Re: Cordless, cool touch soldering tool



There's a small circuit board in there. Follow the wires. Looks like a
charge pump.
MAX233 or something - dun'no didn't spend too much time on it and the ID was
sanded off.
I DON"T suggest use on silicon devices or where a current path can be
set up. MO.
Doesn't always make good contact -which suggests that hobbiests would tend
to push harder than needed on the fragile tip. Also makes a nice shiny cold
solder joint.
Ditto on the rest tho'.

"Curt Welch" <curt@xxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:20060824153835.971$6I@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
caelum_dalnet@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
Cold Heat Soldering Iron

$19.99 plus s&H

Radio Shack sells these as well for the same $19.99 (no S&H).

I went out and bought one about a year ago just to see how it works.
Here's
my review in case anyone was curious about these things as I was.

It's tip is made of a material that seems to be very similar to simple
graphite. It might be graphite for all I know. It's split in two so
there's a small gap running lengthwise down the tip.

The device has no electronics in it The batteries are just connected to
the tip. When you touch something conductive it completes the circuit and
that resulting current flow causes the tip to heat up (and causes a small
arc as it completes the circuit as well). There is an on off switch, and
two LEDs - one to act as an illumination light which is always on when the
switch is on, and the other to indicate when current is flowing through
the
tip. That's all there is to it. As it says in the commercials, it does
heat up, and cool down in milliseconds. The material the tip is made out
of must be very heat conductive and have a very low thermal mass. There's
no harm in touching the tip with you finger or anything else as long as
the
material isn't a strong conductor.

Solder doesn't stick to the tip so there's no issue with the solder
causing
the tip to stay active. And the tip doesn't seem to need any regular
cleaning. At most you just wipe it off with a cloth.

The main drawback of the device for me is that it's got such low power,
you
can't solder much of anything with it. It doesn't have enough heat for
example to solder two 14 gage house wires twisted together. It does ok
with two pieces of 22 gauge hook up wire but that's about its limit. So
it's only good for small hobby and craft jobs. And I have to wonder about
potential dangers of the voltage across the solder tip when working with
delicate electronic devices. There's 6V across the tip before it shorts
and starts to conduct.

The other drawback is that the tip seems to be about as fragile as pencil
lead. So you have to be careful and not push too hard or allow it to hit
something hard or else it could chip or break. I don't know how long it
would last in typical use - probably a good time as long as you were
careful. The tip however is easy to replace - you just pull it out and
push a new one in. The case that comes with the tool has space to hold a
spare tip - but it doesn't come with a spare tip.

I can't see that I would have much use for such a device in typical
electronics or electrical work. Most electronics work requires more heat
than the thing can put out, so even if you could use it for some of the
work, you would always have to pull out a real soldering iron at times.

Where it would be ideal, is for small craft projects for kids where you
might be uneasy about allowing them to work with a conventional soldering
iron. It's very hard to burn yourself with this thing even if you try.

But, if you are like me, and feel you need to own one of every tool made,
it's hard not to pick one up just for the fun of it. The price is
reasonable for what you get.

--
Curt Welch
http://CurtWelch.Com/
curt@xxxxxxxx
http://NewsReader.Com/


.

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