<story><title>IronOS: Open-source soldering iron firmware</title><url>https://github.com/Ralim/IronOS</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Etheryte</author><text>I don&amp;#x27;t think this is a good idea at all. This is like saying you should buy lifting shoes, a belt, a pair of gloves and bands before you go to the gym for the first time. Literally any setup that does the job is fine when you&amp;#x27;re just getting into it — you don&amp;#x27;t know what you don&amp;#x27;t know and having a cheap entry point is a good way to figure out if you like it at all, what kind of a workflow works for you, etc.</text></item><item><author>kayson</author><text>If you want to get into soldering, do yourself a favor and invest in a good station, iron, and tips. If you want to de-solder, good quality soldering wick is also really important (I use chemtronics).&lt;p&gt;I was lucky enough to snag an old Metcal from work for free, and it&amp;#x27;s fantastic. The way they work is really cool too: it sends a high power RF signal (i.e. AC voltage) to the coil in the tip. Because of the skin effect and curie point, it will heat up until the point where the coil loses it&amp;#x27;s magnetism, resulting in a self-regulating tip temperature that doesn&amp;#x27;t need a thermo couple! [1] It responds very quickly to thermal loads, too. It&amp;#x27;s an expensive system to be sure, but totally worth it especially if you can find it used. They&amp;#x27;re also great about support even for older units, and you can get the entire schematics online if you need to make any repairs.&lt;p&gt;1. &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.metcal.com&amp;#x2F;hand-soldering&amp;#x2F;how-smartheat-technology-works-a-tutorial-2&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.metcal.com&amp;#x2F;hand-soldering&amp;#x2F;how-smartheat-technolo...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>rex_lupi</author><text>Absolutely. I can personally attest to the fact that $5 soldering iron is good enough for most common (non-smd) jobs. I&amp;#x27;ve seen people do smd soldering with a big chisel tip, even a soldering gun, but it takes training. But I get OP&amp;#x27;s point. It&amp;#x27;s extremely frustrating if not impossible to do the job if the iron is super bad, if the flux or soldrr is bad etc.&lt;p&gt;For a beginner, a soldering station or a high-tech iron is absolutely not necessary. You just need a non-garbage iron, some decent quality lead-rosin solder and a decent amount of flux (cheap rosin would do). Nevertheless, having high-end tools will make things much, much easier and simpler. But at the same time, I believe you&amp;#x27;ll get a great training if you learn things the hard way.</text></comment>
<story><title>IronOS: Open-source soldering iron firmware</title><url>https://github.com/Ralim/IronOS</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Etheryte</author><text>I don&amp;#x27;t think this is a good idea at all. This is like saying you should buy lifting shoes, a belt, a pair of gloves and bands before you go to the gym for the first time. Literally any setup that does the job is fine when you&amp;#x27;re just getting into it — you don&amp;#x27;t know what you don&amp;#x27;t know and having a cheap entry point is a good way to figure out if you like it at all, what kind of a workflow works for you, etc.</text></item><item><author>kayson</author><text>If you want to get into soldering, do yourself a favor and invest in a good station, iron, and tips. If you want to de-solder, good quality soldering wick is also really important (I use chemtronics).&lt;p&gt;I was lucky enough to snag an old Metcal from work for free, and it&amp;#x27;s fantastic. The way they work is really cool too: it sends a high power RF signal (i.e. AC voltage) to the coil in the tip. Because of the skin effect and curie point, it will heat up until the point where the coil loses it&amp;#x27;s magnetism, resulting in a self-regulating tip temperature that doesn&amp;#x27;t need a thermo couple! [1] It responds very quickly to thermal loads, too. It&amp;#x27;s an expensive system to be sure, but totally worth it especially if you can find it used. They&amp;#x27;re also great about support even for older units, and you can get the entire schematics online if you need to make any repairs.&lt;p&gt;1. &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.metcal.com&amp;#x2F;hand-soldering&amp;#x2F;how-smartheat-technology-works-a-tutorial-2&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.metcal.com&amp;#x2F;hand-soldering&amp;#x2F;how-smartheat-technolo...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>ilyt</author><text>Except you can get remarkably good ones for cheap now. It&amp;#x27;s no longer that you have to spend  $60+ to get something good&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; This is like saying you should buy lifting shoes, a belt, a pair of gloves and bands before you go to the gym for the first time.&lt;p&gt;No, that&amp;#x27;s like saying &amp;quot;buy the gear that doesn&amp;#x27;t crush your genitals for cycling first&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t think you understand just how shitty experience is with the cheapest soldering irons</text></comment>