Open source firmware and server

[Gooygeek]

This repo only seems to document (incompletely I may add) the interface of the soldering iron and provide 3d files of it.

But what about the firmware and serverside software itself?

At the moment users cannot contribute, fork or otherwise inspect the software running on their soldering iron. And they are heavily dependent on ifixit running and operating the fixhub site (which does not work on firefox) and/or the android app.

Ifixit should release the server side software of fixhub that allows configuring the soldering iron and the soldering iron's firmware.

This is crucial for maintaining these tools long term, decouples dependence on a 3rd party website and ties into ifixit's philosophy of making things last and truly owned by the consumer.

The lack of this is a significant reason holding me back from purchasing the ifixit iron. And I feel it directly contradicts its guiding principles.

[kwiens]

Hi! Thanks for the request. Let me know where the documentation feels incomplete and we can add to it. Our goal is to be comprehensive.

The serial interface is the communication mechanism for the web app to talk to the iron.

We have not open sourced the firmware or the software that runs the web console. We are open to doing so, just haven't gotten enough input from the community that this is something people would like to iterate on.

FYI the mobile app is a thin wrapper around the web app, and is only required because mobile browsers do not yet support WebSerial.

This is crucial for maintaining these tools long term, decouples dependence on a 3rd party website and ties into ifixit's philosophy of making things last and truly owned by the consumer.

You make a good point! We will seriously consider this.

Are you more interested in interacting with the source for the web interface or the iron firmware?

[infamy]

https://github.com/iFixit/FixHub?tab=readme-ov-file#subcommands-13 You have what looks like some Ai slop left in this area.. and link to code that can't be seen.

Had the idea to a light or a fan that would turn on and off depending on if the soldering iron was idle or not.. but to get to the point to be able to do that, need more information then what is provide by the documentation... Would be interesting in seeing even some code for a rp2040 or some other common micro to talk to the fix hub to show how it can be expanded. FW source would at least help someone in figuring out how to do that.

[danielbeardsley]

You have what looks like some Ai slop left in this area.. and link to code that can't be seen.

I hadn't seen this issue, nor your comment. As soon as I did, I tried to clean that up.

#5

[ErrinDev]

Hey @kwiens, although your message was a while ago, I'm going to add on here:

I would love access to the source for the web interface. Depending on how it works, I'd like to try and make it into a local hosted, electron based app, since I sometimes work where there isn't internet access. I'm sure there are others that would like this as well as general access to the source.
This also links into my suggestion for controlling the soldering iron(s) while the battery pack is connected. #8