After years of making screwdrivers and teaching people to repair electronics, we just made our first electronic tool. It's been a journey for us to build while hewing to our repairable principles. We're really excited about it.
It's a USB-C powered soldering iron and smart battery power hub. Super repairable, of course. Our goal is to make soldering so easy everyone can do it: https://www.ifixit.com/fixhub
We didn’t want to make just another iron, so we spent years sweating the details and crafting something that met our exacting standards. This is a high-performance iron: it can output 100W of heat, gets to soldering temperature in under 5 seconds, and automatically cools off when you set it down. The accelerometer detects when you pick it up and heats it back up. Keeping the iron at a lower temperature while you’re not soldering shouold prolong the life of the tip.
What’s the difference between this iron and other USB-C irons on the market? Here’s a quick list:
Higher power (our Smart Iron is 100W, competitors max out at 60W over USB-C, 88W over DC Supply)
Heat-resistant storage cap (you just have to try this out, it’s a real game changer in day-to-day use) Polished user experience
A warranty and a local company to talk to (I can’t find any contact information for Miniware)
Comfier / more natural grip
Shorter soldering tip length
No-tangle, heat-resistant cable
Locking ring on the cable, so it can’t snag and get disconnected (this happens to me all the time on other irons)
More intuitive settings, either on the Power Station or on the computer
We used [Web Serial](https://caniuse.com/web-serial) for the interface, which is only supported in Chromium browsers. The biggest bummer with that is that no mobile browsers support it, yet. Hopefully that changes soon.
Hardware is hard! It's been a journey for us. Happy to answer any questions about how we made it.
Schematics and repair information are online here: https://www.ifixit.com/Device/FixHub_Portable_Soldering_Stat...
Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41521919
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# Comments: 50
https://hackaday.com/2024/09/12/review-ifixits-fixhub-may-be-the-last-soldering-iron-you-ever-buy/
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