https://www.miniware.com.cn/product/ts101-smart-soldering-iron/

Are you curious about the production methods of soldering irons?
This video shows the whole production process of SQ-001 soldering iron.

Is a $5 8W USB soldering iron actually useful?

Viewer comments:

I was floored how well this worked. Not great by ANY evaluation- but better than a paperclip and lighter in the bush- Hells yes it is.

I own one of these. It has potential, but is let down by a couple issues.

1. The tip runs EXTREMELY hot, 600-700C. I can forgive them for this though, it kinda has to.

2. The USB lead is crap, would like to see it have a mini USB cable so I can use my own beefy lead on it.

2. The touch button is very irritating. Its neat, but irritating.

3. The 15 second timeout is also a bit irritating, but I get why they did it. IIRC they actually used a 555 for it instead of a micro, which could have done an always half power with full power on touch sort of thing.

That said, there are some handy features:

1. Its cheap as hell

2. Heats up bloody quickly

3. You can run it off almost anything. Even my phone’s OTG can run it. In fact, all my electronics can, most are happy supplying 10w before they cut off.

I’ve used it to do quick repairs on stuff in my bedroom, like a fan on my 3D printer.

While not the best tool ever, most people might have a use from time to time, and its cheap, might as well.

A look inside a portable soldering iron that uses a vapour style power supply.

After it was suggested, I bought one of these hybrid units that are based on the USB style soldering elements and common vapour power supplies. If you already carry a vapour power supply then it means that all you need for spontaneous soldering is one of the tubes with a single bit in it and some solder spiralled around it.

The unit heats very quickly and is quite handy for spontaneous wire removal from PCBs. That’s why it appeared on my bench during another video.

To operate it you have to cycle the power button to keep it awake, and adjust the cycle time for thermal regulation based on feel. It’s very easy to overheat the tip.

The unit has a lock which can either be enabled or disabled with 5 quick presses of the button. This makes it less likely to be turned on accidentally in a tool kit or pocket.

I’d like to thank John Harrison for sending me a link to these on Aliexpress. I’ve not had much luck getting stuff sent from AE to the Isle of Man so I checked for them on eBay and found that HMRC (UK tax) was blocking some Chinese sellers from shipping to the UK.
I finally found some sellers shipping to the UK so I bought a couple from different sellers to be on the safe side.
They both arrived together, and here’s a demo and a teardown.

If you enjoy these videos you can help support the channel with a dollar for coffee, cookies and random gadgets for disassembly at:-
http://www.bigclive.com/coffee.htm
This also keeps the channel independent of YouTube’s advertising algorithms allowing it to be a bit more dangerous and naughty.

It’s a bit more expensive at nearly £20. Be interesting to see how it does with some 1000uf capacitors in an LED TT V PSU!

https://uk.farnell.com/duratool/d01840/soldering-station-10w-230vac/dp/2542910

Is a $5 8W USB soldering iron actually useful?

Comments:

iamdarkyoshi
6 days ago (edited)
I own one of these. It has potential, but is let down by a couple issues.

1. The tip runs EXTREMELY hot, 600-700C. I can forgive them for this though, it kinda has to.

2. The USB lead is crap, would like to see it have a mini USB cable so I can use my own beefy lead on it.

2. The touch button is very irritating. Its neat, but irritating.

3. The 15 second timeout is also a bit irritating, but I get why they did it. IIRC they actually used a 555 for it instead of a micro, which could have done an always half power with full power on touch sort of thing.

That said, there are some handy features:

1. Its cheap as hell

2. Heats up bloody quickly

3. You can run it off almost anything. Even my phone’s OTG can run it. In fact, all my electronics can, most are happy supplying 10w before they cut off.

Boffin
6 days ago
New Dave rating: “It doesn’t suck as much as I expected”