Technology

Why this instead of an industry-standard station like an entry level Weller? The Wellers got replacement parts, especially tips which are consumables. I have the pervious 50W model and it has worked well in any job that can be done with that power level.

In my experience with soldering, the quality of the tip is the most important part. Then the quality of the solder and flux. Then having a set of soldering tools like wick, pump, stripper, and most of all - a third hand. Then temp adjustability. I had a digital solder station before I had those tools and I did almost as shitty solder jobs as I did with the basic Weller soldering iron I had before it. Once I got the ability to keep the parts stable so I can hold the solder in one hand and the iron in the other, introduce the solder at the joint and melt it in-place with the iron, like the manuals say, the quality went way up. I could even do some functional SMD work using my phone's macro cam as a microscope.

I have one of these https://webcat.cornwelltools.com/JP213123-Cornwell%C2%AE-Cordless-Soldering-Iron-p371692246 as well as a traditional wired soldering iron. While I like the cordless soldering iron's portability and it's fine for solder cups or solder splicing wire, it's not adaptable enough for me to use on a PCB or for micro solder and if I'm honest I'd want a micro solder setup for that anyway. I've owned expensive soldering irons and cheap ones (my current corded model I believe is one of ifixit's), the general problem is that I have too many random tips lying around that I don't know which iron they go to. Some are junk (because the iron broke etc). Some probably could be used interchangeably.

At least with the cordless one the tips are replaceable, and pretty unique in appearance so I know exactly which iron they go to.

The problem with the cordless one is the heat it can generate and the fact that it's not adjustable. The problem with the corded one is that I have to lug a 50' extension cord up to every plane to use it, and often there's not a safe place to put it down while it's hot so I have to prep every solder cup, joint, splice etc and then plug it in and turn it on. I've got stands galore and none of them is the safest.

I'd be willing to try this out just for the sake of the added protections it provides.

Have they not heard of the TS100 or the Pinecil?

Both run an open-source firmware and work with any USB-C PD battery pack and still allow you to configure the temperature.

Tying a rechargeable battery to a single function device seems off-brand for iFixit.

• edit, I am wrong. I didn't RTFM. Humble pie is good sometimes.

What I want from a battery soldering iron is a field-replaceable 18650 in the handle, not Webserial.

Ah any reason why Firefox decided not to include WebSerial?

Maybe you don’t want to buy the Station, or you left it at home. In either event, you can simply plug the iron into your computer and configure it via WebSerial.

You’ll need a browser based on Chrome to pull this trick off, as Mozilla has decided (at least, for now) to not include the capability in Firefox. In testing, it worked perfectly on both my Linux desktop and Chromebook.

Unfortunately, plugging the iron into your phone won’t work, as the mobile version of Chrome does not currently support WebSerial. But given the vertical layout of the interface and the big touch-friendly buttons, I can only assume that iFixit is either banking on this changing soon or has a workaround in mind. Being able to plug the iron into your phone for a quick settings tweak would be incredibly handy, so hopefully it will happen one way or another.

The WebSerial interface not only gives you access to all the same settings as plugging the iron into the Power Station does, but it also serves as the mechanism for updating the firmware on the iron.