this post was submitted on 12 Sep 2024
440 points (96.2% liked)
Technology
58111 readers
5125 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related content.
- Be excellent to each another!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
Approved Bots
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Build a 18650 battery bank and plug in a pinecil or ts100. A solder iron with a 18650 would be heavy and uncomfortable for soldering.
I would accept a bit of an awkward balance for being self-contained.
You'd want more than one cell. You'd be pulling 23amps from a 4.2v 18650 to give the same 100w at 20v power as you get from a top usbpd power supply.
There are 18650s that do 30 amps for short bursts, but it would get as hot as the iron and be empty in 5 min
I would not want multiple cells for reasons of ergonomics and convenience.
I probably don't need 100W for most field soldering. 60 is plenty, and temperature-controlled soldering irons usually don't need to pull high current continuously. It would need 60W for maybe 10 seconds when powered on, and when heating something large. The rest of the time, it takes relatively little power to keep the tip hot.
What I'm describing is, of course not the right tool for production soldering. It's for field work.
I've got a Ts80p which is a qc3 usbc soldering iron for that. It's crazy powerful for it's size and runs off a pretty small anker powerbank. You could slide that into your sleeve to go portable and one handed
That's similar to the iFixit iron, as is the less expensive Pinecil.
Those are probably the best options currently available, but I want something more compact and self-contained.
If you need to not have a cable, the butane ones would be a better fit.
Having used a butane iron before, I don't think it would. They don't have the temperature control modern digital irons can, and they're forbidden on flights.