Pinecil v2 now supports pd 3.1 epr 28v. It can now output 100+ watts. The only problem is 140 watts 3.1pd epr chargers, it cost 2x more than the pinecil itself.
I know exactly how you feel. That’s why when I see PD bricks for $1 in the Salvation Army Store I pick them all up. Picked up a nice 100w one with the E cable. The cable alone is over $30. So now I think I’m going to order one of these Pinecils bc, why not.
I think we deserve at least a DC source powered performance test 🙂 As for the 88 W as the claim, it is impossible without boosting the driving voltage because the resistance of the heater is over 8 ohms, as I remember from my TS100 measurements.. so these new short tips must have slightly lower resistance. It would be nice if you measured it.
Yup, slightly lower resistance. The TS100-compatible tips are 8 ohms, the new shorter tips are 6.2 ohms! Also, the Pinecil V2 supports EPR PD3.1 (with a certified cable) at 28V 4.5A. 98W on the longer 8Ω tips, or 126W on the shoter 6.2Ω tips!
@@Haulien the new V2 comes with a shorter 6.2 ohm tip. that number is not based on the older 8ohm long tip. There is an explaination in the Pinecil Wiki look for 88W in the wiki. tldr, to be conservative bc of manufacturing tolerances, use ohm calculator , plug in 6.5ohms, 24V, dc barrel charger, and you get the 88W printed on the side. google any ohm calculator. Technically that is theoretical max. however due to some resistance of PCB components & small amount from cable, and also a little resistance from tester itself, it will not reach that number exactly.
Wait... you mean the $25 soldering iron can't compete with one that costs around $1000?! No way! Thank goodness for this video. Idk how anyone could've figured that one out without your extensive testing.
Hello, how do we verify if it's a genuine product? I don't live in the U.S. so I have to buy it from a local e commerce website that seems to be importing the soldering iron, and I'm a little concerned about the genuineness of the product.
@@lonewolfplays7664 I don't remember the website, but the manufacturer has a serial number validator. I just google searched for Pinecil check if counterfit, or something like that. Hope that helps!
Honestly, for how much cheaper it is, what it can do seems amazing. Unfortunately bit hard to buy due to supplies being limited, but definitely seems like a good choice for hobby work without spending too much on an iron and tips.
I rushed to get one when the supplies came back, and they've been in stock since, looks like the supply is currently good. I won't be able to try it out until June sadly, but I got mine ready.
Just got one and nice to view this. I was only planning to do pretty basic soldering and so far, I am loving it. One thing to note (and others might have already mentioned this): This pen accepts Type B2 tips, which are pretty standard, no? I would love to see a follow up with you trying a trusted tip and see the comparison.
I got my Pinecil V2 last week, and I'm very happy with the performance so far on the limited 15w I've been able to deliver it.. I do need some more tips though! The giant Cone is too much Cone to cope. Edit: the 15w limit I have is due to power bank limits!
not sure how it is even heating with only15w power bank. how many amps/volts is that port ? Can also see the volts on the right side of pinecil screen. for the conal tip included, I learned from Mr. Solderfix videos to hold the tip more like a steak knife touching aloing the side of the tip and not the tip. I no longer hold it vertically like a pen. Mr. solderfix videos he seems to use conical tip 99% of the time but he has a lot of practice. if you want an easier time you might consider the D24- wedge tip and the C4 bevel tip (large and good for desolder).
Conical tips are mostly useless except for certain PTH parts. We are discouraged from using them during IPC training, favouring chisel tips for higher thermal performance. You shouldn't have to change your soldering style and grip because of the tip choice.
Pro tip: old laptop power supplies are a good option for a high current 19V source. I'm using an old Sony one because it came with a nice flexible cable, which actually seems to put out 20V even though it's rated at 19V. Just chop the connector and solder a new 5.5 x 2.5 mm barrel jack.
@@sdgelectronics I prefer the BC2 or BC3 bevel hoof tips. people have been asking Pine store to please change default tip from Conical. the Conical requires you to hold tip horizontally so side of it touches the leg to solder. would also be nice if a D16 smaller Chisel tip was made in ts100 styl since it only exist for T12-d16.
I read that Pine store will have all short tips packs in mid -December. For now though I am using both my long 8ohm and shorter 6.2ohm tips. I would highly avoid using QC charger that is only 15W on V2 pinecil as you will not get good soldering result and it will maybe shut off a lot. You may even get "thermal runaway" or "undervoltage" messages sometimes when it's trying to draw more power than the small weak charger can give. Highly recommend getting at least usb-C PD (Power Delivery protocol) charger that is minimum PD65W, 20V, 3-3.25 amps on Ama zn they are so cheap now $10-$25 only. see Pinecil Wiki for list and links to some of these on Ama zn.
Although QC 3.0 are rated for up to 22V or max current up to 4.6A the max power itself is only 36W. The adapter itself is mostly only output 18W for QC 3.0, probably that's why it only draws something under 15W. Maybe try using PD 3.0 compatible charger or the barrel plug, i mean surely it will do better with full power.
The longer cartridges you have used, although compatible with this new version, are not as efficient in power and heat delivery as the short ones. They are still working on producing new short tips ( probably with the same geometries of the long ones but shorter and more powerful ) that are going to be available in the near future. You should definitely rivist these tests when the new short tips will be released.
when you see the Offset number in the calibration like 833 in video, the calibration is complete. it is important not to repeat calibration over and over as he does in video. calibration method, it is critical to read instructions on firmware website first and critical that both the tip and the handle /pcb internals are cold/ room temperature or calibration won't work . this means it should only be done at fresh boot of pinecil and not after it has been plugged in for 5 minutes as even that warms up the PCB. I'm also not sure people realize you have to unplug V2 between changing from long and short tips since it only does a resistance reading on boot up. and the short and long tips have very different temperature profiles used which could lead to wide difference in temperature reading if you don't do this.
New 4-packs of the Short tips (6.2 ohm) will be at Pine Store in December 2022. but way things go it could be Jan 2023. short tips 6.2 ohms less than the 8 ohms longer tips is true they allow more power/watts for iron, per Ohm Calculator too.
@@sdgelectronics offset number will appear when doing calibration again. open ticket in Github IronOS, there is a temperature document there too that Ralim explains why calibration is not perfect. if you mean you believe offset # should go to 0 when you run Calibration an hour later, I don't think that is how firmware works. if I do calibration 6 times, leaving 30 min unplugged between each calibration for proper PCB colling, it always shows me Offset # on fresh boot calibration. Ralim suggested removing offset from view as it may be confusing.
I realize the documentation that comes with the Pinecil is lacking. But you may want to re-do this review with a decent 65W PD charger, and after reading up a bit more on how it works, and what the difference is between short and long tips. And 833 means calibration was successful. Only calibrate when the entire thing at room temp. And you need to power cycle the iron after each tip change.
@@sdgelectronics try calibration with the Short tip that it came with. see if that is different. of course if stuck open Issue ticket on Github Ralim's IronOS, he usually has a good idea what to do since he wrote the firmware. he sometimes gives people beta debug tester firmware to expose certain problems so they can be fixed. we have a flasher for V2 now that can be used to upload the betas.
How is the documentation lacking? You literally have tons of documentation, all of the schematics, open source firmware etc... Really don't get your comment.
you should retest the performance with the new short tips now that you can actually get them, you're really the only channel I've seen do thorough videos on this topic like this and especially with the pinecil. It'd really help people get an accurate read of the capabilities of the iron with its intended tips.
You mentioned the use of QC 3, might it be an issue with that? You recon PD could do any better? If I am not mistaken, you can use the same TS100/101 cartridge. Otherwise I would have spent 10$ on Aliexpress for no reason. Mine should arrive soon, pretty disappointed to be honest. Thanks for doing the great tests.
You can overcome this with the boost temperature setting, no reason to be dissaapointed it's the best soldering iron for the price. Also the more expensive irons may have better engineered tips or may just be compensating in software and I don't know if ironOS does it -thermal resistance from tip to thermocouple is constant, so temperature error is proportional to the power draw-
Faster CPU for snazzy animated graphics to meke it look cool. I have the metcal as well and it's perfectly happy to put 90W into even the fine tips for SMD work when needed.
I'm really struggling on deciding between this and the ts101, I guess it'd make sense to just buy the cheaper and switch if it doesn't work out but I'd like to know what you'd recommend for someone who'd mostly use it for occasional repairs and modding Handheld game consoles.
The Pinecil is based on the same design concept as the TS101. It all started when an alternative firmware was developed for the TS100 and became so popular that they decided to build their own iron as well. I have a v1 Pinecil and absolutely love it. For all my small through hole and SMD work it’s perfect. I have larger irons but they supply too much power and sometimes are not suitable due to nearby plastic melts or components overheating. This is ideal for small electronics work. It’s not suitable or desirable for welding up your gutters and that suits me fine. It’s super small and fits in the toolbox beautifully. Make sure you grab one of their silicon red USB-C cables. They are floppy and smooth and work really well.
@@wizdude I’m looking to get the Pinecil soldering kit for portable/station , which tips set you recommend get short tip gross or fine they also have the 120w desktop power supply on sale $37.99 im mainly going to use for fpv drone builds and in the field quick repair , I’ve never solder and will be my first time “newbie”
@@wizdudethat’s not right. An underpowered iron melts nearby plastics because you are forced to hold the tip to the joint for a long time trying to flow the solder properly.
Hi, thank you very much for the amazing review! It agrees with my experience with a Pinecil v2 on large copper regions (which is not great). I was blaming my soldering skills. I have a question though. Do you know if Hakko T12/T15 cartridges do better? I mean both original ones and clone ones (you can put one into a pinecil or use a separate station). I also have a clone T12 station, and clone T12-K tip feels much better than a Pinecil one.
And the Aixun takes the silver. Again. Not bad. Would you consider doing a video about how all the stations you've been reviewing for the last several years stack up? Even if you no longer have some of the stations, it would probably be an easy video. Probably just video editing, and a unified timer. You use the same coin, and generally use use a D52-type tip on the contenders (120w or greater). You've already got film of the coin test for the Metcal MX5200 (and GT120), JBC, Aixun T3A and 420D, BST-933, Quick TS-1200A, PACE ADS200, and Unisolder. The only thing you're missing is the Hakko FM-2030 hand piece (which may come in last place anyways). Oh! And maybe any info on ESD use (good or bad), reliability, safety concerns, etc.
The aixun is flawed in a few ways that this tester doesn't appear to investigate though (at least if he had discovered them it's strange that'd he'd still include its performance side by side with other products) It's premise seems to be a £400 soldering station for £40 (or whatever) which sounds like you should be looking for the catch (and the reviewers / users who do, find it) - JBC do cheaper soldering irons I'd suggest you'd be better with one of them if you don't want to spend £400. Although I think the miniware and pinecil are probably as good - because they're not trying to be cheap. The performance may be less but you have to ask yourself how much soldering you're doing on coins or big pads. If it's none then you'd be much better with a cheaper JBC or the pinecil / miniware than you would be with some tat from aliexpress / amazon that is likely to electrocute you if you don't open it up and fix it - and if you do need the performance get the JBC or other reputable brand. The bottom line is : the cheap one isn't the same product but cheaper - dumping power into a tip will give you an impressive heat up time for a video but there's more to a soldering station than that.
Did you update the iron? I know the side says 80 watts, but the update I though, of ironOS was supposed to unlock 120 watts? Some new quick charge power function? New voltage consumption? Something.
Hi. Great video! I'm in need of a soldering iron that can deliver deal with large ground planes. I have tried a few irons that struggle including this and the hakko fx888d. What is the iron you mentioned at 15:30 in the video? I think I need one of these!
Received mine today... With the proper power bank, it drew 88 Watts and heated to 300C° in "faster than I bothered counting". Like literally 3 seconds or so... And if it's on standby or still warm, it's faster than you could physically move it from the stand to anything you wanted to solder on a board... ^^ I didn't do the penny test, but I'm positive it would have SMASHED that...
I wonder how well the tip contacts well keep a good low resistance connection over time. You most have a shed load of iron's by now. Since about 1976 I must be on my 5th solder iron. I did turn one one for the first time this year that I was given new as a spare in 1977 :-)
longer tips in 4-pack set is not the high power tips, they are just normal ts-100 style tips. It's opposite. longer tips you got are higher resistance ~8 Ohm and thus lower performance. - Only the Pine64 newly designed short tip is the higher power tip because it's lower ~6.2 ohm is higher power due to increased watts you get using the shorter lower ohm new style tip that Pine64 designed. in ohm calculator input typical USB-C charger of 20V with 6.2 ohm tip and see how you get ~64W power compared to much lower max you get from entering 8ohm tip in calculator with same 20V charger and you get lower 50W max. - have to do a bunch of settings first before things will work the way you want in the menu like user settings. auto rotate screen works if you set it up. highly, highly recommend reading wiki page for pinecil and firmware ironos pages before doing a review because calibration was also not done correctly. you can see the calibration completed when you got the 833 offset number, after that you need to hit minus button a couple times until you are back at main screen. I would unplug and leave it sitting for a long time before calibrating. it says in firmware instructions on git .. hub for IronOS to make sure not only Tip is cold but also the handle since it takes a temperature reading on the PCB too. moment you plug it in that starts getting warm. - if you did not have time to read ralim IronOS firmware information on calibration or the Temperature document posted there , could have come into live community chat which is linked in wiki page and volunteers would help you sort out some of the confusion - If you truly want better performance, we could have let you know that quick charge or QC chargers are the worst, you have to use at least a usb-C "Power Deliver" spec charger, also called PD65W, 20V 3-3.25 amp charger to see really nice speeds. unlike the ts101 which can only do usb-C 45w max charger, the V2 pinecil performs well using PD charger 65w-20V, 3.25 amps. look on the wiki page for pinecil. just because QC (quick charge) type works doesn't mean they are optimal or should be used. that is what you use b/c you have one free in your house, but not when you are trying to compare performance or heating speed. - Pinecil V2 firmware only checks tip resistance at bootup, so if you swap between long and short tips must reboot or unplug first. this can really throw off temperatures if you don't do this right. same with doing calibrations. if you don't do calibration correctly and look up way it works in ironos firmware, it's worse than before you started. - avoid QC chargers, they may work but are slow. use usb-C PD chargers that give 3 or more amps at 20V, yes.
@@nidusa1 Jump to around 12:00 and look at the amount of power being drawn - only some 11W is actually being drawn by the iron even then it is should be ramping up to full power... so something is clearly wrong here - possibly the tip calibration is really out due to tip swapping (although he does say he always powered down before swapping tips in reply to another comment), not calibrated when handpiece cold, etc, etc, so it's just not really trying to heat up - although I would have thought Steve would have verified the temp temperature after the calibration.
@@pfeerick I see this - good for Ralim to look at this if SDG opens a Github IronOS ticket otherwise ralim won't know about it this problem or be able to work with SDG to diagnose.
@@neo256mb I'm more inclined to think he needs to get in contact with pine64 and see if they are having issues with tip cartridge quality. But it also won't hurt to find out what is going on with the tip calibration ... if only to suggest it needs to be made more intuitive... RTFM really should not apply for a tool like this... it should be mostly usable by anyone familar with this type of equipment.
@@pfeerick thanks. yes something is wrong there. there were some issues i read about with with brand new ts100 tips where just wiping them down with IPA isopropal alcohol before using them new helped with temperatures. they can come from factory with dirty contact or residue. people reported fluctuating and flickering temperatures which went away immediately after cleaning or wiping off all the tips. in some cases just using the iron a few days where the rubbing from inserting the tip several times magically made contacts better and the bizarre temperature readings went away. this may have been because they rubbed off any residue. This happend to enough people, it is in the pinecil Wiki to wipe off all new tips before using. It happened to me on one tip too but after i wiped it with dry towel the fluctuating temperatures went away.
Thanks for the video I have 0 knowledge about this, but at around 10:30, I think you should press the button while it's not showing the message - the message works kinda like a tooltip or screensaver, where you do something to "wake it up", after "waking it up", should press the button again just my wild guess
I was looking at these, but after watching this and reading comments, it’s way above my knowledge for simple circuits with esp/arduino and raspberries. I’m lost in a sea of soldering stations on Amazon and ali. Is there a budget end desktop setup you’d recommend for such as me? Say up to a hundred quid please? If that’s even possible lol. Many thanks! I don’t really need portable.
13:43 did you try a 88w source like a ear 140w pd or a dc input to get the full power output? And the short tips not the long ones EDIT: although I think my performance is way better than this video, a 140w pd 3.1 PSU with 28v only improves the heat-up times. Also, this thing is not ESD safe unless you wire the ground pin to ground or use a power bank, it killed a few ICs and it reads 55vac to ground for me! it lights up the leds I solder 0_0 tried a few chargers including my apple one. The issue with this thing are the tips, the soldering iron only delivers 15w max during soldering despite being capable of 88w. my assumption is that the thermistor is poorly positioned etc?
not saying this is an issue at all . just noting that The 119 temperature testing unit also needs the test wire changed every now and then. not sure exactly but I think it's 20 times it can test before you have to swap it out with a new hakko wire which is why the 119 unit comes with several spares. I could be wrong abut the 20 number, but I do know that wire has a limited number of tests it can do and that like in the video it is important to add a little solder to the center of the wire to help get the correct test. Normally I would use an Iron first and heat it up before even checking calibration just to visually see if it's fast and heating right. this way I have a reference point. if I calibrate and then it performs not well, I might then think it's my calibration but if it performed poorly before and after calibration, then I might suspect the Tip. Some people in Pine64 found that wiping off all the new tips of factory residue helped a lot with weird temperature on first day they received their pinecil. pinecil also works with the tip that came with the tS101 . would be interested in seeing it tested/used with the ts101 to rule out if the tip is defective. I'd also test and or calibrate using the same exact tip I'm going to solder copper with. So if you use the Short conical tip for the soldering, then use the same one for the calibration sicne it has different ohms. if that still doesn't work. open an issue ticket with Github Ralim's IronOs if firmware is suspected.
I think you should do a review of the Goot RX802-AS. I got one used for like 80 USD, see some new from ebay cost like 200USD. Its performance beat any Hakko i use at work. Heat up from cold in like 6s. Slim and lightweigh handle. Automatic sleep by measuring output power, so you dont need a special stand for it and no wiring from stand to station. And there is manysettings and a very clear manual. Honestly I think it is a very nice station for the price, but no one do a review about it. Maybe it is not popular in EU and US.
Just starting out with soldering mainly on old video game systems. Doing mods and intermediate repairs as i learn. Would this iron be a good starting point, my other choice was the hakko Fx888D station. The portability isnt necessary but may come in handy.
Your coin soldering test in the end was very cool, it would be nice to know if the tips have been on all irons the same and the Wattages? 🤔 Is ther a video off all newer like this soldering iron reviews, there are in the last 2 years so many different soldering irons coming out that I have lost the overview 😳, it's a shame that the producer of this stuff don't make soldering irons modular, that the customer could chose a bigger display ect, like Lego bricks 😂, I have suggested this idea to a company and I hope that they do things like that in the future, they have all ready changeable casing colors, this days with all this cool Technologie ther would be no reason not to do it, cost factor is not a problem if they sell this days the irons for 25£ without extras(bigger display, double the size would be only 4£ or so max cost, depend on the version, I like OLED displays, they are better readable I think, or a e-ink display would be cool, they have been much improvement thus days and faster 🤔🤗) , but I see no reason to pay for thus not extremely innovative Technologie and not so new 60£ ore more only for the soldering iron. I hope I have not written to confusing, not easy to write with strong pain ect. 🤗
They do need to improve the performance of either the iron or the tips, but this iron should not be expected to perform like a Metcal. This is a $27 iron and it competes very well against the more expensive Miniware. It's 15W average power under high load is very disappointing, however, and hopefully this brings the issue to the manufacturer's attention. We should get at least 65W through the tip and they promise 88W. I've read that they've modified the stock tip to 6 ohms to allow more current through the heater, but this is itself problematic as it means that they'll have their own variant of "TS100" tips. I don't like that, but it should mean that the "shortie" tips are more powerful.
QC chargers with a Pinecil are pretty sad. This is how you test the speed of a Pinecil V2 heating up. Less than 3 seconds to 300c using a 140W PD charger. th-cam.com/video/nTC-ah4f0hg/w-d-xo.html
Mine just arrived today with the new short 6.2 ohm "gross" tip set. First impression was just how small it is compared to the fx-888d hand-piece. These are compatible with 28V USB PD EPR, I have tested with 28V DC power and it works amazingly well, drawing 130W while heating up. My only complaints are that the tip set contains a very sharp conical one, even pointier than the stock tip (would've preferred a bigger wedge one) and I wish it was a little more substantial feeling in the hand (more weighty). Bought this because I was really running into the limits of the fx-888d with aluminium clad LED PCBs and at 130W it blows the hakko out of the water whilst being a smaller and more precise feeling tool to use.
Ehh, I'm not spending >$3K Aussie dollary doos on an iron. I bought a Pinecil V1 and the only thing I've found it struggled with so far was a TO-252 (as you experienced), but hot air is probably the correct tool for that anyway. I might pick up a V2 and the larger blade tip if they release an updated one to suit, but my V1 kills my old FX-888D any day, so I expect it'll be better at 24V compared to 20V on the V1.
I’m looking to get the Pinecil soldering kit for portable/station , which tips set you recommend get short tip gross or fine or normal tip gross or fine they also have the 120w desktop power supply on sale $37.99 im mainly going to use for fpv drone builds and in the field quick repair , I’ve never solder and will be my first time “newbie
The calibration is performed incorrectly in this video is part of the problem. Also I'm not sure if SDG knows but you have to unplug and replug it in when changing Tips, because Firmware does a Resistance reading at boot-up to be able to tell if it's a Short or a long tip. It is better, look at my speed video. also there is a mistake in this video the new shorter tip is the higher performance at 6.2ohm versus the older longer ts100 style tips which is 8ohms. using an ohm calculater, 6.2 ohm with 20V usb-c charger gives max of ~64w whereas using the longer tip change calculator to 8 ohm and you get max of 50w.
@@neo256mb He said in reply to another comment that "Yes, always turned off before swapping cartridges.". Also, the pine64 store listings for this aren't the best - it only describes the extra tips as Fine and Gross - no mention of tip resistance, that they are slower to heat up than the stock tip, etc. Would have expected better from them after some of the previous mistakes made with the store listings.
@@pfeerick yes I understand. Pine Store should list more details on Tips and also on Pinecil. I don't understand their resistance to adding more info. EVen just a photo showing all 4 ways to power it would prevent people accidentally buying Pinecil thinking there is a mini battery inside. I like miniware photos on ts101. it shows Exactly the iron plugged into 4 different types of power. why Pine store doesn't have this similar photo I have no idea. It only helps to have more organized information on sale page or At Minimum, Put a Link to Pinecil Wiki if they aren't going to add any instructions on Pine Store page.
The Wiki says "Quick Charge or QC 3 is not recommended as Pinecil V2 requires a minimum of 3 Amps or more to work properly (see Pine Store Official rating on power ports). Most QC 12V phone chargers are only 1.5 Amps, this will lead to [Thermal Runaway] or [Undervoltage] messages because of weak power". Could this be the reason why you only saw about 10 to 20W of power used in your test?
@@sdgelectronics Thanks for the followup! I only mentioned this because you said you used CQ in the video. I am not really sure that the display showing 20V implies it must have used PD. I have conflicting sources here. Some claim QC3 can also go up to 20V or even 22V. Some claim QC3 is limited to 18W others state 36W. Some claim 1.5A max, others say it's 2.6A/4.6A max. Not sure if just most QC3 phones had that constraint or if that's a technical QC3 charger limitation. Sorry I can't post source links on TH-cam, it would get banned. The successor QC4 seems to be a quote on quote superset of PD3.0. Even though USB IF forbidds proprietary extensions so not actually.
Would've been nice if you were able to do a teardown to see exactly what MCU it's using. Their product page says it has a GigaDevice GD32VF103TB, but their store page says it has a Bouffalo BL-706. Both RISC-V. Perhaps they're in the middle of a changeover.
The V2 with the short tip is the BL-706. The original version is no longer made or sold. The primary reason for the switch was supply shortages of the GD32. Also the short tip is the more powerful one (6.2 ohm tip instead of 8 ohm TS100 standard tips). So far the tip provided with the iron is the only such tip available.
@@NusaCat Wait, I am confused. Does the new MiniWare TS101 still use the old TS100 8 ohm tips or the new 6.2 ohm tip? If it uses the old one then why does Steve state that the TS101 seems to work better than the Pinecil V2?
@@kwinzman The 6.2 ohm tip is a Pinecil ONLY thing at this time. The firmware to support it is also a Pinecil thing. I'm not aware that MiniWare has done any tip changes, so I guess you are confused. Steve has some basic facts wrong, like when he called the longer tips more powerful....in this case the opposite is true.
@@NusaCat He claims that there is a problem with those tips, maybe the temperature regulation not working or the heater cartridge being too far from the tip or something. Only 10 or 20W being delivered @ 17:30
Thanks for the review! I'm disappointed there appears to be an issue with the tips. However, I think you can confirm that by using a tip from the Miniware TS100/101. I hope they'll correct the issues in the forthcoming line of shorter tips.
@@neo256mb Steve is pretty sharp. I'm sure he'll read some of the comments and do more experimentation. I hope the manufacturer reads this too and can make improvements to the tips. I haven't used one of these type of portable irons yet. I prefer bench model soldering stations like Metcal, Hakko and Pace whenever possible.
@@acoustic61 hope so :). What I would fault Pine Store for is that they should put a link from Pinecil to both "Pinecil Wiki" page and the "GH Ralim's IRonOS." there are no instructions to how to use it on Sale page so at least they should link to the wiki (which has links to Ralim's IronOS) and /or give links to IronOS. Other huge resource people don't know about is all the volunteers in the open source community in Pine64 dis cord that help on a daily basis when people need clarification on how Firmware/software works. looking at this video I'm not sure there is a manufacturer (Pine Store) problem. Pine store makes only the hardware part, any software or firmware is FOSS ( free open source software community). here it's GH Ralim's IronOS which has tons of documentation online about how to properly do calibration. There is also an Issue ticket system in GH so if people have some misunderstanding of calibration they can open an Issue there or ask in discussion. Ralim's IronOS is used on Pinecil exclusively, but also on over 155,000 people have downloaded it to use on Miniware devices as well like TS100, TS80P, etc.. There is also a community run Pinecil Wiki which has links to live Pinecil chat where people get these kinds of questions resolved in minutes if they don't understand or are new to the firmware. would have been better had SDG asked first how to do calibration either on GH or in live pinecil chat before publishing that firmware wasn't working. from what I saw it worked great and he missed it and just kept pressing more buttons without needing too. when calibration completes, it gives you offset number, in this case for him it was 833, and then he simply needed to press minus a couple times to get to the main screen. IronOS does not say the words "Done" or complete. and there is nothing the manufactuerer can do about that. I opened a GH IronOS ticket with Ralim to see if there is room in the firmware for for it to say something more like " 833 offset, Done" or "833 offset, Complete" on the screen instead of just "833". again this is for the community and open source firmware people to fix and Pine Store (manufacturer) is not involved on that end of it. It is odd he was off by 15 degress so I would have asked him to do a couple tests on the tip first and also made sure to clean contact back area of the tip with some IPA because we have seen that can interfere with correct Cold Junction Calibration voltage reading (since it's such a small difference , factory residue on tip can make a problem). Usually in the dis cord live chat if someone wants to calibrate, the volunteers make sure they follow correct set up first. maybe there is a problem with the tip he got but maybe there isn't . What if before the calibration he booted with long tip and then swapped tip without rebooting, or vice versa. I'm not sure what exact steps were done, but it was clear from the video that some basic things about the V2 are not understood which led to several misteps (especially believing that the longer tips are higher performance with it's the opposite). way too many variables here and I don't have enough details from the video. if he came into the live Pinecil chat channel (link in wiki) we could have sorted this and helped him in just a couple minutes to resolve this confusion. If anything, as volunteers in Pinecil live chat who see people come in for help everyday or question on how to use the firmware or the hidden debug menus in the firmware, we usually find it is a tweak of the open source firmware and not the manufacturer/Pine64 hardware issue. for example do we know if SDG followed the correct steps when switching from long to short tip and back? it can not be done with pinecil plugged in. you have to unplug it because the long tip is 8 ohm and short tip is 6.2 ohm. V2 measures the tip resistance at bootup only. if you swap again you need to unplug. measurement is a toggle since the short tip is all new with the V2 and did not exist before. Ralim of Ralim's IronOS said that he coded it so if reading is close to ~6.2 ohms, it goes with that temperature profile, and if it's close to ~8 ohms it goes with that. in 2.19 Beta firmware for V2 this was further tweaked because it was discovered that some people with Long tips could have as low as 7.6 ohms. after that, Ralim tweaks the firmware further. Ralim is a volunteer, all firmware for Pinecil is open source IronOS. Pine64 only provides and makes the hardware, and the FOSS community makes the firmware. I've used it for so long that I take it for granted that I have to reboot if I swap tips and I know that very specific steps need to be strictly followed to get the correct calibration. and if I have a problem with firmware and I can't find answer in the copious documents in GH IronOS, I open an issue ticket. Finally, I also fault Pine Store for the tiny paper user manual they include in the box with Pinecil with super mini font. they should have on 1st page in huge letters, links to Pinecil wiki and GH IronOS. then people would have a fighting chance to go to links, see there are instructions for Calibration, and many other important details, and be less lost and confused on how to use the firmware. sometimes where people think there is a problem, it's a misunderstanding of how to use the firmware. there are also two hidden debug menus people do not even know about until they go to GH IronOS documents.
@@neo256mb Shouldn't Pinecil V2 be capable of performace similar to a genuine Hakko FX-951 station? I mean it can use higher voltage power supply and the tip resistance is lower? It's been requested many times in the Pine reddit group that Pinecil should let the buyer chose the default tip that ships with the iron. The conical tip is virtually useless. And they should also sell additional tips separately instead of a 4-pack. Hopefully they will correct the issues and have better performance.
8:12 Interesting! My Power Bank has a "Trickle Charge" mode, where it won't turn off if the current draw get's too low, like it does in normal mode! - I'll be curious to test, if that can replace the power pulse setting! You can turn it on or off with a double click of the power bank, so that would be perfect and make it more seamless... One question: I assume power banks are limited to 12V? If so, how much does that limit the performance of the iron (wattage is plenty...)? I also have normal chargers, but being able to use the Pinecil in "the field" would be amazing for using it in the car and so on! EDIT: Read up on my Power Bank! PD 3.1 makes it go up to 28V/5Amps! UPDATE: Trickle charge works! And it removes the "power pulse" Temp overshooting!
@@alexstone691 Where? The only one is the conical tip supplied with the iron, at around 6 Ohms. There are no other low resistance tips at the moment unless you have a secret source?
@@ricardoferreira2811 I wanted it because of the USB C power delivery, but I see now that it's inferior to the 24 volt that I'm currently using. I mostly use my KSGER T12 anyways.
@@AndreaAustoni my bad, it turns out the 6 ohms are the low resistance tips, and many people seem to have a problem with them as they are probably crap quality
I own a pinecil and use it frequently. Having said that, the pinecil community does seem to be a little confused about the relationship between temperature and power. I've seen a number of threads on various forums where users have mentioned they're not seeing an appropriate power draw from their PD power supplies, with fans asking if they'd reached their target temperature. Not really relevant for the reasons you've illustrated. If the tip isn't able to transfer heat energy into the part at the required (and advertise) rate, there's a problem. The temperature readout isn't relevant in the slightest. I'm not sure where this misunderstanding comes from. This is all pretty basic thermodynamics. :) Anyway, correctly designed tips would have very low resistance (ie. 1 ohm), and utilize a shorter duty cycle to heat them. 8 ohms is a bizarre choice unless they wanted to keep the switching frequency really low for some reason.
8 Ohms probably comes from original Hakko t12 spec. They probably targeted a 24V internal supply, that will lend at 72W which is exactly the power rating of Hakko soldering stations.
I bought an original Pinecil and it died within the warranty period. The customer service was horrible and they refused to honor the warranty. There was much avoidance claiming it was a power supply issue. I used 5 different PS. The issue was with the iron itself. It is cheap but that is irrelevant if it fails within the first 3 months. I might pick up a TS101 later at some point.
it is confusing process see the open Issue ticket in Github Ralim's IronOS. maybe you could add your experience there so that steps in firmware could be reconsidered for clarity and programmed differently so it's more clear. there are also several searchable docs in github explaining more on the calibration process. it's designed to be done when you have really have temperature off issue but not every day thing. Since calibration is considered an Advanced option highly recommended to look at instructions or ask in Live community chat if run into trouble or confusion with it . links to community live chat all in pinecil-wiki
Hey.... I just came across your channel and I did subscribe. Hope you can help. I'm ordering the pinecil v2 and wanted to know if you found a portable way to get full power? Think its 24v 88 watts. I know a good pd 3.0 works fine for most cases but I'd like to get max power for larger soldering tasks but mobile without plugging into the grid. Thanks so much for any help you can give me
You would likely need your own battery, possibly from a pack of LiPo cells in series. It might be possible to use a power tool battery, though most are around the 18V point.
"Quick-charge compatible power supply", what does that mean in wattage? Because Quick Charge 3 is rated as max 36 watts last I checked. If you're going to give the Pinecil insufficient power and then be upset it doesn't perform, that seems like some bullshit. I plugged in a 60 watt Power Delivery battery pack and mine hits 400 degrees C in literal seconds. Granted I haven't measured how well that holds up in real world temp, but enough wattage should mean it has an easier time compensating for temperature drops at the tip under load. Also, for some reason it seems that the minus button is the confirm and the plus button is back in some scenarios, so you probably just kept hitting cancel by hitting plus.
Small gauge work only, beyond requires a station. Honestly it sits in the desk drawer cause it's just easier to fire up the Hakko, dial her in and use muscle memory for repairing game controller or whatever Like anything, the tool is only as good as the person using it. Chances are there someone using it that could out-solder me around the room
1) temp calibration -- is resistance recheck, and you wanted temp offset. temp calibration finished, but you haven't tried to recheck. 2) setting temp let's say 330degrees and trying to solder huge polygon? there is turbo mode for it, iron is just aware of not to burn ur polygon, but who knows that you are trying to solder massive one :)
If the soldering iron is powerful enough, there is no need to adjust the temperature to solder large planes. Boosting the temperature is a means to temporarily add more energy to a mass to overcome limited power delivery. By doing this transferring a small amount of additional thermal energy stored in the cartridge to the power plane, but then you're back to the limited power delivery. If you look at the professional irons I've reviewed, they can deliver the power effortlessly
Thanks for the great review. (I just wish I'd watched it before ordering - I'm going to incur a 5% cancellation fee). Off to order a REAL iron - the Hako FX-888D.
I think it doesn't matter much how much power the new version have, becourse the tips have to go anyway not higher then soldering temperatures and they need only a couple seconds to get to the temperature that is needet, and 1 second less to wait is not a big problem and not woth to buy the new version, beside they could Archiv this with firmware updates I think, anyway and the waiting times in the past for heating old soldering irons up with 5 minutes or higher compared to this days in a couple seconds is a extremely improvement anyway. Beside this tips needing only 1/10 off the Wattage that the soldering irons getting put in with 80watts or what ever, it would be much cooler to see if they could make bigger displays for disabled people instead this ridiculous higher Wattage running contest, like it's in the vaping community. 🤔 Stop please calling the iron tips cardridges, they are soldering tips that are only more energy efficient than the past tip versions, with build in heating elements.
So one wonders under what circumstance this iron would ever deliver 80+W? If delivery of heat through the tip comes with such a large temperature drop between the temperature sensor and the tip, then the feedback loop seems to throttle the power to about 15W. Hmmm, perhaps if you crank the target temperature up ridiculously high, that would counteract the sensor-to-tip temperature drop and actually deliver more heat.. But that would make the iron little better than an unregulated one.
In boost mode mine delivers over 40W with a 65W charger. It's much more powerful then. It's definitely not designed for high power situations or PCBs with large heat sinks. I use it to build guitar pedals on simple PCBs with THT so it's fine.
if you go to pinecil wiki, you will see that "quick charge" qc which is what he said he used is not recommended. not sure why he did not just use a PD (power delivery ) usb-c charger. he also may not know that you have to unplug/reboot when changing between long and short tips since Pinecil takes a resistance reading on boot up so it can use the correct profiles since there is a huge difference between short 6.2 ohm and long 8ohm tips. there are several mistakes in this video that then lead to potential incorrect information and incorrect calibration.
@@neo256mb Steve said he used a QC 3 compatible power source. The wiki, in different places says that it doesn''t recommend QC 12V, nor QC 2.x, nor QC 3.0 _if lower than 3A_. If the problem was low power input, the tip temperature reading would be conspicuously low with a heavy thermal load, whereas in the video the reading remained high, as though the iron thinks it is maintaining a good tip temperature. Regardless, you have suggested a few points that maybe Steve could clarify.
@@neo256mb No doubt you make good points, and users should just use a PD power supply or barrel jack supply of adequate voltage and current rating. However you did not answer my point that if power input was an issue, then you would expect the tip temperature reading to be conspicuously low. And if the iron doesn't work with a wide spectrum of QC sources, then maybe the associated materials should not promote that it does. Or include in the firmware some detection and indication that the iron is being limited by the available input power. Finally, "the 833 offset number, that means it is done/complete " -- given that this iron has a 32-bit MCU and a graphical display and is quite happy to show nice text messages for most other situations, a display "833" means "oops, we forgot to put in a sensible message here, please report a bug". I'm sure lots of sincere and valuable work has gone into this product and the associated community effort and deserves crediting, but purchasers of a soldering iron mostly expect a functioning appliance that requires no reading of the source code to figure out how to use it, so it's unsurprising when a review such as Steve's goes somewhat astray.
I have never been able to get mine to work at all, and I never heard back from the company - it's now well past any warranty, so I'm out of luck. I'm not impressed.
Definitely something not right with the power delivery, doesnt seem like it was pd 3.0, sad so see there is no retest and this video just stands as is. For anyone new to soldering and not knowing much the tech watching this video and now thinking its trash
Mate, get the new t12 system, these pinecil and other irons that claim to be awesome, are not.. GIVE me a t12 system any day of the week… just saying. 🤙🏼🇦🇺
Pinecil v2 now supports pd 3.1 epr 28v. It can now output 100+ watts. The only problem is 140 watts 3.1pd epr chargers, it cost 2x more than the pinecil itself.
Ha, good to know ( using 6s lipo as a source )
I know exactly how you feel. That’s why when I see PD bricks for $1 in the Salvation Army Store I pick them all up. Picked up a nice 100w one with the E cable. The cable alone is over $30. So now I think I’m going to order one of these Pinecils bc, why not.
I have a powerbank that can do that much haha
If it supports 28v via firmware update, then I assume you can feed it 28v via DC or USB plugs from a ‘dumb’ PSU, even without the firmware update?
There’s 24v pwm led drivers out there that can be turned up to 27v nearly or 30v ones that can be turned down
I think we deserve at least a DC source powered performance test 🙂
As for the 88 W as the claim, it is impossible without boosting the driving voltage because the resistance of the heater is over 8 ohms, as I remember from my TS100 measurements.. so these new short tips must have slightly lower resistance. It would be nice if you measured it.
Yup, slightly lower resistance. The TS100-compatible tips are 8 ohms, the new shorter tips are 6.2 ohms!
Also, the Pinecil V2 supports EPR PD3.1 (with a certified cable) at 28V 4.5A. 98W on the longer 8Ω tips, or 126W on the shoter 6.2Ω tips!
@@Haulien the new V2 comes with a shorter 6.2 ohm tip. that number is not based on the older 8ohm long tip. There is an explaination in the Pinecil Wiki look for 88W in the wiki. tldr, to be conservative bc of manufacturing tolerances, use ohm calculator , plug in 6.5ohms, 24V, dc barrel charger, and you get the 88W printed on the side. google any ohm calculator. Technically that is theoretical max. however due to some resistance of PCB components & small amount from cable, and also a little resistance from tester itself, it will not reach that number exactly.
@@Haulienwhy bother with the expensive cable and charger? Just feed the iron 28v from any source?
I have Short tips in the mail directly from Pine64. I think you should revisit this with the 6 ohm OEM tips.
Wait... you mean the $25 soldering iron can't compete with one that costs around $1000?! No way! Thank goodness for this video. Idk how anyone could've figured that one out without your extensive testing.
I recently picked one up, absolutely loved it. Even verified it was genuine!
Hello, how do we verify if it's a genuine product? I don't live in the U.S. so I have to buy it from a local e commerce website that seems to be importing the soldering iron, and I'm a little concerned about the genuineness of the product.
@@lonewolfplays7664 I don't remember the website, but the manufacturer has a serial number validator. I just google searched for Pinecil check if counterfit, or something like that. Hope that helps!
@@lonewolfplays7664the link is in the pinecil wiki I think
I would love to see a test with one of the TS100 tips to see if those are any better.
I too!
There are *four* sets of tips. The shorter ones pull more power (lower resistance)
Honestly, for how much cheaper it is, what it can do seems amazing. Unfortunately bit hard to buy due to supplies being limited, but definitely seems like a good choice for hobby work without spending too much on an iron and tips.
I rushed to get one when the supplies came back, and they've been in stock since, looks like the supply is currently good. I won't be able to try it out until June sadly, but I got mine ready.
@@StereoBucket How is it?
Just got one and nice to view this. I was only planning to do pretty basic soldering and so far, I am loving it. One thing to note (and others might have already mentioned this): This pen accepts Type B2 tips, which are pretty standard, no? I would love to see a follow up with you trying a trusted tip and see the comparison.
I got my Pinecil V2 last week, and I'm very happy with the performance so far on the limited 15w I've been able to deliver it.. I do need some more tips though! The giant Cone is too much Cone to cope. Edit: the 15w limit I have is due to power bank limits!
not sure how it is even heating with only15w power bank. how many amps/volts is that port ? Can also see the volts on the right side of pinecil screen. for the conal tip included, I learned from Mr. Solderfix videos to hold the tip more like a steak knife touching aloing the side of the tip and not the tip. I no longer hold it vertically like a pen. Mr. solderfix videos he seems to use conical tip 99% of the time but he has a lot of practice. if you want an easier time you might consider the D24- wedge tip and the C4 bevel tip (large and good for desolder).
Conical tips are mostly useless except for certain PTH parts. We are discouraged from using them during IPC training, favouring chisel tips for higher thermal performance. You shouldn't have to change your soldering style and grip because of the tip choice.
Pro tip: old laptop power supplies are a good option for a high current 19V source. I'm using an old Sony one because it came with a nice flexible cable, which actually seems to put out 20V even though it's rated at 19V. Just chop the connector and solder a new 5.5 x 2.5 mm barrel jack.
@@sdgelectronics I prefer the BC2 or BC3 bevel hoof tips. people have been asking Pine store to please change default tip from Conical. the Conical requires you to hold tip horizontally so side of it touches the leg to solder. would also be nice if a D16 smaller Chisel tip was made in ts100 styl since it only exist for T12-d16.
I read that Pine store will have all short tips packs in mid -December. For now though I am using both my long 8ohm and shorter 6.2ohm tips.
I would highly avoid using QC charger that is only 15W on V2 pinecil as you will not get good soldering result and it will maybe shut off a lot.
You may even get "thermal runaway" or "undervoltage" messages sometimes when it's trying to draw more power than the small weak charger can give.
Highly recommend getting at least usb-C PD (Power Delivery protocol) charger that is minimum PD65W, 20V, 3-3.25 amps on Ama zn they are so cheap now $10-$25 only. see Pinecil Wiki for list and links to some of these on Ama zn.
Although QC 3.0 are rated for up to 22V or max current up to 4.6A the max power itself is only 36W. The adapter itself is mostly only output 18W for QC 3.0, probably that's why it only draws something under 15W. Maybe try using PD 3.0 compatible charger or the barrel plug, i mean surely it will do better with full power.
The longer cartridges you have used, although compatible with this new version, are not as efficient in power and heat delivery as the short ones.
They are still working on producing new short tips ( probably with the same geometries of the long ones but shorter and more powerful ) that are going to be available in the near future.
You should definitely rivist these tests when the new short tips will be released.
when you see the Offset number in the calibration like 833 in video, the calibration is complete. it is important not to repeat calibration over and over as he does in video. calibration method, it is critical to read instructions on firmware website first and critical that both the tip and the handle /pcb internals are cold/ room temperature or calibration won't work . this means it should only be done at fresh boot of pinecil and not after it has been plugged in for 5 minutes as even that warms up the PCB. I'm also not sure people realize you have to unplug V2 between changing from long and short tips since it only does a resistance reading on boot up. and the short and long tips have very different temperature profiles used which could lead to wide difference in temperature reading if you don't do this.
The calibration was done whilst cool (it was cooled in water each time), but an offset was still there. Definitely something not right.
New 4-packs of the Short tips (6.2 ohm) will be at Pine Store in December 2022. but way things go it could be Jan 2023. short tips 6.2 ohms less than the 8 ohms longer tips is true they allow more power/watts for iron, per Ohm Calculator too.
@@sdgelectronics offset number will appear when doing calibration again. open ticket in Github IronOS, there is a temperature document there too that Ralim explains why calibration is not perfect. if you mean you believe offset # should go to 0 when you run Calibration an hour later, I don't think that is how firmware works. if I do calibration 6 times, leaving 30 min unplugged between each calibration for proper PCB colling, it always shows me Offset # on fresh boot calibration. Ralim suggested removing offset from view as it may be confusing.
Short tips are available on the store now.
What power supply did you use on the Pinecil (and TS101)? Looking at the power it's pulling, it looks like it wasn't PD 3.0 .
I realize the documentation that comes with the Pinecil is lacking. But you may want to re-do this review with a decent 65W PD charger, and after reading up a bit more on how it works, and what the difference is between short and long tips. And 833 means calibration was successful. Only calibrate when the entire thing at room temp. And you need to power cycle the iron after each tip change.
Noted on all points. The calibration still seemed out after trying this again today.
It is a big mistake for them to release it while the extra tips that were designed for it are still not yet ready for retail.
@@sdgelectronics try calibration with the Short tip that it came with. see if that is different. of course if stuck open Issue ticket on Github Ralim's IronOS, he usually has a good idea what to do since he wrote the firmware. he sometimes gives people beta debug tester firmware to expose certain problems so they can be fixed. we have a flasher for V2 now that can be used to upload the betas.
How is the documentation lacking? You literally have tons of documentation, all of the schematics, open source firmware etc...
Really don't get your comment.
The short tips are now available in both the gross and fine sets. Can you test the new short tips please? Thanks!
Chapter starting at 11:36 mentions TS101 soldering iron, bit this is the Pinecil v2 review? I suppose there is a problem with chapter name.
you should retest the performance with the new short tips now that you can actually get them, you're really the only channel I've seen do thorough videos on this topic like this and especially with the pinecil. It'd really help people get an accurate read of the capabilities of the iron with its intended tips.
You mentioned the use of QC 3, might it be an issue with that? You recon PD could do any better?
If I am not mistaken, you can use the same TS100/101 cartridge. Otherwise I would have spent 10$ on Aliexpress for no reason.
Mine should arrive soon, pretty disappointed to be honest.
Thanks for doing the great tests.
You can overcome this with the boost temperature setting, no reason to be dissaapointed it's the best soldering iron for the price. Also the more expensive irons may have better engineered tips or may just be compensating in software and I don't know if ironOS does it -thermal resistance from tip to thermocouple is constant, so temperature error is proportional to the power draw-
why is the 6th chapter called Soldering with the *TS101* ?
It can actually use 140 W with EPR USB.
I think that enough people have pointed the issues with this video... I think that an updated review is is justified.
I've tested the suggestions, but no change in the end result. I may follow up just for completeness.
Faster CPU for snazzy animated graphics to meke it look cool.
I have the metcal as well and it's perfectly happy to put 90W into even the fine tips for SMD work when needed.
Türkiye için gönderim yok ne kadar da güzel!
I'm really struggling on deciding between this and the ts101, I guess it'd make sense to just buy the cheaper and switch if it doesn't work out but I'd like to know what you'd recommend for someone who'd mostly use it for occasional repairs and modding Handheld game consoles.
The Pinecil is based on the same design concept as the TS101. It all started when an alternative firmware was developed for the TS100 and became so popular that they decided to build their own iron as well. I have a v1 Pinecil and absolutely love it. For all my small through hole and SMD work it’s perfect. I have larger irons but they supply too much power and sometimes are not suitable due to nearby plastic melts or components overheating. This is ideal for small electronics work. It’s not suitable or desirable for welding up your gutters and that suits me fine. It’s super small and fits in the toolbox beautifully. Make sure you grab one of their silicon red USB-C cables. They are floppy and smooth and work really well.
@@wizdude I’m looking to get the Pinecil soldering kit for portable/station , which tips set you recommend get short tip gross or fine they also have the 120w desktop power supply on sale $37.99 im mainly going to use for fpv drone builds and in the field quick repair , I’ve never solder and will be my first time “newbie”
@@wizdudethat’s not right. An underpowered iron melts nearby plastics because you are forced to hold the tip to the joint for a long time trying to flow the solder properly.
Hi, thank you very much for the amazing review! It agrees with my experience with a Pinecil v2 on large copper regions (which is not great). I was blaming my soldering skills. I have a question though. Do you know if Hakko T12/T15 cartridges do better? I mean both original ones and clone ones (you can put one into a pinecil or use a separate station). I also have a clone T12 station, and clone T12-K tip feels much better than a Pinecil one.
And the Aixun takes the silver. Again. Not bad. Would you consider doing a video about how all the stations you've been reviewing for the last several years stack up? Even if you no longer have some of the stations, it would probably be an easy video. Probably just video editing, and a unified timer. You use the same coin, and generally use use a D52-type tip on the contenders (120w or greater). You've already got film of the coin test for the Metcal MX5200 (and GT120), JBC, Aixun T3A and 420D, BST-933, Quick TS-1200A, PACE ADS200, and Unisolder. The only thing you're missing is the Hakko FM-2030 hand piece (which may come in last place anyways). Oh! And maybe any info on ESD use (good or bad), reliability, safety concerns, etc.
The aixun is flawed in a few ways that this tester doesn't appear to investigate though (at least if he had discovered them it's strange that'd he'd still include its performance side by side with other products) It's premise seems to be a £400 soldering station for £40 (or whatever) which sounds like you should be looking for the catch (and the reviewers / users who do, find it) - JBC do cheaper soldering irons I'd suggest you'd be better with one of them if you don't want to spend £400. Although I think the miniware and pinecil are probably as good - because they're not trying to be cheap. The performance may be less but you have to ask yourself how much soldering you're doing on coins or big pads. If it's none then you'd be much better with a cheaper JBC or the pinecil / miniware than you would be with some tat from aliexpress / amazon that is likely to electrocute you if you don't open it up and fix it - and if you do need the performance get the JBC or other reputable brand. The bottom line is : the cheap one isn't the same product but cheaper - dumping power into a tip will give you an impressive heat up time for a video but there's more to a soldering station than that.
Did you update the iron? I know the side says 80 watts, but the update I though, of ironOS was supposed to unlock 120 watts? Some new quick charge power function? New voltage consumption? Something.
there are so many errors and misunderstandings in this video I'm smh.
Hi. Great video! I'm in need of a soldering iron that can deliver deal with large ground planes. I have tried a few irons that struggle including this and the hakko fx888d. What is the iron you mentioned at 15:30 in the video? I think I need one of these!
Received mine today... With the proper power bank, it drew 88 Watts and heated to 300C° in "faster than I bothered counting". Like literally 3 seconds or so... And if it's on standby or still warm, it's faster than you could physically move it from the stand to anything you wanted to solder on a board... ^^ I didn't do the penny test, but I'm positive it would have SMASHED that...
I wonder how well the tip contacts well keep a good low resistance connection over time. You most have a shed load of iron's by now. Since about 1976 I must be on my 5th solder iron. I did turn one one for the first time this year that I was given new as a spare in 1977 :-)
longer tips in 4-pack set is not the high power tips, they are just normal ts-100 style tips. It's opposite. longer tips you got are higher resistance ~8 Ohm and thus lower performance.
- Only the Pine64 newly designed short tip is the higher power tip because it's lower ~6.2 ohm is higher power due to increased watts you get using the shorter lower ohm new style tip that Pine64 designed. in ohm calculator input typical USB-C charger of 20V with 6.2 ohm tip and see how you get ~64W power compared to much lower max you get from entering 8ohm tip in calculator with same 20V charger and you get lower 50W max.
- have to do a bunch of settings first before things will work the way you want in the menu like user settings. auto rotate screen works if you set it up. highly, highly recommend reading wiki page for pinecil and firmware ironos pages before doing a review because calibration was also not done correctly. you can see the calibration completed when you got the 833 offset number, after that you need to hit minus button a couple times until you are back at main screen. I would unplug and leave it sitting for a long time before calibrating. it says in firmware instructions on git .. hub for IronOS to make sure not only Tip is cold but also the handle since it takes a temperature reading on the PCB too. moment you plug it in that starts getting warm.
- if you did not have time to read ralim IronOS firmware information on calibration or the Temperature document posted there , could have come into live community chat which is linked in wiki page and volunteers would help you sort out some of the confusion
- If you truly want better performance, we could have let you know that quick charge or QC chargers are the worst, you have to use at least a usb-C "Power Deliver" spec charger, also called PD65W, 20V 3-3.25 amp charger to see really nice speeds. unlike the ts101 which can only do usb-C 45w max charger, the V2 pinecil performs well using PD charger 65w-20V, 3.25 amps. look on the wiki page for pinecil. just because QC (quick charge) type works doesn't mean they are optimal or should be used. that is what you use b/c you have one free in your house, but not when you are trying to compare performance or heating speed.
- Pinecil V2 firmware only checks tip resistance at bootup, so if you swap between long and short tips must reboot or unplug first. this can really throw off temperatures if you don't do this right. same with doing calibrations. if you don't do calibration correctly and look up way it works in ironos firmware, it's worse than before you started.
- avoid QC chargers, they may work but are slow. use usb-C PD chargers that give 3 or more amps at 20V, yes.
How are they still only delivering 11w though?
@@nidusa1 Jump to around 12:00 and look at the amount of power being drawn - only some 11W is actually being drawn by the iron even then it is should be ramping up to full power... so something is clearly wrong here - possibly the tip calibration is really out due to tip swapping (although he does say he always powered down before swapping tips in reply to another comment), not calibrated when handpiece cold, etc, etc, so it's just not really trying to heat up - although I would have thought Steve would have verified the temp temperature after the calibration.
@@pfeerick I see this - good for Ralim to look at this if SDG opens a Github IronOS ticket otherwise ralim won't know about it this problem or be able to work with SDG to diagnose.
@@neo256mb I'm more inclined to think he needs to get in contact with pine64 and see if they are having issues with tip cartridge quality. But it also won't hurt to find out what is going on with the tip calibration ... if only to suggest it needs to be made more intuitive... RTFM really should not apply for a tool like this... it should be mostly usable by anyone familar with this type of equipment.
@@pfeerick thanks. yes something is wrong there. there were some issues i read about with with brand new ts100 tips where just wiping them down with IPA isopropal alcohol before using them new helped with temperatures. they can come from factory with dirty contact or residue. people reported fluctuating and flickering temperatures which went away immediately after cleaning or wiping off all the tips. in some cases just using the iron a few days where the rubbing from inserting the tip several times magically made contacts better and the bizarre temperature readings went away. this may have been because they rubbed off any residue. This happend to enough people, it is in the pinecil Wiki to wipe off all new tips before using. It happened to me on one tip too but after i wiped it with dry towel the fluctuating temperatures went away.
Did you reboot it after changing tips? If I'm not wrong it calibrates the tip resistance on startup.
Yes, always turned off before swapping cartridges.
Thanks for the video
I have 0 knowledge about this, but at around 10:30, I think you should press the button while it's not showing the message - the message works kinda like a tooltip or screensaver, where you do something to "wake it up", after "waking it up", should press the button again
just my wild guess
I was looking at these, but after watching this and reading comments, it’s way above my knowledge for simple circuits with esp/arduino and raspberries. I’m lost in a sea of soldering stations on Amazon and ali. Is there a budget end desktop setup you’d recommend for such as me? Say up to a hundred quid please? If that’s even possible lol. Many thanks! I don’t really need portable.
Antex 230v or pinecil
@@davadoff I went with pinecil a few months ago thanks.
@@Mr_Gadge 👍
Make sure to get the new short tips if you buy tips for it.
13:43 did you try a 88w source like a ear 140w pd or a dc input to get the full power output?
And the short tips not the long ones
EDIT: although I think my performance is way better than this video, a 140w pd 3.1 PSU with 28v only improves the heat-up times. Also, this thing is not ESD safe unless you wire the ground pin to ground or use a power bank, it killed a few ICs and it reads 55vac to ground for me! it lights up the leds I solder 0_0 tried a few chargers including my apple one.
The issue with this thing are the tips, the soldering iron only delivers 15w max during soldering despite being capable of 88w. my assumption is that the thermistor is poorly positioned etc?
not saying this is an issue at all . just noting that The 119 temperature testing unit also needs the test wire changed every now and then. not sure exactly but I think it's 20 times it can test before you have to swap it out with a new hakko wire which is why the 119 unit comes with several spares. I could be wrong abut the 20 number, but I do know that wire has a limited number of tests it can do and that like in the video it is important to add a little solder to the center of the wire to help get the correct test.
Normally I would use an Iron first and heat it up before even checking calibration just to visually see if it's fast and heating right. this way I have a reference point. if I calibrate and then it performs not well, I might then think it's my calibration but if it performed poorly before and after calibration, then I might suspect the Tip. Some people in Pine64 found that wiping off all the new tips of factory residue helped a lot with weird temperature on first day they received their pinecil. pinecil also works with the tip that came with the tS101 . would be interested in seeing it tested/used with the ts101 to rule out if the tip is defective. I'd also test and or calibrate using the same exact tip I'm going to solder copper with. So if you use the Short conical tip for the soldering, then use the same one for the calibration sicne it has different ohms.
if that still doesn't work. open an issue ticket with Github Ralim's IronOs if firmware is suspected.
Why does a soldering iron need a 100MHz+ processor in it? Driving a display, some buttons and running a PID loop? really?
There is a breakout board for it. you could write software for it. But yeah, surely not necessary.
It does crypto mining while in the stand.
It's so in future the manufacturer can offer subscription based power output, customisable skins and DLC.
My Commodore 64 is crying in the corner with its 1mhz CPU 🤣🤣
To play Minecraft dummy!
I don’t see a link for a purchase of this fine piece of equipment.
I think you should do a review of the Goot RX802-AS. I got one used for like 80 USD, see some new from ebay cost like 200USD. Its performance beat any Hakko i use at work. Heat up from cold in like 6s. Slim and lightweigh handle. Automatic sleep by measuring output power, so you dont need a special stand for it and no wiring from stand to station. And there is manysettings and a very clear manual.
Honestly I think it is a very nice station for the price, but no one do a review about it. Maybe it is not popular in EU and US.
Just starting out with soldering mainly on old video game systems. Doing mods and intermediate repairs as i learn. Would this iron be a good starting point, my other choice was the hakko Fx888D station. The portability isnt necessary but may come in handy.
Is it possible to get the gerber files for your test PCBs?
Your coin soldering test in the end was very cool, it would be nice to know if the tips have been on all irons the same and the Wattages? 🤔
Is ther a video off all newer like this soldering iron reviews, there are in the last 2 years so many different soldering irons coming out that I have lost the overview 😳, it's a shame that the producer of this stuff don't make soldering irons modular, that the customer could chose a bigger display ect, like Lego bricks 😂, I have suggested this idea to a company and I hope that they do things like that in the future, they have all ready changeable casing colors, this days with all this cool Technologie ther would be no reason not to do it, cost factor is not a problem if they sell this days the irons for 25£ without extras(bigger display, double the size would be only 4£ or so max cost, depend on the version, I like OLED displays, they are better readable I think, or a e-ink display would be cool, they have been much improvement thus days and faster 🤔🤗) , but I see no reason to pay for thus not extremely innovative Technologie and not so new 60£ ore more only for the soldering iron.
I hope I have not written to confusing, not easy to write with strong pain ect. 🤗
They do need to improve the performance of either the iron or the tips, but this iron should not be expected to perform like a Metcal. This is a $27 iron and it competes very well against the more expensive Miniware. It's 15W average power under high load is very disappointing, however, and hopefully this brings the issue to the manufacturer's attention. We should get at least 65W through the tip and they promise 88W.
I've read that they've modified the stock tip to 6 ohms to allow more current through the heater, but this is itself problematic as it means that they'll have their own variant of "TS100" tips. I don't like that, but it should mean that the "shortie" tips are more powerful.
QC chargers with a Pinecil are pretty sad. This is how you test the speed of a Pinecil V2 heating up. Less than 3 seconds to 300c using a 140W PD charger. th-cam.com/video/nTC-ah4f0hg/w-d-xo.html
Unfortunately, lowering the impedance is the only alternative to raising the voltage, which is currently rather maxed out.
Mine just arrived today with the new short 6.2 ohm "gross" tip set. First impression was just how small it is compared to the fx-888d hand-piece. These are compatible with 28V USB PD EPR, I have tested with 28V DC power and it works amazingly well, drawing 130W while heating up. My only complaints are that the tip set contains a very sharp conical one, even pointier than the stock tip (would've preferred a bigger wedge one) and I wish it was a little more substantial feeling in the hand (more weighty). Bought this because I was really running into the limits of the fx-888d with aluminium clad LED PCBs and at 130W it blows the hakko out of the water whilst being a smaller and more precise feeling tool to use.
Ehh, I'm not spending >$3K Aussie dollary doos on an iron. I bought a Pinecil V1 and the only thing I've found it struggled with so far was a TO-252 (as you experienced), but hot air is probably the correct tool for that anyway. I might pick up a V2 and the larger blade tip if they release an updated one to suit, but my V1 kills my old FX-888D any day, so I expect it'll be better at 24V compared to 20V on the V1.
I’m looking to get the Pinecil soldering kit for portable/station , which tips set you recommend get short tip gross or fine or normal tip gross or fine they also have the 120w desktop power supply on sale $37.99 im mainly going to use for fpv drone builds and in the field quick repair , I’ve never solder and will be my first time “newbie
It can do 128watts (max on this moment) 28 volts with 3.1pd epr chargers.
I expected more for a version 2, the idea is to perfect not get worse. Thanks for the review.
The calibration is performed incorrectly in this video is part of the problem. Also I'm not sure if SDG knows but you have to unplug and replug it in when changing Tips, because Firmware does a Resistance reading at boot-up to be able to tell if it's a Short or a long tip.
It is better, look at my speed video. also there is a mistake in this video the new shorter tip is the higher performance at 6.2ohm versus the older longer ts100 style tips which is 8ohms. using an ohm calculater, 6.2 ohm with 20V usb-c charger gives max of ~64w whereas using the longer tip change calculator to 8 ohm and you get max of 50w.
@@neo256mb He said in reply to another comment that "Yes, always turned off before swapping cartridges.". Also, the pine64 store listings for this aren't the best - it only describes the extra tips as Fine and Gross - no mention of tip resistance, that they are slower to heat up than the stock tip, etc. Would have expected better from them after some of the previous mistakes made with the store listings.
@@pfeerick yes I understand. Pine Store should list more details on Tips and also on Pinecil. I don't understand their resistance to adding more info. EVen just a photo showing all 4 ways to power it would prevent people accidentally buying Pinecil thinking there is a mini battery inside. I like miniware photos on ts101. it shows Exactly the iron plugged into 4 different types of power. why Pine store doesn't have this similar photo I have no idea. It only helps to have more organized information on sale page or At Minimum, Put a Link to Pinecil Wiki if they aren't going to add any instructions on Pine Store page.
The Wiki says "Quick Charge or QC 3 is not recommended as Pinecil V2 requires a minimum of 3 Amps or more to work properly (see Pine Store Official rating on power ports). Most QC 12V phone chargers are only 1.5 Amps, this will lead to [Thermal Runaway] or [Undervoltage] messages because of weak power".
Could this be the reason why you only saw about 10 to 20W of power used in your test?
It read 20V on the display, so this charger must be QC and PD.
@@sdgelectronics Thanks for the followup! I only mentioned this because you said you used CQ in the video. I am not really sure that the display showing 20V implies it must have used PD. I have conflicting sources here. Some claim QC3 can also go up to 20V or even 22V. Some claim QC3 is limited to 18W others state 36W. Some claim 1.5A max, others say it's 2.6A/4.6A max. Not sure if just most QC3 phones had that constraint or if that's a technical QC3 charger limitation. Sorry I can't post source links on TH-cam, it would get banned. The successor QC4 seems to be a quote on quote superset of PD3.0. Even though USB IF forbidds proprietary extensions so not actually.
@@kwinzman I checked, the adaptor I'm using supports 65W at 20V, compliant with PD, so I think it's okay.
@@sdgelectronics check the other port maybe?
15:57 now i want a meatcalf soldering iron
How did they fix the grounding issues that required an additional cable like the ts80p?
Press Boost. Save $969
Would've been nice if you were able to do a teardown to see exactly what MCU it's using. Their product page says it has a GigaDevice GD32VF103TB, but their store page says it has a Bouffalo BL-706. Both RISC-V. Perhaps they're in the middle of a changeover.
The V2 with the short tip is the BL-706. The original version is no longer made or sold. The primary reason for the switch was supply shortages of the GD32. Also the short tip is the more powerful one (6.2 ohm tip instead of 8 ohm TS100 standard tips). So far the tip provided with the iron is the only such tip available.
@@NusaCat Wait, I am confused. Does the new MiniWare TS101 still use the old TS100 8 ohm tips or the new 6.2 ohm tip? If it uses the old one then why does Steve state that the TS101 seems to work better than the Pinecil V2?
Are the new tips that terribly botched?
@@kwinzman The 6.2 ohm tip is a Pinecil ONLY thing at this time. The firmware to support it is also a Pinecil thing. I'm not aware that MiniWare has done any tip changes, so I guess you are confused. Steve has some basic facts wrong, like when he called the longer tips more powerful....in this case the opposite is true.
@@NusaCat He claims that there is a problem with those tips, maybe the temperature regulation not working or the heater cartridge being too far from the tip or something. Only 10 or 20W being delivered @ 17:30
Thanks for the review! I'm disappointed there appears to be an issue with the tips. However, I think you can confirm that by using a tip from the Miniware TS100/101. I hope they'll correct the issues in the forthcoming line of shorter tips.
@@neo256mb Steve is pretty sharp. I'm sure he'll read some of the comments and do more experimentation. I hope the manufacturer reads this too and can make improvements to the tips. I haven't used one of these type of portable irons yet. I prefer bench model soldering stations like Metcal, Hakko and Pace whenever possible.
@@acoustic61 hope so :). What I would fault Pine Store for is that they should put a link from Pinecil to both "Pinecil Wiki" page and the "GH Ralim's IRonOS." there are no instructions to how to use it on Sale page so at least they should link to the wiki (which has links to Ralim's IronOS) and /or give links to IronOS. Other huge resource people don't know about is all the volunteers in the open source community in Pine64 dis cord that help on a daily basis when people need clarification on how Firmware/software works.
looking at this video I'm not sure there is a manufacturer (Pine Store) problem. Pine store makes only the hardware part, any software or firmware is FOSS ( free open source software community). here it's GH Ralim's IronOS which has tons of documentation online about how to properly do calibration. There is also an Issue ticket system in GH so if people have some misunderstanding of calibration they can open an Issue there or ask in discussion. Ralim's IronOS is used on Pinecil exclusively, but also on over 155,000 people have downloaded it to use on Miniware devices as well like TS100, TS80P, etc..
There is also a community run Pinecil Wiki which has links to live Pinecil chat where people get these kinds of questions resolved in minutes if they don't understand or are new to the firmware.
would have been better had SDG asked first how to do calibration either on GH or in live pinecil chat before publishing that firmware wasn't working. from what I saw it worked great and he missed it and just kept pressing more buttons without needing too. when calibration completes, it gives you offset number, in this case for him it was 833, and then he simply needed to press minus a couple times to get to the main screen. IronOS does not say the words "Done" or complete. and there is nothing the manufactuerer can do about that.
I opened a GH IronOS ticket with Ralim to see if there is room in the firmware for for it to say something more like " 833 offset, Done" or "833 offset, Complete" on the screen instead of just "833". again this is for the community and open source firmware people to fix and Pine Store (manufacturer) is not involved on that end of it.
It is odd he was off by 15 degress so I would have asked him to do a couple tests on the tip first and also made sure to clean contact back area of the tip with some IPA because we have seen that can interfere with correct Cold Junction Calibration voltage reading (since it's such a small difference , factory residue on tip can make a problem).
Usually in the dis cord live chat if someone wants to calibrate, the volunteers make sure they follow correct set up first. maybe there is a problem with the tip he got but maybe there isn't . What if before the calibration he booted with long tip and then swapped tip without rebooting, or vice versa. I'm not sure what exact steps were done, but it was clear from the video that some basic things about the V2 are not understood which led to several misteps (especially believing that the longer tips are higher performance with it's the opposite). way too many variables here and I don't have enough details from the video. if he came into the live Pinecil chat channel (link in wiki) we could have sorted this and helped him in just a couple minutes to resolve this confusion.
If anything, as volunteers in Pinecil live chat who see people come in for help everyday or question on how to use the firmware or the hidden debug menus in the firmware, we usually find it is a tweak of the open source firmware and not the manufacturer/Pine64 hardware issue. for example do we know if SDG followed the correct steps when switching from long to short tip and back? it can not be done with pinecil plugged in. you have to unplug it because the long tip is 8 ohm and short tip is 6.2 ohm. V2 measures the tip resistance at bootup only. if you swap again you need to unplug. measurement is a toggle since the short tip is all new with the V2 and did not exist before.
Ralim of Ralim's IronOS said that he coded it so if reading is close to ~6.2 ohms, it goes with that temperature profile, and if it's close to ~8 ohms it goes with that. in 2.19 Beta firmware for V2 this was further tweaked because it was discovered that some people with Long tips could have as low as 7.6 ohms. after that, Ralim tweaks the firmware further. Ralim is a volunteer, all firmware for Pinecil is open source IronOS. Pine64 only provides and makes the hardware, and the FOSS community makes the firmware.
I've used it for so long that I take it for granted that I have to reboot if I swap tips and I know that very specific steps need to be strictly followed to get the correct calibration. and if I have a problem with firmware and I can't find answer in the copious documents in GH IronOS, I open an issue ticket.
Finally, I also fault Pine Store for the tiny paper user manual they include in the box with Pinecil with super mini font. they should have on 1st page in huge letters, links to Pinecil wiki and GH IronOS. then people would have a fighting chance to go to links, see there are instructions for Calibration, and many other important details, and be less lost and confused on how to use the firmware. sometimes where people think there is a problem, it's a misunderstanding of how to use the firmware. there are also two hidden debug menus people do not even know about until they go to GH IronOS documents.
@@neo256mb Shouldn't Pinecil V2 be capable of performace similar to a genuine Hakko FX-951 station? I mean it can use higher voltage power supply and the tip resistance is lower?
It's been requested many times in the Pine reddit group that Pinecil should let the buyer chose the default tip that ships with the iron. The conical tip is virtually useless. And they should also sell additional tips separately instead of a 4-pack. Hopefully they will correct the issues and have better performance.
Oh amazing, you can solder with this soldering iron, wow
do you prefear it over ts101?
Wonder what results would’ve been if you use MiniWare TS100 tips
8:12 Interesting! My Power Bank has a "Trickle Charge" mode, where it won't turn off if the current draw get's too low, like it does in normal mode! - I'll be curious to test, if that can replace the power pulse setting! You can turn it on or off with a double click of the power bank, so that would be perfect and make it more seamless... One question: I assume power banks are limited to 12V? If so, how much does that limit the performance of the iron (wattage is plenty...)? I also have normal chargers, but being able to use the Pinecil in "the field" would be amazing for using it in the car and so on! EDIT: Read up on my Power Bank! PD 3.1 makes it go up to 28V/5Amps! UPDATE: Trickle charge works! And it removes the "power pulse" Temp overshooting!
great review. Thank you.
Does anyone have a solution for the temp calibration?
Why does this differ from soldering stations. If it offers same result?
I was thinking of getting one to upgrade my older TS-100, but I think I will skip it.
There are lower resistance tips available, which he's probably not aware
@@alexstone691 Where? The only one is the conical tip supplied with the iron, at around 6 Ohms. There are no other low resistance tips at the moment unless you have a secret source?
Wasn't the TS-100 released in 2017? And already in need to replace it? That's a waste of money.
@@ricardoferreira2811 I wanted it because of the USB C power delivery, but I see now that it's inferior to the 24 volt that I'm currently using.
I mostly use my KSGER T12 anyways.
@@AndreaAustoni my bad, it turns out the 6 ohms are the low resistance tips, and many people seem to have a problem with them as they are probably crap quality
I own a pinecil and use it frequently. Having said that, the pinecil community does seem to be a little confused about the relationship between temperature and power. I've seen a number of threads on various forums where users have mentioned they're not seeing an appropriate power draw from their PD power supplies, with fans asking if they'd reached their target temperature. Not really relevant for the reasons you've illustrated.
If the tip isn't able to transfer heat energy into the part at the required (and advertise) rate, there's a problem. The temperature readout isn't relevant in the slightest.
I'm not sure where this misunderstanding comes from. This is all pretty basic thermodynamics. :)
Anyway, correctly designed tips would have very low resistance (ie. 1 ohm), and utilize a shorter duty cycle to heat them. 8 ohms is a bizarre choice unless they wanted to keep the switching frequency really low for some reason.
8 Ohms probably comes from original Hakko t12 spec. They probably targeted a 24V internal supply, that will lend at 72W which is exactly the power rating of Hakko soldering stations.
I bought an original Pinecil and it died within the warranty period. The customer service was horrible and they refused to honor the warranty. There was much avoidance claiming it was a power supply issue. I used 5 different PS. The issue was with the iron itself. It is cheap but that is irrelevant if it fails within the first 3 months. I might pick up a TS101 later at some point.
10:00 I'm happy, but it's disappointing to see that I wasn't the only one scratching my head about the temperature calibration.
it is confusing process see the open Issue ticket in Github Ralim's IronOS. maybe you could add your experience there so that steps in firmware could be reconsidered for clarity and programmed differently so it's more clear. there are also several searchable docs in github explaining more on the calibration process. it's designed to be done when you have really have temperature off issue but not every day thing. Since calibration is considered an Advanced option highly recommended to look at instructions or ask in Live community chat if run into trouble or confusion with it . links to community live chat all in pinecil-wiki
What are you using to generate the power info at the top of the video?
That’s some kind of 240v AC mains power monitor
I see that it needs a 5525 barrel connector but what length 9 or 14mm?
I doubt it matters. Try 14mm
What does gross set vs fine mean? I can’t find the answer.
Hey.... I just came across your channel and I did subscribe. Hope you can help. I'm ordering the pinecil v2 and wanted to know if you found a portable way to get full power? Think its 24v 88 watts. I know a good pd 3.0 works fine for most cases but I'd like to get max power for larger soldering tasks but mobile without plugging into the grid. Thanks so much for any help you can give me
You would likely need your own battery, possibly from a pack of LiPo cells in series. It might be possible to use a power tool battery, though most are around the 18V point.
Wait didn't it melt better then the mw ? You said not as good as mw how?
"Quick-charge compatible power supply", what does that mean in wattage? Because Quick Charge 3 is rated as max 36 watts last I checked. If you're going to give the Pinecil insufficient power and then be upset it doesn't perform, that seems like some bullshit. I plugged in a 60 watt Power Delivery battery pack and mine hits 400 degrees C in literal seconds. Granted I haven't measured how well that holds up in real world temp, but enough wattage should mean it has an easier time compensating for temperature drops at the tip under load. Also, for some reason it seems that the minus button is the confirm and the plus button is back in some scenarios, so you probably just kept hitting cancel by hitting plus.
Will the miniware tips fit into Pine64 or vice versa?
Yep
Would you be willing to test the Hakko FX-100? Please!!!
Can you test fnirsi hs-02A?
Small gauge work only, beyond requires a station. Honestly it sits in the desk drawer cause it's just easier to fire up the Hakko, dial her in and use muscle memory for repairing game controller or whatever
Like anything, the tool is only as good as the person using it. Chances are there someone using it that could out-solder me around the room
buy link ?
Will you test pinecil v2 with 24V 5A DC5525 power supply agin?
I will get some of the new tips soon and re-test.
@@sdgelectronics thank you so much. I'm looking forward to DC5525 24V5A test.
1) temp calibration -- is resistance recheck, and you wanted temp offset. temp calibration finished, but you haven't tried to recheck.
2) setting temp let's say 330degrees and trying to solder huge polygon? there is turbo mode for it, iron is just aware of not to burn ur polygon, but who knows that you are trying to solder massive one :)
If the soldering iron is powerful enough, there is no need to adjust the temperature to solder large planes. Boosting the temperature is a means to temporarily add more energy to a mass to overcome limited power delivery. By doing this transferring a small amount of additional thermal energy stored in the cartridge to the power plane, but then you're back to the limited power delivery. If you look at the professional irons I've reviewed, they can deliver the power effortlessly
Thanks for the great review. (I just wish I'd watched it before ordering - I'm going to incur a 5% cancellation fee). Off to order a REAL iron - the Hako FX-888D.
The link to the aixun T420D in your description returns a 404...
Not bad ! for some small job!
Looks like it literally performs worse than TS101 despite being higher wattage. What gives?
Flux would have made a big difference
What are you using for the power measurements at the top of the screen if you don't mind me asking?
Picoscope 5000 with an R&S power meter
The video would have been a lot more helpful if you said where it can be obtained in the UK without being ripped off.
I had to order it from overseas
I think it doesn't matter much how much power the new version have, becourse the tips have to go anyway not higher then soldering temperatures and they need only a couple seconds to get to the temperature that is needet, and 1 second less to wait is not a big problem and not woth to buy the new version, beside they could Archiv this with firmware updates I think, anyway and the waiting times in the past for heating old soldering irons up with 5 minutes or higher compared to this days in a couple seconds is a extremely improvement anyway. Beside this tips needing only 1/10 off the Wattage that the soldering irons getting put in with 80watts or what ever, it would be much cooler to see if they could make bigger displays for disabled people instead this ridiculous higher Wattage running contest, like it's in the vaping community. 🤔 Stop please calling the iron tips cardridges, they are soldering tips that are only more energy efficient than the past tip versions, with build in heating elements.
A soldering iron that needs a micro? You can't be serious ?
So one wonders under what circumstance this iron would ever deliver 80+W? If delivery of heat through the tip comes with such a large temperature drop between the temperature sensor and the tip, then the feedback loop seems to throttle the power to about 15W. Hmmm, perhaps if you crank the target temperature up ridiculously high, that would counteract the sensor-to-tip temperature drop and actually deliver more heat.. But that would make the iron little better than an unregulated one.
In boost mode mine delivers over 40W with a 65W charger. It's much more powerful then. It's definitely not designed for high power situations or PCBs with large heat sinks. I use it to build guitar pedals on simple PCBs with THT so it's fine.
if you go to pinecil wiki, you will see that "quick charge" qc which is what he said he used is not recommended. not sure why he did not just use a PD (power delivery ) usb-c charger. he also may not know that you have to unplug/reboot when changing between long and short tips since Pinecil takes a resistance reading on boot up so it can use the correct profiles since there is a huge difference between short 6.2 ohm and long 8ohm tips.
there are several mistakes in this video that then lead to potential incorrect information and incorrect calibration.
@@neo256mb Steve said he used a QC 3 compatible power source. The wiki, in different places says that it doesn''t recommend QC 12V, nor QC 2.x, nor QC 3.0 _if lower than 3A_. If the problem was low power input, the tip temperature reading would be conspicuously low with a heavy thermal load, whereas in the video the reading remained high, as though the iron thinks it is maintaining a good tip temperature. Regardless, you have suggested a few points that maybe Steve could clarify.
@@neo256mb No doubt you make good points, and users should just use a PD power supply or barrel jack supply of adequate voltage and current rating. However you did not answer my point that if power input was an issue, then you would expect the tip temperature reading to be conspicuously low. And if the iron doesn't work with a wide spectrum of QC sources, then maybe the associated materials should not promote that it does. Or include in the firmware some detection and indication that the iron is being limited by the available input power. Finally, "the 833 offset number, that means it is done/complete " -- given that this iron has a 32-bit MCU and a graphical display and is quite happy to show nice text messages for most other situations, a display "833" means "oops, we forgot to put in a sensible message here, please report a bug".
I'm sure lots of sincere and valuable work has gone into this product and the associated community effort and deserves crediting, but purchasers of a soldering iron mostly expect a functioning appliance that requires no reading of the source code to figure out how to use it, so it's unsurprising when a review such as Steve's goes somewhat astray.
The unit was powered down between swapping tips since I wrecked the TS80 by hot swapping!
I have never been able to get mine to work at all, and I never heard back from the company - it's now well past any warranty, so I'm out of luck. I'm not impressed.
Thanks for the review, very disappointing, I will not waste my money cheers
And what is Open source??
I see only retail product, hate when they manipulate to sell you something
No wonder why it's constantly sold out
I can’t believe a $20 iron is not as good as a $500 iron who would have thought that
Afaik you need heat to solder. Not a whatever MHz computer. Looking at 14:01 my 50 yo iron would have done it in 5s.
Can it take a 6s lipo as input source? It's 25.2v when fully charged
Definitely something not right with the power delivery, doesnt seem like it was pd 3.0, sad so see there is no retest and this video just stands as is. For anyone new to soldering and not knowing much the tech watching this video and now thinking its trash
Mate, get the new t12 system, these pinecil and other irons that claim to be awesome, are not.. GIVE me a t12 system any day of the week… just saying. 🤙🏼🇦🇺
I bought a pinecil v2 to solder the grounding fix for the T12 KSGER station I got 🤣
Mentions boost, doesn't use it on ground plane test... 😒
I'm going to write firmware to mine bitcoin with it
How do you replace the tips?
one must really hate self to seriously do anything with these 'portable' irons..