Recommendation request: What is a good minimalist soldering iron setup for flashlight mods? (ANSWERED: Pinecil v2) - eviltoast

There are some great posts by experienced modders here. I’m not one, but I want to start making simple modifications beyond swapping reflectors. For example, swapping out a 5a linear driver for a 5a buck in a Convoy S6.

For a simple job like unsoldering two wires then soldering them, is there a small usb or battery-powered iron that would do the job without spending too much on the initial investment?

Any input is appreciated!

    • Adair21@lemmy.worldM
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      1 year ago

      I’ll second this. The Pinecil is probably the best bang for your buck that you’re gonna get. Just be sure to grab some of the larger tips, especially the conical tips like the bc2 and c4

      • Reader9@programming.devOP
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        1 year ago

        I appreciate it! This looks like the one. Just going to look into the UI first but presumably I will only need to set a temperature or two and turn on and off, simple enough.

    • Reader9@programming.devOP
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      1 year ago

      Thank you for the great rec! Will check each of these out. Looks like the Pinecil runs something that might be (at first glance) the soldering iron counterpart to Anduril: IronOS.

    • Reader9@programming.devOP
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      1 year ago

      Thank you! I’ll also look into Weller’s product line for reference.

      The “smart” aspect of the pinecil gives me a slight pause as I wouldn’t need it at the moment, but I suppose that just like in flashlights with Anduril I could simply ignore the advanced features.

      Edit: indeed, from IronOS

      the TL;DR is to press the button near the front of the iron to heat up

      • swm5126@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        The Weller I have is a WES50, probably a newer model out that’s similar. I don’t think they make it anymore. But I bought it 15 years ago and it’s still working great!