Pffā¦ says the guy who buys an ultra-expensive laser engraver thatās controlled from the other side of the internet.
Dammitā¦ Tomorrow I need my car. I havenāt started it in over a month. My neighbor just informed me that I have a flat tire.
Iām so tired of carsā¦ So much trouble for what they cost to run.
Iām sure this has been mentioned a ton before and I just havenāt seen it
Why canāt we make a next style tag, thatās a Hf/lf xled ?
AMAL
not likely to be honestā¦ itās so hard to do factory NRE with people that donāt speak your language. plus there are vendors who will not supply raw materials and not disclose their suppliersā¦ there are politics involved in ways that make absolutely no sense. In the case of a dual frequency xLED, it has much more to do with the disinclination of the people running the sealing hardware to deal with variation. Under no circumstances do they want there to be any possibility of charred plastic or overheated resin happening inside the machineā¦ and when it comes to positioning LEDs inside the glass, this is a challenge (as you know)ā¦ so after many many plans, engineering drawings, ideas, and absolute failureā¦ rather than beat my head against that wall I choose other battles.
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Car share schemes are pretty popular here, if they are a thing there and you donāt drive often, it may be a reasonable option. Renting a car by the hour isnāt always the best option, but depending on your location and use-cases, it can be a whole lot more convenient than owning one for the occasion you use it.
Example: https://www.electrive.com/2020/07/14/greenmobility-is-launching-electric-car-sharing-in-finland/
Iām aware of carsharing, and I used to use it in more densely populated countries. However, in Finlandā¦
GreenMobility now wants to establish itself only in Helsinki and possibly already in Espoo and Vantaa by 2021.
ā¦itās always the same story: that sort of service exists only in Uusimaa - the more populous capital area. Out here in the sticks, itās not a profitable proposition, so it doesnāt exist. Even bus services, while very good, arenāt cheap by any strech of the imagination.
So, I took the wheel off the car, threw it in my velomobileās trunk and went to my local auto repair shop to get the tire mended for the princely sum of 10 euros.
On my way back home with the fixed wheel back in my trunk, in a coincidence rich in irony, one of my veloās tires blew. Not just a puncture either: the tireās wire bead snapped, the tube blew gunshot-like, and the tire came off the rim entirely.
So, I called the auto repair shop and asked them to bring their tow truck on the - thankfully car-accessible - cycle path, and give me, my stranded velo and my perfectly fine car wheel inside a lift back home.
Final bill: 120 euros.
Backstory:
My family has a farmhouse, and I was the last one to live in it. Still has some of my stuff and my familyās stuff stored there. This is the same place where my custom made CNC Plasma Machine is. Theives have broken in several times, some stuff recovered, some not. Lots of damage done.
Dec 22:
Another break in. Theives stole some furniture and collectibles. They also shut the power off to the house to disable the cameras and stole those too.
Dec 23:
Got sent over with my brother, set up new cameras, padlocked the shut-off box.
Dec 24:
Got an alert, someoneās in the house. Called 911, everybody scrambled. By the time we got there, Sherrifās Deputies had two people in handcuffs.
Long Story short. Felony level theft. Possession of 2 hand guns. Possession of prescription drugs (not marked, probably stolen). Burglary tools. One of them is a perfect match for a robbery that occurred two weeks ago to someone else (on video). Both gave false names (actually a big no - no). One of them might be a felon already (makes gun posession a SERIOUS charge). Many details here, but Deputies let it be known that they have so much evidence that thereās no way it even goes to trial. Theyāre SCREWED!
Dec 25:
Me and my family had a dellightful holiday where we laughed often and loudly over these idiots self inflicted problems while enjoying a large delicious home cooked feast.
They served chilli mac at the jail for Christmas, which is like hamburger helper without the hamburger.
Was the CCTV setup with cloud storage or only recording locally?
Was the burglary on 22nd the same people?
Did they take the Recorder?
Was there cloud footage?
A couple of suggestions for you if you havenāt done it already:-
Cloud backup.
Get a UPS
Put the Recorder in an inaccessible location, (attic, basement, inside a safe etc.) worst case scenario they only steal/ break the cameras
Alternatively, buy a cheap/second-hand/ broken Recorder, put it out on ādisplayā with network cables coming out and going through a wall, or wall plate etc.
Let them steal your dummy recorder and you get to keep you evidential one.
Cameras up high are great for overview, but you will often just see the tops of peoples heads.
Lower down you will get good face shots, again dummy cameras are a good idea, put the dummy cameras out on display and force people to hide their faces an look away (to where you have your low down hidden cameras looking)
If you can, put in a driveway camera, get a view of them and their vehicle BEFORE they think they are on camera.
You can run wireless, but I would reccomend wired (buried waterproofed network cable) that you can run for upto 100m with no issues.
A driveway alarm or sensor attached to your camera is also a good addition if it is capable of it.
A speaker that you can use as a deterrent that you can remotely broadcast a āfuck off we are watching you and the police are on their wayā message
A simple and cheap RasberryPi and camera combination on a battery backup as a CCTV system back up camera is also a good idea.
Easy to build, easy to hide, low power, cheap, smart with TensorFlow object detection etc.
Not the best cameras, but good enough.
Black and white cameras are great for low light situations. where security lights may be been deactivated etc.
You could also build a cheap secondary covert CCTV system using an Analogue setup, with pinhole and barrel cameras, running to an analogue recorder.
They wonāt even know it is there if done correctly.
I dont know the layout of your house, but this may be a good option for a ālow down viewā looking straight out or upā¦
( Of course wonāt help too much with bad guys using stolen cars and masked faces )
Just some food for thought
Anyway, Iām glad you got to enjoy your christmas
Reason they failed the first time was the cut power. Also finding that the cameras record for a second or two before broadcasting. If a theif moves fast they can unplug it first. But yeah, everything blasted out on a cellular connection.
New plan is to swarm attack. You canāt unplug 'em all in the 1-2 seconds if theyāre everywhere.
Thereās also a camera now thatās across the driveway in a saltines cracker box. Looks like somebody threw their trash out on the side of the road.
The real trick is to notice and respond in a timely manner.
Informal Pinecil review for those that were interested (otherwise feel free to disregard):
Finally got it in the mail today, ~noon. That marks 34 days total from order til delivery. Lesson here, definitely go for the DHL shipping if you want to get it in a reasonable length of time.
I used it for about 3 hours today, repairing a power supply for a TV of a family friend.
(TS100 on top, Pinecil on the bottom)
Fit and finish:
Overall, it feels fine. The plastic maybe feels a tiny bit lower quality than the TS100 Iād say, but the overall construction is very very similar. The OLED display on mine has a little bit of weirdness to it, almost like the adhesive was a tiny bit messed up on the edges. This is visible in the picture above, on the right side. However, this picture is using flash. With the iron assembled, this is not visible with the naked eye, at least with the lighting in my home. I didnāt notice this myself until taking the iron apart, and seeing the bare display. When the iron is on, there is no issues either, the screen looks fine.
Itās difficult to capture on camera, but display is overall quite sharp, and decently bright. Pretty much identical to the display in the TS100.
The silicon grip feels nice, and I assume itāll last a long time.
My last note in this category is that the Pinecil uses all phillips screws, while the TS100 is all hex/allen. This is nice for quickly swapping tips, but I fear for the longevity of the phillips screws, and worry about them stripping. This is another trade-off though, Iām sure some would rather have the convenience. I will say, not having to dig out my iFixit screwdriver set to swap tips is nice, as I lost the allen key for my TS100 long, long ago. Youāre also not likely to have to take the iron apart very often, if at all. I just did it out of curiosity.
Comfort/Ergonomics:
The silicone grip is a good improvement over the TS100, especially for those used to using a normal soldering station (the grip shape reminds me of many Weller irons Iāve used). My only gripe with comfort is the button placement. Due to the thin pencil-like grip of the TS100, my thumb naturally rested on the plus button, which acts as the temperature boost button. This made it very easy to increase temp temporarily without adjusting my grip. This doesnāt work on the Pinecil, I have to shift my grip upward a bit to hold the button. Not a huge deal, and Iām sure many will find the ergonomic trade-off worth it, in exchange for the thicker silicone grip. The minus button is impossible to reach one-handed, so if you want to do actual temperature adjustment, youāre probably gonna want a second hand free. This isnāt any different from a normal soldering station, where a second hand is needed regardless, so not a big deal to me.
Regarding actual soldering performance and feel, itās really nice, if youāve used a TS100, itās a pretty much identical experience. This is to be expected, since the tips (with integrated heaters) are identical, and are interchangeable.
Performance:
Hooked up to my 60W USB PD 3.0 charger via type C, this iron worked incredibly well. Heated up to 350C in less than 10 seconds, and had no issues quickly boosting to 420C (default boost temp, adjustable in the settings). Especially when traveling, or during events like hackathons, being able to use the same charger for my phone, laptop, and soldering iron, will be incredibly handy. QC or PD 3.0 powerbanks are also going to be amazing for this, as long as they can output enough power.
I also tested it with a normal 19V power supply via the barrel jack, the same supply I use with my TS100, and that worked fine as well, pretty much identically to the TS100.
Using my phoneās included charger, which is only 18W, it managed to get to over 200C, but couldnāt quite get to my desired temp. Iād say anything 30W or above should probably be good enough.
Software:
Firmware is the same as my TS100 is running, the Ralim firmware. Itās using a very new version, newer than my TS100, and the feature set is great, has plenty of customization in the settings (advanced display during soldering, shows input voltage by default, default boost temp, etc).
My only issue software wise so far is a bug with the accelerometer. The display orientation has 3 settings, L, R, and A. L and R are for which hand youāre soldering with, so that the screen has the correct side facing upwards. A is auto mode, which is supposed to use the accelerometer to determine which hand itās in. This works well on my TS100, but when I tried it on the Pinecil, it just flipped to left handed and stayed that way. I almost always just solder with my right hand, and itās just a bug Iām sure will be fixed, but wanted to mention it. I donāt even have auto mode turned on on my TS100, since Iāve found that it can be a bit distracting when Iām soldering in weird spots (such as upside down under my dash).
The firmware is all open-source, so I could always even just fix the bug myself, which is nice. Just flashes over USB, no external programmer needed.
Overall:
Especially for the cost, this thing is a really, really compelling option. Even including shipping from China, it still cost less than half of my TS100 a few years ago. Given that the included firmware is the first version for the Pinecil, Iām sure thatāll mature even more as well.
Especially for someone wanting a good temp-controlled portable iron, this is a fantastic choice. Itās also a great option for anyone who currently has a soldering iron without temperature control, and doesnāt want to pay for a proper soldering station, or someone who doesnāt have the desk space for one.
RISC-V is just a bonus 
Great write up, thanks for taking the time to do so 
Also for working in small cramped spaces, where with a gas iron, you have to be really conscious of heat expelled from the flame near the tip.
I have āsoftenedā the insulation from some nearby wiring on more than one occasion!
This is my current portable soldering ironā¦
You may have just sold me on the PineCil
Yeah, Iāve got a butane iron too, and while it works surprisingly well, the heat and overall tip width is an issue for sure. Theyāre kinda āstubbyā. The TS100 style tips are thin and long, which is super handy for working in large bundles of wires (like the 17 total wires in my ignition switch assembly atm). I definitely like my butane iron more as a portable heat gun for heat shrink, or as a small torch.
Hopefully the Pinecil comes back in stock soon. It was way more popular than they had anticipated, so Iām sure they want to start selling them again ASAP. Iām subscribed to their Telegram news channel, so Iāll make another post here if it comes back in stock.
Did you get a chisel tip with your PineCil?