PINECIL – Smart Mini Portable Soldering Iron, Small

I love this little soldering pen. I bought it first because I wanted to see if it actually got hot as fast as I saw online.**spoilers** It doesNow that I've tested it, it will become an actual tool in my kit and not just a curiosity. It gets hot fast and powering it from a battery works perfectly. The tip seems to be pretty lightly seated and I'm not sure if that's typical or if it should lock in tighter, but I'll just go with it for now unless I find out otherwise.

Rarely review but this is worth it. I have many soldering irons they all have the annoyance of a stiff cord. I bought a silicone cord and this is great. It is a little fragile around the tip end and mine broke after a year or so but I put epoxy on it and good to go again. For electronics work this is my go to iron. I'll certainly buy it again. Thingiverse has some nice cases to go with it.

The Pinecil 2.0 is even better than the original, and will hopefully last longer without meeting the same fate as the one I purchased previously wich now has a completely broken plastic shell thanks to an overtightened screw.It heats up quickly, maintains temp well as long as you use a suitable power supply, and has all the bells and whistles you could ever want from a soldering iron.

Works way better than expected. Heats up fast and being able to have so many options on a $40 solder gun is great! Very easy to use and the tip is versatile. Only complaint is after market tips are $$$.

*Image caption: If you’re looking at this image and thinking “this guy should be a professional product photographer”… first off, you’re too kind and second, I was thinking the exact same thing.*If you’re choosing between the TS101 and the Pinecil then I’ll make this review short, get the Pinecil.Because other reviewers aren’t as thoughtful as I am, I didn’t have the luxury of knowing the above so I bought both. I first unboxed and plugged-in the TS101 and right away the iron started heating up ridiculously fast. As I fumbled around trying to turn it off I was then thoroughly confused by the menu system, so much so that I ended up going into “boost” mode which made it even hotter. This rough start was not at all surprising considering most Chinese products have horribly confusing software even if the hardware is insanely good. So I did some research and found out that most soldering hobbiests prefer IronOS which is an open-source OS that is (if you haven’t guessed) specifically for smart soldering irons. It turns out that the TS101 can be flashed with IronOS so I thought perfect let’s do that. Which brings me to my final reason for convincing you to go with the Pinecil - depending on your computer, the OS you’re running, the cable you’re using, whether your TS101 is authentic or not, and which year it was manufactured.. you may not be able to flash it or even upgrade the firmware. There’s numerous posts online about this, so much so that I believe the TS101 is no longer recommended by those who developed IronOS. If you are lucky and all the stars in China align for you then you may be fortunate enough to install ironOS on your TS101, I was not. So I put the TS101 away and grabbed the Pinecil.The pinecil V2 (identified by the green grip) already has IronOS pre-installed on it so we’re already off to a much better start. After plugging it in for the first time the Pinecil did not rapidly start heating, instead it presents you with a very thoughtful and easy to navigate menu complete with animated icons and scrolling text describing what each menu item does. In the time it took me to fumble around with the TS101 and unsuccessfully try to turn it off, I was already changing my Pinecil’s settings to my liking and learning about all the many features it has to offer that the TS does not (or perhaps weren’t explained in its horrible menu). Outside of the menu, the Pinecil supports up to 88W OOTB compared to the TS101’s 65W. Supposedly the TS101 can support higher wattages with the latest firmware, but since it may be impossible for you to update said firmware let’s just assume it doesn’t.Lastly, the Pinecil comes with a newer style Pine designed soldering tip (6.2ohms) compared the the longer TS-style tip (8 ohms), but it supports both. The benefit of the short tip (ST line) on the Pinecil (other than the lower electrical resistance and improved ergonomics) is that the thermocouple is closer to the end of the tip itself which provides more accurate temp readings.In conclusion, get the Pinecil V2. If for some reason you’re still considering the TS101 at this point then make sure you get an authentic Miniware and not one of the clones Amazon also carries like Uy Chan. You might have a better chance of flashing the firmware on an authentic but even that is a gamble.

Heats up fast and is perfect if you want a small iron that still works efficiently. Only complaint is that the usb-c port could have a little bit for depth because most supplies don't push all the way in so it has a little bit of wiggle room. If it pushed all the way in it'd probably be 5 stars, barrel port works perfect though. Other than that it works fast and the sleep feature on it is pretty nice to have if you ever need to walk away for a bit. Good for any hobby soldering and haven't ran into issues from it having a smaller tip than most irons.

For its price, this soldering iron is actually pretty decent, you plug it in with a usb cable with a 60w+ power brick then turn it on and it heats up in about 5-10 secs or so to 750f/400c. I do recommend buying some other tips as the conical tip is not that great. For a beginner/hobbyist this would be a good iron that is pretty portable and easy to store away when not using. It does a good job with the right tips tinning pads, wicking up solder, and soldering/desoldering SMD components to boards! I am used to using a hakko fx-951 station, but I would probably use this iron when I am not doing long sessions of soldering.

Game changer, this is the best iron I've ever owned! I use it very much with my powerbank for portable soldering and even at home soldering