You do realize that the ifixit solderimg iron also has firmware and that you need to connect it to a computer or their very expensive battery pack to adjust its settings, right?
Firmware was always there in a soldering iron more sophisticated than an old, dumb Radio Shack wall plug iron. That’s how you get good temperature control. Pinecil is just letting you modify it officially.
I’m pretty sure you meant this as a joke, and I laughed at the thought of someone making something as stupid as an app for a soldering iron. But then I thought I’d check. Ugh.
Owner of 2 pinecils here, there are buttons and a display that shows the current temperature and other stuff. I only just learned that there’s an app, it works more than fine on its own, out of the box.
I got that specific iron because I needed to power it from 12v, and it works very well on the USB PD power supply I already have for my laptop.
having to do a firmware update on my soldering iron
You don’t. It works perfectly fine OOTB. Can’t speak for the Pinecil v2 with Bluetooth and the companion app but I have v1 and the software been stable and bug-free enough I’ve never even given a thought to updating the firmware on it
What a sentence. I really don’t like the idea of having to do a firmware update on my soldering iron.
Does it have Bluetooth and a companion app as well?
You do realize that the ifixit solderimg iron also has firmware and that you need to connect it to a computer or their very expensive battery pack to adjust its settings, right?
Yep. I don’t think I’ll be buying one of those, either.
Firmware was always there in a soldering iron more sophisticated than an old, dumb Radio Shack wall plug iron. That’s how you get good temperature control. Pinecil is just letting you modify it officially.
I’m pretty sure you meant this as a joke, and I laughed at the thought of someone making something as stupid as an app for a soldering iron. But then I thought I’d check. Ugh.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=dev.eduardom.ironos_companion
Oh, I was dead serious. You can get battery drills that come with a fucking app now, I’m not surprised at all it’s the same with solder irons.
Power and temp up and down is just too simple, I guess.
Owner of 2 pinecils here, there are buttons and a display that shows the current temperature and other stuff. I only just learned that there’s an app, it works more than fine on its own, out of the box.
I got that specific iron because I needed to power it from 12v, and it works very well on the USB PD power supply I already have for my laptop.
That’s good to know. I’d quite like to have a soldering iron that I can run from an 18v power tool battery actually.
https://wiki.pine64.org/wiki/Pinecil_Power_Supplies#Tool_Batteries_18V-21V
You don’t. It works perfectly fine OOTB. Can’t speak for the Pinecil v2 with Bluetooth and the companion app but I have v1 and the software been stable and bug-free enough I’ve never even given a thought to updating the firmware on it