i can see this being useful for fairly niche use cases people who do professional repair of equipment or automotive and need to get in to weird areas, people who might have previously used a TS80 (or whatever) with a battery bank and does not typically need to solder more than 6 things at once i am impressed by how well it handled those large thermal pads and i rather like the "boost" button and i can imagine future irons having something similar
17:10 the inductor is tiny, my guess is the DC-DC converter takes 20V spits 3V3 just for low power electronics and the big so8 mosfet is PWM driven to charge the super cap. 18:50 The complicated switch/magnet/hall stuff just for handle detection is to probably ensure that the iron is seated all the way in such that there is no dicky contact on the supercap charging contacts as they probably feed a fair bit of current thru it and bad contact could result in massive voltage drop, slow charging and possibly even damage. Regarding the iron, except the flex over supercap to the USB-C connector, I'm confused why they have the circuits on the flex PCBs, and not just on two-three sandwiched standard FR4 PCBs.
I've bought ts100 irons as gifts for people. I think they make alot of really cool products but they want wayyyy too much money for their products. The stackable psu, load and scope-like screen is something I'd love to have at one of my benches but I can buy a rigol or siglent supply for the same price. It's a shame.
pinecil is much better deal if anyone wants a ts100 today. very disappointed with the powersupplies. not even the price, but they are not isolated. if you run them off the same source you cant put them in series
@gamerpaddy I agree. I haven't used it but that and the fnrisi cordless iron look cool. I think it supports t12 tips and I have a box full of them haha. I was gonna get a basic jbc unit but I bought a axiun t3b and t3a which are great stations. The t3b heats instantly plus the t3a has a 24v 4amp output on it.
At 21:15 I can see an enormous SMD boost inductor to raise super cap voltage by ~5x just to make a standard tip deliver this kind of performance. Those huge MLCC's above it must be used to keep ripple low so the uC doesn't freak-out with all the inductive super surges going on inside this thing. 👍
OMG this would be fantastic for use in an arcade especially with pinballs for just simple wire connections to switches, I may have to get one just for that case as would be perfect for speeding up simple jobs. Fantastic video BTW :)
I was hoping to see you solder until the unit ran out of juice and soldered itself to the board (which I would probably end up doing on a regular basis). I guess you could use the back USB connection to unsolder it!
Great review Kerry, oddly I would be interested in battery version of this with the stand and easy to use. I love my TS100 so a blend would be nice with an induction charging system...cheers.
Can you solder throughout the day with it? Does it charge quickly enough during the short breaks when you set down the iron to move the board around or pick new components?
I asked chatgpt the runtime of this thing under full load and it's estimating 41.6 seconds. Here's the answer: To determine the runtime of a fully charged 750F ultracapacitor discharging at 36 Watts, you can use the formula: Time (minutes)=12×Capacitance (Farads)×Voltage2Power (Watts)×60Time (minutes)=Power (Watts)×6021×Capacitance (Farads)×Voltage2 Given that ultracapacitors are often used with relatively low voltage drops during discharge, let's assume a discharge voltage of 2 volts (typical for ultracapacitors). Time (minutes)=12×750 F×(2 V)236 W×60Time (minutes)=36W×6021×750F×(2V)2 Time (minutes)=12×750×436×60Time (minutes)=36×6021×750×4 Time (minutes)=15002160Time (minutes)=21601500 Time (minutes)≈0.694 minutesTime (minutes)≈0.694minutes So, the estimated runtime of a fully charged 750F ultracapacitor discharging at 36 Watts is approximately 0.694 minutes or about 41.6 seconds. Please note that this is a simplified calculation and doesn't account for variations in voltage during discharge or other non-idealities.
I wonder why the super cap is not soldered to the PCB and use screws. That extra cost and labor. Didn’t check datasheet of the cap. Could be to sensitive to temperature ??
Well, the flex board is polyamide anyway, and it is placed copper side away, as there are 2 flex boards to the rear, to handle the current and the signalling without issue.
What material is the top layer on the screen made of? I'm the kind of person who will have moments that I will park the iron wrong and push the tip of the iron against the screen. If it's made out of plastic... You can guess.
Maybe too many users would complain about runtime if the wattage were higher? Maybe they could have an 80W or so tip and a default 40W limit, unless you have the iron plugged in or are holding down the boost button.
i can see this being useful for fairly niche use cases
people who do professional repair of equipment or automotive and need to get in to weird areas, people who might have previously used a TS80 (or whatever) with a battery bank and does not typically need to solder more than 6 things at once
i am impressed by how well it handled those large thermal pads and i rather like the "boost" button and i can imagine future irons having something similar
Would be nice if it supported 100W PD input, take good advantage of a supercap's ability to charge extremely quickly.
17:10 the inductor is tiny, my guess is the DC-DC converter takes 20V spits 3V3 just for low power electronics and the big so8 mosfet is PWM driven to charge the super cap.
18:50 The complicated switch/magnet/hall stuff just for handle detection is to probably ensure that the iron is seated all the way in such that there is no dicky contact on the supercap charging contacts as they probably feed a fair bit of current thru it and bad contact could result in massive voltage drop, slow charging and possibly even damage.
Regarding the iron, except the flex over supercap to the USB-C connector, I'm confused why they have the circuits on the flex PCBs, and not just on two-three sandwiched standard FR4 PCBs.
I've bought ts100 irons as gifts for people. I think they make alot of really cool products but they want wayyyy too much money for their products.
The stackable psu, load and scope-like screen is something I'd love to have at one of my benches but I can buy a rigol or siglent supply for the same price. It's a shame.
pinecil is much better deal if anyone wants a ts100 today. very disappointed with the powersupplies. not even the price, but they are not isolated. if you run them off the same source you cant put them in series
@gamerpaddy I agree. I haven't used it but that and the fnrisi cordless iron look cool. I think it supports t12 tips and I have a box full of them haha. I was gonna get a basic jbc unit but I bought a axiun t3b and t3a which are great stations. The t3b heats instantly plus the t3a has a 24v 4amp output on it.
At 21:15 I can see an enormous SMD boost inductor to raise super cap voltage by ~5x just to make a standard tip deliver this kind of performance. Those huge MLCC's above it must be used to keep ripple low so the uC doesn't freak-out with all the inductive super surges going on inside this thing. 👍
What 21:15? The video is only 20:55 long.
OMG this would be fantastic for use in an arcade especially with pinballs for just simple wire connections to switches, I may have to get one just for that case as would be perfect for speeding up simple jobs. Fantastic video BTW :)
I was hoping to see you solder until the unit ran out of juice and soldered itself to the board (which I would probably end up doing on a regular basis). I guess you could use the back USB connection to unsolder it!
Great review Kerry, oddly I would be interested in battery version of this with the stand and easy to use. I love my TS100 so a blend would be nice with an induction charging system...cheers.
A healthy slathering of flux would improve performance during soldering/desoldering.
Can you solder throughout the day with it? Does it charge quickly enough during the short breaks when you set down the iron to move the board around or pick new components?
I asked chatgpt the runtime of this thing under full load and it's estimating 41.6 seconds. Here's the answer:
To determine the runtime of a fully charged 750F ultracapacitor discharging at 36 Watts, you can use the formula:
Time (minutes)=12×Capacitance (Farads)×Voltage2Power (Watts)×60Time (minutes)=Power (Watts)×6021×Capacitance (Farads)×Voltage2
Given that ultracapacitors are often used with relatively low voltage drops during discharge, let's assume a discharge voltage of 2 volts (typical for ultracapacitors).
Time (minutes)=12×750 F×(2 V)236 W×60Time (minutes)=36W×6021×750F×(2V)2
Time (minutes)=12×750×436×60Time (minutes)=36×6021×750×4
Time (minutes)=15002160Time (minutes)=21601500
Time (minutes)≈0.694 minutesTime (minutes)≈0.694minutes
So, the estimated runtime of a fully charged 750F ultracapacitor discharging at 36 Watts is approximately 0.694 minutes or about 41.6 seconds. Please note that this is a simplified calculation and doesn't account for variations in voltage during discharge or other non-idealities.
How do you turn it off? The manual said to unplug it. That can't be the only way?
how safe is it against accidentally turning itself on and burning the cupboard/drawer/house?
I wonder why the super cap is not soldered to the PCB and use screws. That extra cost and labor. Didn’t check datasheet of the cap. Could be to sensitive to temperature ??
350c for 4sec. Then it’s writing “no clean soldering’ which I don’t know what it means.
👍
I can see flat - flex copper rubbing on the supercap contacts and for me it is just asking for a trouble. Kapton tape anyone?
Well, the flex board is polyamide anyway, and it is placed copper side away, as there are 2 flex boards to the rear, to handle the current and the signalling without issue.
What material is the top layer on the screen made of? I'm the kind of person who will have moments that I will park the iron wrong and push the tip of the iron against the screen. If it's made out of plastic... You can guess.
Looks like it's some sort of glass, I just did a scratch test on the corner, and it didn't leave a mark.
Looks good, but not useable for work I do. Wattage problem, when they reach 65 to 90 watts we got something. Thanks for your time.
Maybe too many users would complain about runtime if the wattage were higher? Maybe they could have an 80W or so tip and a default 40W limit, unless you have the iron plugged in or are holding down the boost button.
@@NiHaoMike64 Possibly.