
A music player for the TS80 soldering iron - mdp
https://github.com/joric/ts80player/
======
serf
TS soldering irons are great. I've been giving them as gifts to techie
friends, they're all now fans.

the YouTube personality Marco Reps suggested someone should try to tweak the
firmware in order to be able to play music when he did a review on these irons
long ago, i'm glad someone took up the task.

personally i'd just try to hack a JBC soldering cartridge together with a TS
for a real-cheap 'ultimate' soldering iron.. bit then i'd be without tunes, I
guess.

~~~
segfaultbuserr
How heavy are these USB soldering irons?

I have an iron that plugs directly into the mains, but I stopped using it as
soon as I got a Hakko soldering station... Now I only use the old iron to
remove hot glue. The advantage of a station is safety, better thermal
performance, but more important - the iron is lightweight (as the circuitry is
in the station, not the iron) and much easier to work with, especially for
soldering or desoldering a difficult component.

I expect these USB irons to be lighter than a mains-powered iron, but I'm not
sure.

~~~
guywhocodes
I have one, just weighed it 36g without cable, 52 with the entire cable. So
real lift will be between the those two, probably closer to 40g

~~~
therein
Are the tips more broadly available for purchase at this point?

~~~
myself248
Yeah, but realistically I only use the BC2 tip. I've also got a TS-I tip in a
box somewhere but I've never bothered to get it out.

I picked up a T12 shovel tip, which extends comically far from the handle, but
works just fine:
[https://www.flickr.com/photos/myself248/49284798441/](https://www.flickr.com/photos/myself248/49284798441/)
and
[https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B07V7DY8YQ/](https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B07V7DY8YQ/)

I wish I could get shovel tips like that in the shorter TS100 form factor, but
no luck. I've thought about picking up one of those knockoff stations that
takes the T12 tips, specifically one with the FX9501 handle, specifically for
the added versatility, but I don't think I'd use it enough to justify. But
here's the one I've been looking at:
[https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B07PQ1GJZ5/](https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B07PQ1GJZ5/)

The native TS100 tips are all over the place. But the ecosystem thereof is
still very small.

------
jsilence
Because you can.

~~~
blondin
i still have my mp3 player from 2009. i am always worried that it will die one
day and i wouldn't be able to find a good replacement for it.

i recently heard on a podcast that smartphones are bad as music players
because they are very distracting. especially for athletes. a single
notification or message can lower their performance for minutes. music on its
own can however boost performance.

as most mp3 players are moving to using android as their main OS and requiring
wifi, location and whatnot, i have learned to appreciate the simplicity of the
first few generations of mp3 players. so i really like what this project is
doing for some reason.

~~~
segfaultbuserr
You can find many music players from second-hand markets, still in good
conditions. I purchased one for 15 dollars from eBay (it used to cost a
hundred dollars) and installed Rockbox, now it can decode sounds in all
encodings, including Vorbis and Opus, and I can even use it as a TOTP
authentication token or Morse Code keyboard for your computer ( _I don 't
recommend one to use it as such tools, it's not good at doing these jobs, but
I tried because I could... If you are a hardcore programmer, you can even try
programming a 3D demoscene on the player!_)

If you insist on buying a new one, the Hi-Fi community still makes audio-only
music players as well.

~~~
voltagex_
Which $15 player runs Rockbox?

~~~
stevewillows
It won't be $15 -- but an affordable player that is great with Rockbox is the
SanDisk Clip+. It's got a decent screen, really small form factor, microSD.

My main Rockbox'd unit is an iPod Video (5.5) with an iFlash Quad (up to 4x
microSD cards) and a 2000mAh battery. Not the most expensive project, but not
as cheap as the Clip+.

My guess is that the parent is talking about the Sansa c200 or something
similar.

~~~
kick
It looks like there's a few iPod Video models on eBay for $16.

~~~
stevewillows
Make sure they're not for parts. All you really need is the main logic board,
but it's nice to start with a complete unit.

The best iPod Video is the Enhanced / 5.5 that has the 'search' item. An 80gb
version of this also has more RAM, which I don't think is utilized at this
time, but it might down the road. This may not be accurate now, but it was a
few years ago.

The 80gb will come with the fat back. If you do the mod I did, you can use the
slim back from the 30gb.

------
k_sze
This reminds me of a Stephen Chow comedy with absurd spy gadgets -e.g. a
leather shoe is actually a hair blower.

~~~
Intermernet
From Beijing With Love.

Brilliant movie!

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/From_Beijing_with_Love](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/From_Beijing_with_Love)

