Most soldering irons in the market seem to fall into a few distinct categories. They either provide a full-blown station to which the soldering iron is wired, powered straight by mains, or an iron powered by DC power. The Miniware TS1C takes up an interesting position here in that it features both a station you put the iron into and adjust the temperature, as well as a fully cordless iron. Sounds too good to be true, perhaps, but a recent Tom’s Hardware review by [Les Pounder] seems to think it has real merit.
Behind the glossy exterior and marketing, we find a cordless soldering iron that uses a supercapacitor to power itself when it is not inserted into the station, with communication between the iron and station performed using Bluetooth. This way, you can keep an eye on both the tip temperature and the remaining charge left, which [Les] found to be sufficient for soldering about 80 smaller joints, with the marketing claiming it can solder 180 size 0805 SMD parts with one charge.
The advantage of having a station is that it is the part that is wired to a power bank or wall wart, with the temperature setting performed using a chunky dial. The station also provides a place for the iron in between soldering sessions, but in order to recharge the iron, the brass bands near the front have to be pushed into the holder for them to make contact. This also makes one-handed removal of the iron from the holder not as easy as you’d hope.
With the $125 price tag for the TS1C, it does raise a lot of questions about the intended audience, when for about the same price, a (65 Watt) Hakko FX-888D can be obtained. What you gain over said Hakko with the TS1C is the ability to power the station from USB-PD (45 Watt) and the lack of a cord between the station and iron. The TS1C also seems to have an unfortunate design flaw in that the hot iron’s tip has to be navigated past melty plastic bits and the fragile OLED display permanently disfiguring those, as [Les] discovered to his dismay.
Would you get a TS1C, or is a TS101, Pinecil, or a mains-powered station more your jive? Or would you rather just roll your own?
Strange stuff. The marketing blurb on the manufacturers website lists “Capacitor Undervoltage Protection” as a safety feature. Is the supercap actually a Li-whatever cell in disguise?
I’ll better stick with my trusty Weller TCP that has served me well for more than 4 decades.
probably https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium-ion_capacitor
Basically, yes. It’s a Lithium-ion hybrid supercapacitor. Specifically, a Cda LIC1840Q3R8757. See the internal photos from the FCC registration. https://fcc.io/2ATIFTS1C-P
Over the past years, I’ve been moving to smaller, more lightweight and precise soldering irons, so I don’t really like this chonker here.
They already make Makita-style battery adapters (which can be extended with a belt clip if needed) that support USB-PD. The catch is that the power level sucks (18W). On the bright side, there are rather affordable 100W USB-PD boards available (featuring INJOINIC IP2368, which supports 2s-6s packs).
Thus, I’d rather make a TS80/TS100 work on a cordless drill battery pack – choose your own adventure between 2 Ah and 9 Ah.
Now power the station from a cordless tool 18-20v pack XD
Actually come to think of it I’d like my cheesy Weller station to work with my Rigid packs.
I put some heat into my boards usually anyway with a heat ‘pencil’? So this super cap thing might have merit.
We are circling back around to when the mass of the soldering iron held the energy as heat and you regulated the tip temperature by the thermal conductivity of the root.
Can you recommend a usb-pd board? I need to charge stuff off 12v at 65w
Can confirm a TS100 works fine on a ryobi one+ pack, with nothing but wires between. Works well enough for servicing a sensor or controller in the paddock. I cant imagine it would work for many hours, but thats not my use case in the field.
It probably would work fine for a couple solid hours at least if you use one of the larger packs, running my TS80 for short periods of time seems to make not much difference to the charge level of my fairly old 100Wh PD battery bank which is pretty much the same capacity as a 5Ah tool battery.
When I was little, I had a soldering “pen” that was being operated by lighter gas – or ideally, by isobutanol.
IIRC, I have one of those somewhere.
A RadioShack product?
I don’t trust its ability to hold “a charge” though.
I got a small butane torch five years ago. Good for soldering heavy copper wire. This one has a tip for soldering, but I’ve never used it. But it’s shaped like a torch, not iron.
Can anyone recommend a cordless, battery-powered iron for off-the-grid use? Bonus points if its powered by a 18650.
Pinecil and power bank? A lot of the cheap rechargeable irons look pretty bad compared to the Pinecil type stuff, unless there’s a new good one by now.
Ryobi makes a station. Uses standard tips and works in very cold weather. We use them where I work for field work that other portables just don’t handle.
SDG electronics review
https://youtu.be/TkYBXhdQ78Q
Ultrachud for the win
I clearly prefer a high-power minimal weight small with a really supple cord than such heavy cordless alternative. in this precise case, I’d prefer the station to be battery operated and the iron being corded to it…
in that case you’d probably want the TS80P. same tips, smaller handle, use a fat USB battery to power it instead of the wall charger. 3d print a stand to clip to the battery.
Lots of gimmicks of questionable use here. I don’t need wireless for a desktop station – I have a wired KSGER T12 and it’s one of my favourite tools. I actually prefer it to my TS100, though the latter is still a great choice for mobile work.