928 points by kwiens 533 days ago | 405 comments on HN
| Moderate positive Editorial · v3.7· 2026-02-28 09:19:49
Summary Right to Repair & Technical Access Champions
This product review celebrates iFixit's FixHub soldering system for its emphasis on user repairability, technical transparency, and community participation in firmware development. The article advocates for design principles aligned with human rights including property rights (Article 17), freedom of information (Article 19), and scientific progress (Article 27), positioning consumer-controlled, modular, and well-documented hardware as ethically superior to proprietary alternatives.
Unfortunate that they didn't make it compatible with genuine Hakko or JBC tips like many of the no-name knock-off soldering stations are, but I suppose being based in the US they might be wary of violating the design patents of those companies.
Anyway it's good to have an option that's cheaper than the big names but presumably built to a higher standard than an AliExpress special, and has an actual warranty and safety certifications.
I hear https://github.com/google/web-serial-polyfill gets used a fair amount on Android devices, so that might be one road you could go down. Additionally, I can't imagine it would be that hard would it be to build a mobile app that could provide a WebSerial interface to a friendly webview of your choosing. You'd need the user to download an app, but then you could use the same code for both web and app versions.
Well done! I'm mostly a TS100 user, so I'm looking at it from that angle.
Why no boost button (unless I missed it)? That's the one on-iron UI feature I'd be missing - very useful for GND planes. I'm guessing its not a matter of rated power, but just the thermal resistance from the physical size of the tip which restricts heat entering into a heavily-heatsinked joint. Helpful to increase the iron temperature momentarily for such cases. Then again, I can't see heat transfer - happy to be told I'm wrong.
Is this your own tip design or is it the same as the TS80? Can't speak to the TS80 but I've found the TS100 tip quality to be somewhat lacking (I've had tips plainly break off before).
I paid ~$100 for my Hakko FX888D, and have had had that for almost 10 years. Looking on the Internet, the price hasn't gone up much. Not sure whether this (for $250 including the power supply) is a class above that. The repairability is a definite plus (assuming parts continue to be available for many years), and all the nerdy features are also cool, but not sure how useful they will be in the real world.
> The accelerometer detects when you pick it up and heats it back up.
I don't want this. I would rather push a button and wait for a light to turn on. Automatic off, fine, I guess, though I don't love it and would never want to rely on it. Automatic on, no way.
The 100w and heat resistant storage caps are nice, but that battery pack pricing and the lack of on-device controls makes this not an option for me.
$110 cad for the soldering iron is semi-reasonable, if a bit high compared to their competitors. $342 for the iron + battery means that's a $230 battery pack, which is absolutely insane.
Requiring the battery pack to be able to easily change controls means anyone doing more than super basic work, needs the $342 combo.
If you feel like $80 is too much, I recently bought $6 temperature regulated soldering iron (model 908S) on AliExpress and it has no problem soldering even LQFP-48 or MSOP-10 packages.
Soldering is one of those things where the tools you use have a direct impact on the quality and enjoyment of the work. Shitty $20 soldering irons from Home Depot not only produce awful results but they are incredibly frustrating. I’m pretty sure most people who think they suck at soldering and hate it only feel that way because their tool sucks. A good quality soldering iron and high quality, thin solder make a huge, huge difference in output.
If your experience with soldering is one of those cheap flimsy $30 dollar things from Amazon paired with fat, chunky solder… yeah you will hate soldering and you’ll never get even remotely good results. You don’t need to spend $500 dollar or anything but something like what is in this post and a $40 roll of thin gauge solder (which will last the rest of your life) will make soldering actually fun and enjoyable.
…I should also mention a solid, heavy parts holder factors into this as well.
* 5 secs to temp.
* Heat resistant, vented cap.
* User can change auto idle and sleep times.
Minus
* Need iFixit power station or computer to change temp and other settings.
* No temp indicator on the iron. No mention if the LED indicates it's reached set temp.
I'd love to keep a small, lightweight, high-quality portable iron in my tool bag ready for quick repairs. It needs to heat fast and be instantly capped and tossed back in the tool bag without waiting for cool down. However, I don't want to carry the iFixit power bank in my small tool bag. Yet without it, I'd need to pull out a laptop to change temp. And I do need to change temp enough for that to be annoying. Especially when there USB irons which have temp readouts and controls on the device. While cheap, those irons generally don't get to temp in 5 secs, have a well-thought out heat resistant cap and aren't high-quality.
This is a really beautiful system. The pen-cap style cover is great. The Lamy Safari style cap clip that uses the lugs on the battery to become the holder is inspired. (see 0 for better view than the linked article's picture)
If this was available back when I got a Pinecil and PowerWheels Ryobi adapter [1], I would have been severely tempted to spend 400% more.
This looks cool, and I'd buy one if I needed one... but I already have a full-sized soldering station and a Pinecil.
The station has a hot air gun and a solder vacuum, so it's far more suitable for use on the bench due to those capabilities.
The Pinecil plugs into the Anker power bank that I carry with me everywhere anyhow, and runs basically forever on it. The UI took a day or so to get used to, but it's simple and straightforward enough for field use. I've even used it for bigger jobs on trucks and tractors in the past, and it didn't miss a beat.
Any plans to make a hot tweezer tip for this? It's hard to come by those for a reasonable price and that would be very appealing since I've often found myself needing to desolder surface-mount components.
I was initially skeptical about the cap vs. a traditional stand until I saw that it mounts to the side of the battery pack to double as a stand. I like that idea!
Also, is there documentation on the serial protocol used in case someone wanted to write a temperature control program that didn't rely on a webapp?
As a gamecube controller modder who uses a TS101 on the go, the handle isn't such a bad deal. I paid the same price for the TS101 bundled with a barrel jack power supply that I never use. The short tip-to-grip distance seems nice, and the higher power is good.
But the full station price is kind of outrageous. I got my Thermaltronics TMT-2000S for less, and that's a monster. But then again, I don't have to use their battery, I can use my $70 Ugreen one.
My one concern about the cap is: I worry that someone with bad depth perception will poke their hand with a hot iron when trying to cap it...
I have been a huge advocate of the pinecil and haven't used anything else in years. It's just so easy to grab my pinecil and temporarily use my laptop's power supply for the iron, or use a mobile battery, instead of moving myself and the things I am working on to the location of my soldering station. These look like upgrades compared to pinecil:
- comfier grip
- shorter tip length and presumably a more solid feel (the pinecil's mechanical interface to the tip is pretty loose-feeling)
- higher power over usb-c (actually can't think of a time I've needed more than 60W for hobby stuff, but I can imagine use cases like large ground planes)
- storage cap (this is a major improvement for working in a temporary, tight space)
All of these would be worth the price increase over pinecil, but unfortunately I think the lack of on-iron temperature settings is a dealbreaker. The pinecil in my toolbag is practically the size of a sharpie and works with my existing usb-c cables and batteries with no extra space taken up, and the killer feature (portability) is broken once you need a proprietary battery or a laptop to change temperature.
Yeah, boost button was a huge step up when I got my TS100 and now I can't imagine ever buying a new iron without it.
Plus, not having the ability to quickly tune temperature settings on the iron itself seems like a step back as well.
I'd be happy to be proven wrong on these, as iFixit's screwdriver sets were one of those things I needed to use to understand the hype (and then promptly bought my own set), so maybe this is another case of subtle quality you have to see for yourself?
We'll have a range of tips. Hitting the high performance we wanted, with 100 Watt output in a small iron, required really optimizing the entire system. The heating element and temperature sensor are in the tip itself.
We really see JBC as our competition here. Performance and responsiveness should be comparable or better, at a fraction of the price.
It's our own design, although clearly inspired by those who came before.
I'm really happy with their quality, but you'll have to judge that for yourself.
We're handling the boosting automatically in software. When the iron detects that it's under load, it maxxes out the power to the tip. It's incredibly responsive.
You're right, where you want that is with high thermal mass objects like ground planes. The difficult part is getting enough of a thermal bridge onto the material to really let the iron rip. It can dump a lot of power into a joint.
The FX888 is an older style iron where the tip and heating element are separate components, the newer generation (such as this iFixit one) have the tip, heater and temperature sensor integrated as a single component which allows them to regulate the tip temperature much faster and more accurately. Hakko does make irons of that type now but they're very expensive, up in the $500 range.
Another benefit of the newer style irons is the tip can usually be hot-swapped (literally while it's still hot) without having to unscrew anything, you just need something insulating to pull the tip out with.
It will almost certainly be a class up, if only because it uses integrated tips that combine heating element, temperature sensor, and tip itself into a single element, rather than having thermally bulky and inefficient interfaces like the FX888d's replaceable separate tips. So you get faster heating and more accurate temperature control.
But there's the rub: there are a TON of USB-C irons that use integrated tips, and most are cheaper than this new iFixit iron, so you can get that class improvement for the same price as your Hakko station, so I'm curious if their improvements are a big enough step up from _those_ irons to justify the price.
>The star of the show is, of course, the Smart Soldering Iron. It’s a 100 watt iron that comes up to operating temperature in under five seconds and can work with any suitably beefy USB-C Power Delivery source. The size and general proportions of the iron are very close to the Pinecil V2, though the grip is larger and considerably more comfortable to hold. The biggest difference between the two however is the absence of a display or configuration buttons. According to iFixit, most users don’t change their settings enough to justify putting the interface on the iron itself. That doesn’t mean you can’t tweak the iron’s settings when used in this stand-alone configuration, but we’ll get back to that in a minute.
Oh interesting, I'll have to try that polyfill - I've been using web serial for all my projects lately because I hate users having to install anything, but Android has been an annoying gap.
Once you set the temperature, the iron remembers it and you can use any power source.
We've spent a lot of time talking to engineers and makers who solder all day, and it turns out that most people rarely change the temperature. Pick a temperature you like and leave it there.
Our heating algorithm detects and dynamically responds to load, so you don't need to turn the temperature up for larger thermal masses: it'll add as many joules as required to get it to temperature.
For tools that you use regularly, it is sometimes worth it to take a step back, put the cost into an absolute perspective and then just get the thing if you know that it's well-made and you use it regularly, instead of getting a cheapish, price-optimized knockoff instead (my experience).
I spent over 200$ on a glorified PCB holder and some probes (PCBite), which is in hindsight one of the most useful tools I own and still makes me happy every time I use it (even that alone is kinda worth it over time!).
I don't know your financial situation, but just consider: How much do you spend each month on meals/entertainment? Is $300 actually an inappropriate cost for a quality thing that you often need?
Note: Iron + station shows up as $250 to me, $350 is the set with some additional bits and bobs.
And yes, if it seems like mobile browsers don't plan to add support then we'll have to look at wrapping it in a native app.
I'm hopeful that smartphones will start supporting higher power output from their USB-C ports. The iPhone does 4.5W right now, which is (barely) enough to melt solder, but not enough to do anything with.
I do have a TS100 which I use either with a battery pack or a wall charger.
For storing it, I am using a metal casing that is used for a single cigar. There's also room for a tiny metal cleaning brush which protects the tip during storage. Given that all of this is metal and that the soldering iron doesn't have that much thermal capacity, I can pack it up while the tip is still hot and the casing will only get mildly warm, but not to the point where it'd cause damage.
The iron persists settings when you unplug it. You can change the sleep timer and timeout, set target temperatures, calibrate the accelerometer, and more.
The Power Station is nice to have, but you don't lose any functionality without it.
Weller uses TRS too. In my experience the connection is a little flaky, but I don’t know the provenance of the lab irons I’ve used; it wouldn’t surprise me if they’ve been abused.
You're correct that some soldering irons (especially uber-cheap ones) are shit, but Pinecil proves cheap can also be good. Past a certain point, soldering becomes a hobby about how dangerous you're willing to get to make things easier on yourself. You can swap out non-toxic solder for lead trace if you want a cleaner board; then there are high-wattage irons, board reflow/fluxing, and even all sorts of scale-specific hacks.
When you zoom out, I think home soldering is about as effective as it can reasonably get without fumigating your house.
Agreed. There's a place for open, smart tools. Some things want to have serial interfaces and sensors and so on, that will do a whole host of actions automatically.
Other times you just want the equivalent of a drill or toaster. Pull trigger, drill spins. Twist chuck or shift gearbox, it slips or changes speeds. Push toast down, it toasts, twist the dial if you want darker or lighter.
An on/off switch, a potentiometer or 7-segment and some buttons to set temp, and a nice, fast, powerful PID loop to control the temperature (with a 120V AC cable to make 100W all day not a problem) is all I want in a soldering iron. I have a combination soldering/hot air station that's almost 20 years old, it just always works.
Even compatibility with TS100/Pinecil V2 tips would be better. TS100 is meant to be open source, and the Pinecil V2 tips are just shorter with a different resistance.
I have something like this on a TS100 and it works fine. You set it down for a while because you're still soldering but you need to move stuff and it reduces the heat. Then you pick it back up and by the time you've gotten to part it's already back up the temp.
How is that worse than it just being full temp the whole time?
Article extensively advocates for the right to own and control property through detailed discussion of repairability, modularity, spare parts availability, and user modification rights. The entire review champions easy disassembly, modular design, and vendor commitment to supporting user repairs.
FW Ratio: 50%
Observable Facts
Review states: 'The iron and its base station are some of the most easily dissembled devices I've ever come across. No glue, weird tape, or hidden fasteners.'
Article documents iFixit's commitment: 'the company would be providing full schematics, teardown guides, and spare parts.'
Review notes: 'Tips...can be easily removed without tools' and 'iFixit says they plan on offering an array of styles and sizes of tips.'
Inferences
The extensive emphasis on repairability and parts availability reflects strong alignment with property rights principle that owners can modify and maintain their tools.
The detailed praise for elimination of anti-repair design elements (glue, hidden fasteners) indicates this right is central to the review's valuation.
The vendor's commitment to spare parts and documentation explicitly supports users' ability to exercise ownership rights.
+0.70
Article 19Freedom of Expression
High Advocacy Framing Coverage
Editorial
+0.70
SETL
+0.46
Article strongly advocates for freedom of information and expression through detailed discussion of open technical documentation, WebSerial interfaces, CLI access, and commitment to transparent product documentation. Multiple explicit discussions of information access as core value.
FW Ratio: 50%
Observable Facts
Review states: 'The WebSerial interface not only gives you access to all the same settings as plugging the iron into the Power Station does, but it also serves as the mechanism for updating the firmware.'
Article documents: 'The schematics especially — they're filled with all sorts of notes in the margins from the engineers.'
Review notes: 'there's also support for...traditional serial interface' and 'tab completion' for command-line access.
Inferences
The extensive emphasis on multiple information access methods (WebSerial, CLI, OLED) reflects strong commitment to freedom of information and technical transparency.
The detailed appreciation for annotated schematics indicates that open documentation is central to the review's valuation of the product.
The celebration of undocumented serial interface discovery suggests support for users' right to explore and understand their tools.
+0.60
Article 27Cultural Participation
High Advocacy Framing Coverage
Editorial
+0.60
SETL
+0.42
Article strongly advocates for scientific and technical progress through open design, community firmware development, and transparent documentation. Celebrates community innovation and technical creativity.
FW Ratio: 50%
Observable Facts
Review celebrates: 'There's a soldering iron running a community developed firmware' and expresses hope for 'what the community can come up given this level of control.'
Article documents: 'The Power Station has it's own...WebSerial interface' for community development of firmware and modifications.
Review notes: 'There was no mention of this terminal interface in any of the documentation...but thanks to the built-in help function and tab completion, I was able to make my way around.'
Inferences
The celebration of community firmware development reflects strong commitment to collective scientific progress.
Open command-line and serial access explicitly enable community technical innovation.
The author's pleasure in discovering undocumented functionality reflects values supporting exploratory innovation.
+0.40
PreamblePreamble
Medium Advocacy Framing
Editorial
+0.40
SETL
+0.28
Article implicitly endorses human dignity and equality through advocacy for universal access to repair tools, information, and technical control over owned products.
FW Ratio: 50%
Observable Facts
The review emphasizes iFixit's design commitment to providing 'full schematics, teardown guides, and spare parts.'
The article states that devices 'were designed and assembled in a logical enough way that you only need to look at them to understand how it all goes together.'
Inferences
The advocacy for transparent, user-serviceable design reflects underlying commitment to human dignity through informed control.
The framing of repairability as a core company value suggests alignment with principles of universal access and equality.
+0.40
Article 12Privacy
Medium Advocacy Practice
Editorial
+0.40
SETL
+0.20
Article champions local user control and configuration via WebSerial and CLI, avoiding centralized or cloud-dependent control that could infringe privacy.
FW Ratio: 50%
Observable Facts
The review states users can 'simply plug the iron into your computer and configure it via WebSerial' without requiring external services.
Article documents CLI access: 'you can...adjust the temperature on my soldering station from the command line.'
Inferences
Emphasis on local control via WebSerial and CLI reflects commitment to user privacy over networked/cloud alternatives.
The celebration of command-line access implies users retain technical autonomy and data privacy.
+0.40
Article 18Freedom of Thought
Medium Advocacy Framing
Editorial
+0.40
SETL
+0.20
Product design and review celebrate user freedom to customize, modify firmware, and adapt tools to individual preferences and conscience.
FW Ratio: 50%
Observable Facts
Review favorably discusses Pinecil: 'there's a soldering iron running a community developed firmware' which appeals to author as 'open source zealot.'
Article states: 'There's clearly a lot of potential here, and I'm really looking forward to seeing what the community can come up given this level of control.'
Inferences
The celebration of community-developed firmware and customization reflects freedom to express technical identity and preferences.
The open command-line and WebSerial access implies freedom to adapt tools according to individual conscience and methodology.
+0.40
Article 23Work & Equal Pay
Medium Advocacy Practice
Editorial
+0.40
SETL
+0.28
Review discusses tools that support professional soldering work and favorable working conditions through reliable, comfortable design.
FW Ratio: 50%
Observable Facts
Article states: 'My RadioShack digital station has served me well for the better part of 20 years...heats up fast, tips are readily available...it's a breeze to dial in whatever temperature I need.'
Review notes: 'The grip is larger and considerably more comfortable to hold' compared to alternatives.
Inferences
Reliable, user-friendly tools support favorable working conditions and reduced occupational stress.
The emphasis on comfort and ease of use reflects concern for worker well-being during extended use.
+0.40
Article 26Education
Medium Advocacy Framing Coverage
Editorial
+0.40
SETL
+0.20
Comprehensive documentation, schematics, and transparent design support technical education and learning. Open design enables understanding how tools work.
FW Ratio: 40%
Observable Facts
Review states: 'I wanted to see how hard it would be to take the two devices apart without any guidance...I'm happy to report...most easily dissembled devices I've ever come across.'
Article notes: 'I also got a look at the schematics, exploded diagrams, and parts list for both products...they're filled with all sorts of notes in the margins from the engineers.'
Inferences
Open, well-documented design enables educational exploration and learning through hands-on analysis.
Detailed schematics with engineering notes provide transparent technical education.
The implicit invitation to disassemble and learn reflects support for technical education access.
+0.30
Article 1Freedom, Equality, Brotherhood
Medium Advocacy
Editorial
+0.30
SETL
+0.17
Product design and documentation provide equal access to technical information and repair capability regardless of user technical skill.
FW Ratio: 50%
Observable Facts
The article notes the iron has 'no glue, weird tape, or hidden fasteners' and 'no little plastic tabs that break.'
The review describes documentation as 'filled with all sorts of notes in the margins from the engineers.'
Inferences
Design simplicity reflects principle that all users have equal right to understand and repair their tools.
Detailed documentation provision suggests commitment to universal accessibility.
+0.30
Article 22Social Security
Medium Advocacy Practice
Editorial
+0.30
SETL
+0.17
Article discusses soldering tools in context of work and productivity; accessible, repairable tools support adequate standard of living and economic opportunity.
FW Ratio: 50%
Observable Facts
Review notes the iron serves professional and hobbyist soldering work: 'I decided years ago to upgrade from a basic iron and invest in a soldering station.'
Article discusses portability enabling work: 'something portable' needed for various contexts.
Inferences
Access to quality, repairable work tools supports adequate standard of living and economic dignity.
The portability and flexibility of the tool enables broader economic opportunity.
+0.30
Article 25Standard of Living
Medium Advocacy Practice
Editorial
+0.30
SETL
+0.17
Quality, durable, repairable tools support adequate standard of living by enabling DIY repair, creativity, and economic participation.
FW Ratio: 50%
Observable Facts
Review emphasizes longevity: 'It's older than both of my children...and has outlived two cars and one marriage.'
build d1f8d9e+mpqz · deployed 2026-02-28 11:28 UTC · evaluated 2026-02-28 11:41:14 UTC
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