Show HN: PineTool – An iOS Companion for the Pinecil

I think this needs more unnecessary. Siri integration? Yes! I need to be able to tell Siri what temp I want my soldering iron at. You could also make use of other iOS features, like backing up the temp history to iCloud for long term temperature stats. Think about the correlations you could do: I always set the temp to 260C at noon, but in the evenings I’m more of a 265C person. Maybe we would also need some Health integration - Apple should add a „soldering fumes inhalation“ stat. Are there different kind of fumes at different temperature levels?

Time to upgrade my Pinecil

This is an interesting use of some of Pinecil’s capabilities. Maybe I’ll upgrade the OS of mine and check it out.

Part of me screams to myself: “what are you thinking—upgrade the OS of your soldering iron?”

Another part of me muses: “I bet something like this could make a chart of days when I soldered, or make use of the accelerometer of the iron with the temp to act as a technique coach.

Note that only the newer V2 model has the BL-706 chip with BLE capabilities. The original V1 model uses a different chip without this.

And yes, you now need to worry about which CPU your soldering iron has!

Well, guess it's time for my quarterly Pine64 order!

Seriously, this is well-done and a testament to how great UX can arise from bog-standard connectivity. To think this was all enabled by a firmware update on the hardware itself - pure awesome.

This has motivated me to learn more about my Pinecil than ever before. I’ve always known it’s open hardware and software and just used it as an iron.

Thank you!

Edit: love that <1MB file size!

"Is this unnecessary? Absolutely."

Sometimes the best things are

I smell an opportunity for a portable soldering iron based tea kettle system.

This is so cool!!! I didn’t even know the Pinecil existed.

We live in the future :D