved directly into the end of the tip (and the tip being 10-15mm from your grip) is hard to beat. Report comment Reply 4. Peter_s says: September 12, 2024 at 7:28 am Well, no . They did not. WHY should I have a single soldering iron instead of two? OR two of the same flaky style? I want one perfectly made for a SINLGE purpose. The overly overengineedered USB-C stuff involves many parts increasing the number of possible failed components. Wrong way. Do the minimalistic aproach. At least on the desk soldering iron it does not need more than a very few componets to make a RELIABLE tool. My ols ERSA soldering iron station serves me since more than 30 years with no single issue. Spare parts are still available. No, I do not agree. Report comment Reply 5. Bob the builder says: September 12, 2024 at 7:35 am "Oh sure, I bought a Pinecil. But that's because I'm an unrepentant open source zealot and love the idea that there's a soldering iron running a community developed firmware. In practice though, I only used the thing a few times, and even then it was because I needed something portable. Using it at home on the workbench? It just never felt up to the task of daily use." I literally bought the Pinecil as a replacement for my standard soldering station and I want to get another one. so I have one in the office upstairs and the workshop downstairs. Just got too many things I need to buy right now or I'd have the new one already. Right now I drag it everywhere. I really don't see much of a difference between this one and the Pinecil except the Pinecil seems easier to use. Other than that, it's effectively the same. I bring a powerbank from AliExpress with a charger when I travel with it, and connect it using USB-C to the powerbank using those epic silicone USB-C cables Pine also sells. I do the exact same thing iFixit is doing here except I can use any PD powerbank that supplies 20V/65W. The idea that it's opensource is cool to me, but that's about it. I don't do anything with it. When I have to do a ton of soldering at work, I take out my Pinecil so I can use that instead of the big Weller stations we got here, with soldering and hot air and suction etc. It's just so much nicer to use, especially with those cables as they are incredibly lightweight and flexible and the Pinecil is so light. It makes soldering work very very easy. Any my colleagues ruin the tips of the Weller's every time they solder for some reason. I'm not the biggest Pine fan, but the soldering iron, USB-C cables and their desktop power supply are amazing. The PineTab was a huge waste of money sadly. Report comment Reply 1. Bob the builder says: September 12, 2024 at 7:40 am Forgot to add and I can't change the comment: My setup was 81 euro's (iron, powerbank and cable) which is 89 dollars, including VAT. And I'd buy that over the 249 dollar (likely ex VAT) iFixit iron, even if they were the same price. Especially considering it's not a standard powerbank. Too many downsides to the iFixit idea, although I appreciate the effort. Report comment Reply 2. Ergotron says: September 12, 2024 at 8:04 am The Pinecil is built (and to be fair, priced) like a toy. If you're ok with that, fine. But this is clearly a tool built to last, rather than be disposable. Personally that's something I'd like to see more of. Report comment Reply 1. Bob the builder says: September 12, 2024 at 8:16 am I highly disagree. The Pinecil is built as a lightweight soldering iron that's easy to carry around on the go. I got colleagues who fly around the globe who take a Pinecil with them everywhere. I take mine with me on vintage motorcycle holidays. It goes into my toolkit. This is an overpriced clone that does exactly the same, but instead of paying 81 euro's (89 dollar) for the pinecil, cable and powerbank, including VAT, you can buy the Ifixit version for 249 (likely ex VAT) with a proprietary powerbank. It looks like the cable is very thick, which makes it annoying to use (same with the standard soldering stations which I dislike). It looks heavy too. The only good thing about the iFixit I can see is that it comes with a cap. I wish the pinecil came with a cap. If the iFixit and the Pinecil were priced exactly the same, I'd buy the Pinecil. With the massive price difference, it makes the Pinecil an even better looking product. Report comment Reply 1. fiddlingjunky says: September 12, 2024 at 8:49 am Yeah, with a nice Powerball you get 65W of soldering iron anywhere. Much better than running 200' of extension cord to your apartment parking lot (definitely haven't done that before) or asking the gas station attendant for where a plug you can use is. It would be nice if it could do 100W, but that only matters for really beefy wires, and most nice USB PD bricks or power banks cap out at 60W or 65W. Report comment Reply 2. Andrei Maiboroda says: September 12, 2024 at 1:56 pm If u need a cap on solder tip, look at T80P Alientek. I use it for 3 months, and it's awesome. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v= 7xDchnzOx9A Report comment Reply 3. Pat says: September 12, 2024 at 10:56 am "I really don't see much of a difference between this one and the Pinecil except the Pinecil seems easier to use." Having a powerbank with a control dial and integrated soldering iron holder is a big usability advantage. The only thing that keeps this from being a total win is the fact that they use (apparently) proprietary tips: I'm not a huge fan of the TS100 tips, but I trust they'll stick around more. One of the reasons I still have an old Weller around is that their tips are essentially free. Although I wonder whether the Pinecil will fit in the power bank's holder: it also can't be that hard to modify the firmware to interface to the Pinecil, too. Report comment Reply 1. Oliver says: September 12, 2024 at 1:46 pm The tips threw me off at first too. Wished they would have forked or worked with pinecil on this. Then reading along I figured, I should biy it as a means of sponsoring them. I got the most expensive screwdriver kit from them for that reason too. The lack of display makes it hard to adjust while on route, but cpuld use something else, right? Then I saw the price, and went ugh, maybe though its still a good deal. But the nail in the coffin for me was the 'it's not open source' part. Which part doesn't even matter. They offer schematics which is great, but getting gerbers is trvial (Ish) by just sanding down the pcb and scanning it. So thats not the secret part. The firmware? Please, no iFixit, you cannot write the best firmware and maintain it for decades. sure, there might not a need, but its also not an option. So this makes me wonder, why. Money grab comes to mind sadly. If pinecil can do an open source variant for much less WITH a display, where is the fear for? The secret would be high quality components from high quality suppliers. Maybe its a 'made in amerika' thing? While nothing iFixit or Right to Repair says open source, it always felt logical and idealistic. Their app was, wasn't it? Very disapointed now. The magnetic cap though is really cool. Report comment Reply 4. Arya Voronova says: September 12, 2024 at 1:36 pm I use my Pinecil a ton. Looking at this iron's specs, I can see some usecases, but I wouldn't buy or recommend this one over the Pinecil for hackers specifically. I can think of ten reasons off the top of my head: The Pinecil is cheaper, significantly so. In fact, for the hub's price, you can get a hefty powerbank, a Pinecil, and a ton of accessories. It'll go to 60W by default, but I'll be honest, the difference is marginal, and Pinecil v2 can break 100W if you use EPR, if you really need 100W. You likely do not need 100W - I soldered e-bike power packs at 50W, the boost mode is super handy. This iron doesn't have boost mode, sadly. You need an external device, to, u h h h, adjust the temperature. Pinecil's two-buttons-and-screen UI offers a ton of features that you will otherwise miss out on - not just adjusting temperature or boost mode, but also the myriad of settings and small features that makes your Pinecil experience maximum comfortable, and things like PD test mode that the Pinecil offers thanks to its thriving open firmware community. Pinecil's hackability is pretty undeniable, from on-board testpoints, to being a RISC-V development platform, especially coupled with its devboard. This? Hope it's good, but we're yet to see. Same goes for repairability. When something breaks on the Pinecil PCB, the parts are quite obtainable and faults are easy to debug. The community is a big part of what makes the Pinecil so great - there's a large amount of mods, designs around the Pinecil, a lively chat that can both help you out and hold a conversation, not to mention the firmware development insights. Without a barrel jack, you're missing out on a good few power sources, like powering your Pinecil from a LiPo, or any generic barreljack PSU. USB-C-only is restrictive, and it doesn't have to be. The tips are proprietary - not even TS80 or Weller ones, as far as I can see. With the Pinecil, you can use TS100 tips, they're super abundant and solder wonderfully, not to mention you can get tips for i.e. putting threaded inserts into plastic. The Web Console doesn't work through Firefox, explicitly - it says you need to use either Chrome or Edge. With all due respect, come on! I know that Firefox has no WebUSB, but I don't think I ever wanted WebUSB to change the temperature of my Pinecil, and I don't want a separate browser or a $180 addon for temperature adjustments. Put a small potentiometer on there, like, it's missing from the Pinecil too, very much low hanging fruit. "Most people" might not change the temperature, but hackers have good reasons to. A custom overmolded USB-C cabl? This cable will break eventually, FYI, and I don't really see the need for "slightly cooler than normal" cable proliferation or manufacturing, we've had enough. Neither is it clear that it's nicer to use than the Pine64 cables you can get for $3 a pop. They're red so they're easily noticeable on the bench or in a backpack, super thin yet capable of 60W no problems, and with silicon insulation that you can't simply melt with the soldering iron's tip - I tried. No ESD protection grounding screw. If the tip is connected to the USB-C ground, you're at the mercy of your crappy PSU - most of them are two-prong, so there's going to be a "buzz" on the minus, and for some, even seriously large negative voltages. You can't release a USB-C product supposed to interface with sensitive electronics and not think of this, and, I really hope they have, but it's not looking like it. I use Ifixit's screwdrivers, they're nice and designed well, so they make sense, but I don't see this quite follow the same formula. I hope it's lighter or more ergonomic or some other big selling point, competition is good, but these are not apparent to me. If you're a hacker, rather get the Pinecil or many other irons on the market - maybe even two Pinecils for this price, one for the desk and one in the bag! Now that I think of it, it would be nice if they've started stocking the Pinecil too. A large amount of online stores in the EU now stock it, but it sure could use being more accessible. Report comment Reply 1. Oliver says: September 12, 2024 at 1:50 pm Well put! They should have worked with (and forked for their specific changes) with pinecil. Done a coop or something. Not invented here/china the issue? Report comment Reply 6. Kirby says: September 12, 2024 at 7:36 am On my side, I swear by my old Metcal MX-500P (the original which is effectively made from a block of Aluminum) that I have had for over 20 years. At the time I was struggling with the soldering irons of the day and was given the Metcal to try by the sales person. Within 10 minutes of using it, I bought the unit (about $1200 at the time) and never looked back. The design is outstanding with no manual temp adjustment... simply order the tip in the desired heat range and that's it. There are dozens of tip styles and are still available and supplied by many vendors... not bad for a 20+ year product. As for use... the tip heats up in a handful of seconds and is able to rework and provide heat to areas like no other. I use my Metcal for basic soldering, but also for specialt larger (144 pin) QFP placement/rework/removal and even for QFN parts with the appropriate tip. Since my purchase I have only replaced the tips as needed (they typically start to lose their heating ability over extended use), the stand (crudded up), and the wand/holder. Outside of these items, the system has never failed me... and given that I have used in for over 20 years now, that speaks volumes. As for the portability aspect... for what I do, it is not needed. The few times I did need to solder at a site, I brought along my Metcal and an extension cord... so no real issue... but YMMV. Report comment Reply 7. alnwlsn says: September 12, 2024 at 7:40 am No boost button? I find it comes in handy on my TS100 every now and then (usually for soldering on GND planes) Also, a bit off topic, but does anyone know if the TS80 / iFixit tips are more durable than the TS100 style? I've had the end break off (right at the bottom of the cone) on multiple occasions. Report comment Reply 1. alnwlsn says: September 12, 2024 at 9:11 am They answered my question on Hacker news - they say they are doing the boost automatically in software and their thermal control is good enough you don't need boost. So more like a Metcal in that regard. This is apparently their own tip design. Being iFixit, I'm sure they've made something decent. Report comment Reply 1. alnwlsn says: September 12, 2024 at 9:34 am Thermistor is inside the tip, they told me. Don't know about the TS80, but this is definitely not the case for the TS100 tips I've broken. Report comment Reply 2. Oliver says: September 12, 2024 at 1:54 pm Thats a neat trick, but if it where that simple, would the pinecil firmware able to do that too? How does the iron know when to boost? 'Warning: Do not heat beyond 350C' aww shit ... Report comment Reply 8. A says: September 12, 2024 at 7:41 am Looks really good, but there's one feature on the ts100/pinecils that it would be really nice to keep - the 'boost' button. As noted by iFixit, I don't change the temperature very often, but I do use the boost function pretty often to get that extra oomph into anything with a high thermal mass (large ground plane, or chunky connector). The actual boost temperature rarely gets changed as well, so it would only need a single button in an easy to press position. If they add that it could be a serious contender for replacing both my solder station and TS100 when the latter finally bites the dust. Report comment Reply 9. aki009 says: September 12, 2024 at 8:21 am Those USB-C irons are great for touchup and individual legs. But if you ever need to add or remove a connector with shell that's been soldered to a PCB, it just won't be able to produce enough heat. Even the use of a soldering wick can give them pause. The right tool for the right job is key, and this isn't for everything. (For the most part I use a selection of Weller soldering irons. They are reasonably priced and I've yet to break one.) Report comment Reply 1. fiddlingjunky says: September 12, 2024 at 8:51 am I've wicked plenty of solder and soldered a good few of thickish TH posts with the pinecil. The posts can take a while, but it's doable as long as you're not doing more than a few. Are you sure you were using a 65W adapter? Report comment Reply 1. aki009 says: September 12, 2024 at 12:50 pm There are plenty of situations where it's possible to use them, but not ideal. In addition to shells, it also depends on the PCB and the cross section of the conductors that wick away heat. If you use a pre-heater on the board you can get away with a lot more things, because the additional energy needed to flow a joint is lesser. At the end of the day it's not so much about the wattage of the iron, but the thermal mass that the head has in relation to what is being soldered. Ideally the joint will flow within at most a few seconds. If it doesn't, the iron doesn't have sufficient thermal mass for the job. If the joint is heated slowly, it's more likely to have uneven intermetallics and hence ultimately a weaker joint. Report comment Reply 10. Myself says: September 12, 2024 at 8:26 am We really need info on whether this works with TS80 or Weller RT/ RTM tips. Report comment Reply 1. Kyle Wiens says: September 12, 2024 at 11:26 am TS-80 tips aren't rated for the 100 Watts of power that this iron is putting out, so being compatible with the TS-80 tips could be pretty sketchy. We'll be selling a variety of tips at launch: Cone, Bevel 1.5, Wedge 1.5, Point, Bevel 2.6, Knife 2.5, Knife 1.4 The instant that the iron detects that it's under load, it pours power into the heating element. That makes it feel and perform like a much more powerful iron. We're dynamically responding to the power load and flowing heat into the material. Report comment Reply 11. Sok Puppette says: September 12, 2024 at 9:03 am Its various settings? I can think of exactly one setting (other than on or off) that matters on a soldering iron. Instead of a gimmicky battery pack and a phone app, maybe they could have invested in cutting-edge "knob" technology. Report comment Reply 12. d00med says: September 12, 2024 at 9:06 am Looks nice, but at around $250 for the set, It's a hard sell to me. My Pinecil does the job in most cases. Have a FX-888D for anything else. Report comment Reply 13. Greg A says: September 12, 2024 at 9:25 am i don't get it. it's impressive, i guess. if i wanted a portable one, i'd definitely be very interested in the comparison between pinecil and fixhub (the cap is pretty exciting, tbh). but i don't understand why you would use this over a more traditional soldering station if you're not actually on the go, but from the lede i expected that by the end of the article i would understand that. i do think it's awesome that people are finding all these uses for usb-c power. but it always leaves me kind of wondering if any of the cheap usb-c power sources i already own would even come close. i guess maybe that's something that might improve in the future and become ubiquitous and awesome. anyways, my bench iron is pretty light in the hand despite being plugged into mains. and i know it's just a bit of molded plastic with a bent steel wire and a copper sponge but i really like the physical manifestation of a station -- somewhere to set the iron when it's not in use, with the tools for tip cleaning right there. the digital temperature controlled station was a huge step up from the station that just had a knob for the wattage. and that one was a huge step up from just a naked soldering iron with a 120 cord directly on it, with no station. i remember i used to hang that one in the bathroom beside the shower curtain just so i would have a safe space to set it while it cooled down. i loaned it to a dorm-mate once so he could jailbreak his playstation and he sat it on his bed! what a great smell. Report comment Reply 14. Matt says: September 12, 2024 at 9:31 am I have the latest pinecil and have it connected to my Milwaukee M18 Top-Off 175W inverter brick. This powers it off of 18V batteries (which I have lots of) gives me hours of use, and I have a very small outlet with me as well. I don't find the pinecil to be a super high quality tool (it's for sure built to a low price point), but it's held up pretty well. In my lab I'll reach for a real solder station, but in the hangar doing avionics work, the pinecil is pretty ideal. Report comment Reply 15. nater says: September 12, 2024 at 9:35 am Firmware not open source? Thanks, but no thanks. Report comment Reply 1. zoobab says: September 12, 2024 at 11:36 am "Now to be clear, we're not talking open source hardware here. Don't expect to pull Gerbers from a GitHub repo so you can crank out your own Power Station." Schematics not open source? Thanks, but no thanks. PS: without any schematics, you won't be able to "fixit" Report comment Reply 1. bmicraft says: September 12, 2024 at 12:14 pm Yeah, it's quite ironic for ifixit to sell a soldering iron, considering their understanding of "fixing" is just swapping in whole new parts sold by the original manufacturer. It's like a single step removed from buying new outright. Report comment Reply 2. Greg A says: September 12, 2024 at 12:26 pm article says schematics are / will be available. i think the intended goal is for it to be repairable but for it to still be a bit of an uphill battle to make an exact copy. of course they run the risk that someone else will take the schematic and produce their own pcb layout and case / buttons / etc. Report comment Reply 1. Jii says: September 12, 2024 at 2:11 pm Making a copy is not going to be that hard, barely an inconvinience, even without schematics, so not a very good excuse. Report comment Reply 16. H Hack says: September 12, 2024 at 10:26 am I don't know who the market audience are, but for PS239.99 it's not me. Report comment Reply 17. kaaaaaaaaaaaaang says: September 12, 2024 at 10:28 am You can always buy a soldering iron made of enriched uranium. It will be the lasr you ever buy too, for a different reason. Report comment Reply 18. Brian says: September 12, 2024 at 11:01 am Overpriced Report comment Reply 19. KDawg says: September 12, 2024 at 11:02 am Weller has used the TRS style tips for quite a while now, I would be more interested that its compatible with that instead of another fashion accessory that already seems old Report comment Reply 20. Brian says: September 12, 2024 at 11:16 am I, also, use the Pinecil when in the field and when I am operating out of my truck at a remote site. Otherwise, I use my simple and ridiculously reliable Hakko solder stations - my original is probably over 25 years old, and the second one bought for my nephew is about 12 years old. Dirt simple and reliable. I also have an old, clunky, and huge Weller unit that is about 30 years old. There are appropriate uses of, and requirements, that may justify the whizz-bang techno stuff, and there are times when it pays to stick with the basic (luddite?) tools. Another facet of this discussion not being mentioned is that USB-C power pucks are not, as of yet, field-reliable. You kids get off of my dirt. Report comment Reply 21. NIls says: September 12, 2024 at 11:49 am The TS80 pleasantly surprised me as a travel iron. I'm happy for everyone that picks up electronics as a hobby today that doesn't have to struggle with the crappy non-regulated "pencil and power cord" style soldering irons that were common when I grew up :) Today I'm really happy with the Weller VX2 fitted with the 120W handle, small mini jack handle and tweezers. I like that I'm able to switch tips easily while having a handle with high thermal mass. It is a bit expensive though. Report comment Reply 22. Hugo says: September 12, 2024 at 11:53 am The soldering iron seems somewhat reasonably priced at PS75, but the power bank at PS165 is a little hard to fathom. Report comment Reply 23. anonymous coward says: September 12, 2024 at 12:04 pm Thanks for writing this review and pointing out the presence of traditional serial. I don't know anything about webserial but the fact that there is regular serial means that problems arising from not having a screen and buttons to adjust the temperature are trivially solvable. Report comment Reply 24. issac says: September 12, 2024 at 12:31 pm The Pinecil / USB PD battery pack combo is fantastic for compact, portable soldering. It's open source and uses standard tips that are readily available. While the FixHub is admittedly an attractive package, how can they justify the price? Report comment Reply 25. M says: September 12, 2024 at 12:57 pm hold the phone. is that a home directory in the CLI? is this thing running linux? Report comment Reply 26. kayge says: September 12, 2024 at 1:02 pm What happens if you plug in headphones instead of a soldering tip? Report comment Reply 27. Andrew says: September 12, 2024 at 1:03 pm I just plug my TS-100 into a Makita battery and call it a day. Report comment Reply 28. rclark says: September 12, 2024 at 1:24 pm I really like my Hakko FX888D solder station. Not sure where I'd find the one above as useful. Report comment Reply 29. dusted says: September 12, 2024 at 1:30 pm Nothing with a battery is the last thing you'll ever need, unless the battery blows up and kills you. Report comment Reply 30. tilk says: September 12, 2024 at 2:17 pm I love my Pinecil. I've bought it after my old Xytronic died, and it's now my daily driver. I wouldn't replace it with this iFixit iron. I prefer having the display and controls on the iron - this way I can control it when it's connected to any power source, no need to connect it to a computer or phone or whatever. 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