What's your setup ?

[CloudBearST4]

Hello, for those who have several soldering irons compatible with IronOS, which one do you use most often, just out of curiosity?

To Pinecil owners, do you use it more in PD or in Jack? If PD, do you have any power supply recommendations?
Thank you

[Ralim]

My general breakdown is:

• TS80P lives in my backpack as an emergency unit, only ever used on PD
• If I'm expecting to be doing a lot of soldering will usually throw Pinecil in as well.
• Pinecil on work bench using a Lenovo 65W adapter as primary source, with secondary PD adapters on the desk
• MHP30 and Pinecil Hammerhead used interchangeably depending on the size of the part I'm reflowing

I've generally moved away from using the Jack as I have more PD capable chargers than not these days, and just having PD on my desk is far easier. I use small trigger boards to adapt non PD stuff to be PD compatible for all of my projects and power adapters etc.

[Galgofrit]

@Ralim sorry for replying on an older post and sorry for bothering you - I'm actually considering purchasing either of Pinecil and TS80P and would love some advice... both have their ups and their appeal to me, and considering my main power bank (PD) can't output 20v@3A (it's 40w, it can do 20v@2A and 12v@3A like the TS80P takes) - also I like the TS80P's ability to remove tips without a screwdriver and it seems a bit slimmer?
Obviously Pinecil is a 'better deal' but can afford either one, which one would you get over the other?

[Ralim]

Hrmm, its a good question really.
TS80P's main strength is 12V operation, Pinecil is a far better deal.

So to do a lil comparison, at 12V:
TS80P ~=30W
Pinecil ~=18W

If your powerbank can do 15V then both are ~=30W performance.
(Check if it has 15V listed, or PPS specs. Or ask around here perhaps. I use a 45W one that runs happily at 15V on Pinecil).
I find that the larger tips of the Pinecil is better for getting heat into things. (And more tip variety)

I lean for the Pinecil because of the lower cost + better performance. (TS80P caps out at approx half that of Pinecil).
But the TS80P is definitely the winner for portability; hands down.

My biggest question would be:
Will you only ever use it with a 12V limited power bank?
If thats the most likely use case (12V power bank, car batteries) the TS80P wins
If you lean more towards using it at a desk, Pinecil wins.

TS100 and TS80 (non P) are basically dead products at this point.

For me, Pinecil + silicone cable + tips set is cheaper than TS80P so it wins.
But of course, its your choice, and both will be great for you ^_^

Pinecil has a community chat too btw; that is worth a poke if you have questions around it or if you want help / finding cheap power adapters / questions etc. (They tend to be around more than I am). Though dont expect TS80P help there naturally :)

[Galgofrit]

Wow, thanks for the great answer! This is probably the only real direct comparison I've found over the internet in the last couple of days, heh
That's a good point - my power bank can do 15v@2.66A, that's over 30W, so I guess it will equal/outperform the TS80P
Plus, I usually carry my MacBook charger around, and it can provide the entire 60W to the Pinecill, and it doesn't do 12v at all (so won't work with the TS80P).
Actually community has always been a main point of consideration for me when it comes to these kind of things - so it sounds like Pinecil is the way to go for me :)
Also there's nothing I hate more than lack of power to heat a solder joint up, less power usually (ironically) results with me overheating things.
My final question is, portability aside, do you feel one is more comfortable to use than the other?

[Ralim]

Always happy to give opinions 😀
Yeah if you can do 15V then I would go Pinecil hands-down. The Pinecil takes a second longer to heat up, but it handles bigger joints better so it wins in that regard.

For community, go to the Pine64 website and then in the forums/chats menu you can join the Pinecil chat (its on IRC/Matrix/Telegram/Discord -- same chat, pick your client. Though the majority is on Discord).

Comfort is mixed; the TS80P with the carbon fiber is probably my favourite; but it never made its way to retail sale 😀 So realistically; the Pinecil is the only one with a "soft" grip. Some people hate it, some people like it. 🤷🏼 Without soft grip they are about the same.
One thing I did do for a while is put heatshrink around the tip for more "grip" but thats firmware into the "fiddle with it till you like it" type of mods.

If you do buy Pinecil, please buy from Pine store or their Amazon store (depending on your location) rather than Aliexpress; there has been an uptick in clones that have soldering issues with zero chance of refund/repair. (Joining the chat room can get you some more details/rants on this -_-)

[Galgofrit]

Got it! So Pinecil it is, and good thing you warned me about AliExpress, because that was my plan - I'll try to order from Amazon.
Thank you so much! Appreciate it a lot (and appreciate your work on IronOS which I plan to enjoy) 😁

[CloudBearST4]

Do not you use the TS100 anymore? You probably keep it for development

I hesitate to sell mine, but I know that Pinecil is only 20V and the TS100 actually 24, does it make a difference only at the heating time, or there is a difference also to the use ? If it's ridiculous I can part with it

I have been looking for a case for a long time and I found this I advise you, it's a bike repair kit, it's hollow and Pinecil goes without disassembling it

https://aliexpress.com/item/4000695389587.html

[HanaO00]

I use the Pinecil most often, I left the TS100, as I didn't have a stand, I used an old hard drive and the ceramic stand.
I read somewhere that if the iron is on if it touches the metal bar it could damage it, that's why I use the stand, if anyone can confirm