Would any of you fine chaps or chapinas be willing to recommend a new soldering iron for me? Under $100 USD if possible. I have an awful corded handheld iron I got for $20 on Amazon and itās absolutely garbage. Help! Haha
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pinecil is easily under $60 if you include the cable and extra tips. Although there is a good chance you donāt need the extra tips. I recommend you spend a few bucks on a brass wool instead of the wet sponge for cleaning the tip. It will last a lot longer and the brass wool doesnāt wear out nearly as fast. Make it a habbit to clean the iron every time you pick it up and put it down and the tip will last nearly forever.
Pinecil is $26
Silicone usbc cable $4
brass tip cleaner with stand on Amazon $10
Also, quality solder like kester 44 makes a difference in how good your joints turn out. Hope this helps.
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Second the pinecil vote.About to pick up a second one for travel
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I am a big fan of the Pinecil. In fact i did a review of it when i got the V2.
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Pinecil has had great reviews, mine was broken on arrival so I canāt give a fair recommendation either way. Make sure you get a true 65w power delivery USB c power supply for it.
The hakko fx-888d is a great iron too. Been using it for years and itās been terrific.
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I have not had a bad experience with hakko. Their stuff is solid.
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How was it broken? Thatās super unfortunate.
Also the first thing I did with mine was load up ironOS
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Great iron but mine is sitting in another countryā¦ I kinda wish that it was dual voltage TBH.
Yeah it was, especially because I brought it to a field test prior to using it. It did what it needed to do but it was painful.
It just would not maintain temperature for more than 30 seconds. Not sure if the accelerometer was sending junk data and putting it to sleep mode or what
Did you try updating the firmware?
Iāve also had that happen if the tip is not secured with both screws.
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I didnāt. I bought it shortly after release so its possible it was the screws or the firmware. This was a few years ago and I have a new one now - though I havenāt used this one yet either 
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Ahhh thatās exactly what I need. Thank you!
This is everything Iāve wanted in a new truck. Small, Cheap, Light, 2 door Regular Cab, Electric, and exactly zero Bullshit extra crap.
No seat warmers, no electric windows, NO FRIGGIN RADIO!
In fact, thereās only one option. A little bigger battery. Other than that, theyāre all exactly the same right down to the color.
Anywho, I reserved one. Iām unemployed and I reserved one anyways. Cause itās what Iāve been wanting, and Doesnāt have all the stupid junk I donāt want to pay for.
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Have you seen the Telo?
I have been keeping an eye on it, seam really promising too
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Iāve been kinda busy these past days, but in terms of notes and in terms of worth sharing, these notes were my scribbles while I waited for the XAC to arrive and guessing, learning from others etc. Turned out fairly accurate, for guess work and plenty of do-overs. Iāll get around to properly writing down/sharing pics otherwise one of these days ^^
If youāve never used ChatGPT, it was incredibly useful in correcting as well. I do pay monthly, donāt know if that makes a difference, Iāve heard some say it does. Shared the link to the XAC, the actuator on Amazon and by now she knows what car I drive etc, whatever other information could be useful for her to help.
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I would suggest swapping it so the comm is connected to positive and the connecting the NO to the positive on the ACT, so that the xAC board breaks the positive feed.
My reasoning is if I wanted to bypass the switch, it would just be necessary to short between the ACT and the xAC on your original diagram. I know this isnāt being used to control a lock or something, which is why I always break the positive line on any wiring I do, but I think it a good habit because even on something like this, a short can cause the device to power on and remain on.
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Huh, good to know! Iāve still gotta go back in and properly size my wires, think Iāve currently got enough wire to go front to back of the car. It started rainingā¦ 
What youāre saying sounds like it makes sense, so when I properly tuck everything up, Iāll go ahead and switch em up! Thanks!
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A video to compliment your links
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With the new pebbles coming out Iām interested in playing around with the originals. Anyone have a pebble time steel laying around in a junk drawer? Iām having a surprisingly hard time finding one for sale and figured it was worth asking you nerds (
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