Alternative title: Accessing the internet from outside the Anglosphere. I've just booked a hotel in Germany, from a Danish IP, using a Dutch service that shall not be named. Accessing their main site: Norwegian translation of English translation of German text, combined with Danish currency and American measurements. Adobe, Apple, Microsoft, Google and Facebook think all humans must be monolingual mouthbreathers, so 5-10 times a day, I have to force software to unmangle their misguided and patronising attempts at being local.
@@rasmis Actually i don't think these companies are wrong. When you're an engineer and a polyglot, you might forget that the people that you don't hang out with are not like you. The farmer i buy my eggs from is definitely monolingual.
As a Ukrainian I recognize the language instantly. :) Apparently it is a machine translation of Ukrainian to English, with some words not translated because of mis-spelling and some other mistranslated. It should read: "Works [fine] powered with a charger. At 12 V it heats up quickly. The temperature is displayed. Needs calibration." The second part's meaning kinda eludes me, but 'trohi' is 'a little bit' and 'koriguvannya' is 'correction', 'adjustment', 'vid' is 'from', 'starting with'; no idea about 'yakikikikha' though. :)
Properly translated review: It works. I checked it from the charger. At 12V it heats up quite quickly. The temperature is shown to be too high. It needs to be calibrated. I played around a bit, the temperature is overestimated by 50 degrees, the adjustment doesn’t fix it, the out setting from 50 to 100 is not clear. What I liked is the sensor, it works clearly, there is a decrease in temperature in the idle state and after a while it goes to sleep. Another button is stuck, it clings to the case. P.S. The yakiki word is "якигось" - "some kind of"
Those kinds of tips often have a thin layer of factory grease which is why wiggling tends to get them to connect properly. Several manufacturers of them recommend cleaning them with isopropyl alcohol before use for this reason. Wiggling also works though.
Some of the cheap T12 cartridges have issues with accidental plastic overmoulding around the edges of the contact bands. More serious manufacturers will trim this or weed it out in QC. If this coincides with less than ideal seating of the T12 "socket" inside the handle, those spring contacts might not make proper contact with the bands on the cartridge. Twisting the cartridge can make the thin spring contacts of the socket "shave off" the plastic overmoulding/flashing until contact is made. However this leaves plastic debree inside the socket, and it doesn't take much of this action before the fragile spring contacts of the cartridge socket bend and break off from fatique.
Yes, if I get some tips with the extra plastic flashing overhanging the contact bands, I WILL trim them with an exacto knife before I use them. I usually buy them in bags of 10, and will go thru the entire bag when I receive them, so that they are ready to go when I need them.
Soo much Chinese soldering stations. A few months ago I bought a T20 from Ali-E and it works great for about 40£ but to be honest I prefer my good old (expensive) Weller T81 The tip's are 5 times more expensive but last a long time, and the Weller (80 watts) wil not drop down when you heat greather surfaces. For hobbyists these are fine, but for old school vintage guys like me: just buy a Ersa, Weller or other good brand. You will not be dissapointed. To Clive: I love your channel, not missed a post in several years. You are a fantastic character with soo mutch knowledge. 👍
I did try a T20 but sold it on as the quality was poor, and now I have gone back to my good old Antex 25w iron that just works every time, and with a bigger tip does the job or smaller tip for smaller jobs, have used it for 25 years, but sold my Weller when my business stopped.
I ended up with one similar to this. It uses the shorter tips and only has a USB-C connection on back. It was labeled as "USB charged" and "wireless" and it was brought to me because they couldn't get it to function so they thought maybe the battery was dead. Actually, there is no battery and it is simply powered by USB-C PD. The one I have only has two buttons that increase or decrease the temperature. It isn't as good as my table-top iron, but it does have the advantage of being extremely portable. Its smaller than a screwdriver and will run just fine off any decent battery pack that supports USB-C. It works best if the USB-C also has PD capabilities, so it runs great off the power supply for my laptop. Now that you've pointed out the electrical grounding issue, I may have to take a second look at it. The definite pros are that: 1) It takes up less space than a screwdriver in my travel kit. 2) It operates off portable power that is already part of my kit. 3) Seems to have a relatively accurate temperature stability. My previous portable (and still in my kit) is a butane iron that truely is "wireless." Used it in a lot of remote locations, but it is difficult to get a more accurate temperature than "hot, hotter, hottest." So.. IDK. Guess I'll keep playing around with both and see how things turn out over time.
Same. I have an iron that uses with a power tool battery. 20V, I haven't tried it much. Complete isolation, no worries about leakage voltages or currents.
You can still have a static electricity buildup. If working on sensitive electronics, you should probably connect a metal strap to the barrel and ground it through a 10K resistor or so.
Got my first Pinecil (slightly different variant to this one here) years ago and loved it. Powered by the PD65 port on their PinePower USB PSU it was stable and used constantly. Then I moved my workshop into a cabin with an earth spike and the PinePower just stopped working on the PD65 port. Neither had an earth or ground though, so I bought the Gen2 PinePower with cloverleaf 3-pin power and that also didn't work. Bought a v2 Pinecil. Nope. In the end I bought a separate PD65 charger from Maplin of all places, and both irons have been rock solid since. Also, a soldering iron running an operating system just seems mad to me, but it works :D
I bought one of the cheapie USB soldering irons some years ago, ISTR after a previous Big Clive video on them. Somewhat simpler than this (no OLED display or temperature setting/monitoring) and quiet handy, but I remember the warning to use on a USB battery power bank rather than a mains USB supply for sensitive electronics work
well the auto translate has its problems especially with ukrainian which this almost certainly was... so in case you DO know that language (even enough to be dangerous only) i would recommend reading the original version when ever possible.
The voltage leakage is why i use a grounded 24V power supply with my iron. I actually modified it. i replaced the figure of 8 socket with a 3 pin clover leaf socket and connected mains ground to output ground.
3:58 My anxiety went through the roof, worrying about our boy's wandering digit. I thought we were about to get a lesson in "how to swear like you're from the Isle of Man."
Very interesting and thank you Big Clive. I have a little USB powered soldering iron with a pointy tip that I use quite a bit. If you touch it, it comes alive and heats up fairly quickly though it doesn't have any settings and gets a little too hot which requires a scrub with the copper colored scrubby pad tip cleaner thing I have. I actually use it quite a bit for small quick fixes or what have you. Thanks for sharing. This one, despite it's flaws, would seem like an upgrade.
The tip thermocouple is in series with the heater. From the software side one has to turn off the heat to sample the micro-voltage from the thermocouple. Done too fast for the user to notice, of course. Heater element is typically around 8 ohms, so you can calculate max wattage at a given voltage easily. Usually less than what the advertising says, of course.
The OUT menu is for setting the PD trigger requirement for the power supply. VOL values 9 12 15 20. If the power supply or power bank cannot handle 50 watts of power, you can lower the voltage and the soldering iron will consume less.
Hi. About the tips: they have an element that is actually providing a voltage instead of just a resistance to indicate the temperature-difference. That's how they can make the comparison and setting of the temperature easier. So, not just a thermistor. The resistance is almost the same regardles of the temperature and therefore they can go as high as around 70Watts. This is a thermocouple. I made a little video about this a while back (but it is in Dutch). It is quite and nice system that works very fast and can be quite accurate maintaining the temperature with a simple circuit. To add: the problem with thermocouple is that they have to 'set'. So only after some hours, the voltage that they provide at a certain temperature is stable. Only then, calibration makes sense. Before that, it is just 'around the right temperature'. And that is: per tip. So to get accurate, you need to set this per tip (iron) and remember it if you change tips. On certain irons, you can save this values in the memory/software on board. Not in the cheaper ones of course. Also, other types with T12 have easier swapping enabled. But.... for this price, you can get a number of holders and just swap out the power-connector ;-) About the 'out' function, it is probably as in most of these: a boost-setting for the temperature after you tip it. Usable? Maybe in some cases. For example you set the temperature to 360 but when you pick it up using the touch, it heats up to the temperature + the boost-difference. For example 360+40 = 400 degrees. After that, it 'cools down' to the set temperature of 360 degrees. This 'boost' is doing it on max power for some time without much measuring in between, so it is kind-of-rough. It can be useful if you want to be able to solder on large groundplanes while doing work on fine things (like inside phones) without always having to change temperatures in the menu.
I wont lie, I've been hoping an iron like this which uses a typical T12 tip would come along for a while now. This looks promising, especially if the onboard software can be rewritten.
There's also the Sequre SI012 which can take both T12 and TS100 tips. Looks like people were trying to put IronOS on it but I don't think they succeeded
I ordered one to check it out but you can get a pinecil for only a little more and I can verify it's a solid soldering iron and it can be powered via USB pd at 20 volts and it uses the same hakko style bits.
I have a couple of them. Pair it with a good PD power bank and it makes a serious portable setup. Even with a 22.5w power bank it is still very respectable with the right tips.
@@MichaelJantzen42 Definitely similar, I just like that it takes both TS100 tips like the Pinecil and T12/T15 tips so I can either use it with TS100 tips I already have, knockoff T12 tips (which are a bit cheaper) or even genuine Hakko tips if I wanted. I don't think it's a huge performance difference between the real Hakko tips but I think the longevity is probably a bit better.
I got a ts-80 as a gift a year or so ago, and it's replaced my cheapo station for everything but hot air rework, and it heats and cools almost as fast as my old NiCd one with the benefit of not being dead all the time. Super pleased with it, just wish l could buy different tips without needing to order them, but the one out came with works well
Nice to see irons like these get really budget friendly, I've used a TS100 for years but that was fairly expensive compared to traditional irons and it doesn't work with USB power. So much nicer than the traditional mains powered irons though Recently I've mostly used a butane iron since it's wireless and can also do hot air, while also always being ready to go unlike rechargeable ones that often have a flat battery. Though for more sensitive stuff it's a no-go, the hot air can easily burn through the PCB because it tends to be way too hot
When I did a multi-month bicycle tour I packed a butane pencil iron. Small, light, fuel available pretty much everywhere (even small towns). Good enough for simple repairs. Works without needing electricity which is handy when you're mostly camping off-grid.
@@neiliewheeliebin - For that, you need an active cable that requests a higher voltage, plus a physical converter to the 5525 DC connector. The TS-80, TS-101 and Pinecil V2 have an actual USB-C PD connector.
I bought one, but could never get it to heat properly on USB, even with a high-end USB-C supply. Then I tried it on my bench supply (at 24V) and it worked great. So I reckon it's a nice little iron for my second workbench. Thanks for figuring out the instructions Clive.
I rather recommend investing more money into a soldering iron that can also be powered from a USB-C PD power bank with 20V. The MINIWARE TS-101 is really decent. It heats up in about 10 seconds from room temperature to 330°C (which is my preferred soldering temperature) and can deliver up to 90W via USB-C PD power. It also comes with a decent length silicone USB-C cable. Absolutely loving this thing and I even use it as my main soldering iron now. The YIHUA is whining next to me where I only use the hot air gun...
It's normal for brand new T12 tips to require a "burn-in" time before they'll show a stable temperature without error. Nobody seems to know why. I heard a new tip sizzle, like something melting or burning off internally. Stable thereafter. Video idea: Chop up a couple of T12 tips and get to the bottom of this mystery.
What's always the thing with calibration? In those 30 or so years I have been soldering as a hobby as well as professional I rarely look at my soldering iron temperature. If it's to hot, turn it down, if it goes to slow, turn it up? After a while that just goes 100% by feel. The only exception here is when using a hot air station with some (very) sensitive IC's. I still have my TS80 USB soldering iron, I mainly use it with a power bank, which is extremely handy. I wouldn't recommend these as a daily driver, the ergonomics aren't great
Neat little pencil iron, I recently bought an inexpensive rework station from Temu and so far I am fairly happy with it. It has the small heat gun and a simple pencil style iron, but I wish it came with more tips for the iron itself. I could remember when one would want some of these kinds of tools you would have to pay quite a bit of cash for the professional options available. I only do soldering once in a while so it was out of the question and then I would have to settle for my Weller 25 W iron or my soldering guns (200/260 W and the 100/140 W units).
I use the Finirsi version of this iron, (similar bits but shorter). USB C input, voltage range 12v to 20v. It runs nicely from a PD capable power bank and is great for portable use where there is no mains. As for mains, I would recommend building a simple linear PSU for whatever voltage you wanted to give it.
Got a similar AliExpress Special TS 100 and cracked it open, flashed custom firmware (IronOS, from memory). Chief among the new features is that it no longer heats up automatically when plugged in, it waits for you to push a button. Which seems way safer to me.
That rapid temperature jumping happens with all the new tips from china on my T12 solder station, but it fixes itself automatically after couple of seconds. At first, I thought something was wrong with my station, but it’s the tips. There might be some contamination on the contact, like grease or something like that.
For sensitive electronics I usually power my soldering iron (same T12 tips, different manufacturer and model, same power connector) from a Lidl 20V power tool battery pack - also helps with soldering at the absence of free mains sockets within easy reach.
The T12 tips have a thermocouple in series with the heater I messed around with it plenty and used the kasyan analog t12 station Also congratz on million subs, may be late
The reading of the review was mildly debilitating yet amusing. Interesting little gadget. I still use the "old" USB iron you tested some years back occasionally. Handy in the field.
Clive, I looked into these bits before and the temperature sensing (at least on the ones I have here) is actually done in the handle. They work out how hot the tip is from the PCB temperature. I was actually surprised when I got a thermocouple that could handle the temperature, how accurate it was.
This could just be an artefact of how thermocouples work. They don't give you an absolute temperature; they give you the relative difference between the "hot end" and the "cold end" of the thermocouple. Therefore if you want an accurate reading, you need an absolute temperature sensor (such as a thermistor) at the cold end, to compensate for any change in temperature there. Cheap irons won't have this, and will just assume that the handle end is always room temperature.
@@TerrisLeonis That's a decent guess Terris, I haven't looked at these in a while (I was making a portable iron using mismatched handles and controllers), but I'm fairly sure I traced the connections, and the only ones for temperature sensing just went to the one surface mount component that was on the PCB that holds the bit. I also had to translate some Chinese to program the controller and the instructions came out VERY poorly, but I believe it basically said the same, and talked about this being the reason it's completely inaccurate below about 200°C. It being mismatched also wasn't just a wiring problem, but they used different temperature sensors, so I had to figure out the coefficients to get it somewhat accurate, which was really just a trial and error exercise as the instructions told you never to touch them :D
I have a similar model. On mine you can connect to a laptop by usb. It mounts like a drive and there is a configuration file you can edit to set all these values
A note about power supplies. I had always thought the inner connector of a barrel connector was positive and the outer negative. However, to my surprise, I picked one at random from my big bag of power supplies and just by chance happened to look at the label and it is negative on the inner connector and positive on the outer!
Got a similar thing with DC jack, made a power supply for it from cheap charger so now it clips onto my 18v batteries. Great thing to have for LED strips and anything small since it is completely isolated.
I was doing some repair work on a machine at a customer location. At the time butane irons were the best option, but the customer had a ban on any open flame (grain mill nearby) so they lent me a “safe” iron. Even though the machine had been locked out for days, it had had an “unauthorized customer modification” that caused the 8800 mfd capacitors to retain a charge until I shorted them to ground with the soldering iron. The resulting arc flash instantaneously vaporized a full 15mm of the end of the iron and did an additional 20k worth of damage to the machine. Thankfully the place was PPE crazy so I didn’t get hurt and they gave all of us ISO-Tips after that.
Recently got a similar iron and i found the overall length and distance from grip to tip impractical compared to my other soldering gear. Anyways, got it mainly to use for marking plastics with the cheap T12 tips and USB C PD power banks. PCB templates with text routed as slots makes for easy and consistent marking of various plastic sports gear for clubs.
If you want something like this, just get a Pinecil. Runs open source firmware, the user interface is pretty user friendly (especially after several revisions of the software), powered from USB PD or barrel jack, and there's a pretty good sized community around it making accessories, 3D printable stuff, mods, etc. I have several of them and have given them as Christmas gifts too. I don't see the point in buying any other of these no-name portable irons when the Pinecil exists and is very reasonably priced.
Alas. When I tried to buy a Pinecil they cancelled my order because they wouldn't send it to the Isle of Man. I tend not to promote companies that do that.
love these. i run mine off of a 22w usb-c single cell battery bank i made. really cool board, bidirection usb-c, very thin. all fits in a small portable bag i keep in my backpack
I have a clone of this branded as GVDA, which has served me well. Was a real pain figuring out how to use it though, so im sure this will be very helpful to many :)
My best companion is my old jbc30s with 3 different round tips. Takes long to heat, but performs well. I have to admit my younger ts100 and some various tips shapes is also a nice brother to have
I've been using a miniware ts80p. Great small iron. I've flashed ironOS for the firmware and that greatly improves the quality of life when using it. It doesn't have a lot of thermal mass and the tips are quite expensive though, $25-30.
Thanks Clive, I'll have to check out the portables for current leakage... not sure why that didn't occur to me before; although I guess I don't tend to do any sensitive soldering away from the bench. I'm also looking forward to a few cheap soldering irons coming in (internally lithium powered, these) as a mostly humorous gift. Although one's definitely coming apart to make sure that the humor isn't of the dark spicy pillow nature.
Bought one of these USB powered irons many years back. Mine's not particularly powerful, and uses the 900M-T series tips. It can't cope with the higher thermal mass tips, being limited to the T-B, and T-2.4D sizes, since the heavier knife - style tips (SK, and especially K ) just take too long to reach temperature. I've found that the "pocket" gas - powered irons (using the same 900M-T series) are far more useful, and of course have zero current leakage issues.
My father got one like these a few years ago... came with an 18V supply but could run as low as 12, at least... After I got a USB soldering iron from your review, maybe it's time to buy a new one that isn't some power-tool gimmick. I really would like one USB-C powered, with smart up-volting and a super-fast tip heater like the USB ones. One can dream.
Chinese T12 cartridge clones can be very hit n miss for actual power vs the 72 watts of original Hakkos. But if you live outside of JP or US the cost benefit of $3-4 knockoffs vs imported Hakko originals is near impossible to beat. There are issues with some of the common T12 cartridge _sockets_ though, or rather their implementation. Their solder tabs are a bit weirdly arranged for a purpose designed part, and they are quite fragile. This often results in broken connections, or seating pushed out of alignment vs the snap-action or screw collar retention. Result is the socket spring tabs barely making contact with the cartridge "bands". New cheap knockoff cartridges are not "run in" for QC, so it's normal for them to bounce all over with temps and signal error/temp ba k and forth for a minute or so first time fired up (so make sure you set your iron at moderate temps before running in a new cartridge). *_HOWEVER, IT IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT THAT YOU DO NOT TAKE YOUR EYE OFF THEM EVEN FOR A SECOND DURING THIS TIME!!_* If your iron has poor cartridge contact too, there is a *VERY*_ real risk of this combination resulting in uncontrolled thermal runaway during this time. Over running in maybe 40-45 knockoff cartridges from different quite reputable vendors, this has happened to me 3 times. Only once did it burn out the heater in the cartridge before it got too bad. The other 2 times, within maybe 10-15 seconds it got so hot it was glowing bright yellow before I could disconnect power to my soldering station. Even ~75 watts is quite a lot sealed inside a 5mm steel tube when that PID / PWM supply becomes an uninterrupted flat line of 100% power. My iron handles have push-pull snap retention for T12 cartridges (like most if the original Hakko T12 handles do), so normally you just pull one cartridge out and stuff another in using that silicone foam flap thing. But once it starts glowing, that protective flap for handling hot cartridges isn't gonna help you for sh1t. You need to cut power to the iron/soldering station, and make sure the iron doesn't touch anything because it's a bare, stainless steel poker quickly blasting past 1000°C once it runs away like that.
I've encountered this issue, my MHP30 having 60VAC and enough current to light multiple white LEDs in series when simply touched to my skin, seemed less than ideal. A paperclip bent into a similar shape as an oscilloscopes circular GND clip is a good way to latch onto USB-C connectors that have some metal exposed when plugged, same idea for a barrel connection so long as the outside is where you want to GND it. I've also found a few USB-micro that have continuity from shell to shell(most don't it seems), I have a USB-C PD supply on my desk and so long as I GND one of it's multiple USB-A ports the USB-C is also grounded, so I shove the micro cable in, and clip an alligator lead onto the relatively flat USB-micro end.
It is switching between heating and measurenent. PTS200 is another Iron, but with ESP32 Chip and Open Firmware. It is able to deliver Up to 100W. Can only say good Things about that.
Keep in mind that the Parkside batteries may not have over-discharge protection, so be careful not to run them too low. The cheap Chinese tool batteries often do have over-discharge protection built in.
I also have this soldering iron. It came with an earthing cable with an alligator clip that you can connect to the soldering iron. I ordered mine from Banggood. Mine was set to Chinese on delivery. It took me some time before I found the language setting.
I've been using the T-12 bits in my TS-100 iron. They're quite a bit cheaper than the TS-100 tips. The T-12 tips work the same in the TS-100, the only differences are that the T-12 tips are a little longer, and they do not have the positive stop shoulder on them to keep from shoving them too far into the TS-100 and knocking components off the board inside it. When I order a bag of 10× T-12 tips, I will take the back cover off of my TS-100 iron, carefully shove the T-12 tips in so that they properly line up with the terminals inside the iron, and then I will wrap some 1/4" wide masking tape around the shaft of the T-12 tip once it's in the proper place in rhe TS-100, so that the tape butts up against the body of the iron, and wrap enough tape on so that it makes a positive stop so that it can't be pushed in too far, and then continue on for the other 9 tips in the bag. Then when you change the T-12 tips in your TS-100, you can't push them in too far because the tape will stop it in the correct place. A bag of 10× different T-12 tips can be had for about $25. The same bag of 10× TS-100 tips is quite a bit more money.
To disassemble you simply pull the cap off the bottom and slide it out. Best iron ever, kicks my wellers ass! Best at 25v needs 4 amps, can be used in 5 seconds with that voltage and current once it’s heated up it will pulse the power supply at 3.3 ish amps every two seconds, my go to iron. I have dropped it stepped on it, more durable than it looks i use it more than my expensive heat and iron station. I better go buy another one for the garage.
I use a first-get Pinecil and love it. (I do still have my 20-year-old Weller for when I need bigger thermal mass, but I haven't used it in a long time now.) It's cheap (under $30 currently), well-designed, gets regular software updates, and has a good manual.
I also have the pinecil and like it very much. I use a 12V 3A power supply and I haven’t found anything that I couldn’t accomplish with it so far. It heats to 360C in 7 seconds.
@@chaos.corner yeah I bought my 1st gen Pinecil a couple month after VAT became enforced on cheap products and I had to pay something like 15€ of extra fees. Now I limit myself to sellers inside EU even if it means there is less choice. One thing a bit meh with the pinecil is that it comes with a basic B2 tip and the more interesting tips are sold separately. But if you already have a TS100 you certainly don't bother.
Interesting little soldering iron. Cheap too! I have another one similar to it, but can't think of the model # right off. It's a TS-100 or something. One of the more popular ones.
2:41 reminds me the famous phrasebook "English as she is spoke" 😅 There was a video about it on Robwords a few days ago 😅 What can I say more as a Hungarian? "My hovercraft is full of eels"!🤣
Have you seen the PINECIL irons? They're really impressive and can take a barrel DC jack, USB-C PD, USB-C QC, and something like 9-24 volts input and uses TS-100 iron tips. Extremely affordable too.
It's so nice when they don't supply instructions as though they think we all have intimate knowledge of how their product should work out of the box, very nice of them... :P
Reminds me a lot of the TS100/TS80. I wonder if the custom firmware from Ralim will work on this too 🤔 I love my TS100, you should see the cool stuff people have made for them, like the Makita battery to barrel jack adapter that allows you to use this in the field. Brilliant things!
I'd be cautious about possibly bricking the iron with incompatible firmware. The Makita style battery would be perfect, especially the generic Chinese clones that have over discharge protection built in.
Looks as if the work bench ground needs consideration. The low volts and the bench mains ground could possibly be joined. I can think of many things that might not like 100v inserted carelessly
Hey mate check out the firmware called IronOS it works on a few different soldering irons, not sure if it will work on this model but it does work on the TS100 and Pinecils, the screen on this iron looks similiar to the to the screens used on TS100 but the microcontroller might be different, it may work if its using a STM32.
@@adagioleopard6415 Yup, South African here 😆 Funnily enough I bought my first SMD rework station second hand from a lass in Durban who didn't have time do electronics repair anymore. Before discovering, years later, that I live in easy driving distance of their office here in Joburg.
@@adagioleopard6415 Yup, South African here 😆 Funnily I bought my first SMD rework station from a lass in Durban who no longer had the time to do electronics repair. I then discovered, years later, that Magnums office is in easy driving distance for me here in Jo'burg.
Haven't watched the video yet, but the one I've used before was sitting a slight 100c above the actual set temp lol. Trying to adjust it in the settings made it only overshoot by 50c. Probably what that review you printed out was complaining about. When opened up most of the IC's had their labels sanded off sadly so making your own firmware for it seems nigh impossible.
I was looking for an iron that takes T12 tips and this seems to be the T12 version of a TS100/Pinecil. For that price it’s almost an automatic buy just as a backup if not as a main T12 iron. I’m hoping the USB PD protocol on the unit can request at least 20V if not 28V for full power draw.
I have a few of these from more proper companies like minisforum and Frini or whatnot. MW101 uses a 3.5mm connector. The Frini or whatever, uses the TS12 style.
Had a hard laugh at the review 😂 I actually have a similar one from Sainsmart, less menu options, but at least a (rudimentary) manual 😅 I find it quite neat to have it with me at work, together with a powerbank, for small soldering jobs in the field like small connectors, loose wires, etc..
@@poolhalljunkie9I think was Nokia that used to put an asterisk on the menu items that would lead you to the language selection menu. A simple solution to a frustrating problem.
It is the same thing as when you are accessing some sort of terminal and in the corner of the screen you see a little flag which can change the language. It makes sense because it will be the first thing that looks familiar to the user.
One thing to point out is that the temp display is the "Set Temp" and not the actual temp, they fake the ramping up, most of these cheap irons are like this.
I made up a lead with spade plugs on the end and use a Lidl 18V battery, the spade plugs fit the battery connections perfectly. - I painted a big red blob on the battery so as to get correct polarity connections 🤣
![Noob To Max With DRAGON REWORK In Blox Fruits [FULL MOVIE]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/LnBMOinoOvA/mqdefault.jpg)
New video series: Dramatic Reading of AliExpress reviews.
Alternative title: Accessing the internet from outside the Anglosphere. I've just booked a hotel in Germany, from a Danish IP, using a Dutch service that shall not be named. Accessing their main site: Norwegian translation of English translation of German text, combined with Danish currency and American measurements.
Adobe, Apple, Microsoft, Google and Facebook think all humans must be monolingual mouthbreathers, so 5-10 times a day, I have to force software to unmangle their misguided and patronising attempts at being local.
Yes lol, I've found the most random reviews. My mate vince type shi
The Matt Rose of Ali Express
@@rasmis Actually i don't think these companies are wrong. When you're an engineer and a polyglot, you might forget that the people that you don't hang out with are not like you. The farmer i buy my eggs from is definitely monolingual.
Yes please do, while enjoying various carbonated alcohols.
As a Ukrainian I recognize the language instantly. :)
Apparently it is a machine translation of Ukrainian to English, with some words not translated because of mis-spelling and some other mistranslated.
It should read:
"Works [fine] powered with a charger. At 12 V it heats up quickly. The temperature is displayed. Needs calibration."
The second part's meaning kinda eludes me, but 'trohi' is 'a little bit' and 'koriguvannya' is 'correction', 'adjustment', 'vid' is 'from', 'starting with'; no idea about 'yakikikikha' though. :)
Damn we still don't know what the key word means! 🤣 I'm sure that summarizes all the reviewer's opinion in one word! 😇
"no idea about 'yakikikikha' though. :)"
Maybe they were using voice input to leave the review and touched the tip while it was on.
Properly translated review:
It works. I checked it from the charger. At 12V it heats up quite quickly. The temperature is shown to be too high. It needs to be calibrated.
I played around a bit, the temperature is overestimated by 50 degrees, the adjustment doesn’t fix it, the out setting from 50 to 100 is not clear. What I liked is the sensor, it works clearly, there is a decrease in temperature in the idle state and after a while it goes to sleep. Another button is stuck, it clings to the case.
P.S. The yakiki word is "якигось" - "some kind of"
@@webchimplol
@@gparakeet Thanks for that.
Those kinds of tips often have a thin layer of factory grease which is why wiggling tends to get them to connect properly. Several manufacturers of them recommend cleaning them with isopropyl alcohol before use for this reason. Wiggling also works though.
Some of the cheap T12 cartridges have issues with accidental plastic overmoulding around the edges of the contact bands. More serious manufacturers will trim this or weed it out in QC. If this coincides with less than ideal seating of the T12 "socket" inside the handle, those spring contacts might not make proper contact with the bands on the cartridge.
Twisting the cartridge can make the thin spring contacts of the socket "shave off" the plastic overmoulding/flashing until contact is made. However this leaves plastic debree inside the socket, and it doesn't take much of this action before the fragile spring contacts of the cartridge socket bend and break off from fatique.
Danks
Yes, if I get some tips with the extra plastic flashing overhanging the contact bands, I WILL trim them with an exacto knife before I use them.
I usually buy them in bags of 10, and will go thru the entire bag when I receive them, so that they are ready to go when I need them.
Fingers also have a layer of grease and he cant stop himself from touching it all up...
Props for doing all the free QA and howto documenting for them.
You simply must do a teardown video on this now that you've shown it to us! Give us those pearls of infinite wisdom please.
Yes that would be awesome as Big Clive does a good job.
Soo much Chinese soldering stations.
A few months ago I bought a T20 from Ali-E and it works great for about 40£ but to be honest I prefer my good old (expensive) Weller T81
The tip's are 5 times more expensive but last a long time, and the Weller (80 watts) wil not drop down when you heat greather surfaces.
For hobbyists these are fine, but for old school vintage guys like me: just buy a Ersa, Weller or other good brand.
You will not be dissapointed.
To Clive: I love your channel, not missed a post in several years. You are a fantastic character with soo mutch knowledge. 👍
I did try a T20 but sold it on as the quality was poor, and now I have gone back to my good old Antex 25w iron that just works every time, and with a bigger tip does the job or smaller tip for smaller jobs, have used it for 25 years, but sold my Weller when my business stopped.
I ended up with one similar to this. It uses the shorter tips and only has a USB-C connection on back. It was labeled as "USB charged" and "wireless" and it was brought to me because they couldn't get it to function so they thought maybe the battery was dead. Actually, there is no battery and it is simply powered by USB-C PD. The one I have only has two buttons that increase or decrease the temperature. It isn't as good as my table-top iron, but it does have the advantage of being extremely portable. Its smaller than a screwdriver and will run just fine off any decent battery pack that supports USB-C. It works best if the USB-C also has PD capabilities, so it runs great off the power supply for my laptop.
Now that you've pointed out the electrical grounding issue, I may have to take a second look at it. The definite pros are that:
1) It takes up less space than a screwdriver in my travel kit.
2) It operates off portable power that is already part of my kit.
3) Seems to have a relatively accurate temperature stability.
My previous portable (and still in my kit) is a butane iron that truely is "wireless." Used it in a lot of remote locations, but it is difficult to get a more accurate temperature than "hot, hotter, hottest." So.. IDK. Guess I'll keep playing around with both and see how things turn out over time.
I use a 24V battery pack so don't have it plugged in to mains at all. It can be used for hours before needing to recharge the battery.
Same. I have an iron that uses with a power tool battery. 20V, I haven't tried it much. Complete isolation, no worries about leakage voltages or currents.
You can still have a static electricity buildup. If working on sensitive electronics, you should probably connect a metal strap to the barrel and ground it through a 10K resistor or so.
Yep, a 5S lipo tool battery of about 5ah runs the iron for a LONG time
Got my first Pinecil (slightly different variant to this one here) years ago and loved it. Powered by the PD65 port on their PinePower USB PSU it was stable and used constantly. Then I moved my workshop into a cabin with an earth spike and the PinePower just stopped working on the PD65 port. Neither had an earth or ground though, so I bought the Gen2 PinePower with cloverleaf 3-pin power and that also didn't work. Bought a v2 Pinecil. Nope. In the end I bought a separate PD65 charger from Maplin of all places, and both irons have been rock solid since.
Also, a soldering iron running an operating system just seems mad to me, but it works :D
I bought one of the cheapie USB soldering irons some years ago, ISTR after a previous Big Clive video on them. Somewhat simpler than this (no OLED display or temperature setting/monitoring) and quiet handy, but I remember the warning to use on a USB battery power bank rather than a mains USB supply for sensitive electronics work
I was confused at first, but that review cleared things up for me.
well the auto translate has its problems especially with ukrainian which this almost certainly was... so in case you DO know that language (even enough to be dangerous only) i would recommend reading the original version when ever possible.
The voltage leakage is why i use a grounded 24V power supply with my iron. I actually modified it. i replaced the figure of 8 socket with a 3 pin clover leaf socket and connected mains ground to output ground.
3:58 My anxiety went through the roof, worrying about our boy's wandering digit. I thought we were about to get a lesson in "how to swear like you're from the Isle of Man."
Very interesting and thank you Big Clive. I have a little USB powered soldering iron with a pointy tip that I use quite a bit. If you touch it, it comes alive and heats up fairly quickly though it doesn't have any settings and gets a little too hot which requires a scrub with the copper colored scrubby pad tip cleaner thing I have. I actually use it quite a bit for small quick fixes or what have you.
Thanks for sharing. This one, despite it's flaws, would seem like an upgrade.
The tip thermocouple is in series with the heater. From the software side one has to turn off the heat to sample the micro-voltage from the thermocouple. Done too fast for the user to notice, of course. Heater element is typically around 8 ohms, so you can calculate max wattage at a given voltage easily. Usually less than what the advertising says, of course.
Ahh. Chinese Watts. Thanks.
@@RWBHere Nah it's close enough to 70W that it counts (when fed with 24V flat - lower voltages the power falls rather rapidly)
The OUT menu is for setting the PD trigger requirement for the power supply. VOL values 9 12 15 20. If the power supply or power bank cannot handle 50 watts of power, you can lower the voltage and the soldering iron will consume less.
Hi.
About the tips: they have an element that is actually providing a voltage instead of just a resistance to indicate the temperature-difference. That's how they can make the comparison and setting of the temperature easier. So, not just a thermistor. The resistance is almost the same regardles of the temperature and therefore they can go as high as around 70Watts.
This is a thermocouple.
I made a little video about this a while back (but it is in Dutch). It is quite and nice system that works very fast and can be quite accurate maintaining the temperature with a simple circuit.
To add: the problem with thermocouple is that they have to 'set'. So only after some hours, the voltage that they provide at a certain temperature is stable. Only then, calibration makes sense. Before that, it is just 'around the right temperature'. And that is: per tip. So to get accurate, you need to set this per tip (iron) and remember it if you change tips. On certain irons, you can save this values in the memory/software on board. Not in the cheaper ones of course.
Also, other types with T12 have easier swapping enabled. But.... for this price, you can get a number of holders and just swap out the power-connector ;-)
About the 'out' function, it is probably as in most of these: a boost-setting for the temperature after you tip it. Usable? Maybe in some cases. For example you set the temperature to 360 but when you pick it up using the touch, it heats up to the temperature + the boost-difference. For example 360+40 = 400 degrees. After that, it 'cools down' to the set temperature of 360 degrees.
This 'boost' is doing it on max power for some time without much measuring in between, so it is kind-of-rough.
It can be useful if you want to be able to solder on large groundplanes while doing work on fine things (like inside phones) without always having to change temperatures in the menu.
Which iron do you have that takes T12? Which iron do you prefer the most?
I wont lie, I've been hoping an iron like this which uses a typical T12 tip would come along for a while now. This looks promising, especially if the onboard software can be rewritten.
There's also the Sequre SI012 which can take both T12 and TS100 tips. Looks like people were trying to put IronOS on it but I don't think they succeeded
I ordered one to check it out but you can get a pinecil for only a little more and I can verify it's a solid soldering iron and it can be powered via USB pd at 20 volts and it uses the same hakko style bits.
I have a couple of them. Pair it with a good PD power bank and it makes a serious portable setup. Even with a 22.5w power bank it is still very respectable with the right tips.
@@MichaelJantzen42 Definitely similar, I just like that it takes both TS100 tips like the Pinecil and T12/T15 tips so I can either use it with TS100 tips I already have, knockoff T12 tips (which are a bit cheaper) or even genuine Hakko tips if I wanted. I don't think it's a huge performance difference between the real Hakko tips but I think the longevity is probably a bit better.
I got a ts-80 as a gift a year or so ago, and it's replaced my cheapo station for everything but hot air rework, and it heats and cools almost as fast as my old NiCd one with the benefit of not being dead all the time. Super pleased with it, just wish l could buy different tips without needing to order them, but the one out came with works well
Nice to see irons like these get really budget friendly, I've used a TS100 for years but that was fairly expensive compared to traditional irons and it doesn't work with USB power. So much nicer than the traditional mains powered irons though
Recently I've mostly used a butane iron since it's wireless and can also do hot air, while also always being ready to go unlike rechargeable ones that often have a flat battery. Though for more sensitive stuff it's a no-go, the hot air can easily burn through the PCB because it tends to be way too hot
When I did a multi-month bicycle tour I packed a butane pencil iron. Small, light, fuel available pretty much everywhere (even small towns). Good enough for simple repairs. Works without needing electricity which is handy when you're mostly camping off-grid.
I bought a USB C PD cable that works fine with mine, so much better than using a gas iron
You have the Pinecil V2 and TS-101, which are basically a TS-100 with USB-C PD.
@@RFC3514 mines definitely TS100 you can get a PD cable set to whatever voltage you want output to the DC plug
@@neiliewheeliebin - For that, you need an active cable that requests a higher voltage, plus a physical converter to the 5525 DC connector. The TS-80, TS-101 and Pinecil V2 have an actual USB-C PD connector.
I bought one, but could never get it to heat properly on USB, even with a high-end USB-C supply.
Then I tried it on my bench supply (at 24V) and it worked great.
So I reckon it's a nice little iron for my second workbench.
Thanks for figuring out the instructions Clive.
Thank you for your videos, was in hospital last night rewatching them, they always chill me out. I am ok now but feeling like 💩
Hope everything is OK.
The great thing about this soldering iron is that if you accidentally come in contact with the tip, you will get electrocuted as well as burned...
It's a safety mechanism, the shock makes you recoil and limits the burn. It complies with the TVÜ and IZO-900000001 standards.
I rather recommend investing more money into a soldering iron that can also be powered from a USB-C PD power bank with 20V. The MINIWARE TS-101 is really decent. It heats up in about 10 seconds from room temperature to 330°C (which is my preferred soldering temperature) and can deliver up to 90W via USB-C PD power. It also comes with a decent length silicone USB-C cable. Absolutely loving this thing and I even use it as my main soldering iron now. The YIHUA is whining next to me where I only use the hot air gun...
The problem with the USB irons is the high risk of rogue leakage voltage through the ungrounded power supplies.
It's normal for brand new T12 tips to require a "burn-in" time before they'll show a stable temperature without error.
Nobody seems to know why.
I heard a new tip sizzle, like something melting or burning off internally. Stable thereafter.
Video idea: Chop up a couple of T12 tips and get to the bottom of this mystery.
I'm tempted to open one.
Could that be grease that burns off?
What's always the thing with calibration?
In those 30 or so years I have been soldering as a hobby as well as professional I rarely look at my soldering iron temperature.
If it's to hot, turn it down, if it goes to slow, turn it up?
After a while that just goes 100% by feel.
The only exception here is when using a hot air station with some (very) sensitive IC's.
I still have my TS80 USB soldering iron, I mainly use it with a power bank, which is extremely handy.
I wouldn't recommend these as a daily driver, the ergonomics aren't great
Neat little pencil iron, I recently bought an inexpensive rework station from Temu and so far I am fairly happy with it. It has the small heat gun and a simple pencil style iron, but I wish it came with more tips for the iron itself. I could remember when one would want some of these kinds of tools you would have to pay quite a bit of cash for the professional options available. I only do soldering once in a while so it was out of the question and then I would have to settle for my Weller 25 W iron or my soldering guns (200/260 W and the 100/140 W units).
I use the Finirsi version of this iron, (similar bits but shorter). USB C input, voltage range 12v to 20v. It runs nicely from a PD capable power bank and is great for portable use where there is no mains.
As for mains, I would recommend building a simple linear PSU for whatever voltage you wanted to give it.
Thanks for the info Clive; with the updated firmware I have installed in the TS 100 it displays the input voltage so I can keep an eye on it.
Got a similar AliExpress Special TS 100 and cracked it open, flashed custom firmware (IronOS, from memory). Chief among the new features is that it no longer heats up automatically when plugged in, it waits for you to push a button. Which seems way safer to me.
That rapid temperature jumping happens with all the new tips from china on my T12 solder station, but it fixes itself automatically after couple of seconds. At first, I thought something was wrong with my station, but it’s the tips. There might be some contamination on the contact, like grease or something like that.
For sensitive electronics I usually power my soldering iron (same T12 tips, different manufacturer and model, same power connector) from a Lidl 20V power tool battery pack - also helps with soldering at the absence of free mains sockets within easy reach.
Batteries: the original fully isolated power supply ^_^
I always do the same... I run my iron from a 5S lithium tool pack constantly
The T12 tips have a thermocouple in series with the heater
I messed around with it plenty and used the kasyan analog t12 station
Also congratz on million subs, may be late
The reading of the review was mildly debilitating yet amusing. Interesting little gadget. I still use the "old" USB iron you tested some years back occasionally. Handy in the field.
Clive, I looked into these bits before and the temperature sensing (at least on the ones I have here) is actually done in the handle. They work out how hot the tip is from the PCB temperature. I was actually surprised when I got a thermocouple that could handle the temperature, how accurate it was.
This could just be an artefact of how thermocouples work. They don't give you an absolute temperature; they give you the relative difference between the "hot end" and the "cold end" of the thermocouple. Therefore if you want an accurate reading, you need an absolute temperature sensor (such as a thermistor) at the cold end, to compensate for any change in temperature there. Cheap irons won't have this, and will just assume that the handle end is always room temperature.
@@TerrisLeonis That's a decent guess Terris, I haven't looked at these in a while (I was making a portable iron using mismatched handles and controllers), but I'm fairly sure I traced the connections, and the only ones for temperature sensing just went to the one surface mount component that was on the PCB that holds the bit.
I also had to translate some Chinese to program the controller and the instructions came out VERY poorly, but I believe it basically said the same, and talked about this being the reason it's completely inaccurate below about 200°C.
It being mismatched also wasn't just a wiring problem, but they used different temperature sensors, so I had to figure out the coefficients to get it somewhat accurate, which was really just a trial and error exercise as the instructions told you never to touch them :D
I have a similar model. On mine you can connect to a laptop by usb. It mounts like a drive and there is a configuration file you can edit to set all these values
Thanks for the find. Been thinking about buying one of these for a while. Hard to pass up at this price point.
Great review sir.Merry Christmas to you
Love it :) Thanks for the chuckle Clive.
I want the body too...
A note about power supplies. I had always thought the inner connector of a barrel connector was positive and the outer negative. However, to my surprise, I picked one at random from my big bag of power supplies and just by chance happened to look at the label and it is negative on the inner connector and positive on the outer!
That's rare, but happens. I always mark those supplies as being negative tip.
Got a similar thing with DC jack, made a power supply for it from cheap charger so now it clips onto my 18v batteries.
Great thing to have for LED strips and anything small since it is completely isolated.
I was doing some repair work on a machine at a customer location. At the time butane irons were the best option, but the customer had a ban on any open flame (grain mill nearby) so they lent me a “safe” iron. Even though the machine had been locked out for days, it had had an “unauthorized customer modification” that caused the 8800 mfd capacitors to retain a charge until I shorted them to ground with the soldering iron. The resulting arc flash instantaneously vaporized a full 15mm of the end of the iron and did an additional 20k worth of damage to the machine. Thankfully the place was PPE crazy so I didn’t get hurt and they gave all of us ISO-Tips after that.
The modification was the addition of some 12v work lights. They had inadvertently bypassed the filter card that carried the discharge resistors.
Recently got a similar iron and i found the overall length and distance from grip to tip impractical compared to my other soldering gear. Anyways, got it mainly to use for marking plastics with the cheap T12 tips and USB C PD power banks. PCB templates with text routed as slots makes for easy and consistent marking of various plastic sports gear for clubs.
you can purchase shorter "pinecil" tips if they fit
If you want something like this, just get a Pinecil. Runs open source firmware, the user interface is pretty user friendly (especially after several revisions of the software), powered from USB PD or barrel jack, and there's a pretty good sized community around it making accessories, 3D printable stuff, mods, etc. I have several of them and have given them as Christmas gifts too. I don't see the point in buying any other of these no-name portable irons when the Pinecil exists and is very reasonably priced.
Alas. When I tried to buy a Pinecil they cancelled my order because they wouldn't send it to the Isle of Man. I tend not to promote companies that do that.
I have exactly the same iron and I really like the standby feature. No more burnt tips if you leave iron plugged in for a week lol.
love these. i run mine off of a 22w usb-c single cell battery bank i made. really cool board, bidirection usb-c, very thin. all fits in a small portable bag i keep in my backpack
I have a clone of this branded as GVDA, which has served me well. Was a real pain figuring out how to use it though, so im sure this will be very helpful to many :)
After watching your video I've bought the same one from Aliexpress for the price I'm well pleased with it.
My best companion is my old jbc30s with 3 different round tips. Takes long to heat, but performs well. I have to admit my younger ts100 and some various tips shapes is also a nice brother to have
Awesome. I've been looking for a small portable soldering iron that works off a universal power supply for doing servicing jobs in both US and Europe.
I've been using a miniware ts80p. Great small iron. I've flashed ironOS for the firmware and that greatly improves the quality of life when using it. It doesn't have a lot of thermal mass and the tips are quite expensive though, $25-30.
Thanks Clive, I'll have to check out the portables for current leakage... not sure why that didn't occur to me before; although I guess I don't tend to do any sensitive soldering away from the bench.
I'm also looking forward to a few cheap soldering irons coming in (internally lithium powered, these) as a mostly humorous gift. Although one's definitely coming apart to make sure that the humor isn't of the dark spicy pillow nature.
Apart from a part that's too hot to handle, I apparently am missing out on some ammeter action. Why didn't the fuse blow when crossing the grounds?
Bought one of these USB powered irons many years back. Mine's not particularly powerful, and uses the 900M-T series tips. It can't cope with the higher thermal mass tips, being limited to the T-B, and T-2.4D sizes, since the heavier knife - style tips (SK, and especially K ) just take too long to reach temperature. I've found that the "pocket" gas - powered irons (using the same 900M-T series) are far more useful, and of course have zero current leakage issues.
Solid video Clive. I have a few supplies like this that I am going to go ground right now.
ruclips.net/video/RkvggOk-0As/видео.html&lc=UgzjeG3GncA_B3-LK6d4AaABAg
"I want the body."
truer words were never spoken
Gibberish, gibberish, gibberish - well, that sums it up nicely 😂 I love your humor! 🎉
Hey, tht is a great review! I wish all the products came with something this good!
The older TP100 has a grounding screw on the body specifically for connection to mains earth.
I have definitely popped electronics when I forgot it.
The response to the review you read out was priceless. 🤣
I still have my Unger grounded iron, 50+ years old, USA made and still working. No bells and whistles.
My father got one like these a few years ago... came with an 18V supply but could run as low as 12, at least... After I got a USB soldering iron from your review, maybe it's time to buy a new one that isn't some power-tool gimmick. I really would like one USB-C powered, with smart up-volting and a super-fast tip heater like the USB ones. One can dream.
With the leakage current, seems like a megaohm or something across the output would filter it out, no?
It needs referenced to ground for true equipotential in the work area. A high value resistor to ground would work though.
Chinese T12 cartridge clones can be very hit n miss for actual power vs the 72 watts of original Hakkos. But if you live outside of JP or US the cost benefit of $3-4 knockoffs vs imported Hakko originals is near impossible to beat. There are issues with some of the common T12 cartridge _sockets_ though, or rather their implementation. Their solder tabs are a bit weirdly arranged for a purpose designed part, and they are quite fragile. This often results in broken connections, or seating pushed out of alignment vs the snap-action or screw collar retention. Result is the socket spring tabs barely making contact with the cartridge "bands".
New cheap knockoff cartridges are not "run in" for QC, so it's normal for them to bounce all over with temps and signal error/temp ba k and forth for a minute or so first time fired up (so make sure you set your iron at moderate temps before running in a new cartridge). *_HOWEVER, IT IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT THAT YOU DO NOT TAKE YOUR EYE OFF THEM EVEN FOR A SECOND DURING THIS TIME!!_* If your iron has poor cartridge contact too, there is a *VERY*_ real risk of this combination resulting in uncontrolled thermal runaway during this time.
Over running in maybe 40-45 knockoff cartridges from different quite reputable vendors, this has happened to me 3 times. Only once did it burn out the heater in the cartridge before it got too bad. The other 2 times, within maybe 10-15 seconds it got so hot it was glowing bright yellow before I could disconnect power to my soldering station. Even ~75 watts is quite a lot sealed inside a 5mm steel tube when that PID / PWM supply becomes an uninterrupted flat line of 100% power. My iron handles have push-pull snap retention for T12 cartridges (like most if the original Hakko T12 handles do), so normally you just pull one cartridge out and stuff another in using that silicone foam flap thing. But once it starts glowing, that protective flap for handling hot cartridges isn't gonna help you for sh1t. You need to cut power to the iron/soldering station, and make sure the iron doesn't touch anything because it's a bare, stainless steel poker quickly blasting past 1000°C once it runs away like that.
Very interesting, due to the low price. I'm tempted 🙂
I've encountered this issue, my MHP30 having 60VAC and enough current to light multiple white LEDs in series when simply touched to my skin, seemed less than ideal.
A paperclip bent into a similar shape as an oscilloscopes circular GND clip is a good way to latch onto USB-C connectors that have some metal exposed when plugged, same idea for a barrel connection so long as the outside is where you want to GND it. I've also found a few USB-micro that have continuity from shell to shell(most don't it seems), I have a USB-C PD supply on my desk and so long as I GND one of it's multiple USB-A ports the USB-C is also grounded, so I shove the micro cable in, and clip an alligator lead onto the relatively flat USB-micro end.
It is switching between heating and measurenent. PTS200 is another Iron, but with ESP32 Chip and Open Firmware. It is able to deliver Up to 100W. Can only say good Things about that.
Clive “sums it up nicely”.
That review was great, very helpful consumer feedback😅
Good video Clive, I have a TS 100 soldering iron I power it from my Parkside X20V 4Ah Battery so not connected to the mains.
Keep in mind that the Parkside batteries may not have over-discharge protection, so be careful not to run them too low. The cheap Chinese tool batteries often do have over-discharge protection built in.
Thanks for the info Clive; with the updated firmware I have installed in the TS 100 it displays the input voltage so I can keep an eye on it.
I just love the instructions! ❤😂
I also have this soldering iron. It came with an earthing cable with an alligator clip that you can connect to the soldering iron.
I ordered mine from Banggood. Mine was set to Chinese on delivery. It took me some time before I found the language setting.
Thank you!! I have one of these and could not figure out the touch senor to work.. Am going to try your instructions
2:07 And I thought dear old Stanley Unwin departed us in 2002!
Many laptops use a 19vdc power supply. These may be a good candidate as a power supply, check IT departments to salvage for free ones.
the Miniware TS-100 irons have a grounding lug on the body to prevent any charges building up, haven't needed it yet with my specific setup
I've been using the T-12 bits in my TS-100 iron. They're quite a bit cheaper than the TS-100 tips.
The T-12 tips work the same in the TS-100, the only differences are that the T-12 tips are a little longer, and they do not have the positive stop shoulder on them to keep from shoving them too far into the TS-100 and knocking components off the board inside it. When I order a bag of 10× T-12 tips, I will take the back cover off of my TS-100 iron, carefully shove the T-12 tips in so that they properly line up with the terminals inside the iron, and then I will wrap some 1/4" wide masking tape around the shaft of the T-12 tip once it's in the proper place in rhe TS-100, so that the tape butts up against the body of the iron, and wrap enough tape on so that it makes a positive stop so that it can't be pushed in too far, and then continue on for the other 9 tips in the bag. Then when you change the T-12 tips in your TS-100, you can't push them in too far because the tape will stop it in the correct place.
A bag of 10× different T-12 tips can be had for about $25. The same bag of 10× TS-100 tips is quite a bit more money.
To disassemble you simply pull the cap off the bottom and slide it out. Best iron ever, kicks my wellers ass! Best at 25v needs 4 amps, can be used in 5 seconds with that voltage and current once it’s heated up it will pulse the power supply at 3.3 ish amps every two seconds, my go to iron. I have dropped it stepped on it, more durable than it looks i use it more than my expensive heat and iron station. I better go buy another one for the garage.
Love your work, thanks
I use a first-get Pinecil and love it. (I do still have my 20-year-old Weller for when I need bigger thermal mass, but I haven't used it in a long time now.) It's cheap (under $30 currently), well-designed, gets regular software updates, and has a good manual.
I also have the pinecil and like it very much. I use a 12V 3A power supply and I haven’t found anything that I couldn’t accomplish with it so far. It heats to 360C in 7 seconds.
I want a pinecil but the shipping is a bit outrageous to the US. I already have a TS100 so I'm going to keep going with that for now.
@ shipping was only around $10 back when I bought mine. 🤷🏻♂️
@@chaos.corner yeah I bought my 1st gen Pinecil a couple month after VAT became enforced on cheap products and I had to pay something like 15€ of extra fees.
Now I limit myself to sellers inside EU even if it means there is less choice.
One thing a bit meh with the pinecil is that it comes with a basic B2 tip and the more interesting tips are sold separately. But if you already have a TS100 you certainly don't bother.
Love my pinecil. And the shopping wasn't that bad
Interesting little soldering iron. Cheap too! I have another one similar to it, but can't think of the model # right off. It's a TS-100 or something. One of the more popular ones.
2:41 reminds me the famous phrasebook "English as she is spoke" 😅 There was a video about it on Robwords a few days ago 😅 What can I say more as a Hungarian? "My hovercraft is full of eels"!🤣
Have you seen the PINECIL irons? They're really impressive and can take a barrel DC jack, USB-C PD, USB-C QC, and something like 9-24 volts input and uses TS-100 iron tips. Extremely affordable too.
I have. But unfortunately they cancelled my order for one because they wouldn't send it to my location for some unknown reason.
It's so nice when they don't supply instructions as though they think we all have intimate knowledge of how their product should work out of the box, very nice of them... :P
Reminds me a lot of the TS100/TS80. I wonder if the custom firmware from Ralim will work on this too 🤔 I love my TS100, you should see the cool stuff people have made for them, like the Makita battery to barrel jack adapter that allows you to use this in the field. Brilliant things!
I'd be cautious about possibly bricking the iron with incompatible firmware.
The Makita style battery would be perfect, especially the generic Chinese clones that have over discharge protection built in.
Looks as if the work bench ground needs consideration. The low volts and the bench mains ground could possibly be joined. I can think of many things that might not like 100v inserted carelessly
🤙🏻 Happy New Year early Mr.Clive🥳🎉
Hey mate check out the firmware called IronOS it works on a few different soldering irons, not sure if it will work on this model but it does work on the TS100 and Pinecils, the screen on this iron looks similiar to the to the screens used on TS100 but the microcontroller might be different, it may work if its using a STM32.
I got my boyfriend the TS100 and I love it more than my proper Magnum iron
I love my various Magnum stations but I didn't realise it was a well known brand
@YateyTileEditor It's not. You also a South African? I believe they're local
@@adagioleopard6415 Yup, South African here 😆
Funnily enough I bought my first SMD rework station second hand from a lass in Durban who didn't have time do electronics repair anymore. Before discovering, years later, that I live in easy driving distance of their office here in Joburg.
@@adagioleopard6415 Yup, South African here 😆
Funnily I bought my first SMD rework station from a lass in Durban who no longer had the time to do electronics repair. I then discovered, years later, that Magnums office is in easy driving distance for me here in Jo'burg.
The tip of my TS80 just recently failed after 5 years.
I'm happy with the TS80 so i just got a replacement tip for it.
Um @ 3:31 Pause;... Am I seeing exposed inner cores where the cable meet the rubber grommet...
I don't see that here.
Haven't watched the video yet, but the one I've used before was sitting a slight 100c above the actual set temp lol. Trying to adjust it in the settings made it only overshoot by 50c. Probably what that review you printed out was complaining about. When opened up most of the IC's had their labels sanded off sadly so making your own firmware for it seems nigh impossible.
Thanks for that heads up! Not the sort of thing you want in your shop. Safe travels and home again!
I use a TS-100 for most of my soldering, typically powered by a s6 lipo pack, as most of my soldering is done in the field.
I was looking for an iron that takes T12 tips and this seems to be the T12 version of a TS100/Pinecil. For that price it’s almost an automatic buy just as a backup if not as a main T12 iron. I’m hoping the USB PD protocol on the unit can request at least 20V if not 28V for full power draw.
I was sure that the koriguvannya would not be worth it and, yes, I've been proved right yet again!
The correction?
I have a few of these from more proper companies like minisforum and Frini or whatnot. MW101 uses a 3.5mm connector. The Frini or whatever, uses the TS12 style.
Seems like a decent pinecil clone. I really like my pinecil. So much easier than dragging out the old soldering station.
Thanks Clive
Good video ! Nice for use with battery cheap portable … maybe a bridge rectifier can fix the leak? and If you could do a teardown too
Had a hard laugh at the review 😂
I actually have a similar one from Sainsmart, less menu options, but at least a (rudimentary) manual 😅
I find it quite neat to have it with me at work, together with a powerbank, for small soldering jobs in the field like small connectors, loose wires, etc..
Language should always be written in the language you want to select. 💡
Still probably wouldn't help you find that setting in the first place if it gets changed to something else.
@@poolhalljunkie9I think was Nokia that used to put an asterisk on the menu items that would lead you to the language selection menu. A simple solution to a frustrating problem.
It is the same thing as when you are accessing some sort of terminal and in the corner of the screen you see a little flag which can change the language. It makes sense because it will be the first thing that looks familiar to the user.
One thing to point out is that the temp display is the "Set Temp" and not the actual temp, they fake the ramping up, most of these cheap irons are like this.
Making an 18V tool battery be the power source for this iron would definitely be a first project with this unit.
And that would solve the mains referenced leakage too. The generic Chinese tool batteries even have the overdischarge protection built in.
I made up a lead with spade plugs on the end and use a Lidl 18V battery, the spade plugs fit the battery connections perfectly. - I painted a big red blob on the battery so as to get correct polarity connections 🤣
@@barrieshepherd7694there's probably a 3D printable adaptor on thingiverse or cults &c.
@@aethelfreda There are I think BC did one but I don't have 3D printer (yet 😂)
@@aethelfreda yes there is. I made a power supply for my guitar pedal board with one.