USB Soldering Iron: #Teardown and Reverse-Engineer Schematic
USB soldering pens have always been something of an anomaly to me. I have two and they’re not only impressive, they’re sometimes more reliable (for their portability) than my Weller units. In this teardown video by bigclive he not only examines the PCB powering his USB pen, but he reverse-engineers the schematic and explains it – and yes, (spoiler!) that’s a 555 at the heart of this circuit!
When I bought this I was very sceptical that anything powered from a USB port could actually produce enough heat to solder. But here it is, tested and reverse engineered for your viewing pleasure.
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I went ahead and ordered one. Should be perfect for when I’m out with friends at our hobby spaces. That leaves me with two questions is that regular solder you are using or a lower melting one that might of come with the usb soldering iron. And the RGB Controller is it for a bigger project 🙂
I don’t have this exact iron but I have had to use a portable iron in strange places; like to rewire some electronics installed on a ceiling, about 14-16′ off the ground – not easy to get a traditional iron up there! I forget what I used but it was probably 60/40.
I went ahead and ordered one. Should be perfect for when I’m out with friends at our hobby spaces. That leaves me with two questions is that regular solder you are using or a lower melting one that might of come with the usb soldering iron. And the RGB Controller is it for a bigger project 🙂
I don’t have this exact iron but I have had to use a portable iron in strange places; like to rewire some electronics installed on a ceiling, about 14-16′ off the ground – not easy to get a traditional iron up there! I forget what I used but it was probably 60/40.