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What are some of the best purchases of your life?
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this post was submitted on 04 Jul 2023
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I think my trusty Pinecil soldering iron has got to be one of my best value purchases ever.
$25 for a tool that can compete with or surpass many other soldering irons that cost many times as much.
And the convenience of USB-C means you can use a portable battery without sacrificing any wattage. The heating element is also extremely efficient and can easily handle large pads that many others would struggle to heat effectively.
It's also got some fancy features like an accelerometer (used for display orientation and sleep timer) and a fully open-source OS.
Truly a steal for $25
Aww yeah, another Pinecil user! Coming from a cheapo non temp controlled iron I got over a decade ago I kept eyeing the bigger setups, but I lack the space to set it up and I lack the funds to make it worth given that I don't solder things on a daily basis. Turns out that for my specific needs Pinecil is a significantly better option. I still could use a heatgun, but again the use would be so rare and a hairdryer works in all but the most niche cases (at which point I just ask someone who has one to borrow).
I also got their usb power supply with charges my desk devices (and includes a wireless pad that charges my earbuds). Super cheap, super small, and does everything I need it to.
No offense intended but why does a soldering iron need an OS?
So it can run Doom.
Honestly? It’s probably cheaper and easier these days to do things like “auto-shutoff”, “temp display”, and “temp select” in software than to do it in hardware.
@pinkdrunkenelephants This, exactly.
Can you make a soldering iron without all the software? Sure.
But it's 2023, it's cheaper and easier to use a microcontroller for pretty much anything these days.
And done of the features like a display that automatically changes orientation depending on how you hold the iron (lefties rejoice!) and auto sleep when you put the iron down, wake when you pick it up, programming your preferred temperature and boost temperature, etc are all very convenient and would likely not be worth the effort without a microcontroller running things.