The Pinecil is a smart mini portable soldering iron with a 32-bit RISC-V SoC featuring a sleek design, auto standby and it heats up to an operating temperature in just 12 seconds! Siglo also received a few updates and released version 0.9.9 at the beginning of this month. In contrast, InfiniLink, the iOS companion app for InfiniTime, is still looking for a maintainer. Xan-m, the original author, announced a while ago that they would not be able to maintain the project and that they would transfer the project to anyone interested to take over it. In the meantime, the Github project was transferred to the InfiniTime organization on Github. We also plan on transferring the app to an Apple developer account managed by Pine64 to ensure that the app will be available on the app store when Xan-m’s account expires. The Pinecil V2 is a natural follow on from the first version, still using a RISC-V processor, but adding noticeable upgrades to the hardware. Key changes from version one: You can observe the temperature measurement go up and down. Certain settings involve holding down both buttons (see GitHub IronOS for details on firmware settings).

Pinecil V2 soldering iron gets BL706 Bluetooth LE RISC-V MCU Pinecil V2 soldering iron gets BL706 Bluetooth LE RISC-V MCU

I’m normally not too hard on my tips, but if I need to desolder a stubborn part once in awhile it’s OK to sacrifice a tip that costs ten cents, but not a tip that costs ten dollars.

As a side note, Pine64 is also working on the Star64 RISC-V SBC based on StarFive JH7110 quad-core RISC-V processor with Imagination IMG BXE-4-32 GPU, and I’d expect the first samples and more details to come out next month. For certain QC adapters, lowering the PD timeout value to 15 could help, and most PD adapters will also still work using 15. If a PD charger does not work at 15, then increase the timeout (PD default is 20 = 20x 100ms = 2 seconds). The grip on the Pinecil is good – the rubberized plastic shroud prevents slip – but the TS101’s textured grip and button placement just feels better. The Miniware TS101 is a great iron and we enjoyed using it and it will do 99% of the tasks that a maker requires. Need troubleshooting advice for the PINE64 Pinecil soldering iron? Join through one of the community chat links below. Hint: only if you change to a different size battery do you need to alter this. If you only ever switch between a USB-C charger and the tool battery, you could just leave the 5S/3.3V setting. Overdrain means using the battery past the point where you can charge it again. Many tool batteries have internal protection to prevents this, but some brands don't have it (unfortunately, unlike most brands, Dewalt puts it into the tool & not the battery). Setting it in Pinecil is an extra safety setting in case you are not sure and want to preserve batteries.

Pinecil Smart Portable Soldering Iron – KEEBD Pinecil Smart Portable Soldering Iron – KEEBD

Supply power: the USB-C port, connected to any supply, is enough power to show the display screen, but not necessarily enough to heat the tip. In the V2 handle's side label, the 88W figure comes from a 6.5ohm tip calculation. The reason for using 6.5 instead of 6.2 for the new short tips calculation is due to tolerance during manufacturing, and leaving a conservative margin of error (actual tips appear to be 6.2 ohms). V2 set max voltage is listed as 24V because this was the value used during design and component selection. Get a Power Wheels Adapter like this for Ryobi, then splice/connect it to a DC5525 Pigtail to complete connection to Pinecil.

QuartzPro64 & Quartz64 

We tested Pinecil V2 with a simple flashing LED project kit. We used the supplied conical short tip and connected the iron to a PinePower desktop power supply with a USB C port capable of delivering 65 Watts. Pinecil V2 made short work of the kit, the lead solder melted perfectly, with peaks that connected the PCB to the component. There were no cold solder joints (where the solder doesn’t bridge between the PCB and component) and our LEDs flashed happily.

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Use the video linked to make sure the DC barrel charger is Center Positive before plugging it into Pinecil. Several users have accidentally plugged incorrect center-negative chargers into Pinecil which immediately breaks it because it is the wrong type of charger (this is sometimes repairable, see live community chat). For 90% of the projects Pinecil will be used for, it will sail through with no issue, but where it could struggle are boards that soak heat via large ground plains or multi-layer boards with huge amounts of copper. PC motherboards are notorious for soaking every last degree of heat from a soldering iron, trust us, we’ve tried to desolder a capacitor from an early 2000s Asus motherboard and it required a heat gun and a soldering iron. We tested the power of Pinecil V2 by trying to desolder the alignment tabs of a USB 2.0 port on a dead Raspberry Pi 3. Our normal soldering temperature of 350 degrees Celsius didn’t work, even flowing fresh lead solder did nothing. We bumped the temperature up to 400 degrees Celsius and repeated the steps. It worked! Taking the iron to 450 degrees Celsius produced better results, with less time stressing the components, reducing the risk of damaging the PCB. A RISC-V CPU in a Soldering Iron? Gently tighten or loosen this screw to install or swap the tip. (careful, tiny screws break easy, if tip does not fall out, it's tight enough)InfiniTime is an open source project. It means that the code is publicly available and that anyone is free to do whatever they want with it as long as they comply with the license of the project ( GPLv3). Therefore a lot of people contribute to the project by creating pull-requests and asking the core-developers to review and merge their contributions into the original project. Must use a 5.5mm x 2.5 mm DC barrel Plug. Forcing an an incorrect size, i.e., DC 5521 will break the connector as seen here (if it doesn't go in, it doesn't fit).