glad you're finally reviewing this little gem... I convinced my brother to pick one up for his silly RC car addiction and now he's using nothing but this when he heads off to the track :)
Just received mine and thinking, "How'd I live without this thing"!!! Thanks again Joshua! Once again you've helped me spend my hard earned $$$ in the right places :-)
I picked one up after the UAVFutures review and its great. Thanks for the tip about the auto standby function. I run at 300 Celsius and I've found that high quality electrical solder and proper flux does wonders and allows you to make reliable joints quickly without the need for excessive heat.
you can edit the settings by just edit the config.txt when you plug it into your computer via the micro usb. you can switch the scale to farenheit too...
Was wishing something like this existed. Picked one up and I love it! Best little iron around. GetFPV has a package deal for anyone looking to buy one. Thanks for the vid!
Noticed that you are using leaded solder (Pb), which is fine if you are working on your own stuff. Most commercial quads (or anything that requires soldering) now exclusively uses PB Free (Lead free) solder. As a retired Sr. Electronic Technician, I've used both, and actually had two benches set up .. one was a LEAD station; the other was a Pb Free (Lead Free) station, both complete with Hakko work stations (which included both soldering iron and solder sucker), as well as hot air for doing SMT stuff. Pb free requires higher temps, and the joints just don't look as good as the old leaded stuff we're used to using (btw, using Pb free solder is also mandatory in plumbing jobs when sweating copper together). I completely agree that being able to go to 450°C would make this a much more versatile iron. Cheers.
I used to solder for a living and they told us to always add some solder to the tip after using the iron to stop it oxidising, tough to remember to begin with but it quickly becomes habit.
Just got one in December, now I realize I don't own any decent AC power supply so I got me a 19v 3.42A AC laptop adapter on Ebay. As you mentioned in the video, many different tips are available for ~12$, I think a bigger tip would do just great for those bigger surface such as 12Ga wires. Got those on order too, can't wait to try it on those next winter builds! Great vids Josh, keep on it, we appreciate you!
Just watched it again with volume turned up this time. Joshua, I seriously thought you confused Celsius and Fahrenheit! I just had to go to my soldering iron to check how far up it will go because I never turned it higher than 350°C before. I just soldered 14AWG wires to a pretty large ground pad on an FC, and that's with RoHS (lead-free) solder (it's a myth that it needs higher temperatures).
For big stuff like that, a much larger tip will help. The largest chisel tip available for the TS100 is still a little small for that type of work, but it'll be a whole lot better than the pointed tip that came with it.
400C! Wow, that will probably melt any board :D For small pads and wires I'm using 290C and for big ones like XT60 I'm using 350C. Lead solder melts at ~260C, so no need to burn your equipment :)
If you have good results at 350, more power to you. IMO, higher heat brings the joint to temperature faster, meaning the board as a whole takes less heat. For small components like through-hole wires and pins, maybe 350 is acceptable. For a 12 gauge wire going to the ground plane of a PDB, my experience is that even 400 takes too long to heat up, and I am more likely to damage the board.
Joshua Bardwell it's all down to the tip. with a 5mm chisel tip it's easy to solder at 350 degrees. with some practice you can solder the minutest details with a big tip. also conical tips are the worst!
I don't have one of these but I've been watching a few reviews because I'm interested in buying one. In one of the videos comments it said that there was a firmware update that brought a lot of improvements including a new max of 450 deg C.
I am using this solder iron too and it's pretty cool indeed :) I noticed also the standard tip is not made for hard solder joint jobs but maybe considering buying some of the other tips designed for it could help, i'm about to find it since i bought two of them and they are making their way slowly but surely to me lol That would have been definitely cool if it could reach 450°C indeed, Banggood and manufacturer if you guys are watching this video, you knwo what to do for the next version lol Have a great week McGuyver!
I've been using this for a while, and it's nearly as good as a real bench top soldering station. A good power supply for mains use is a 19V, 9.5A laptop power supply. Amazon has them.
In professional industry, It is 350C for Lead-Free soldering. Im using Pace ST-50 with TD-100 hand and i never had to use more than 320C for signals, parts, etc. and more than 360C for PDB with Sn60Pb40 solder. The most important factor there is the power of the iron and the surface of connection / the iron tip. And for the stand-by features in common products it is mostly by power dissipation in the tip. If you don't solder anything the temperature is constant with minimum power delivered. Accelerometer used in ts100 actually works nice as well, but it would quite irritate me :d
mrozu1337 I'm exactly with you, really like the Pace Station... Ur really getting addicted once youre get used to like the heating inside the tips. I always try lowest temps, because cancer through smoke of SN Tin raises with higher temps. 330 degC is what i use for normal sn Tin, 360 to 380 degC for lead free tin. Happy Flying 😎
@@dangerousfandango5943 idk I commented this a year ago but I think there are a few youtube tutorials out there showing how to install it and providing links to the software
@@noudlindeman1931 all the links i wemt to on qll the videos.. doesnt give me the same page and firmware that they have. All the link goes to the same web.. but the web page is different
Do you know if they will take FX-951 tips? They look like they should fit and I can't seem to find any first party T15-JS02 Conical Bent Tip options from the suppliers but the 3 sleeve connection looks identical.
hey Josh, thanks so much for what you do. Just built my first 210mm and fried a Harbor Freight iron's tip. Can you provide that link to the 20 dollar iron you recommend? Not ready to make the jump to a bench iron quite yet, too many other things to buy! :)
Hi Joshua, I have added a buzzer and a vbat connection to my wizard using exactly this soldering iron (and your tips, thanks you saved me and my quad) but it seems that our Wizard xt60 connection to the pdb needs more heat(and I need to change it). Can you just tell me if it's safe to wait until it mealts up? Thanks.
Put a blank XT60 plug in your XT60 socket while soldering Guiseppe. Even with loads of excessive heat it will not melt out of alignment then and remove once solder is complete. It's easy to smoosh XT60 with too much heat otherwise if using high temps for thick gauge wires.
+MicroRCFiend I was thinking to solder the wrires and later on the xt60 to the wires. Even with this sequence I think your suggestion will solve me a problem. I've ordered thex760 connectors and I'm still waiting for them so I don't know if two plugs are already into the plastic or not. Hope I'll be able to keep the positive and negative separated...but Joshua already told me how to check if it happens ;-) . Thanks guys for sharing, it makes a huge difference.
I got one of those red ones that dont have temp control would you say its worth it to invest in a decent iron ? I really want to build my own drone but everytime I try to solder something its really hard is that partly because I have a shitty iron ?
I hardly solder above 350C Mostly 330c and with big wires 350c Can you explain why you solder so hot? I thought above 350 the Flux burns before soldering.
Hi Joshua, is the distance between the tip and the nearest place where you can grab the thing really about 7cm (assuming your cutting mat has 1cm squares)? That's a hell of a lot, plus there appears to be no proper grip, so you'll have to grab it even further away from the spot you're actually working on. My iron has a grip about 4cm from the tip, which is fantastic. Are there any shorter tips out there?
No, all the tips are the same size as this as far as I know. It might be the case that the heating element is inside the tip and that's why. I don't know for sure. It's a small portable iron so the ergonomics are not great but that's the tradeoff.
Same here, the heating element is also contained in the tip. It's called TD-100, by coincidence, made by PACE, and it isn't quite as portable as this one. OK, OK, it's a very different price range, but it's my everyday iron and what I compare everything else to.
Joshua, a couple of questions. You mentioned that there are many tips for this iron. Is this iron compatible with the standard Hakko tips? Also, how long does it last using, say, a 1300 mah 4s lipo? I'm just curious as to what kind of battery supply would be needed to do say, 10 minutes worth of soldering. Thanks again for the informative video.
It does not use Hakko tips.At 16 volts, it uses 30 watts, or about 1.9 amps. I typically feel safe pulling about 1000 to 1100 mAh out of a 1300 pack. That would work out to about 34 minutes.
In making the battery power adapter, what size wire did you use and was it multi strand or single wire? The wires I have are too large to fit through the 5x25 plug sheath and I don't want to use one that is too small to carry the load. By the way, the power adapter from my battery balance charger, IMAX B6 fit the plug of the TS100. Thanks
Hi Joshua, I picked an older video so as to stay outta the way. I managed to get made up for me a mmcx male right angle to RP SMA female Bulkhead connector using RG316 cable at 8.4cm/84mm for my Antenna Mod on my Taranis X9 Plus. Can you please confirm this is the correct cable length and fittings for this mod before I open her up and fit it. My thanks for your time.
I believe that is correct. I believe that Alex Greve derived the 84mm length based on the velocity factor of RG316. If you really want to know, you should message him to confirm.
You can use this to do whatever. It's a full-fledged soldering iron. But it's a little bit small in the hand for full-time work. If you have the money to spend on a bench-top solder station, it would be easier and more comfortable to use.
I run it off a universal laptop power supply, the cheaper kind where you select the voltage with a switch instead of the voltage being selected from the tip used. Costs under $15 or your local equivalent. Draws under 3 amps, the supply is rated at 4A at 24v.
So, how is the tip after 2 months? I recently ordered this (for 39 EUR!!!) for field repairs, because I was stuck so many times in field without soldering iron. Thanks for review! :)
+Alnie13 no. A battery charger is not a power supply. A battery charger is always monitoring voltage for faults. It wouldn't just dump DC into the iron.
Kinda wish for Soldering Irons in general to come with a shorter tip *option* - Somewhat similar to a fountain pen as I find these long tips rather unwieldy because of the strong lever mechanism caused by them.
firmware is open source, the most common firmware increases the max temp to 450. although you really don't need it to go that high for anything. Also, using a 24v power supply will yield better results. 12v = 17w, 24v = 65W for the ts-100
Not necessarily CZDrMike.. as I understand it a decent iron should be designed so that the heating element is matched to the tip design; allowing the tip to dissipate the heat so it remains at a constant temperature, usually 350-400, no matter how long you leave it plugged in. Certainly true with my Antex iron.
There's a similar, might be a copy/cone, product that come with a AC to DC PS for the same money. My experience is that you need a much larger tip for that 12 gauge pigtail when attaching it to the PDB/FC solder pad. It's not only the temp but it's the ability to hold the heat when soldering heavier wires.
rcwck it's actually really good for soldering such big things. the tip may have not much thermal capacity but it heats so damn quick that you won't mention any heat loss.
Just a quick comment about the included solder: you say it doesn't work, and that's enough for me to just stash it for emergency use in a pinch, but it looks like from the description I can see in the video that it is suppose to be 60/40. I wonder if that's just not true, or its just so cheap it doesn't work right.
this is why i switched from hakko to x-tronic usa stand alone iron its got a stand by mode and if you grab it in your hand and move it the iron goes out of stand by mode just like that one and if its in stand by mode for more than an hour it beeps for 5 minutes loud then turns off :) but this is a great portable iron i have one myself :)
Joshua Bardwell I mean... Soldering temperature, outside of a certain range, isn't really opinion. 400°C isn't safe for most electronics. For PCBs, it will destroy the circuit board itself and lift the copper off of the board. It will also destroy components very quickly. With such a small iron as this, when set to 400, it probably isn't actually at 400 when soldering larger joints. Instead, it's probably closer to 300-350, which would be more reasonable.
Something is off, I do XT60 on 360 on mine and its no issue. I use quality copper cables and quality solder. It is too easy actually. TS100 replaced my cheap mobile iron and cheap station all together. I hope durability is ok, it rocks.
400 degrees C? Really? To each their own I guess, to me that sounds like the iron doesn't have enough power to keep the temperature up when you're working on a solder joint. On a soldering iron that has enough power 300-320 is enough for most things and 350 will get those bigger joints done nicely. Also having the correct shape and size tip for the job is crucial.
Please do :) I have a Weller myself, as I said earlier no problems using 300-350 for all tasks. About the default temp: just because it's there doesn't mean it's right. It could be the default is set with a not-so-good quality solder in mind. Then again I've used high quality solder, cleaned and importantly pre-tinned all surfaces before soldering. Your mileage may wary. It's worth noting that I have only a little bit of training and mostly experience in soldering so I'm no professional, but the guy who taught me was a professional with a lot of experience. He recommended the 320 mark for most things and it has worked for me so far very well.
I have one, love it. First thing I did was flash a custom firmware from GitHub. The full product is actually open source, which is interesting, hardware and firmware.
simpler control, adjustment of the settings without needing to edit the config file, and more. I guess I just trust random guy on GitHub over the manufacturers! github.com/Ralim/ts100
OSS firmware goes up to 450°C. Who's willing to test? ``` else if (Buttons & BUT_B) { //B key pressed so we are moving up in temp resetLastButtonPress(); if (systemSettings.SolderingTemp < 4500) systemSettings.SolderingTemp += 100; ```
@Joshua Bardwell Two questions about batteries. 1. When do you charge your batteries? I want to go fly on a whim, I don't like planning ahead. So I just charge all my batteries and let them sit charged for days and weeks. Most people agree that this shortens the life of the batteries, but I wonder by how much. I could live with shortening my battery life by half for the massive convenience. Do you have any experience of how much damage this does? 2. Lipos in the car? I have become deathly afraid of these lipo batteries. I even blew up a cell in safe conditions to see what it was like, and it is quite an intense fire. I know you store them safely at home, but how do you transport them in the car? I see you toss a lot of batteries in a bag. What if it caught fire while driving? It seems there is plenty of time to pull over and get out safely, but is there enough time to get the batteries out before catching the car on fire? I bought a "Bat-Safe" and it is awesome. I just take the whole box full of 6 batteries and put it in the car. If it blows, it will likely cause so much smoke damage that it may technically total the car anyway. Also, that is a pretty amazing soldering iron.
I charge the night before or the morning of. I don't leave them more than 2 days maybe full charged without putting them on storage. I don't take special precautions when I transport the lipos. If a lipo goes off in a car, you're pretty fucked. A lipo safe bag is not going to do much IMO. I typically transport the LiPos in a LowePro QuadGuard. My safety with regard to LiPos is to aggressively cull any battery that is damaged or showing signs of not being completely healthy such as having a cell consistently be low. I believe that the chances of a healthy, un-damaged lipo spontaneously going off are low. I believe that most people who experience a failure had a damaged pack that they continued to run, or they did something dumb like charging it at 15C. LiPos are inherently risky, so there is always some chance that one will go off on you through no fault of your own, in which case, you are fucked and hope you get out of the car or house before it goes up completely.
Is it just mine, Or is anyone else finding that the end of the tip on their TS100 doesn't really get up to working temperature? On mine it seems I can only solder using a ring of surface about 3 to 4mm back from the point. I've not tried any of the other tips I got yet, but to me it seems odd for such a specific area to be the only bit that gets hot enough to melt solder.
Joshua Bardwell people look up to you and could easily believe they should use 400° and that they could solder large wire with a small tip. solder a wire to a pad with 400° could end up burn the pad of the print.
The hotter your iron, the quicker you can get in and out... the colder your iron the longer you are working on the component, and hence the more heat that is dispersed to it. Eg, would you rather quickly tap a 400 C iron to your skin really quickly, or hold a 300 C iron to your skin for several seconds? Same applies to the electronics
It's a ball switch that detects movement. My diy hakko t12 has the same thing. It just looks for a connection every now and then from the ball switch going back and forth. That's why you had to shake it
Joshua Bardwell no worries. Have you tried the hakko t12 diy kit? I was thinking about buying this ts100 but would like to know your opinions on which is better.
Would love to see a small case for this that is heat resistant so you can put it in a case or cap it while it is still warm. I have a hakko portabele (www.amazon.ca/Hakko-FX-901-Cordless-Soldering-Iron/dp/B00FZPUA28 ) and the cap is awesome (plus the cap turns it off automatically). This iron would be a complete winner if there was some sort of cap or really small case for it.
humm.. im not an expert on this subject, but i watch ALOT of videos about electronics and stuff since i started trying to make things.. But 400°c ? I think your the first guy i've seen talk about soldering at that heat.. Most guys talk about 280°c - 350°c ... Why do you prefer such a high heat ?
10:30 hehehe oops, I bought is as my main Iron :D just cause the power in my garage is not always up to snuff. and i just build my first quad with it. loved it:D
Just used my TS100 for the first time to reattached an antenna to a friend's quad. That thing is AWESOME! Thank you for the review Joshua!
glad you're finally reviewing this little gem... I convinced my brother to pick one up for his silly RC car addiction and now he's using nothing but this when he heads off to the track :)
Just received mine and thinking, "How'd I live without this thing"!!!
Thanks again Joshua! Once again you've helped me spend my hard earned $$$ in the right places :-)
I picked one up after the UAVFutures review and its great. Thanks for the tip about the auto standby function. I run at 300 Celsius and I've found that high quality electrical solder and proper flux does wonders and allows you to make reliable joints quickly without the need for excessive heat.
you can edit the settings by just edit the config.txt when you plug it into your computer via the micro usb. you can switch the scale to farenheit too...
Was wishing something like this existed. Picked one up and I love it! Best little iron around. GetFPV has a package deal for anyone looking to buy one. Thanks for the vid!
Noticed that you are using leaded solder (Pb), which is fine if you are working on your own stuff. Most commercial quads (or anything that requires soldering) now exclusively uses PB Free (Lead free) solder. As a retired Sr. Electronic Technician, I've used both, and actually had two benches set up .. one was a LEAD station; the other was a Pb Free (Lead Free) station, both complete with Hakko work stations (which included both soldering iron and solder sucker), as well as hot air for doing SMT stuff. Pb free requires higher temps, and the joints just don't look as good as the old leaded stuff we're used to using (btw, using Pb free solder is also mandatory in plumbing jobs when sweating copper together). I completely agree that being able to go to 450°C would make this a much more versatile iron. Cheers.
I used to solder for a living and they told us to always add some solder to the tip after using the iron to stop it oxidising, tough to remember to begin with but it quickly becomes habit.
Yeah
True
Just got one in December, now I realize I don't own any decent AC power supply so I got me a 19v 3.42A AC laptop adapter on Ebay. As you mentioned in the video, many different tips are available for ~12$, I think a bigger tip would do just great for those bigger surface such as 12Ga wires. Got those on order too, can't wait to try it on those next winter builds!
Great vids Josh, keep on it, we appreciate you!
Just watched it again with volume turned up this time. Joshua, I seriously thought you confused Celsius and Fahrenheit! I just had to go to my soldering iron to check how far up it will go because I never turned it higher than 350°C before. I just soldered 14AWG wires to a pretty large ground pad on an FC, and that's with RoHS (lead-free) solder (it's a myth that it needs higher temperatures).
For big stuff like that, a much larger tip will help. The largest chisel tip available for the TS100 is still a little small for that type of work, but it'll be a whole lot better than the pointed tip that came with it.
I have a decent ERSA soldering station on my bench, but couldn't resist buying a TS100 for 40€ on sale at gearbest. This soldering iron is amazing.
400C! Wow, that will probably melt any board :D For small pads and wires I'm using 290C and for big ones like XT60 I'm using 350C. Lead solder melts at ~260C, so no need to burn your equipment :)
If you have good results at 350, more power to you. IMO, higher heat brings the joint to temperature faster, meaning the board as a whole takes less heat. For small components like through-hole wires and pins, maybe 350 is acceptable. For a 12 gauge wire going to the ground plane of a PDB, my experience is that even 400 takes too long to heat up, and I am more likely to damage the board.
I'm workin in electronics r&d, and we use them at 450 almost all the time, without any issues
Joshua Bardwell it's all down to the tip. with a 5mm chisel tip it's easy to solder at 350 degrees. with some practice you can solder the minutest details with a big tip. also conical tips are the worst!
markorman but you are probably using lead-free solder
no, its pain in the ass to hand solder with that
I don't have one of these but I've been watching a few reviews because I'm interested in buying one.
In one of the videos comments it said that there was a firmware update that brought a lot of improvements including a new max of 450 deg C.
i saw another review and he had a custom firmware and i believe he said it can go a little higher
crazy! I was looking at this last night, and was like I have to talk to my friend jim ( pro RC car racer). thank you for the review!
I think the Hakko recovers better when soldering high thermal mass.
I am using this solder iron too and it's pretty cool indeed :)
I noticed also the standard tip is not made for hard solder joint jobs but maybe considering buying some of the other tips designed for it could help, i'm about to find it since i bought two of them and they are making their way slowly but surely to me lol
That would have been definitely cool if it could reach 450°C indeed, Banggood and manufacturer if you guys are watching this video, you knwo what to do for the next version lol
Have a great week McGuyver!
I've been using this for a while, and it's nearly as good as a real bench top soldering station. A good power supply for mains use is a 19V, 9.5A laptop power supply. Amazon has them.
In professional industry, It is 350C for Lead-Free soldering.
Im using Pace ST-50 with TD-100 hand and i never had to use more than 320C for signals, parts, etc. and more than 360C for PDB with Sn60Pb40 solder.
The most important factor there is the power of the iron and the surface of connection / the iron tip.
And for the stand-by features in common products it is mostly by power dissipation in the tip. If you don't solder anything the temperature is constant with minimum power delivered. Accelerometer used in ts100 actually works nice as well, but it would quite irritate me :d
mrozu1337 I'm exactly with you, really like the Pace Station... Ur really getting addicted once youre get used to like the heating inside the tips. I always try lowest temps, because cancer through smoke of SN Tin raises with higher temps. 330 degC is what i use for normal sn Tin, 360 to 380 degC for lead free tin. Happy Flying 😎
Thanks for the heads-up Joshua. I picked up one yesterday after your Patreon email.
With modified software you can get to 450°C
Which software can do that? Stock ts100 goes up to 400? Im still waiting for mines
@@dangerousfandango5943 idk I commented this a year ago but I think there are a few youtube tutorials out there showing how to install it and providing links to the software
@@noudlindeman1931 all the links i wemt to on qll the videos.. doesnt give me the same page and firmware that they have. All the link goes to the same web.. but the web page is different
Thank you for all your videos!! They are very helpful. And this Iron looks like a must have to travel with. Thank you again for all the info.
Do you know if they will take FX-951 tips? They look like they should
fit and I can't seem to find any first party T15-JS02 Conical Bent Tip
options from the suppliers but the 3 sleeve connection looks identical.
hey Josh, thanks so much for what you do. Just built my first 210mm and fried a Harbor Freight iron's tip. Can you provide that link to the 20 dollar iron you recommend? Not ready to make the jump to a bench iron quite yet, too many other things to buy! :)
+chelenthal I don't have the link handy but I linked it in my review of the ts100 so search for that and it's in the video description.
Hi Joshua, I have added a buzzer and a vbat connection to my wizard using exactly this soldering iron (and your tips, thanks you saved me and my quad) but it seems that our Wizard xt60 connection to the pdb needs more heat(and I need to change it). Can you just tell me if it's safe to wait until it mealts up? Thanks.
+Giuseppe Falcone for an XT60 o think the only risk would be melting the connector. Not a big deal if it happens.
Thanks!!!
Put a blank XT60 plug in your XT60 socket while soldering Guiseppe. Even with loads of excessive heat it will not melt out of alignment then and remove once solder is complete.
It's easy to smoosh XT60 with too much heat otherwise if using high temps for thick gauge wires.
+MicroRCFiend I was thinking to solder the wrires and later on the xt60 to the wires. Even with this sequence I think your suggestion will solve me a problem. I've ordered thex760 connectors and I'm still waiting for them so I don't know if two plugs are already into the plastic or not. Hope I'll be able to keep the positive and negative separated...but Joshua already told me how to check if it happens ;-) . Thanks guys for sharing, it makes a huge difference.
i love this thing. I got it for very cheap and all I can say is wow. I just flashed the firmware off Gitthub and it's so cool.
I got one of those red ones that dont have temp control would you say its worth it to invest in a decent iron ? I really want to build my own drone but everytime I try to solder something its really hard is that partly because I have a shitty iron ?
Yes it is definitely worth it to invest in a decent iron.
I need a soldering iron holder the yellow one you have where can I get it
and yes it a great iron
I hardly solder above 350C
Mostly 330c and with big wires 350c
Can you explain why you solder so hot? I thought above 350 the Flux burns before soldering.
I was thinking the same thing, if you used a bigger chisel tip with that iron that has more mass and a larger contact area, then 400 should be plenty.
Usualy 400-450 is good for really heavy soldering like a good quality PDB and thick wires but for anything else 350 is plenty enough.
What type of charger do I need for this? I ordered one yesterday and don't know what charger I should buy.
Regarding price @ 9:41, it's $40 at Banggood right now. Not sure I would buy it for $70, but definitely worth $40.
What kind of wires do you have to use for soldering, i bought some copper ones from a hardware store and it was a nightmare
Most wire on a quadcopter are fine-stranded silicone-insulation wire known for short as "silicone wire". (But it's still copper wire.)
amzn.to/2tvsQyB
Thank you senpai
Where's the promised link to the mains iron you mention? Nothing showing on the top right for me
Please send me a link from you to purchase a ts100. Thanks
what soldering iron do use most commonly use for your builds
amzn.to/2wkYLDT
Hi Joshua, is the distance between the tip and the nearest place where you can grab the thing really about 7cm (assuming your cutting mat has 1cm squares)? That's a hell of a lot, plus there appears to be no proper grip, so you'll have to grab it even further away from the spot you're actually working on. My iron has a grip about 4cm from the tip, which is fantastic. Are there any shorter tips out there?
No, all the tips are the same size as this as far as I know. It might be the case that the heating element is inside the tip and that's why. I don't know for sure.
It's a small portable iron so the ergonomics are not great but that's the tradeoff.
Same here, the heating element is also contained in the tip. It's called TD-100, by coincidence, made by PACE, and it isn't quite as portable as this one. OK, OK, it's a very different price range, but it's my everyday iron and what I compare everything else to.
Joshua, a couple of questions. You mentioned that there are many tips for this iron. Is this iron compatible with the standard Hakko tips? Also, how long does it last using, say, a 1300 mah 4s lipo? I'm just curious as to what kind of battery supply would be needed to do say, 10 minutes worth of soldering. Thanks again for the informative video.
It does not use Hakko tips.At 16 volts, it uses 30 watts, or about 1.9 amps. I typically feel safe pulling about 1000 to 1100 mAh out of a 1300 pack. That would work out to about 34 minutes.
Thanks!
In making the battery power adapter, what size wire did you use and was it multi strand or single wire? The wires I have are too large to fit through the 5x25 plug sheath and I don't want to use one that is too small to carry the load. By the way, the power adapter from my battery balance charger, IMAX B6 fit the plug of the TS100. Thanks
+Richard T it only pulls 60 watts so I don't think you need high gauge wire. Maybe it's pulling 5 amps? 20 gauge is more than enough.
Thanks.
What's the best replacement tip for general use? The (TS-BC2)? Maybe?
Hi Joshua,
I picked an older video so as to stay outta the way. I managed to get made up for me a mmcx male right angle to RP SMA female Bulkhead connector using RG316 cable at 8.4cm/84mm for my Antenna Mod on my Taranis X9 Plus.
Can you please confirm this is the correct cable length and fittings for this mod before I open her up and fit it.
My thanks for your time.
I believe that is correct. I believe that Alex Greve derived the 84mm length based on the velocity factor of RG316. If you really want to know, you should message him to confirm.
Has amyone tested for electrical leakage through the tip?
I have to get one. Been having to do a ton of OTG repairs lately.
I was thinking of buying this iron as my main one, do you think it would last?
No way to know for sure. I haven't heard any complaints of reliability from those who use it.
darn you are good . could this be used for building my first quad ? or the wall plug in type ?
You can use this to do whatever. It's a full-fledged soldering iron. But it's a little bit small in the hand for full-time work. If you have the money to spend on a bench-top solder station, it would be easier and more comfortable to use.
thank you
where can i get this.. really useful ..
Try reading the comments?
Took you long enough ;)
I've been using the TS100 for over 12 months fulltime and still using the same one. Also, you can get different types of tips as well
+FinalGlideAus I'm slow, but thorough. Just ask your mom.
Zing!
Shots fired! LOL
should i skip the hako and just get this one if im upgrading from my hako clone?
Awesome timing ! im in the market for own of these !!
I run it off a universal laptop power supply, the cheaper kind where you select the voltage with a switch instead of the voltage being selected from the tip used. Costs under $15 or your local equivalent. Draws under 3 amps, the supply is rated at 4A at 24v.
That should get the job doen.
So, how is the tip after 2 months? I recently ordered this (for 39 EUR!!!) for field repairs, because I was stuck so many times in field without soldering iron. Thanks for review! :)
It's fine. This is a great iron.
Hi Joshua! Just got one... what firmware do you run? Stock?
+Bent Props FPV no the custom one that enables left hand mode and 450 temperature.
Thanks, i'll flash mine tonight :D
it have battery inside?or always must to be connecting with an external power with cable?If not, doesn't really portable, is only beauty...
No battery. External power.
Could i plug this into my charger for stationary use?
+Alnie13 no. A battery charger is not a power supply. A battery charger is always monitoring voltage for faults. It wouldn't just dump DC into the iron.
I just plug mine into my chargers power supply, but if you have an AC charger then you'll be out of luck
Kinda wish for Soldering Irons in general to come with a shorter tip *option* - Somewhat similar to a fountain pen as I find these long tips rather unwieldy because of the strong lever mechanism caused by them.
firmware is open source, the most common firmware increases the max temp to 450. although you really don't need it to go that high for anything.
Also, using a 24v power supply will yield better results. 12v = 17w, 24v = 65W for the ts-100
I know little about soldering but if you're running it flat out all the time, what's the point of temperature control?
Look up Metcal SmartHeat if you want to know more about the temp at the tip
patrickcol it would go way over 400℃
Not necessarily CZDrMike.. as I understand it a decent iron should be designed so that the heating element is matched to the tip design; allowing the tip to dissipate the heat so it remains at a constant temperature, usually 350-400, no matter how long you leave it plugged in. Certainly true with my Antex iron.
+patrickcol temperature control means it can run hotter than flat out when it needs to recover quickly.
Joshua, are you still using the ts100? Do you still recommend it?
Yes and yes. It's fantastic.
One important thing was not mentioned is the whole part where you hold it does not even get warm after long use.
does it replace the bench iron?
MultiBeast FPV I use it as my bench iron... actually I bought it for that purpose and haven't even used it in the field yet
I all you do is RC then yes, but it is expensive for what it can do if we don't count portability.
+Michal Horváth right. If you don't need portable there are better options.
There's a similar, might be a copy/cone, product that come with a AC to DC PS for the same money. My experience is that you need a much larger tip for that 12 gauge pigtail when attaching it to the PDB/FC solder pad. It's not only the temp but it's the ability to hold the heat when soldering heavier wires.
rcwck
it's actually really good for soldering such big things. the tip may have not much thermal capacity but it heats so damn quick that you won't mention any heat loss.
getting it! doesn't take long to kill the Hakko FX901, which is a decent portable BTW>...
Just a quick comment about the included solder: you say it doesn't work, and that's enough for me to just stash it for emergency use in a pinch, but it looks like from the description I can see in the video that it is suppose to be 60/40. I wonder if that's just not true, or its just so cheap it doesn't work right.
this is why i switched from hakko to x-tronic usa stand alone iron its got a stand by mode and if you grab it in your hand and move it the iron goes out of stand by mode just like that one and if its in stand by mode for more than an hour it beeps for 5 minutes loud then turns off :) but this is a great portable iron i have one myself :)
I had just gotten one last month (March 2017 ) and I love it!!!!
"Portable Soldering Iron"...."for field use".....now THAT'S hardcore and cool!
I wanna be that hardcore.
I had one of these.
but i found out the solder wire sometime refuse to melt.... (maybe wire problem?)
Aww damn, watch out Joshua, the Solder Police are out!
EVERYONE MUST SOLDER EXACTLY LIKE I DO AND ALSO EVERYONE ELSE IS SOLDERING WRONG.
Joshua Bardwell I mean... Soldering temperature, outside of a certain range, isn't really opinion. 400°C isn't safe for most electronics. For PCBs, it will destroy the circuit board itself and lift the copper off of the board. It will also destroy components very quickly. With such a small iron as this, when set to 400, it probably isn't actually at 400 when soldering larger joints. Instead, it's probably closer to 300-350, which would be more reasonable.
Something is off, I do XT60 on 360 on mine and its no issue. I use quality copper cables and quality solder. It is too easy actually. TS100 replaced my cheap mobile iron and cheap station all together. I hope durability is ok, it rocks.
+SirCrashaLot what tip?
I just have the stock one.
Thank You! You helped to clear up a lot of my questions!
400 degrees C? Really? To each their own I guess, to me that sounds like the iron doesn't have enough power to keep the temperature up when you're working on a solder joint. On a soldering iron that has enough power 300-320 is enough for most things and 350 will get those bigger joints done nicely. Also having the correct shape and size tip for the job is crucial.
+Mika Kuitunen well I'll let Hakko know you think the 888d is underpowered. Also that their default temperature is too high.
Please do :) I have a Weller myself, as I said earlier no problems using 300-350 for all tasks.
About the default temp: just because it's there doesn't mean it's right. It could be the default is set with a not-so-good quality solder in mind.
Then again I've used high quality solder, cleaned and importantly pre-tinned all surfaces before soldering. Your mileage may wary.
It's worth noting that I have only a little bit of training and mostly experience in soldering so I'm no professional, but the guy who taught me was a professional with a lot of experience. He recommended the 320 mark for most things and it has worked for me so far very well.
Mika Kuitunen the same for me no more 350-360 on a Solomon solder station !
Mika Kuitunen just change to bc2 tip 300c is plenty hot
You can push the iron to 450deg with firmware or config changes. The beauty of an open source project ;-)
Works fine on 6S. Tested multiple times :)
Ledge Team - Todor Vitanov : fully charged 6s?
Thanks for sharing it 👍
From Nick Ayivor from London England UK 🇬🇧
Flash with the latest Ralim firmware! Awesomeness just got a little better 👍
I have one, love it. First thing I did was flash a custom firmware from GitHub. The full product is actually open source, which is interesting, hardware and firmware.
What does the OS firmware add?
simpler control, adjustment of the settings without needing to edit the config file, and more. I guess I just trust random guy on GitHub over the manufacturers! github.com/Ralim/ts100
OSS firmware goes up to 450°C. Who's willing to test?
```
else if (Buttons & BUT_B) {
//B key pressed so we are moving up in temp
resetLastButtonPress();
if (systemSettings.SolderingTemp < 4500)
systemSettings.SolderingTemp += 100;
```
Does it change the display font too? I'm not a big fan of the serifed fonts that Chinese designers resort to.
11:01 link in the upper right seems to be missing :(
Not sure why you're not seeing it but here it is: th-cam.com/video/EnTesKBBRsM/w-d-xo.html
Thanks friend for the fast answer. Seems to be blocked by my adblocker. Ran video without it and link came up. So everythings fine on your side. :)
That's a nice little iron.
Firmware updates to allow for a hotter level??? Seems like somebody would be trying to do that for sure.
Yes, it exists.
@Joshua Bardwell
Two questions about batteries.
1. When do you charge your batteries?
I want to go fly on a whim, I don't like planning ahead. So I just charge all my batteries and let them sit charged for days and weeks. Most people agree that this shortens the life of the batteries, but I wonder by how much. I could live with shortening my battery life by half for the massive convenience. Do you have any experience of how much damage this does?
2. Lipos in the car?
I have become deathly afraid of these lipo batteries. I even blew up a cell in safe conditions to see what it was like, and it is quite an intense fire. I know you store them safely at home, but how do you transport them in the car? I see you toss a lot of batteries in a bag. What if it caught fire while driving? It seems there is plenty of time to pull over and get out safely, but is there enough time to get the batteries out before catching the car on fire? I bought a "Bat-Safe" and it is awesome. I just take the whole box full of 6 batteries and put it in the car. If it blows, it will likely cause so much smoke damage that it may technically total the car anyway.
Also, that is a pretty amazing soldering iron.
I charge the night before or the morning of. I don't leave them more than 2 days maybe full charged without putting them on storage.
I don't take special precautions when I transport the lipos. If a lipo goes off in a car, you're pretty fucked. A lipo safe bag is not going to do much IMO. I typically transport the LiPos in a LowePro QuadGuard.
My safety with regard to LiPos is to aggressively cull any battery that is damaged or showing signs of not being completely healthy such as having a cell consistently be low. I believe that the chances of a healthy, un-damaged lipo spontaneously going off are low. I believe that most people who experience a failure had a damaged pack that they continued to run, or they did something dumb like charging it at 15C.
LiPos are inherently risky, so there is always some chance that one will go off on you through no fault of your own, in which case, you are fucked and hope you get out of the car or house before it goes up completely.
Wait aren’t these wireless? Why does everyone keep using a cord for it
It does not have a built in battery. It requires an external power source.
I just got mine. Guess what. It don't come with any power cord or connectors. I can't fit any barrel plug I got into the iron. I'm so pissed.
Is it just mine, Or is anyone else finding that the end of the tip on their TS100 doesn't really get up to working temperature? On mine it seems I can only solder using a ring of surface about 3 to 4mm back from the point. I've not tried any of the other tips I got yet, but to me it seems odd for such a specific area to be the only bit that gets hot enough to melt solder.
use this as my main solder gun now
No kidding.. everyone agrees with this it's the best.
Joshua. I think you need to learn something today.
The temperature, size of your tip and how you handle the rosin core.
+Niclas Svensson what did I do?
Joshua Bardwell newer use 400° when solder.
+Niclas Svensson well... I do. All the time. It's the default setting in my Hakko. So how about telling me why I shouldn't?
Joshua Bardwell people look up to you and could easily believe they should use 400° and that they could solder large wire with a small tip. solder a wire to a pad with 400° could end up burn the pad of the print.
The hotter your iron, the quicker you can get in and out... the colder your iron the longer you are working on the component, and hence the more heat that is dispersed to it.
Eg, would you rather quickly tap a 400 C iron to your skin really quickly, or hold a 300 C iron to your skin for several seconds? Same applies to the electronics
a 450C degrees and many more goodies version can be found here:
github.com/Ralim/ts100
I think I'm going to get one of these :)
I have used it for a year. Every once in a while it goes a little weird.... just update the firmware again and it keeps chooching.
With custom firmware, you can get the iron past 400°c
Where can you get the custom firmware?
i think with the speed this thing heats is better to just unplug it when you leave it, that is my experience over the last few years using it
It's a ball switch that detects movement. My diy hakko t12 has the same thing. It just looks for a connection every now and then from the ball switch going back and forth. That's why you had to shake it
+Wheresmy240 I'm pretty sure it's an accelerometer
Joshua Bardwell it may be in this higher end device, but it just seemed like a Reed or ball switch the way you had to shake it.
Maybe so. The TS100 is an accelerometer. Sorry--I missed that you were talking about the T12.
Joshua Bardwell no worries. Have you tried the hakko t12 diy kit? I was thinking about buying this ts100 but would like to know your opinions on which is better.
Would love to see a small case for this that is heat resistant so you can put it in a case or cap it while it is still warm. I have a hakko portabele (www.amazon.ca/Hakko-FX-901-Cordless-Soldering-Iron/dp/B00FZPUA28 ) and the cap is awesome (plus the cap turns it off automatically). This iron would be a complete winner if there was some sort of cap or really small case for it.
humm.. im not an expert on this subject, but i watch ALOT of videos about electronics and stuff since i started trying to make things.. But 400°c ? I think your the first guy i've seen talk about soldering at that heat.. Most guys talk about 280°c - 350°c ... Why do you prefer such a high heat ?
I may be a bit late but just so you know there is custom firmware available that will let it go to a max of 450 degrees Celsius
Sweet man!! Thanks!! I've tried one on lighter fluid but That sucked !! XD
I dont leave home without it
But is the temp control controlled by a PID loop? 🤓
Dan Watts yes it is. I've lowered my pics and rates right down so the bloody thing doesn't flip off the bench when I accidentally knock it haha
and it's sold out already
10:30 hehehe oops, I bought is as my main Iron :D just cause the power in my garage is not always up to snuff. and i just build my first quad with it. loved it:D
I did see a video on this iron saying there is a firmware hack to get it to 450.