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- Опубликовано: 6 авг 2018
- Is a $5 8W USB soldering iron actually useful?
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I was floored how well this worked. Not great by ANY evaluation- but better than a paperclip and lighter in the bush- Hells yes it is.
parerclip and ligter i know that very wel
Brought back some good memories fixing a radio charger in the middle of Utah. I had a nail and a lighter (aka "thumb flint" in the wilderness setting). Although It got done, this would have been nice to have.
New Dave rating: "It doesn't suck as much as I expected"
Pretty much!
Thats really high praise, btw. :)
@@janwilmans ya, some guys can say "it doesn't suck that bad" as a high compliment
I own one of these. It has potential, but is let down by a couple issues.
1. The tip runs EXTREMELY hot, 600-700C. I can forgive them for this though, it kinda has to.
2. The USB lead is crap, would like to see it have a mini USB cable so I can use my own beefy lead on it.
2. The touch button is very irritating. Its neat, but irritating.
3. The 15 second timeout is also a bit irritating, but I get why they did it. IIRC they actually used a 555 for it instead of a micro, which could have done an always half power with full power on touch sort of thing.
That said, there are some handy features:
1. Its cheap as hell
2. Heats up bloody quickly
3. You can run it off almost anything. Even my phone's OTG can run it. In fact, all my electronics can, most are happy supplying 10w before they cut off.
I've used it to do quick repairs on stuff in my bedroom, like a fan on my 3D printer.
While not the best tool ever, most people might have a use from time to time, and its cheap, might as well.
3 days ago?
Worth noting that at temperatures above 500°C, you start getting lead fumes
Greg Hinson - Yes, Patrons often get to see videos early before they are released.
have you tried with different usb power supply?
Pulling 10W from a USB OTG port or anything other than a USB charger/power bank sounds like a good way to blow something uip
Really nice that you tried it out Dave.
I actually have on in my backpack when I go out drone flying (DIY race/freestyle) and it helped me and my friends' out a bunch of times dealing with broken connectors or cables after a crash.. wouldn't ever want to miss it again :)
I've actually been to the factory that makes these and they came up with a fairly ingenious solution to the equipment problem. What they did was first borrow a soldering iron from the factory next door and used that to make the first one. Then they gave back the one they borrowed as is the neighborly thing to do, and used the soldering iron they made to make the rest of them. Then after they got done selling them all they sold the first one they made to complete the pure profit business model.
Gordon Chin I like it!
I got one from Banggood some time ago and really love the tiny tip for circuit board stuff. The first thing I built to test the iron was a dso shell oscilloscope kit. The scope works as great as the iron and it's really cheap also! While mine looks the same, it's not a German version and the inside components are different. I don't have to touch mine to turn it on. Mine turns on when I'm within an inch of the metal ball! I love how fast it heats up for quick fixes to a quad copter and it cools down just as fast when I set it down. Prevents burn marks where I don't want them.
I love seeing 555 timer chips in the wild! Seems like a rare sight these days.
ok Dave, you didn't sell me on a $5 USB soldering iron but you did finally convince me to get one of those USB power meters
It's a must-have
I have one, it's alright actually. You wouldn't want to use it for a main iron because it's just not that great but for outdoor things combined with a USB power bank it's pretty handy. One of the mods you might want to do is solder in a resistor that bypasses the electronics to make it consume a small amount of power even when it's off, to prevent the power bamk turning off on you.
ManWithBeard1990 good mod, I’ve thought about making a usb cable with a resistor in it just because my power bank turns off with some of my low power devices.
Ugelempa
Man. I was just doing a field job where this would have been perfect. Oh well.
Actually, I started using this one as my main iron for Arduino-related projects. I find it so much easier to control the movement of the small tip, my accuracy is much better than with a proper soldering station. I wish there was some middle ground between this one and a soldering station. I've seen reviews of Pinecil and TS100 but their tips seem noticeably larger and might not give me the same accuracy and lightness I get from this cheapie.
I got one of these to keep in the car for when I'm not home and someone wants me to repair something. Better than I expected for a few dollars.
Mine also was sort of free. I added it to an order to get over the free shipping threshold, so the $6 or so they charged was nothing compared to the $30 shipping they were going to charge.
You know what, for the price its not bad at all. As a get out of jail free card for fixing a connector or replacing a blown soldered fuse or something its 100% fine.
Sup bro
I have one of this and I quite like it for quick solderings and the fact that runs on USB supply it makes it very useful outdoors.
In its' defence, these USB soldering irons are handy as hell, I use mine more often than I do my mains one, because the soldering jobs I tend to do are quick and dirty, and this thing is the bees knees, no good for ground planes, but for components and wires, brilliant little thing... :P
Only downsides, the auto-shutoff sucks, so I modded mine so it's on as soon as I plug it into my USB powerbank, and of course the lack of tips, but, other than that, I love my USB soldering iron... :D
Got one of these too and for those quick jobs where you dont want to haul out your big soldering station, this works excellent.
I remember using a gas stove and a paperclip to fix a broken speaker connection. Heat it up on the stove, move to the speaker, solder, etc.
Great video, short and to the point. Would love to see more of this type of thing.
Excellent video!
I have used this for most of my soldering work for 5-6 months. And I's simpli brilliant! I shortened the USB cord, And uses a 1 cell 18650 power bank. It all tits in my back pocket. After I started using this configuration, I think i have tripled the times I use it, instead of putting it in the to-do-pile. For mounting components to a printboard and likes, this is My new favorite and most used iron. And if the price was 50 times more expensive I'd still prefer this. Brilliant!
Agree with everything but the 50times the prize xD
However I have a native non touch tactile switch version
Dave, I carry one of these in my on the go hackerpack and man does it WORK fantastically for what it is. Saved my bacon more than once on work field campaigns and was a HUGE hit at DEFCON this year.
Hah I have this one, used it for installing something in my car. Did the job. I made the same mistake unscrewing the lid instead of pulling lol.
The monostable ckt might make sense from a safety and durability perspective... A simple mech switch keeps the power on always (unless manually toggled) so if the user walks away then the crappy tip plating will burn off and the tip will last even less... Also, bad idea to leave an active 500 degree heat source sitting on the table without supervision... So there might be a reasonable design intention.
The one I have also has a spring surrounded by a grounded chassis that hits the side when shaken, and is connected to the touch button. In this way it will trigger when shaken or when the button is touched.
Have this as my main go to iron for most of my work, its not great but as someone who solders once a month and mostly surface stuff as PCBs with arduinos and ESPs, and does not want to have my big adjustible soldering iron constantly on my desk this does a mighty fine job. Just pop it in and 8 seconds later solder... pop it out cools down in 10 sec. And you are done...
Also i kind of like the crappy touch sensitive part as you can forget it plugged in and it would shut itself off.
And the tip is really sharp and pointy so small joints is a breeze.
If you learn to use it correctly with the limitations it has its very very handy, so have extra tips and also an extra iron if that breaks down.
and if it does not do the job just take out the big boy.
I bought one of these for some field work, but I threw it out after the first occasion I used it. Bought a TS100 instead and a 6S LiPo battery with a charger. I might have spent 20 times more, but this setup actually works, and I use the TS100 at home as well instead of my Weller WSP80 (which was kind of a reference for me for many years)
I've also seen this type of soldering iron sold as a 3D print finishing tool with exchangeable tips.
I've got one of these irons and have used it for around 2-3 years. I did have to mod it to improve the touch sensor, now theres a thin wire that sits right next to the touch sensor and when you touch the wire and the sensor or short the wire to the sensor, it turns on.
Super handy lil thing for quick jobbies. I've soldered up many a LED strips and automotive headunit tons of times over the years.
I like it because its quick and easy. I don't need to worry about having mains power with me, or have to dick about with the Hakko 888D (which I do love using btw). It's always there in my electronics box and as long as I have a powerbank or a usb port somewhere, I'm golden!
As long as it's used within its limitations, it's a perfectly fine and rather handy little portable soldering iron.
The reason why I view this product review is primarily for the purpose of soldering connection wires to LED strips as well. I don't have the two yet but that's my plan.
thanks for doing this, Dave. I was really curious if this thing could even work at all.
Im buying one of these for my bug out bag. This would be perfect for an emergency car repair in the field.
Excellent subject to talk about. Thanks for the info.
There are at least two versions of this soldering iron... the one that Dave tried in this video, and another with a spring based vibration switch which can also trigger the iron to come on... but naturally because it is a spring vibration switch (and is high up in the handle) it needs a good knock to trigger. But at least it works when you the 555 touch trigger/retrigger doesn't want to work.
I use this iron occasionally for remote jobs, for hooking wires together, for a small repair. It's compact and it uses usb power that you can get pretty much everywhere. It's value really becomes clear when you consider the price. I know the TS100 is better performance but it's $55 and you need a power brick as well so I don't see any reason why you shouldn't own one of these 5$ soldering irons for the occasional remote job.
I have one and it's honestly quite useful for small electronic kits and minor on-the-go jobs. It doesn't have the thermal capacity for larger parts.
Just received one via eBay that purported to be the same -- and looks the same externally with "8w" spec, but turns out to be arguably a bit better. Cap a lot easier to pull off. Instead of a finicky touch sensitive switch there's a positive action on/off push button that looks exactly the same, and (as far as I know so far) there's no automatic turn off after 25-30 seconds, you just push the button again to turn it off. Blue LED. Gray collar instead of yellow. $10 from U.S. shipper (so a bit more than from China with a long wait). Heats within 15 seconds, as promoted. Very nice little tool. Thanks for the review!
Thank you for this awesome review. I learned some good tios too
Touch sensor only works if you connect to a laptop. Touch sensor does not work for battery power banks. Power banks uses a vibration sensor. If you connect to a power bank, give it a slight shake or lift the item and it starts.
I have several of the no-name ones, only the best of the China. They are all vibration activated.
I've used these with a powerbank or sometimes from a portable bluetooth speaker in the fields.
Fits in the pocket and gets the simple stuff done. The second thing I do with these are just giving
them away to someone that wants to try hobby soldering but doesn't want to invest in something propper just yet.
Also for educational purposes. What makes these great are their low price of 4 dollars(when I bought a bunch last time).
The model of this that has a gray ring instead of the yellow one shown DOES use a push button rather than a touch.
I have tried doing SMD field repairs with one of those… It burned right through the pads and the parts' cases, but I couldn't manage to get an electrical connection. I ended up borrowing a TS100, which worked much better.
The magic of temperature control!
Great review just ordered one
I modded the monoflop into a PWM driver. I have very nice temperature control via a pot I added in. This device has been my favorite tool for in-field prototype fixing. I highly recommend it IF you're going to add the temperature control like me.
how to add temperature control?
@@allanpham684 I lied, all I have is power control. Makes it usable for small devices, but the tips are just garbage. These days I use a Miniware one for 50 bucks
Seems reasonable for an emergency soldering iron, which can be used with a powerbank. I would like to see some kind of temperature setting though, even as little as a few presets like 300, 350, 400, 500 or something like that. Of course the higher presets would make sense only to melt some big joints, while lower ones would be probably enough for small smd components.
Thank you for the fair review Dave 👍
i have a more recent version; they did change it to a simple tactile switch, works fine. everything else about it is the same, good and bad. overall, i love mine for ultra portable, powered by my phone OTG or anything else. its even handy to cut plastic or selvage synthetic fibre rope and cloth. it does a decent job on SMT if you're quick so not to cook off the pads.
The 555-based trigger mechanism works only when there is electric field around. In extreme outback there is not. I had to add another contact pin, and current flowing through the finger causes the triggering.
Oh hey, he actually tried the iron :)))
Going to watch for sure :P
Win or fail!
Okurka ya, so?! Lol at least he did :))
So the touch button only works if there is 50Hz picked up by my body?
That would explain why this iron worked in my home but not in the forrest. Weird.
Yep
yes, to get it working from powerbank you need to touch with solder tip to powerbank ground. Used it like that for few times.
@@tomass9235 I have one that must be a later revision,as mine works fine with a 5300mAh powerbank I got on special at the local Canadian Tire. I rewired a cheap USB snes gamepad for USB OTG with a USB Micro cable, and I did the entire job with the thing. Now mine had it's red LED on for most of the time, and then after a bit it turns itself off like it has a duty cycle. But the packaging was a lil different, green art versus blue, but not using it on anything heavy gauge, just mainly lil projects like the one mentioned (it worked dandy with a $1 solder sucker to clear the holes in the gamepad PCB) and maybe those DIY kits you can get that are just thru-hole bits. It's a dandy if you're a model builder, and are mostly wiring LEDs and the like.
perfect emergency soldering iron
BodziuM emergency ?? wtf
because it can work from powerbank man
There's other, more reliable and capable USB soldering Irons out there.
StoreBrand but not for 5$
And no 5$ irons are perfect for "emergencies" either. If you REALLY needed an iron at a critical moment why would you pick one that's likely to let you down? I don't understand why people have this perception of "cheap" = good backup.
I think this has been asked of you before, but you should look at the TS100 open source soldering iron. Almost as portable as this and can be run off of a (slightly larger) battery as well.
soo many people have asked him about it loads since it got hyped up loads
TS80 is better.
There's a mod, replacing the 555 with an ATTINY13A, to allow different temperature-profiles. Of course the mod replacing the cap-sense as well. Due to the lack of a temperature control, it also depends on the voltage of the supply (one more downside).
Before I lost my eyesight I used a butane powered soldering iron in the field (electronic engineering steel industry) I think I’d rather pay $8 for a butane one then five dollars for that USB crap i’d love to find out how long it takes for it to burns itself up. Love your honest reviews
I had one of those butane ones, but when I finally needed it, the butane in it had leaked out and smokers had swiped my refills, so it wasn't in working order when I needed it. Went down to the corner store and no luck finding any. I suppose it would have been OK if I had used it more often.
they are always too hot or not hot enough though.
yeah i had a weller pyropen (butane) it worked great for a long time. :)
we've got a butane soldering iron at work for doing soldering work within the magnetic field of MRI magnets. Great for those rare occasions that it's needed.
Ive had one of these cheap USB soldering irons for about 2-3 years now, still works perfectly fine.
My whole reason for watching this vid was to get some advice and a little insight into a possible mod on a cheap iron. Looking for a 2nd iron so I can mod my 1st iron. Video was perfect. Don't know if I'll go with this one or not, but the price is right. Still considering a custom 3D print for the body.
This would have saved me a lot of times. I think I will start carrying one of these in my backpack
nice! ;) I'll go ahead and get one for for my backpack!
Ive got one of these. I did a few mods to it tho, i ditched the entire PCB inside it and just bought a good Anker 2.4amp rated USB cable. Cut the end off and wired it directly through to the tip. Ive just go to make sure i never leave it on. As im not sure how long itwould last if i did leave it on for extended amounts of time
I think i might buy one of these, i have use for it. I think i'd do as Dave latterly suggested though and get some nice hi-flex silicone wire and just go 5v straight to the tip.. or just wire that MOSFET up as a switch
thank you for the review
I kinda want to see what it'd be like modded. I'm also looking forward to the review of one with proper temperature control
I ordered one a month before this video was released for $3, it shipped but is not here yet, really slow shipping, I hope it comes since it looks useful for small jobs.
You can get a collar or sleeve which can slide on over tip to give the tip more thermal mass.
I bought one of those for quick repairs of cable or soldering some leds. For that i didn´t need a soldering station or one thats fixed to an main cord, so that cheap thing did the job very good and that already for a long time. Well you have nothing to lose if you just need something simple and portable and cheap go for it.
I seem to recall Big Clive did a review of one of these & found it quite acceptable as an emergency backup/carry in the car kind of thing... Thermal mass wasn't too bad and he flowed some reasonable size joints with it, Interested to see what you think.
Iv got this it’s brilliant for a on the fly small job. I’m about to do the hack now though
Soon there will be successor of TS100, USB power with QuickCharge3, supposedly will be decent
You mean the TS80? It is USB-C powered so it may not be as convenient as the TS100's barrel jack. I mean not many people have high wattage USB-C chargers at home (MacBook owners maybe?) and with the barrel jack it's so much easier to just apply any voltage you like.
most newer cell phones are USB-C and their wall charger will provide the proper voltage and amperage to run the TS-80. the same goes for the newer power banks that are brand name. they provide the proper voltage and amperage for USB-C(9v/2a).
mylt1z28 You're right. I just rewatched the Marco Reps video about the TS80 and realized that it actually operates at a rather low wattage. But because the TS100 usually consumes even less power even while on 24V it actually gets outperformed by the TS80. Another good thing is also that it doesn't rely on USB-PD but on QC3.0 which is much more common.
i wont be replacing my TS100 with the 80 any time soon but it would be nice to be able to run off USB-C since i always have a USB-C cable with me along with my battery bank. if the price drops on the 80 i may grab one though.
Why didn't they call it the TS200 then?
So good I bought it twice. Actually the second time was because I unscrewed the cap, then lost the cap, which of course contains the retaining collett to hold the tip in place. Arrgghhh! Purchased after bigclives review.
The official model is ZD-20U,
You can buy spare tips (just search ZD-20U).
There are multiple rehashed versions, but they all used the same tips.
There is also a version used as a hotknife for 3d print cleanup called modifi3d which comes with its own special tips.
Funny enough this is my goto soldering iron for any small projects, it's especially useful for manual soldering SMD
also with a simple modification you can make it always on
I bought one a while ago to try out. Thought it would be useless. Ended up using it for smaller jobs like thin wires and soldering to LED strips. It did it ok.
I bought one a while ago to fix my...soldering iron :)
it needed a simple soldered fix and living in the middle of nowhere getting one of these delivered the next day was my quickest/cheapest way out. its been in the tool box ever since and sees occasional use.
the capacitive switch and time out thing in mine seems to work fine and appears more sensitive than this one but its still annoying. I did think Id rather just have it on when plugged in and off when plugged out and almost modded it to be so but stopped myself just in time. with the high tip temp and no regulation its probably a really bad idea to have it sitting there getting heated, if you left it for 5 minutes it would probably kill it.
I have three of those (brown transparent) and I really like these things. You have to practice how to get the best results. You can use the cord (the 3mm jack) as a switch (try it), pull it up (with your thumb) one 'click' to switch it off. These are very useful to do fast little jobs or tiny things and you can use it with a computer too (if powerful enough). To avoid it get's too hot quickly, use a less powerful powerbank.
I started using this one as my main iron for Arduino-related projects. I find it so much easier to control the movement of the small tip, my accuracy is much better than with a proper soldering station. I wish there was some middle ground between this one and a soldering station. I've seen reviews of Pinecil and TS100 but their tips seem noticeably larger and might not give me the same accuracy and lightness I get from this cheapie.
Dave i have this iron and is good. But u need connect tip directly to source without sh*t electronic inside, and use it with regulated powerbank or something like that ;) for more thermal mass i use this on 7-8V ;)
I use it for soldering the rings of cheap necklaces close. For that task it works perfect.
That “Hello” moment hit me most of the time🤣
This would actually be kinda neat if it had some sort of basic temperature control in it. Even a small analog open loop thing. If they are going to the trouble of sticking a mosfet and a 555 in there, they could do some sort of low-freq silly PWM thing to it.
Sorta like a cheap disposable ts80.
Man i want one of those usb power meters! Very cool!!
Btw glad you gave this iron a fair kick at the cat :) even if its junk!
Ed Gein - NO they aren't. That meter Dave is using is a Ruideng UM25, which are about USD20. They are pretty new with a good screen and 5 digit precision, however the accuracy is not very good. The YZXstudio meters are far better accuracy, however they cost 2.5 times more.
John Coops hey thanks for the details. I still want one :)
Imma just stick with Keweisi usb meters
I have two of these. And I decided to simply cut out he middle man and get rid of the mosfet and keep the iron at full power all the time. (And the mosfet doesn't have the most impressive on resistance, so one will get a slight be more power out of it. Not that this really matters.)
Though, the good thing with this iron is that it is good enough to be useful, and is able to get small simple stuff fixed in a pinch. But yes, it surely doesn't replace a proper soldering iron.
Haha Clive did the unscrewing thing with the lid as well!
I disabled the touchpad and the spring-in-a-tube movement sensor and just added a switch in the wire so I didn't have to pull the USB plug out each time. btw don't use a mains USB output if you care for your components' health ;) EDIT: I see your version doesn't have the movement sensor thing
9:30 - When have to deal with high temperature, only one second is already a big time with pads like this, it's required have the skills to do the soldering at a half second to one second max, otherway, lift pads.
So better is have ideal temperature, this way don't need being so fast when soldering.
im wondering how it would perform with a 1 amp USB adapter? one way to control it maybe?
OMG Dave, RTFM! They have a movement sensor and turn on when you hold the metal ball and pick it up!!!
Wrong. There is another model with a movement sensor, this one is a classic TOUCH sensor only. Do try to inspect the board yourself before commenting.
Ive got one of these and i just have it in me regular bag, just incase. I dont expect it to work well but if it get the job done temporary it cant be bad. Its ideal because the chances of having a lipo pack is quite high.
got 1 was ok for up a ladder , with the battery pack
soldered an ham radio antenna plug 30 odd feet up ,
but not good on a windy day dose take the heat away
Saved the day for me when we were out doing ham radio, and our wire antenna broke. Soldered the thin wire back together no problem. Right tool for that job at least. I was at least 50 miles from the closest store that might have had a real soldering iron. I keep one of these in my emergency radio kit all the time now! 73 de w8tam
Thomas Martin You may actually find that carrying a small butane torch or soldering iron is more useful for your field work as not only can you make repairs to your antenna but you can also solder coax connectors and even repair connectors by simply adjusting the flame up or down to adjust heat output and the area heated (from a pencil tip all the way to a large high output flame is possible). Alternately, a regular soldering iron, regulated or not, and a small AC inverter can also be used if you have a vehicle or 12V battery nearby (which you almost certainly will if operating with anything other than an HT). Many butane torches even come with a conical soldering tip accessory in their packaging if you should need to do a simple board level repair since you can not use an open flame on the PCB (though it helps to break those tips in before you actually need them, sometimes they are easier to break in if you first use an acid flux to initially coat wet the with solder the very first time, then switch to a proper no-clean/rosin flux). Much more versatile and useful in my experience, especially if stuck atop a tower.
This thing is pretty good for SMALL jobs like soldering small wires, Jewelry and so on. I use it for EVA Foam Marking, Small wires, LED's and the like. it does NOT work on larger things but other than that's its pretty good
Bigclivedotcom was surprised by this iron. He tested it soldering some big connectors and it was nice. It's not earthed tho, so he powered from a big power bank
Forgot to mention he also used leaded solder!
His version also had a vibration sensor to retrigger the 555! Basically a spring inside an empty tube.
Emilio Aburto - There are different versions?
I guess they updated the PCB or something. Here you can see the spring sensor located beside the mosfet
ruclips.net/video/o-8D5t6TJYU/видео.html
I messed up the location, he started disassembling it around 12:00
The usb soldering iron is the recommended tool for working on micro SD card circuit traces. It can be temperature controlled if connected to PWM adjustable source or a good bench power supply
No, it can be power *_limited_* with a different power source, but it definitely cannot be temperature controlled.
Spend 5 dollars more in the design and you get a majestic field iron. I like it.
Fermioncool Fermioncool Watch again: Spend $1 less in materials and get a better iron!
I bought a TS100 and this and I have been using the $5 one more than my TS100. These are quite good at small things but anything bugger use a bigger iron.
I love that thing, got my second one cause the first one suddenly died.
But its a neat lil thing
Wow - am thoroughly surprised that Dave didn't absolutely hate that. You feeling okay, Dave? Not ill?
I'm just soldering LEDs for my Gunpla, this would not suck as much for the purpose. :)
What about adding a thermisistor to curb the current flown when it starts going over 300 degrees celcius and then adding a collar with a sleeve that slides on over the tip to give it double the thermal mass?
It certainly is able to identify the anti static matts on the bench are indeed working.
Well, for emergency, far away from AC power - it's good, especially with good flux as NC559.)
Should check out one of those weird ToolPAC PRO32 soldering irons. Has the "new" cartridge tech supposedly.
I have a few of these I got two years ago because I've had bad luck with normal irons. Weirdly my first one has lasted longer than a $30 adjustable temp iron which died on me pretty quickly. It's still going and the tiny tip is fine too. I've found that these work best once something breaks and the touch sensor stops working. That and I like the super small tip (helps me not mess up and bridge thingsby accident). So, these things are junk but for $5 they are good junk.
I started using this one as my main iron for Arduino-related projects. I find it so much easier to control the movement of the small tip, my accuracy is much better than with a proper soldering station. I wish there was some middle ground between this one and a soldering station. I've seen reviews of Pinecil and TS100 but their tips seem noticeably larger and might not give me the same accuracy and lightness I get from this cheapie.
My local hardware store, Menards, sells a 30W 120V solder iron for $3.99. Hard to beat for the price. Not the best choice for all day soldering. But will do small jobs easy
If I need to solder two wires together in the field, I'd rather use a Solder Seal butt connector and a cigarette lighter or match. Works faster, better, with a more solid connection AND it insulates the joint with a ring of hot snot around each end to keep water out. I keep a small selection of them in my Portable Geek Kit in different gauges. If you haven't seen Solder Seal connectors, they're worth a look. Cheap, easy to use, and they work far better than any crimp-on connectors I've seen. The hot-melt glue rings at each end are similar to marine-grade heat shrink tubing, just not as much of it, only a thin band around each end.
I love that marine heat shrink for all sorts of stuff, but for sealing and waterproofing antenna parts especially. I have a small low-power multi-band antenna with resonant traps at a couple of points along the radiator's length. The kit comes with some heat shrink, but it's the regular kind, only meant to protect the traps from getting dinged up. They do nothing to protect against water damage, which is a far more significant issue with an antenna. So I substituted marine heat shrink and it sealed the traps almost as well as a conformal coating.
For most of my soldering work these days, I use my new TS100 temperature-controlled iron. I have a hot air station too, and one of those ReflowR computer-controlled hot plate gadgets Dave reviewed a while back. I couldn't stand the old single-temp Weller station I was using anymore, and didn't feel like getting a Hakko. At least with the TS100 I can power it in the field using a battery bank with a 19v plug on it for charging a laptop. That works real well. I power it on the bench with a 19v laptop power brick. I use the 12v brick it came with to power a small QRP transceiver.
I used to have a Radio Shack butane iron, but the tips on those things don't last very long, and I could never find another tip cheaper than buying a whole new iron. (This was before the Intarwebz and online shopping.)
Excellent item
Dave, where may I find the USB meter you used in this video?
i have one of those, and a 10000mah batterybank, quite fun!
It would be nice if they had USB-C higher powered ones (maybe USB Power Delivery spec for more chooch) with a tactile on button, a modest adjustable temperature range typically used for microsoldering, and a price around $50. Could be a lot of uses for a budget yet effective implement like that.
I'm about to review one of those once it gets here.
Sean McNamara That could be a vastly more useful portable soldering iron solution, especially if it could deliver a peak power in the 40-50W range when needed to help regulate the tip temperature on moderate sized jobs without having to dial the temperature way up to compensate. Plus at least some variety in tip styles and sizes so that you can tailor the tip to the specific job (I generally prefer the 1/16”, 1/8”, and 1/4” chisel tips for most work).
That's odd because mine is a press button switch - I think latched timer - , but it's not as powerful as that one. I guess there is different types.