I use this soldering setup for my Airsoft survival kit, the fact that you can just plug in a spare airsoft battery and power it directly from that has saved me MANY hours!
That Sequre D60 seems pretty cool. Def a good tool to have handy if you're doing soldering now and then, like today. I just did a board swap on a cheap tablet we give our daughter. One tablet seems bricked, doesn't turn on, just the backlight. The other one the screen was cracked but board was fine. Only had to unsolder 3 wires for the battery, not too complicated. They're cheap tablets too so wasn't concerned much about screwing them up more lol. My dad, worked at NASA/KSC, taught me how to soldier, though I don't take always take the time to do it properly, but then again I'm not working supercritical equipment lol.
For me its the worry about burning the board and not knowing which is the best temperature to melt the solder, and the sad thing is i was taught how to solder at school in the 90s and was pretty good at it, but have completely forgotten how to do it properly now im 40, but i think i will defiantly take this advice to heart and pick up a few training kits, thank you for the video
This is exactly what I been doing went from single PCB designs then moved up to Christmas trees then the Bluetooth speakers. What I wish I knew was the multimeter signs and types of resistors so I can tell just by looking or reading the silk screen. Bought one with link thank you now I just hope these aren't like the scam pinesil bought 2 both DOA.
Good overview. The old mains irons can still be useful, my 25W Antex is good for large diameter pins on power modules and with lead-free solder where most 40W modern irons would struggle (I also have a £400 temp-controlled 40W Weller). Horses for courses.
I suggest when using a lipo to run anything, plug the balance lead into a battery capacity meter, or you will forget then let the voltage drop and ruin the cells
Those tips are all Hakko T12 tips shortened to fit that enclosure type. If you place a Hakko T12 tip inside the TS100, Pinecil and those solder irons it should work with no problem. Actually Sequre has a model that allows the usage of Both tips (they are one and the same other then length) by simply changing the internal placement of the connection and hence using Both tips.and Yes the Pinecil is indeed a game changer no doubt.
I run all 5 of my TS100's & my Pinecil with Ralim firmware & they'll go up to 450C for really big ground planes on gaming laptops & have had no problems.
I installed new pickups in my guitar about a year ago using one of those so called "electronic shop" irons and I wish I had just bit the bullet and bought a proper one like you have would have made it so much easier
Guitars can be tricky as well, as I believe some of the connections go onto the casing of the dials(?) which is a large mass of metal any small iron will have trouble with. Not sure these electronic irons would be up to that either, at least not without some assistance.
What you said is true until you pull off 6 pads from a customers device, it's Sunday and they are picking it up on Monday morning and you have no idea how to pull the component off and fix the pads... If you pass that test then you will be master of your chosen craft
The D60 seems to go for as low as £20 with free shipping from some suppliers, vs ~£8 shipping for the Pinecil to the UK, plus an extra fee depending on whether or not DHL wants to fuck you that day and charge customs paperwork fees (I've definitely heard of this hitting people ordering other Pine64 products below the threshold where customs fees actually apply).
I like tinkering with these chinese kits, it's fun to keep your hand in a skill. I just use a cheap old Maplin iron with temp controlled base and I've only got the one tip it came with which is a conical tip, but that's the type I used thoughout my working life in various electronics assembly jobs. I was going to buy a kit radio, then I saw a fully assembled one much cheaper, and the absurdity forced me to buy the super cheap ready made one. Might have to dismantle that for the fun of it, lol.
I need to find a better tip for replacing pins in lga sockets. I'm thnking an angled one is probably best? I learned by ordering a bunch of broken old mobos off eBay and taking all the components off and putting them back on :)
@11:30 - but that was some 80 watts... And massive. Early 80s time and 220V ;) Edit - first computers I've tent upon were some DEC-compatible Soviet copies. Soldering iron was Ersa with the separate sucker... I was Operator, but... Closely related to Repair Techs, give or take. Early-to-mid-80s.
I've done reviews on the Pinecil Soldering Iron and Sequre electroc screwdriver that I daily drive. But yea, I have some more reviews in the works for stuff I've been sent or bought - I'm trying to make a point of testing stuff for several weeks before making a video about it first though, as first impressions for a tool really don't tell the big picture.
I always strugeling with the right solder tin, i just dont know what to buy exactly and where to buy it (ali express or any other) what to look for etc.
That was a lovely and clear review. There's one aspect I don't understand: the manual said that the time it takes to get to temperature depends purely upon the voltage supplied. Surely it should depend on the total power (volts x amps)? For instance, if I have a 12V battery like the Anker you used at the end or a USB hub with a fast charging port, why can it not pull extra amps if the source can supply them? I expect that there's some extra circuitry that's missing as a cost-saving feature, but you have the thing to hand. Can the Pinecil do that? BTW sellers have heard about your love of the Pinecil: it's £75 on Amazon.
It's expensive on Amazon because the Pinestore is out of stock. But yea, these little irons are too small to pull lots of amps, so they're voltage limited.
Because basically all irons are resistive heating elements, you know what ohm's law is, right? The only way to push more power through a resistor is to give it a higher voltage (or a lower resistance which would make it incompatible with already existing tips), now it would be fair to ask why they don't have a boost converter built into the iron, but the answer to that is a bit obvious, a 65W boost converter would need a good bit more space than a small handheld pencil shaped iron and add a mild amount to the cost.
Damn, your subs have SHOT up! Im in the market for a new iron. Hopefully you'll be able to answer this for me - I bought a fixpoint EP5 for motherboard repair, but it really doesn't cut it. Are the TS and pinecil irons enough to overcome the heatsinkage of the ground-planes on motherboards? I had a TS101 in mind.
More wattage and better tips. When you're working on ground planes or very small stuff, you need to put in a lot of heat, or you're working with a very small contact patch, and that's where the top-end equipment comes into play. You'll know when you get there. Low/intermediate level stuff is fine with irons like this - this iron uses the same tips that I do my repair work with, so that gives you an idea of _at least_ what they're capable of.
Should work, but the D60 can be a bit fussy with some PowerDelivery adaptors, I had it working on one of mine, but not another, I'd get a 19v DC adaptor if you can.
@@Adamant_IT Thanks mate, if I wanted to stick with that psu I guess I might be better off spending a bit more an iron which is PD compatible. You and a few other electronic repair youtube channels have inspired me to learn some basic soldering skills. I was stupidly considering buying a whole Hakko setup, but you've convinced me thats not the best idea for someone just starting out.
Logitech BRIO, although any higher-end Logitech webcam can manual-focus in software. The trick to getting a good picture from webcams is light, lots of light.
Pinecil is my main choice, but you're going to be waiting for the Pinecil 2 now, as they've announced it and discontinued the Pinecil 1 - which is probably why it went out of stock just as I was doing this video. TS100 is still a great choice, but you're going to be paying $60-70 for it with a power supply. Sequre make the SQ001, which is basically a TS100 clone, for less money, so that'd be a good mid-point if you want something more advanced than the D60. Ultimately though, they will all perform the same since they're using the same tips, with the exception of the D60A, which is 350c limited and won't be able to do motherboards.
@@Adamant_IT thank you, I really appreciate the reply! Pinecil is showing they’ll restock or be in stock on Aug 2nd. Any idea if that’s the 2 or a restock of the 1?
Must be the 2, as the press release I read said there would be no more restocks of the 1. But also that's much sooner than I expected. I didn't read into the details though, so I could be wrong. Pinecil 2 will be capable of taking slightly more powerful tips, and have Bluetooth for automation stuff. Neat, but not critical. If the restock turns out to be the 1, I'd still say it's worth a buy.
@@Adamant_IT thanks again for taking the time to reply. I’ll definitely order whatever is available on the 2nd. Appreciate the videos and content. Thank you.
Don't watch most of your vids (not terribly interested in most of your repairs), but I watched this one because even tho I have done a LITTLE soldering over the years, I SUCK at it, and I have NO IDEA *WHY*! I almost ALWAYS end up with dull solders, which EVERYONE says is a 'cold solder' and *BAD*! I have tried EVERYTHING that people on YT talk about/suggest, but I can't get SHINY solders! Anyway, thought I'd watch to see what YOU suggest. I have a VERY GOOD Chinese base-type soldering station AND the TS-100 (my friend gave me a brand new one cuz he bought two of them). I paid a MILLION dollars for PRESUMABLY "good" solder from an electronics store here in Canada, and I've also used the cheapo Chinese solder that came with something. DOESN'T MAKE A DIFFERENCE: dull solder joints! I've tried DIFFERENT temps, too, from 300C and up. Anyway, really like your vids cuz you show your work AND your face! I make vids, too, but I usually show my work OR my face, but not both. I prefer to see BOTH, which you do REALLY WELL, so THANK YOU! Oh yeah, your sound is PERFECT also, which I REALLY appreciate! Nothing pisses me off more than low/poor audio, which a LOT of YTers are VERY GOOD at! Cheers!
It's incorrect to say to turn the iron to 400 °C for heavy boards, a hotter iron will bring you nowhere, you simply need a bigger iron operating on the correct working temperature of 320°C , it's like voltage vs. ampere, you say that you need more voltage, while in essence you actually need more ampere...Your current temperature is a tit on the high side, for normal leaded solder 320 °C is sufficient, your current temperature is for leadfree solder.
This is true, but higher temperature in the iron still means more energy in the iron, which means it's got further to drop when it hits a ground plan. More mass is better, yes, but higher temps can compensate for this, especially when you're working on small stuff and there's literally no room for a bigger tip.
Came for the soldering advice, stayed for the tips ;)
I use this soldering setup for my Airsoft survival kit, the fact that you can just plug in a spare airsoft battery and power it directly from that has saved me MANY hours!
I would also recommend getting solder wick or desolderer. You'll be glad you did.
Good flux such as real Amtek would help a lot.
That Sequre D60 seems pretty cool. Def a good tool to have handy if you're doing soldering now and then, like today. I just did a board swap on a cheap tablet we give our daughter. One tablet seems bricked, doesn't turn on, just the backlight. The other one the screen was cracked but board was fine. Only had to unsolder 3 wires for the battery, not too complicated. They're cheap tablets too so wasn't concerned much about screwing them up more lol.
My dad, worked at NASA/KSC, taught me how to soldier, though I don't take always take the time to do it properly, but then again I'm not working supercritical equipment lol.
I have one of these in my FPV drone flight bag. It's perfect and even more ergonomic than the ts100.
Got my Pinecil 6 months ago - with the TS-KU tip, it's everything I ever needed!
For me its the worry about burning the board and not knowing which is the best temperature to melt the solder, and the sad thing is i was taught how to solder at school in the 90s and was pretty good at it, but have completely forgotten how to do it properly now im 40, but i think i will defiantly take this advice to heart and pick up a few training kits, thank you for the video
Learn it my friends. Its an invaluable skill.
I totally agree upon D24, but I found TS-KU more useful.
Thank you as always for the great review!
This is exactly what I been doing went from single PCB designs then moved up to Christmas trees then the Bluetooth speakers.
What I wish I knew was the multimeter signs and types of resistors so I can tell just by looking or reading the silk screen.
Bought one with link thank you now I just hope these aren't like the scam pinesil bought 2 both DOA.
I've used mine with a big k type knife tip to desolder parts off R9 290 power planes it needed the full 24v but it works well enough.
Good overview. The old mains irons can still be useful, my 25W Antex is good for large diameter pins on power modules and with lead-free solder where most 40W modern irons would struggle (I also have a £400 temp-controlled 40W Weller). Horses for courses.
I suggest when using a lipo to run anything, plug the balance lead into a battery capacity meter, or you will forget then let the voltage drop and ruin the cells
Those tips are all Hakko T12 tips shortened to fit that enclosure type. If you place a Hakko T12 tip inside the TS100, Pinecil and those solder irons it should work with no problem. Actually Sequre has a model that allows the usage of Both tips (they are one and the same other then length) by simply changing the internal placement of the connection and hence using Both tips.and Yes the Pinecil is indeed a game changer no doubt.
I run all 5 of my TS100's & my Pinecil with Ralim firmware & they'll go up to 450C for really big ground planes on gaming laptops & have had no problems.
Knife tip is pretty good for almos everything. is use mine with a laptop charger and works great.
I did afew years ago and fixed my G5 dual core IMac and had 5 shorted bypass caps on pci slots and ram
I luv soldering.
Thanks for your videos there very informative and confidence inspiring 👍What's your take on soldering fumes?
I got the Sequre version of the TS100 - superb bit of kit. It only cost me about £30 delivered. Then I found out about the Pinecil, which is annoying!
I installed new pickups in my guitar about a year ago using one of those so called "electronic shop" irons and I wish I had just bit the bullet and bought a proper one like you have would have made it so much easier
Guitars can be tricky as well, as I believe some of the connections go onto the casing of the dials(?) which is a large mass of metal any small iron will have trouble with. Not sure these electronic irons would be up to that either, at least not without some assistance.
@@Adamant_IT Yeah they get soldered onto the potentiometers on one end and pickups on the other also to a switch(es).
The ground wire goes onto the case of the pot yes. Sometimes several, so you need a wide tip or stronger iron.
master, any recomendation for the fumes extractor? i want to buy a good quality one!
been soldering for years wouldnt even think of using that soldering iron.
"...And now we have a battery operated soldering iron, which is very cool..." Pun intended? 😁
What you said is true until you pull off 6 pads from a customers device, it's Sunday and they are picking it up on Monday morning and you have no idea how to pull the component off and fix the pads... If you pass that test then you will be master of your chosen craft
Hakko FX-951 tips fits yes, but some modification via some 3D print might be needed.
The D60 seems to go for as low as £20 with free shipping from some suppliers, vs ~£8 shipping for the Pinecil to the UK, plus an extra fee depending on whether or not DHL wants to fuck you that day and charge customs paperwork fees (I've definitely heard of this hitting people ordering other Pine64 products below the threshold where customs fees actually apply).
Very nice soldering iron .. probably we will not see it again :) btw... too long tip... nearly impossible to do microsoldering. ( not with my hands )
I like tinkering with these chinese kits, it's fun to keep your hand in a skill. I just use a cheap old Maplin iron with temp controlled base and I've only got the one tip it came with which is a conical tip, but that's the type I used thoughout my working life in various electronics assembly jobs. I was going to buy a kit radio, then I saw a fully assembled one much cheaper, and the absurdity forced me to buy the super cheap ready made one. Might have to dismantle that for the fun of it, lol.
I never understood what is the big deal about learning to solder ??? It's one of the easiest and most effective and useful skills I've ever learned !!
Big and clumsy is my go to excuse and generally didn’t do well in electronics at school
I need to find a better tip for replacing pins in lga sockets. I'm thnking an angled one is probably best?
I learned by ordering a bunch of broken old mobos off eBay and taking all the components off and putting them back on :)
@11:30 - but that was some 80 watts... And massive. Early 80s time and 220V ;)
Edit - first computers I've tent upon were some DEC-compatible Soviet copies. Soldering iron was Ersa with the separate sucker... I was Operator, but... Closely related to Repair Techs, give or take.
Early-to-mid-80s.
definitely do more reviews with equipment that you use
I've done reviews on the Pinecil Soldering Iron and Sequre electroc screwdriver that I daily drive. But yea, I have some more reviews in the works for stuff I've been sent or bought - I'm trying to make a point of testing stuff for several weeks before making a video about it first though, as first impressions for a tool really don't tell the big picture.
@@Adamant_IT Your reviews are that much more worthwhile because you put the widget to that extended test.
@@Adamant_IT how about a microscope in the works?
I wonder how they perform on thicker Motherboards like ps4 board which will absorb a lot of heat.
it can get the job done but it ain't seamless
Hello just a quick question...do you have access to leaded solder in the UK? In the U.S. it is becoming increasingly difficult to source.
I haven't looked in a while tbh, I have a massive spool that's decades old, and I don't think I'll ever actually use it all up.
I always strugeling with the right solder tin, i just dont know what to buy exactly and where to buy it (ali express or any other) what to look for etc.
Leaded solder. Lower melting temperatures and not a brittle end product.
there's kits of soldering, it came with the soldering tips, tin and base
That was a lovely and clear review. There's one aspect I don't understand: the manual said that the time it takes to get to temperature depends purely upon the voltage supplied. Surely it should depend on the total power (volts x amps)? For instance, if I have a 12V battery like the Anker you used at the end or a USB hub with a fast charging port, why can it not pull extra amps if the source can supply them? I expect that there's some extra circuitry that's missing as a cost-saving feature, but you have the thing to hand. Can the Pinecil do that?
BTW sellers have heard about your love of the Pinecil: it's £75 on Amazon.
It's expensive on Amazon because the Pinestore is out of stock. But yea, these little irons are too small to pull lots of amps, so they're voltage limited.
Because basically all irons are resistive heating elements, you know what ohm's law is, right? The only way to push more power through a resistor is to give it a higher voltage (or a lower resistance which would make it incompatible with already existing tips), now it would be fair to ask why they don't have a boost converter built into the iron, but the answer to that is a bit obvious, a 65W boost converter would need a good bit more space than a small handheld pencil shaped iron and add a mild amount to the cost.
Damn, your subs have SHOT up! Im in the market for a new iron. Hopefully you'll be able to answer this for me - I bought a fixpoint EP5 for motherboard repair, but it really doesn't cut it. Are the TS and pinecil irons enough to overcome the heatsinkage of the ground-planes on motherboards? I had a TS101 in mind.
What exactly would I gain in buying a high end [Hako] compared to this unit? What can I do with a Hako that is not possible with this unit?
More wattage and better tips. When you're working on ground planes or very small stuff, you need to put in a lot of heat, or you're working with a very small contact patch, and that's where the top-end equipment comes into play. You'll know when you get there. Low/intermediate level stuff is fine with irons like this - this iron uses the same tips that I do my repair work with, so that gives you an idea of _at least_ what they're capable of.
Nice, but I keep my Weller WSD81
I can't compare anybody with Northridge fix when it comes to microsoldiering
I was thinking of buying one of these, but the only decent psu I have is a 60w usb-c one from a MBP. Would that be sufficient?
Should work, but the D60 can be a bit fussy with some PowerDelivery adaptors, I had it working on one of mine, but not another, I'd get a 19v DC adaptor if you can.
@@Adamant_IT Thanks mate, if I wanted to stick with that psu I guess I might be better off spending a bit more an iron which is PD compatible.
You and a few other electronic repair youtube channels have inspired me to learn some basic soldering skills. I was stupidly considering buying a whole Hakko setup, but you've convinced me thats not the best idea for someone just starting out.
still prefer my Miniware TS100 over this alternative despite the lack of type-c (not sure if a barrel jack to Type-c exist and if it's any good).
I'm honestly very surpirsed that you didn't go for the Pinecil.
I did. Pinecil is my main daily. However, this guy can do 90% of what the Pinecil can, and if there's no stock, then the D60 is a great alternative.
What kind of camera do you use that focuses on what you're working on?
Logitech BRIO, although any higher-end Logitech webcam can manual-focus in software. The trick to getting a good picture from webcams is light, lots of light.
I checked Banggood as of July 2022 it's £22.32
Between this one, the TS100 and the Pinecil, which one would you say is the best if you had to choose one to use? Or which one is your go to?
Pinecil is my main choice, but you're going to be waiting for the Pinecil 2 now, as they've announced it and discontinued the Pinecil 1 - which is probably why it went out of stock just as I was doing this video.
TS100 is still a great choice, but you're going to be paying $60-70 for it with a power supply. Sequre make the SQ001, which is basically a TS100 clone, for less money, so that'd be a good mid-point if you want something more advanced than the D60.
Ultimately though, they will all perform the same since they're using the same tips, with the exception of the D60A, which is 350c limited and won't be able to do motherboards.
@@Adamant_IT thank you, I really appreciate the reply! Pinecil is showing they’ll restock or be in stock on Aug 2nd. Any idea if that’s the 2 or a restock of the 1?
Must be the 2, as the press release I read said there would be no more restocks of the 1. But also that's much sooner than I expected. I didn't read into the details though, so I could be wrong.
Pinecil 2 will be capable of taking slightly more powerful tips, and have Bluetooth for automation stuff. Neat, but not critical. If the restock turns out to be the 1, I'd still say it's worth a buy.
@@Adamant_IT thanks again for taking the time to reply. I’ll definitely order whatever is available on the 2nd. Appreciate the videos and content. Thank you.
Every time I check for the Pinecil it's out of stock.
Don't watch most of your vids (not terribly interested in most of your repairs), but I watched this one because even tho I have done a LITTLE soldering over the years, I SUCK at it, and I have NO IDEA *WHY*! I almost ALWAYS end up with dull solders, which EVERYONE says is a 'cold solder' and *BAD*! I have tried EVERYTHING that people on YT talk about/suggest, but I can't get SHINY solders! Anyway, thought I'd watch to see what YOU suggest. I have a VERY GOOD Chinese base-type soldering station AND the TS-100 (my friend gave me a brand new one cuz he bought two of them). I paid a MILLION dollars for PRESUMABLY "good" solder from an electronics store here in Canada, and I've also used the cheapo Chinese solder that came with something. DOESN'T MAKE A DIFFERENCE: dull solder joints! I've tried DIFFERENT temps, too, from 300C and up. Anyway, really like your vids cuz you show your work AND your face! I make vids, too, but I usually show my work OR my face, but not both. I prefer to see BOTH, which you do REALLY WELL, so THANK YOU! Oh yeah, your sound is PERFECT also, which I REALLY appreciate! Nothing pisses me off more than low/poor audio, which a LOT of YTers are VERY GOOD at! Cheers!
👍👍👍👍👍
It's incorrect to say to turn the iron to 400 °C for heavy boards, a hotter iron will bring you nowhere, you simply need a bigger iron operating on the correct working temperature of 320°C , it's like voltage vs. ampere, you say that you need more voltage, while in essence you actually need more ampere...Your current temperature is a tit on the high side, for normal leaded solder 320 °C is sufficient, your current temperature is for leadfree solder.
This is true, but higher temperature in the iron still means more energy in the iron, which means it's got further to drop when it hits a ground plan. More mass is better, yes, but higher temps can compensate for this, especially when you're working on small stuff and there's literally no room for a bigger tip.
Stop stalling and learn how to pronounce solder. The damn "l" is silent.
I refuse to be gaslit by you heckin' americans and your silent Ls! Unless this is some latin origin nonsense, in which case I still refuse!
'taint so! ... it's soLder! also colour is spelt with a U!
If you want to use silent letters, speak French, no place for it in English.
the english invented your language, learn to speak properly
I'm American and I pronounce it soLder with the L lol don't know exactly where I learned that but hell I'm sticking with it!
TNice tutorials is a terrible turorial. He plows through info at a speed that doesn’t allow you to follow, or actually absorb anytNice tutorialng.