Bought it half a year ago. Had problems with the capacitance switch while powered from the powerbank, didn't trigger. Stripped it, removed all the funny stuff driving the mosfet and installed a small switch to polarize the gate. I carry it everyday with my 5V 2A powerbank, love it a lot! The look on somebody's face when I pull a soldering iron out of my bag and just run it off a powerbank, priceless. Great for small stuff.
I molded mine the same way & I have images for anyone wishing to do the same mod Just solder the switch to the points marked in red above the mofset drive.google.com/file/d/0B_Jl6r1wRpE-cDRyTHdjMDh4ekk/view?usp=docslist_api
+Dan T new switch via wires to get it out of the case (just a simple monetary push button switch will do, preferably something small that can be hot glued to the case) , the old switch is touch sensitive so it only has one wire so it wouldn't work
+Artyom “Evante” Platonev soldering and brazing are incredibly satisfying. Something about seeing your tools liquefy it and it perfectly wetting a surface. The combined actions of the flux, solder alloy and surface interaraction is just tops.
Mine arrived yesterday and didn't work. The red light comes on but there was no heat. I opened it up and one of the wires going to the tip wasn't soldered on! The irony. :-)
So Clive, I bought this iron solely because of your review. I must say I'm impressed! Very fast heat, very fast cooling. Stays clean and works just beautifully. Thanks for the review!
I've had one of these for the past almost two years, amazing little soldering iron. Very glad it got a great review by big Clive! Only problem with it is its hard to find spare tips for. I have found one site probably 6-12 months back, but forget what it was.
Soon as you said "NE555" I started laughing. Never thought I'd see one of those in new production stuff. And the intentional use of the non-ideal specs of the diode is quite a nice touch. The person who designed this thing knows their stuff, and is almost certainly Old School. There's a spot-welder at my dad's auto repair shop that uses one of those to control how long the current is on, triggered by a switch on one of the electrode handles. From what I can tell, the thing's from the 70's or 80's.
+Julian Ilett have a look at this then!! m.ebay.co.uk/itm/Battery-Powered-Soldering-Iron-8W-3-x-AA-Warranty-On-the-Go-Repairs-New-/301594735006?nav=WATCHING_ACTIVE
This is shockingly very useful for small repairs when you're out and have a portable power bank. I might actually pick one up. I don't know how many times I've wished I had a small soldering iron to fix little things when I'm out of the house.
Clive you have opened up the whole world of electronics to me. I had literally 0 interest before I saw a few of your videos and since then I've been left with this massive thirst for knowledge and info. I am going to start soldering like you suggest and then maybe have a go at some of those LED light kits. Thanks again Clive, if we ever happen to be in the same town I will buy you a drink! or dinner ;)
Haha! I just tested out the '3D printing clean up tool' version of this and did the same thing with the collet, I thought the cap unscrewed too... Seems like they're the same device.
I have one of these and was similarly impressed. I keep it around in my backpack these days, just in case (I also carry around a power bank for general use). I replaced the dodgy minijack thing in the back with a miniUSB connector, so I wouldn't have to carry around its special snowflake cable. Not something I'd use daily, but having it around has saved my ass a couple times already.
Isn't it amazing? I bought my own and yes, it really works! Just don't try to power it from a computer when trying to solder big heat-sinking components, a power bank is much better.
***** what? NO it doesn't reach over 500 degrees Celsius! That would melt glass! Check your conversion and do NOT use a normal thermometer to measure the temperature of the tip.
+DarkBabylon Yes, that is kinda correct. It does drop on very big joints, but overall it handles joints as big as MOSFETs and linear voltage regulators surprisingly well. If you let it build heat up, it will punch through and is able to keep that temperature pretty well, unless you expect it to be able to solder copper piping.
I use this little iron for re-soldering and repairing USB ports on tablets and phones - it's the perfect sized tip and gives out just enough heat for those tricky little smt solder dabs. Nice to see I wasn't the only one impressed by it!
My one looks just like it and I didn't realise Clive had a video on it until this old video popped up in my recommendations today. Unlike that the one featured here, mine would only run off a mains USB charger, so I did as Clive told me in a comment of another video, bridge out the drain+source pins. It now works well on power banks and great not having it cut out every few seconds. I now use it as my main iron as the power lead is not cumbersome like the chunky lead on my mains iron. It runs for around 4 hours continuous on my 10,000mAh bank. The only minor issue is that it can slide all the way through the hole in a typical soldering iron stand.
I think I was just as surprised as Clive, if not more so, when he soldered that resistor; it warmed up quickly, and the solder melted FAST! I was expecting him to have to hold it at the joint for at least 10 seconds or so. This seems to be a fairly decent backup for non-critical (ESD-sensitive, etc.) applications, although I do share Clive's concern over the leakage current. To be fair though, quite a few of the vacuum-tube instruments I own have very similar leakage currents and voltages, or at least the ones to which I have not yet added a 3-wire power cord; my Knight KG-650 R.F. signal generator is a noteworthy death trap (120 VAC on the 'isolated' chassis!). Thanks for the detailed tear-down, Clive!
But Clive you didn't tell us how suprised you were by the USB soldering iron. I was waiting for you to tell us how suprised you were by it. Were you suprised by it? Was it a suprise? I'm suprised you didn't tell us...
I bought one of these to pick up soldering and electronics (as well as a larger 40w unit) and I found that I don't even touch the big iron... the small tip really makes this a handy little device. I made the exact same mistake you did with trying to unscrew the cap, thought it was broke for a while until I pieced that part together. Felt like an idiot, glad to see I'm not the only one who did that It's cool, you can plug it in and within about 5 seconds the tip is ready to go, and the needle tip and low power makes it a lot easier to keep yourself away from all other nearby connections.I haven't really tried anything too heavy with it but it's performed great on everything I've tried it with. Thought the use of the 1/8" /3.5mm jack was a bit odd, never seen it used for power before only audio.
Thank you so much for this video, I know it's over a year old but I just recently saw it. Was so impressed I bought one. It didn't work. Figuring it would cost more to send back than just buying a new one I just bought another and emailed the company and let them know it was DOA. The day after receiving the replacement I got another. The company had sent me a replacement free of charge. With the second one I was able to fix the first. I now have 3 for the price of 2 and I am very happy with them!! Thanks to this video and you I also know how to remove the replaceable tips.
They have improved this a lot over the years. I had one before you did your video on them and it was a real pain in the ass to use, kept timing out and didn't read the touch sensor most of the time. I decided to give it another try last year and ordered another. They have fixed the problem, it is no longer a touch sensor, but a push button and she doesn't time out as quickly either. Now it is a nice little iron and can do a lot of work without having to toss it up against the wall to get it to come back on.
I have one of these, had it long before your video in fact. She is not without a down side, for one the male plug is troublesome you see I was in the habit of using her for short jobs then just unplugging it from the iron side and laying the plug aside. I had it hooked to a 110 to 5 volt multi outlet USB charger device that puts out lots of power. Anyhow one day the plug fell against something that shorted it out. I could smell something burning, and like an idiot I began to feel around. I now have a perfect mark of that plug on my left hand, man that thing was HOT. My chair nearly burst into flames because the cord was against the upholstery (i do my work in a recliner, not a great idea but the only comfortable place I have to sit any more). I went back to using my regular regulated 110 volt iron and unplug her from the wall when not in use, the little iron is in her box and used only when I have just a couple of joints to solder. Also she gets way to hot if used to say, put together a kit. I have several I was putting together for Christmas to sit on the dash of our motor home that have the traces burned off, We are always living in the motor home in the winter months down in Arizona, avoiding the cold and snow of the Dakotas.
Just received one via eBay that purported to be the same -- and looks the same externally with "8w" spec, but turns out to be arguably a bit better. Cap a lot easier to pull off. Instead of a finicky touch sensitive switch there's a positive action on/off push button that looks exactly the same, and (as far as I know so far) there's no automatic turn off after 25-30 seconds, you just push the button again to turn it off. Blue LED. Gray collar instead of yellow. $10 from U.S. shipper (so a bit more than from China with a long wait). Heats within 15 seconds, as promoted. Very nice little tool. Thanks for the review!
This was a fun little soldering iron while it lasted. It was easy to work on smaller soldering joints with than my previous main soldering iron. However, two weeks ago the tip of mine broke and the price for a new tip wasnt really worth it IMO. So instead I bought myself a pinecil with 11 extra tips so far I'm quite happy with the choice.
+bigclivedotcom You might laugh, but I got stopped once by railway police because my UNI-T UT61C multimeter had accidentally turned on while I was in the train, started beeping (it beeps after about 5 min of inactivity to warn you it is on) I got it out and turned it off. At the same moment the ticket inspector came and "kindly" asked me to follow him after seeing me rummaging through my bag with the multimeter beeping...
Cool, you have just answered some questions that have been bothering me for some time. I first saw one of these on another channel some time ago, and ordered one in from China. It was an earlier model with no touch pad, but seemed like the real deal. The one I have came with a cord that had two plugs on the USB in side, and a USB mini on the output side of the cable. It generated plenty of heat, in fact I had problems with it burning off pads if I held it on for to long. A few days ago I tore down some kits that I had ruined with the iron, an discovered over half the LED's had failed, my guess was that those were the ones where my power pack went dead and I Plugged it into a wall wart. At any rate it now lays in the tool box in my motor home as I deemed it only useful for on the road emergencies. I had thought it the real answer to soldering in my easy chair as it heated up so quickly and was so easy to use. Perhaps I will try the newer version now and see if that works better, and now that I understand where the problems lay, it may solve some problems. Thankfully I found a nicer 110 volt that I can use at my chair now, heats up very fast and has replaceable tips, and a thermostat on the handle that actually works fairly well.
I'm glad I saw your most recent 2021 version of a rechargeable portable soldering iron. It gave me a chance to compare it to this earlier USB version. The latter type reviewed here by Clive; I would say may have been updated to current day standards. Though like Clive has stated this wee iron could handle a soldering job very well. It fared well during the practical usage test with the given circuit board and various components. The solder flowed smoothly onto the two surfaces to make good electrical contact. I am impressed at how cleanly the joints; with solid connects the little soldering iron made each time.
dang good little soldering iron i have had one for a couple of months and it still surprises me as what it can do (if you respect its low-ish power) i would recommend one to anyone BUT NOT to use from a standard PC or laptop. i use it from a converted PC PSU/bench PSU
I bought myself one of these years ago because it cost less than a new bit for my Antex mini iron (an original but still works) and I just needed to do a quick job to repair a mod, did the job and I was very happy, I have bought a couple of new irons since as I am getting into back into little projects and it is easier than changing bits for different jobs
+ElfNet Gaming Against the alledged 'safe' way, I really don't mind solder fumes - it's not like I solder to any extreme degree anyway but... Next time you try to solder shit - I'd recommend at least respirator. (giggling myself silly;)
Got it recently and just love it. It's amazing for the little joints i would do anyway, no need to wait for my Antex to heat up anymore. All the short sessions were easily managed even with a Poundland's single cell powerbank.
Kind of put of by the Chinglish instructions: Method: 1.Open the iron burger skull, not to the left twist, pull off can be used directly. If left to turn the screw wrench to Gary, iron head shaking does not connect, unable to work! Then cover the right screw directly pull under it. 2. The product switch is the human body induction switch, the hand holds the handle 5 seconds to begin to heat up, after leaving the handle, the handle will slow down. 3. The power supply is best to convert the USB power supply, computer power supply, or more than ten thousand Ma mobile power supply. Small capacitance of the mobile power will not move!
I got one, and it really does work. Its by no means the best iron ever, but its remarkable how much it doesnt suck. I think it will be hand for times that I want 2 irons at the same time.
I have one in my bag for small jobs. I still can have my 60W iron in there but this one can work from powerbank, which is very useful. I worked once on some server PCBs in server room where just wasn't any power outlet left. It does good job for smaller components, and with chips or bigger things, heat station is better bet. Tips wear out pretty quickly but this just isn't something you use that much.
Modified mine to work with an onboard 18650 and used it to solder my car alarm in. Works reaaaallly well and is one of my favorite irons. Initially modified it because I hate proprietary connectors that turn USB into a stupid headphone jack or the like. Anything I get like that instantly gets ripped apart and has a micro female port butchered on. Also stuck a charge controller on it so now I can plug it into any USB socket and have it charge, and then solder cordlessly.
Oh so mains voltage present at the tip due to capacitive coupling explains why my Hakko FX-951 and other decent transformer based soldering stations have the tip connected to mains ground? To bleed off the capacitive build up of mains voltage at the tip before it builds to a dangerous level for components?
I find it very funny that this was the next video after a video in which mikeselectricstuff said, word for word, "If you see someone trying to sell a 5V soldering iron, laugh at them"
When I started to teach myself electronics the 555 timer chip was one I started with it is a really neat chip to play around with but I never would have thought of it in this manner - really cool - Thanks Clive for sharing- two thumbs up !!!
Just got mine, BT-8U slightly different toggle switch on body and a 3.5 mono jack to USB cable. It is very light and feels like the weight of a biro and is very comfortable in hand and there is no fight with the power cable. It's actually enjoyable working with it. First Job I gave it was resoldering a microusb socket on to a board on a battery bank of course the wires from the battery to the board broke off so I had to do those wires as well. The pins on usb micro B are about 0.4 mm wide and quite tightly spaced, so having a tip fine enough for my shaky hands to do the job was ideal. I had to use a magnifying glass on my third hand in order to focus on where i was placing the tip. I would have destroyed the board with my regular iron. It's very quick to heat up and cool down and being able to switch the power off I was able to melt the solder on the board for a hole and power off and spin the tip in the hole making reattaching the battery cables much easier. Jobs done and the PCB didn't get overheated. Cost me 12 euro to repair a powerbank that cost me 10 (Amazon charge 21.47 sterling for this 10,800mah juicebank out of stock). So still a win for me. If I hadn't been able to fix the connector I would probably modded the powerbank with a couple of wires to charge from an old powerbank. Thanks Clive for the review it was worth it even with the mark up to get it from Dublin instead of China :) There is an interesting russian video ua-cam.com/video/XdJavqX-90U/v-deo.html where he modified the circuit so it has a variable duty cycle and thus some temperature control. It might be nice to revisit the subject.
My mate has one of these irons and it didn't seem too clever running from usb so we cut off the usb plug and wired it into an old pc power supply that he uses as a bench supply. The iron is absolutely brilliant now and is used more than his "propper" iron :)
The same product is sold at Jaycar Electronics in Australia. All 5 soldering irons on the shelf were visibly opened and returned because the previous customers assumed they were broken. It turns out I'm not the only one that twisted off the plastic cap...
I bought one of these a while ago and like you did at first, I unscrewed the cap to remove it, and the thing completely failed to work, so I complained and was given a refund. I later bought another one, which arrived today and I watched your video and realised my mistake. Now, I feel guilty about that refund...
Hi, I also powered this from a USB output on a extension cord. I wanted to try finishing some wood PLA print. The tip was glowing dark red. Wow. I will have to try with some power bank or batteries as I only need 200C.
+camtheham13 On the 191 tip thermometer the mass of the test point instantly pulled the temperature down to about 250C but it then built up to 430C when it was held on. So imparting bursts of high temperature into the solder joints.
hi clive! awesome channel, i love your videos. recently i've bought one of theese usb soldering irons and i converter the 555 based circuit to run at about 2 hz 50% duty cicle and i removed the touch button and inserted instead a normal push button to force down the timing cap (so all time heater on). with this config the soldering iron is awesome! bye ;)
I was hesitant to buy this based on the Amazon reviews, but based on your tear-down I went ahead and picked it up. Like you I am surprised that it actually works very well. Thank you for the review, it is exactly what I needed for my project.
I bought one of these for a laugh - as I guess most do - but I was very pleasantly surprised. It's perfect for more delicate soldering jobs - it's particularly excellent at soldering header pins onto Arduinos and Raspberry Pi's, runs happily off a powerbank I have and it's faster warming and cooling than my decent 'normal' quality iron. For that odd job every now and again I think it's excellent for the price. I wouldn't fancy using it with a mains charging brick mind!
Wow. Truly surprising. I said no right away when you mentioned the wattage, but oh did you prove me wrong. I'm into buying this thing, as I usually do repair work outside my little workshop, so this could really come in handy.
That thin USB cable drops about 0.7v...changing the cable to a decent one would improve the power output and would probably reach the stated 8w. I did some tests on some USB to micro USB cables, results were (per meter of cable) any where from 0.2v to 1.1v drop @1.5A So the cable plays a big role here.
I've ordered a couple of these to play with. I'm hoping I can extend the 'on' time by customising the R/C on pins 6 & 7 of the 555. Greaat to see Julian Ilett giving one a go too. I bet sales are booming!
This is how impressed I was with the Radio Shack battery powered soldering iron. It really did heat up much faster and just generally seemed to work better than any of the mains pencil irons I had tried before. it doesn't work on really large stuff, especially when the batteries are running a little low, but it works for most of what I need it for. The only problem is the batteries don't last extremely long... I'm thinking about adding a DC jack to it.
This looks pretty convincing, I once had one that seemed to try an solder between two pieces of graphite, that was not very good at all and there was a measurable voltage between the 'probes'.
+bigclivedotcom I gave CPC a bollocking over that and they sent me the gas soldering iron I have had in my kit for 7 years, so all's well that ends well! I think for teardown and automotive you really cannot beat the butane beasts! :)
Working with it no where near mains noise meant I was forever tapping it to keep it on. I bypassed it as others have done and now it just on all the time and brilliant.
Hello Clive I got mine from china today and the design is totally differents. I will try to post some photo but is seems to be using a photomos. No fancy N555 or touch sensor, one push button ON/OFF.
I can't believe I haven't seen this video earlier! I have one of these soldering irons and I just love it. It's very fast. seems to be hot enough in about six or seven seconds. I have it in a little kit with a small 18650 power bank and it lasts a pretty good long time. It really does work surprisingly well.
Clive, didn't you test a NICD battery powered iron a while back? This isn't a lot different except that the battery is on your belt or the table. As for a 6W iron, back in the 1960s my father worked at Spectrol, and they used 6W 6V transformer-powered irons for all their work. He brought one home and we used it for decades for the majority of PCB work. Only rarely did I have to resort to a larger iron. That iron gave up the ghost some decades ago, but I was able to get an exact replacement, made by some English company as I recall. I used that up till about 10 years ago when I finally bought a Chinese combination solder/desolder/hot air gun soldering station. I still think the 6W things are great little irons. Weigh about half an ounce and the 4' of twisted pair cable is almost weightless too.
Just found this video after buying the exact iron, to see if you'd had a look at it, I use mine on with a decent EasyAcc power bank for pyrography, purely because I can burn outside instead of breathing in wood fumes from my Peter Child kit.
I've had one of these for ages, generally using it very happily, but I recently bought a "Hakko 191" soldering iron thermometer (I include quote marks, there, as it cost me less than £10 from AliExpress, and the top segment of the most-significant-digit of the LCD doesn't work, so I've no idea how accurate it is). So I decided to see how hot this tiny little USB iron gets to. The 191's display instantly jumped to the mid-400s and climbed all the way to around 570°C! At one point, with a bit of wiggling of the tip, it actually displayed around 620°C! (Bearing in mind the Hakko 191's Type-K thermocouple is rated for 0-600°C use, so it actually took the thermocouple out of range!) Clive, if your iron thermometer is a little more reliable than mine, could you give that a test? 600°C from USB, and onto components that aren't going to necessarily like that level of heat, is a bit terrifying! That would certainly explain why I've so easily damaged a few PCBs with it in the past - both pulling smaller tracks straight off the board, and then even burning the board itself (I'd say FR4, but it was one of these odd white PCBs from China so it may well not be FR4). It's definitely an impressive and very handy iron, and I've preferred it over various others I have which cost me much more money, but with great power comes great responsibility, I guess... (I now have a "HYLKKO 998D" soldering station with hot air gun, so the USB thing has been relegated to being a handy portable thing for working in/around the car or whatever)
The open air temperature does climb high, and I did test it on the 191 unit. It immediately sank the heat and then started climbing again. It just requires controlled use to avoid damaging PCBs.
Hi Clive... I bought a couple of these after seeing your review. Can't find a source for spare elements/bits but at this price I can just buy a new one and have a handy USB lead for future projects. I use it with a power bank like the one you're using. It won't replace my trusty Antex but it's handy for a quick soldering job which I can do in less time it takes for the Antex to warm up! It's also half the price of an Antex tip.
You don't have to apologize for your speech or for your lack of 100% understanding of the workings of the device the second you opened it. Those are the things a lot of us come here to watch.
I believe that 555 circuit is the same exact ones they use on vapes. Fundamentally, both products do the samething. I'd love to see one of these soldering irons that accepts an 18650 battery. Would be killer for portability.
I bought one like... eight years back (holy crap I feel old X3), made by a company called Mega Power. Worked awesome, learned to solder with it by replacing capacitors on a motherboard. Didn't last though because I didn't know how to take care of it. Bought another one recently, thing's been redesigned and is complete crap. Melts solder but just barely. Super excited to find another one that works! :3
Awesome Video, Schematic & Teardown Clive. Very Cool. I love these Irons & I've been using them for years now and they are fantastic I've had no issues using an Apple plug too. Keep up the great work. Nick.
The 100n on pin 5 (CV or Control Voltage) is just a decoupling cap (fitted when the pin is not used) and the 555 can be re-triggered. £3.50 post free, worth a look.
I've just figured out why I really enjoy listening to you ramble on about soldering....... It's because you pronounce it "SoLdering" and not "Soddering". Maybe I shouldn't get miffed when I hear it pronounced wrong, but I guess that could be classified as one of my "Bad" points. 🤷🤷🤷 So, Thumbs Up to You 👍👍👍
Clive, I seem to remember you reviewing a Cubot phone in a previous video? After seeing that I looked up the Cubot H1 and see it's capable of charging another phone from its internal battery. Do you think that this iron would work from the output of said phone with an OTG cable? I imagine the current draw would be too much, but it would be cool to be able to power it with something that's always in your pocket.
Quite an intriguing little piece of kit, but I have a couple questions about it. 1: 95% of the soldering I would do is soldering motor leads on 130-size motors, micro-servo cables, stuff like that, in the name of turning static tank models into radio controlled ones. You reckon this iron is up to task? 2: I have an old 550w computer power supply that still works fine as a basic DC source. I pulled it from service because the ripple in it was too high for a computer, was causing a lot of BSOD issues, but the 5v rail on it still works a treat. Would using that to power this have the same AC pass-through that you get from the mains USB adapters used for charging phones and tablets? If so, I may very well just modify the cable from the iron, hardwire it into a 5v output of that PSU. IT unplugs at both ends as manufactured, so the iron itself wouldn't be hard wired.
+TestECull In a PC GND is connected to earth either through the case or within the powersupply. So you should be able to connect the ground of the output to PSU case and earth pin, if it isn't already.
Hey, I'm new to soldering and working with electrical circuit analysis. Where would you get those kits? They seem like a good way to practice soldering and understand how circuits work.
Bought it half a year ago. Had problems with the capacitance switch while powered from the powerbank, didn't trigger. Stripped it, removed all the funny stuff driving the mosfet and installed a small switch to polarize the gate. I carry it everyday with my 5V 2A powerbank, love it a lot! The look on somebody's face when I pull a soldering iron out of my bag and just run it off a powerbank, priceless. Great for small stuff.
I molded mine the same way & I have images for anyone wishing to do the same mod
Just solder the switch to the points marked in red above the mofset
drive.google.com/file/d/0B_Jl6r1wRpE-cDRyTHdjMDh4ekk/view?usp=docslist_api
+Dan T new switch via wires to get it out of the case (just a simple monetary push button switch will do, preferably something small that can be hot glued to the case) , the old switch is touch sensitive so it only has one wire so it wouldn't work
at this point, i'm basically watching your videos because soldering is the most satisfying thing to watch ever.
+Artyom “Evante” Platonev Because BigClive's soldering is the most satisfying thing to watch.... FTFY
+Artyom “Evante” Platonev soldering and brazing are incredibly satisfying. Something about seeing your tools liquefy it and it perfectly wetting a surface. The combined actions of the flux, solder alloy and surface interaraction is just tops.
Same herr
Yar, likewise.
Mine arrived yesterday and didn't work. The red light comes on but there was no heat. I opened it up and one of the wires going to the tip wasn't soldered on! The irony. :-)
The 'soldering irony'
order another to solder the first!
Niko Thieling They sent a replacement. ☺️
The irony is also a pun.
You could solder it on with..... oh.
Oh...
OH!
So Clive, I bought this iron solely because of your review. I must say I'm impressed! Very fast heat, very fast cooling. Stays clean and works just beautifully. Thanks for the review!
Don’t care how old this video is.. I watch all your videos I can.. love them all!!
I've had one of these for the past almost two years, amazing little soldering iron. Very glad it got a great review by big Clive! Only problem with it is its hard to find spare tips for. I have found one site probably 6-12 months back, but forget what it was.
Soon as you said "NE555" I started laughing. Never thought I'd see one of those in new production stuff. And the intentional use of the non-ideal specs of the diode is quite a nice touch.
The person who designed this thing knows their stuff, and is almost certainly Old School.
There's a spot-welder at my dad's auto repair shop that uses one of those to control how long the current is on, triggered by a switch on one of the electrode handles. From what I can tell, the thing's from the 70's or 80's.
555 can be used for many things, seen details on the 'net of a 555 used as an am radio 😲
Now that's my kind of soldering iron!
suprised that you have not got one already Julian! !
+Julian Ilett Well we know you got the power banks for the job : ) .
+Julian Ilett Now you know where to throw your mailbag money!
+Julian Ilett have a look at this then!!
m.ebay.co.uk/itm/Battery-Powered-Soldering-Iron-8W-3-x-AA-Warranty-On-the-Go-Repairs-New-/301594735006?nav=WATCHING_ACTIVE
+Barrybados©. haha which one?
Good old 555, nice to see it's still being used.
+Dave Curran Can't go wrong with them.
+Dave Curran Where I work they use them to drive a laser using it in astable mode.
This is shockingly very useful for small repairs when you're out and have a portable power bank. I might actually pick one up. I don't know how many times I've wished I had a small soldering iron to fix little things when I'm out of the house.
You should mod the USB lead to have a ground clip on the end of it for clipping onto grounded things so the suppression cap isnt an issue
FYI, NE555 can be reset mid-cycle. So if you keep your finger on the button, it should keep heating.
as long as pin 2 is low pin 3 is high.
that doesnt work if powered from a powerbank or other isolated supply, well, mine doesnt! have to 'tap' it to trigger the vibration switch..
Clive you have opened up the whole world of electronics to me. I had literally 0 interest before I saw a few of your videos and since then I've been left with this massive thirst for knowledge and info.
I am going to start soldering like you suggest and then maybe have a go at some of those LED light kits.
Thanks again Clive, if we ever happen to be in the same town I will buy you a drink! or dinner ;)
Arrakis Spice Trader Can’t go wrong with LED light kits!
Haha! I just tested out the '3D printing clean up tool' version of this and did the same thing with the collet, I thought the cap unscrewed too... Seems like they're the same device.
I have one of these and was similarly impressed. I keep it around in my backpack these days, just in case (I also carry around a power bank for general use). I replaced the dodgy minijack thing in the back with a miniUSB connector, so I wouldn't have to carry around its special snowflake cable. Not something I'd use daily, but having it around has saved my ass a couple times already.
+marcan Good upgrade, now tell the chinese.
Isn't it amazing? I bought my own and yes, it really works! Just don't try to power it from a computer when trying to solder big heat-sinking components, a power bank is much better.
***** what? NO it doesn't reach over 500 degrees Celsius! That would melt glass! Check your conversion and do NOT use a normal thermometer to measure the temperature of the tip.
Much like open circuit voltage on batteries there is a thermal capacity thing to worry about. It is likely the temperature could drop like a brick.
+DarkBabylon Yes, that is kinda correct. It does drop on very big joints, but overall it handles joints as big as MOSFETs and linear voltage regulators surprisingly well. If you let it build heat up, it will punch through and is able to keep that temperature pretty well, unless you expect it to be able to solder copper piping.
I use this little iron for re-soldering and repairing USB ports on tablets and phones - it's the perfect sized tip and gives out just enough heat for those tricky little smt solder dabs. Nice to see I wasn't the only one impressed by it!
My one looks just like it and I didn't realise Clive had a video on it until this old video popped up in my recommendations today. Unlike that the one featured here, mine would only run off a mains USB charger, so I did as Clive told me in a comment of another video, bridge out the drain+source pins. It now works well on power banks and great not having it cut out every few seconds. I now use it as my main iron as the power lead is not cumbersome like the chunky lead on my mains iron. It runs for around 4 hours continuous on my 10,000mAh bank. The only minor issue is that it can slide all the way through the hole in a typical soldering iron stand.
I think I was just as surprised as Clive, if not more so, when he soldered that resistor; it warmed up quickly, and the solder melted FAST! I was expecting him to have to hold it at the joint for at least 10 seconds or so.
This seems to be a fairly decent backup for non-critical (ESD-sensitive, etc.) applications, although I do share Clive's concern over the leakage current. To be fair though, quite a few of the vacuum-tube instruments I own have very similar leakage currents and voltages, or at least the ones to which I have not yet added a 3-wire power cord; my Knight KG-650 R.F. signal generator is a noteworthy death trap (120 VAC on the 'isolated' chassis!). Thanks for the detailed tear-down, Clive!
But Clive you didn't tell us how suprised you were by the USB soldering iron.
I was waiting for you to tell us how suprised you were by it.
Were you suprised by it? Was it a suprise? I'm suprised you didn't tell us...
Is there anything they won't power by USB?
+Philip Sempers Waiting for the USB powered truck jump starter.
+FreakSX93 lol
+Philip Sempers USB powered vibrator....oh hang on they've done that one...certainly wouldn't want any earth leakage with that....or would you!? ;)
+blower Combine the idea with Big Clives Tingletron and you may be onto a winner ;)
+FreakSX93 Not directly, but I have seen power banks with jump starter capability that can be charged by USB...
555 inside, can't be all evil :-) Nice little circuit.
I bought one of these to pick up soldering and electronics (as well as a larger 40w unit) and I found that I don't even touch the big iron... the small tip really makes this a handy little device. I made the exact same mistake you did with trying to unscrew the cap, thought it was broke for a while until I pieced that part together. Felt like an idiot, glad to see I'm not the only one who did that
It's cool, you can plug it in and within about 5 seconds the tip is ready to go, and the needle tip and low power makes it a lot easier to keep yourself away from all other nearby connections.I haven't really tried anything too heavy with it but it's performed great on everything I've tried it with. Thought the use of the 1/8" /3.5mm jack was a bit odd, never seen it used for power before only audio.
I was as surprised as you how good it actually works. it took me back as I expected nothing really when I purchased one.
Thank you so much for this video, I know it's over a year old but I just recently saw it. Was so impressed I bought one. It didn't work. Figuring it would cost more to send back than just buying a new one I just bought another and emailed the company and let them know it was DOA. The day after receiving the replacement I got another. The company had sent me a replacement free of charge. With the second one I was able to fix the first. I now have 3 for the price of 2 and I am very happy with them!! Thanks to this video and you I also know how to remove the replaceable tips.
They have improved this a lot over the years. I had one before you did your video on them and it was a real pain in the ass to use, kept timing out and didn't read the touch sensor most of the time. I decided to give it another try last year and ordered another. They have fixed the problem, it is no longer a touch sensor, but a push button and she doesn't time out as quickly either. Now it is a nice little iron and can do a lot of work without having to toss it up against the wall to get it to come back on.
I don't think the new ones time out at all.
I have one of these, had it long before your video in fact. She is not without a down side, for one the male plug is troublesome you see I was in the habit of using her for short jobs then just unplugging it from the iron side and laying the plug aside. I had it hooked to a 110 to 5 volt multi outlet USB charger device that puts out lots of power. Anyhow one day the plug fell against something that shorted it out. I could smell something burning, and like an idiot I began to feel around. I now have a perfect mark of that plug on my left hand, man that thing was HOT. My chair nearly burst into flames because the cord was against the upholstery (i do my work in a recliner, not a great idea but the only comfortable place I have to sit any more). I went back to using my regular regulated 110 volt iron and unplug her from the wall when not in use, the little iron is in her box and used only when I have just a couple of joints to solder. Also she gets way to hot if used to say, put together a kit. I have several I was putting together for Christmas to sit on the dash of our motor home that have the traces burned off, We are always living in the motor home in the winter months down in Arizona, avoiding the cold and snow of the Dakotas.
Just received one via eBay that purported to be the same -- and looks the same externally with "8w" spec, but turns out to be arguably a bit better. Cap a lot easier to pull off. Instead of a finicky touch sensitive switch there's a positive action on/off push button that looks exactly the same, and (as far as I know so far) there's no automatic turn off after 25-30 seconds, you just push the button again to turn it off. Blue LED. Gray collar instead of yellow. $10 from U.S. shipper (so a bit more than from China with a long wait). Heats within 15 seconds, as promoted. Very nice little tool. Thanks for the review!
This was a fun little soldering iron while it lasted. It was easy to work on smaller soldering joints with than my previous main soldering iron. However, two weeks ago the tip of mine broke and the price for a new tip wasnt really worth it IMO. So instead I bought myself a pinecil with 11 extra tips so far I'm quite happy with the choice.
right, so ill buy this, and make my projects at the bus stop while i wait, and get arrested for making shifty things in plain view... bit dodgy...
+Tony Fleetwood Just make sure it's got a digital readout and makes beep-beep noises while you mutter about "bombs".
+bigclivedotcom
I fucking love you, crack me the fuck up.
+bigclivedotcom It has to have 2 different brightly coloured liquids in containers too. I'd suggest irn bru and mountain dew
+bigclivedotcom You might laugh, but I got stopped once by railway police because my UNI-T UT61C multimeter had accidentally turned on while I was in the train, started beeping (it beeps after about 5 min of inactivity to warn you it is on) I got it out and turned it off. At the same moment the ticket inspector came and "kindly" asked me to follow him after seeing me rummaging through my bag with the multimeter beeping...
+DarthBlazer Clive's got a wacky sense of humor. That's what I like about him.
Cool, you have just answered some questions that have been bothering me for some time. I first saw one of these on another channel some time ago, and ordered one in from China. It was an earlier model with no touch pad, but seemed like the real deal. The one I have came with a cord that had two plugs on the USB in side, and a USB mini on the output side of the cable. It generated plenty of heat, in fact I had problems with it burning off pads if I held it on for to long. A few days ago I tore down some kits that I had ruined with the iron, an discovered over half the LED's had failed, my guess was that those were the ones where my power pack went dead and I Plugged it into a wall wart. At any rate it now lays in the tool box in my motor home as I deemed it only useful for on the road emergencies. I had thought it the real answer to soldering in my easy chair as it heated up so quickly and was so easy to use. Perhaps I will try the newer version now and see if that works better, and now that I understand where the problems lay, it may solve some problems. Thankfully I found a nicer 110 volt that I can use at my chair now, heats up very fast and has replaceable tips, and a thermostat on the handle that actually works fairly well.
I'm glad I saw your most recent 2021 version of a rechargeable portable soldering iron. It gave me a chance to compare it to this earlier USB version. The latter type reviewed here by Clive; I would say may have been updated to current day standards. Though like Clive has stated this wee iron could handle a soldering job very well. It fared well during the practical usage test with the given circuit board and various components. The solder flowed smoothly onto the two surfaces to make good electrical contact. I am impressed at how cleanly the joints; with solid connects the little soldering iron made each time.
I am using this for over one year, and for small projects it works perfectly
I bought this little soldering iron, and it is amazing. I am not some pro but, I done many home projects with it, fixing some stuf etc.
dang good little soldering iron i have had one for a couple of months and it still surprises me as what it can do (if you respect its low-ish power) i would recommend one to anyone BUT NOT to use from a standard PC or laptop. i use it from a converted PC PSU/bench PSU
I bought myself one of these years ago because it cost less than a new bit for my Antex mini iron (an original but still works) and I just needed to do a quick job to repair a mod, did the job and I was very happy, I have bought a couple of new irons since as I am getting into back into little projects and it is easier than changing bits for different jobs
Such a clever yet simple circuit to control the iron power! Not heard of 555 being used in decades!
Seems to be better than the $30 2 AA battery soldering iron I bought a few years ago that can't solder shit.
+ElfNet Gaming Against the alledged 'safe' way, I really don't mind solder fumes - it's not like I solder to any extreme degree anyway but... Next time you try to solder shit - I'd recommend at least respirator.
(giggling myself silly;)
wdavid parks lol
+ElfNet Gaming Made the same mistake and ordered this one today (4€) to replace it ;D
+ElfNet Gaming i have the same usb soldering iron, it is marvelous! Also, i dont use a usb port, but a smartphone charger.
+Στέλιος Αρβανίτης in this video Clive doesn't recommend this cause it can harm your components
Got it recently and just love it. It's amazing for the little joints i would do anyway, no need to wait for my Antex to heat up anymore. All the short sessions were easily managed even with a Poundland's single cell powerbank.
Hi Clive, great video, bought one a few weeks ago, works fine. Quick tip, spare pack of tip sections are available from Maplin
Martin
Kind of put of by the Chinglish instructions:
Method:
1.Open the iron burger skull, not to the left twist, pull off can be used directly. If left to turn the screw wrench to Gary, iron head shaking does not connect, unable to work! Then cover the right screw directly pull under it.
2. The product switch is the human body induction switch, the hand holds the handle 5 seconds to begin to heat up, after leaving the handle, the handle will slow down.
3. The power supply is best to convert the USB power supply, computer power supply, or more than ten thousand Ma mobile power supply. Small capacitance of the mobile power will not move!
I got one, and it really does work. Its by no means the best iron ever, but its remarkable how much it doesnt suck. I think it will be hand for times that I want 2 irons at the same time.
Thank you very much. I thought mine were defective. That bit about the collar saved me.
Wow that's cool! I might have to get one now.
Also +3 internets for conversational use of "aplomb"!
I just got mine and put it to the test.
This thing is delightful!
Seriously nice for small work!
Michael Thompson i've got wone already and i'm a kid
I have one in my bag for small jobs. I still can have my 60W iron in there but this one can work from powerbank, which is very useful. I worked once on some server PCBs in server room where just wasn't any power outlet left. It does good job for smaller components, and with chips or bigger things, heat station is better bet. Tips wear out pretty quickly but this just isn't something you use that much.
Well for small components and USB, why not a TS80?
Delivered from China for less than 30% of the price of a Metcal tip. Mindblowing. Not sure if I'd ever need one but can't resist buying one.
Modified mine to work with an onboard 18650 and used it to solder my car alarm in. Works reaaaallly well and is one of my favorite irons. Initially modified it because I hate proprietary connectors that turn USB into a stupid headphone jack or the like. Anything I get like that instantly gets ripped apart and has a micro female port butchered on. Also stuck a charge controller on it so now I can plug it into any USB socket and have it charge, and then solder cordlessly.
A surprising find and looks like it could be really handy for quick, light jobs in the field.
I got mine today, but in 2016 a huge description of this soldering device. Useful one video 🎉Thank you!
mine arrived earlier this week and I also unscrewed the cap and wondered why it wouldn't work for a minute!..a handy tool for next to no money!
I'm amazed as you are that it actually manages to function, but I'll be sticking to my Portasol butane-powered iron for mobile work.
Oh so mains voltage present at the tip due to capacitive coupling explains why my Hakko FX-951 and other decent transformer based soldering stations have the tip connected to mains ground?
To bleed off the capacitive build up of mains voltage at the tip before it builds to a dangerous level for components?
I find it very funny that this was the next video after a video in which mikeselectricstuff said, word for word, "If you see someone trying to sell a 5V soldering iron, laugh at them"
When I started to teach myself electronics the 555 timer chip was one I started with it is a really neat chip to play around with but I never would have thought of it in this manner - really cool - Thanks Clive for sharing- two thumbs up !!!
Just got mine, BT-8U slightly different toggle switch on body and a 3.5 mono jack to USB cable. It is very light and feels like the weight of a biro and is very comfortable in hand and there is no fight with the power cable. It's actually enjoyable working with it.
First Job I gave it was resoldering a microusb socket on to a board on a battery bank of course the wires from the battery to the board broke off so I had to do those wires as well. The pins on usb micro B are about 0.4 mm wide and quite tightly spaced, so having a tip fine enough for my shaky hands to do the job was ideal. I had to use a magnifying glass on my third hand in order to focus on where i was placing the tip. I would have destroyed the board with my regular iron.
It's very quick to heat up and cool down and being able to switch the power off I was able to melt the solder on the board for a hole and power off and spin the tip in the hole making reattaching the battery cables much easier. Jobs done and the PCB didn't get overheated.
Cost me 12 euro to repair a powerbank that cost me 10 (Amazon charge 21.47 sterling for this 10,800mah juicebank out of stock). So still a win for me. If I hadn't been able to fix the connector I would probably modded the powerbank with a couple of wires to charge from an old powerbank. Thanks Clive for the review it was worth it even with the mark up to get it from Dublin instead of China :)
There is an interesting russian video ua-cam.com/video/XdJavqX-90U/v-deo.html where he modified the circuit so it has a variable duty cycle and thus some temperature control. It might be nice to revisit the subject.
Clive, you should try out the TS100 soldering iron if you're looking for something that can be powered from a DC supply directly.
My mate has one of these irons and it didn't seem too clever running from usb so we cut off the usb plug and wired it into an old pc power supply that he uses as a bench supply. The iron is absolutely brilliant now and is used more than his "propper" iron :)
8:15 damn waste of a joint then.
The same product is sold at Jaycar Electronics in Australia. All 5 soldering irons on the shelf were visibly opened and returned because the previous customers assumed they were broken. It turns out I'm not the only one that twisted off the plastic cap...
I was wondering why my iron wouldn't heat up. Thanks for letting us know about the whole cap situation.
I bought one of these a while ago and like you did at first, I unscrewed the cap to remove it, and the thing completely failed to work, so I complained and was given a refund. I later bought another one, which arrived today and I watched your video and realised my mistake. Now, I feel guilty about that refund...
Hi, I also powered this from a USB output on a extension cord. I wanted to try finishing some wood PLA print. The tip was glowing dark red. Wow. I will have to try with some power bank or batteries as I only need 200C.
should have tested the temp
+camtheham13 On the 191 tip thermometer the mass of the test point instantly pulled the temperature down to about 250C but it then built up to 430C when it was held on. So imparting bursts of high temperature into the solder joints.
mine easily reaches 900°C (on the hakko 191) if i keep retriggering. the temperature seems to be controlled by the trigger-time :D
hi clive! awesome channel, i love your videos.
recently i've bought one of theese usb soldering irons and i converter the 555 based circuit to run at about 2 hz 50% duty cicle and i removed the touch button and inserted instead a normal push button to force down the timing cap (so all time heater on). with this config the soldering iron is awesome!
bye ;)
Tesla4Ever could I ask, what switch did you use, did you glue it in or was there somewhere to solder it?
finally, a good youtuber that comes from the uk
Bought one a few months ago, love it for small patch jobs with a 5 dollar usb battery. 10 dollars for a workable portable soldering iron.
I was hesitant to buy this based on the Amazon reviews, but based on your tear-down I went ahead and picked it up. Like you I am surprised that it actually works very well. Thank you for the review, it is exactly what I needed for my project.
Hey, what a great little tool for the small stuff ! Its not like we all dont have several soldering irons but, its just a handy little tool !
The good performance is all due to the near perfect thermal coupling between the heater wire and the tip because those are one indivisible part.
I bought one of these for a laugh - as I guess most do - but I was very pleasantly surprised. It's perfect for more delicate soldering jobs - it's particularly excellent at soldering header pins onto Arduinos and Raspberry Pi's, runs happily off a powerbank I have and it's faster warming and cooling than my decent 'normal' quality iron. For that odd job every now and again I think it's excellent for the price. I wouldn't fancy using it with a mains charging brick mind!
But can you do one inch copper plumbing pipes?
I'm sold. Just placed my order for 2 of them on eBay.
Thanks for the great review!
+Gregory Thomas Me also.
+Gregory Thomas well said me also I'm getting me one of these
Wow. Truly surprising. I said no right away when you mentioned the wattage, but oh did you prove me wrong. I'm into buying this thing, as I usually do repair work outside my little workshop, so this could really come in handy.
Clive are you surprised how good it is it looks good to me just simple it works
That thin USB cable drops about 0.7v...changing the cable to a decent one would improve the power output and would probably reach the stated 8w.
I did some tests on some USB to micro USB cables, results were (per meter of cable) any where from 0.2v to 1.1v drop @1.5A
So the cable plays a big role here.
I've ordered a couple of these to play with. I'm hoping I can extend the 'on' time by customising the R/C on pins 6 & 7 of the 555. Greaat to see Julian Ilett giving one a go too. I bet sales are booming!
Just increasing the value of the electrolytic capacitor would be easiest. It's not a bad time though.
This is how impressed I was with the Radio Shack battery powered soldering iron. It really did heat up much faster and just generally seemed to work better than any of the mains pencil irons I had tried before. it doesn't work on really large stuff, especially when the batteries are running a little low, but it works for most of what I need it for. The only problem is the batteries don't last extremely long... I'm thinking about adding a DC jack to it.
i wonder if those soldering iron tips are still available to buy on ebay and how much. Excellent as usual, mister Clive.
This looks pretty convincing, I once had one that seemed to try an solder between two pieces of graphite, that was not very good at all and there was a measurable voltage between the 'probes'.
+The Backoffice the Cold Heat device was absolutely terrible. There's a reason it was being pushed by hard telemarketing.
+bigclivedotcom I gave CPC a bollocking over that and they sent me the gas soldering iron I have had in my kit for 7 years, so all's well that ends well! I think for teardown and automotive you really cannot beat the butane beasts! :)
Working with it no where near mains noise meant I was forever tapping it to keep it on. I bypassed it as others have done and now it just on all the time and brilliant.
Hello Clive I got mine from china today and the design is totally differents.
I will try to post some photo but is seems to be using a photomos. No fancy N555 or touch sensor, one push button ON/OFF.
USB 3.1 can actually supply 100W at 12V, iirc. But it still depends on the controller (for handshaking) and its power supply, of course.
I can't believe I haven't seen this video earlier! I have one of these soldering irons and I just love it.
It's very fast. seems to be hot enough in about six or seven seconds.
I have it in a little kit with a small 18650 power bank and it lasts a pretty good long time.
It really does work surprisingly well.
Clive, didn't you test a NICD battery powered iron a while back? This isn't a lot different except that the battery is on your belt or the table.
As for a 6W iron, back in the 1960s my father worked at Spectrol, and they used 6W 6V transformer-powered irons for all their work. He brought one home and we used it for decades for the majority of PCB work. Only rarely did I have to resort to a larger iron. That iron gave up the ghost some decades ago, but I was able to get an exact replacement, made by some English company as I recall. I used that up till about 10 years ago when I finally bought a Chinese combination solder/desolder/hot air gun soldering station. I still think the 6W things are great little irons. Weigh about half an ounce and the 4' of twisted pair cable is almost weightless too.
Just found this video after buying the exact iron, to see if you'd had a look at it, I use mine on with a decent EasyAcc power bank for pyrography, purely because I can burn outside instead of breathing in wood fumes from my Peter Child kit.
DC5525 Mini Portable 65W Programmable TS100 LCD Digital Electric Soldering Iron
Have you tried this one?
I've had one of these for ages, generally using it very happily, but I recently bought a "Hakko 191" soldering iron thermometer (I include quote marks, there, as it cost me less than £10 from AliExpress, and the top segment of the most-significant-digit of the LCD doesn't work, so I've no idea how accurate it is).
So I decided to see how hot this tiny little USB iron gets to. The 191's display instantly jumped to the mid-400s and climbed all the way to around 570°C! At one point, with a bit of wiggling of the tip, it actually displayed around 620°C! (Bearing in mind the Hakko 191's Type-K thermocouple is rated for 0-600°C use, so it actually took the thermocouple out of range!)
Clive, if your iron thermometer is a little more reliable than mine, could you give that a test? 600°C from USB, and onto components that aren't going to necessarily like that level of heat, is a bit terrifying!
That would certainly explain why I've so easily damaged a few PCBs with it in the past - both pulling smaller tracks straight off the board, and then even burning the board itself (I'd say FR4, but it was one of these odd white PCBs from China so it may well not be FR4).
It's definitely an impressive and very handy iron, and I've preferred it over various others I have which cost me much more money, but with great power comes great responsibility, I guess... (I now have a "HYLKKO 998D" soldering station with hot air gun, so the USB thing has been relegated to being a handy portable thing for working in/around the car or whatever)
The open air temperature does climb high, and I did test it on the 191 unit. It immediately sank the heat and then started climbing again. It just requires controlled use to avoid damaging PCBs.
Hi Clive...
I bought a couple of these after seeing your review. Can't find a source for spare elements/bits but at this price I can just buy a new one and have a handy USB lead for future projects. I use it with a power bank like the one you're using. It won't replace my trusty Antex but it's handy for a quick soldering job which I can do in less time it takes for the Antex to warm up! It's also half the price of an Antex tip.
I don't quite see the problem with the iron floating at line voltage. If the thing you are soldering on is not grounded you should be fine, right?
You don't have to apologize for your speech or for your lack of 100% understanding of the workings of the device the second you opened it. Those are the things a lot of us come here to watch.
I'm sold! Perfect for those quick fixes where you don't want to bring out the big soldering station.
I believe that 555 circuit is the same exact ones they use on vapes. Fundamentally, both products do the samething. I'd love to see one of these soldering irons that accepts an 18650 battery. Would be killer for portability.
I bought one like... eight years back (holy crap I feel old X3), made by a company called Mega Power. Worked awesome, learned to solder with it by replacing capacitors on a motherboard. Didn't last though because I didn't know how to take care of it. Bought another one recently, thing's been redesigned and is complete crap. Melts solder but just barely.
Super excited to find another one that works! :3
would you be able to just loop a wire around the metal screw on collar and ground it that way?
Should do a teardown of one of those cheap $8 adjustable soldering irons that look identical to the Hakko iron and takes the same tips.
Awesome Video, Schematic & Teardown Clive. Very Cool. I love these Irons & I've been using them for years now and they are fantastic I've had no issues using an Apple plug too. Keep up the great work. Nick.
Is there anything you can't do with a 555?
Yes, yes there is. A lot.
Get laid
The 100n on pin 5 (CV or Control Voltage) is just a decoupling cap (fitted when the pin is not used) and the 555 can be re-triggered. £3.50 post free, worth a look.
I've just figured out why I really enjoy listening to you ramble on about soldering....... It's because you pronounce it "SoLdering" and not "Soddering". Maybe I shouldn't get miffed when I hear it pronounced wrong, but I guess that could be classified as one of my "Bad" points. 🤷🤷🤷 So, Thumbs Up to You 👍👍👍
Clive, I seem to remember you reviewing a Cubot phone in a previous video? After seeing that I looked up the Cubot H1 and see it's capable of charging another phone from its internal battery. Do you think that this iron would work from the output of said phone with an OTG cable? I imagine the current draw would be too much, but it would be cool to be able to power it with something that's always in your pocket.
+Ben Jasper I wouldn't risk it. 1.5A is a lot of current.
Quite an intriguing little piece of kit, but I have a couple questions about it.
1: 95% of the soldering I would do is soldering motor leads on 130-size motors, micro-servo cables, stuff like that, in the name of turning static tank models into radio controlled ones. You reckon this iron is up to task?
2: I have an old 550w computer power supply that still works fine as a basic DC source. I pulled it from service because the ripple in it was too high for a computer, was causing a lot of BSOD issues, but the 5v rail on it still works a treat. Would using that to power this have the same AC pass-through that you get from the mains USB adapters used for charging phones and tablets? If so, I may very well just modify the cable from the iron, hardwire it into a 5v output of that PSU. IT unplugs at both ends as manufactured, so the iron itself wouldn't be hard wired.
+TestECull It would probably work fine. It's cheap enough to try out.
+TestECull
In a PC GND is connected to earth either through the case or within the powersupply. So you should be able to connect the ground of the output to PSU case and earth pin, if it isn't already.
Hey, I'm new to soldering and working with electrical circuit analysis. Where would you get those kits? They seem like a good way to practice soldering and understand how circuits work.