Comment by jareklupinski | Hacker News Reader

Comment by jareklupinski | Hacker News Reader

i literally just bought a pinecil and usb-c battery pack (with carry case) to make basically a DIY version of this three weeks ago, but would have gotten this one instead if it existed back then

after a few days trying to turn that into a daily driver however, i've had to go back to my weller desktop station, for one weird reason: i dont have anywhere to put the hot iron in between uses!

i dont know if it's just me, but my work cadence involves me using my soldering iron about 30-40 times over the course of an hour or so, for about 3-4 seconds each time. sometimes i'm soldering a row of headers, or just one or two joints, but then theres 3-4 minutes where i'm moving wires around or programming something quickly, and i dont want to wait for the tip to cool each time so i can set it somewhere and work on the board a bit, if I can just leave it in a safe place while hot, which my weller always had.

I got one of those bent sheet metal desktop 'holders', but the iron is so light compared to the cable, there's no way it's not falling off the table at some point.

Yes! You need a way to pull the iron out and put it away quickly.

Our cap is just a game changer there. You handle it more like a Sharpie than a soldering iron. Put the cap on and stick it back in your bag. https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GXR8kMVbgAEeRgd?format=jpg&name=...

I set the motion timer on mine to 5 seconds. It heats up so quickly when you pick it back up that there's no reason to bother with the power switch. By the time I have it back at the joint, it's at temperature ready to go.

The cap is neat but requires two hands to apply (and locate) vs a stand. Makes a big difference at times.

I’m also worried about burning myself if I’m not paying attention when putting the cap on 20 or 30 times in succession.

I got this $6 soldering stand, I use it with my pinecil v1 (and the pine64 silicone usb cable), it works pretty well for me: https://www.microcenter.com/product/659412/eclipse-enterpris...

They make soldering iron stands in factories every day, and have probably done so for at least a century so far.

Just pick one out out that you like and get it coming your way.

For portable use, I got some snap-on purpose-built "legs" made from steel wire from aliexpress the other day that let me put the Pinecil down safely on a flat surface. They work a treat.

(And for bench use, stick a magnet to the collar of the stand. Pinecil V2 has a Hall effect sensor built in (and one can be added to V1) that will detect when the iron is in the stand, so IronOS will enter a selectable lower-temperature sleep mode right away. It heats back up quick enough that it's unlikely to ever get in the way.)

Try buying a third Party holder and flash ironOS[1] to allow cool extra features.

1: https://github.com/Ralim/IronOS

I've been using a small glass jar and just sticking it into the jar while it's hot.

It seems like they didn't thought this product through. Holder is one thing, but holder should be able to put the iron on idle when not used. Otherwise it will be burning through tips like there is no tomorrow.

I had one of these pencil soldering irons as I needed to solder something at a location. Once I powered it on, I was like oh snap, where do I put this thing now. Very much noped out and got the thing home where I could solder it properly with proper tools.

The article mentions that the iron has an accelerometer-based idle mode, like most of its competitors. So no special holder is required.

So you can just toss it anywhere?

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