We'll have a range of tips. Hitting the high performance we wanted, with 100 Watt output in a small iron, required really optimizing the entire system. The heating element and temperature sensor are in the tip itself.
We really see JBC as our competition here. Performance and responsiveness should be comparable or better, at a fraction of the price.
Where can I buy these cartridges? For JBC we have official catalogue, local retailers, aliexpress, and secondary market full of any tip I might need.
What kind of tips do you plan producing for the fixhub?
P.S.: all JBC stands (genuine and most of knock-offs) have really comfortable holder with detents to change cartridges on-handed on the fly. Do you plan any such features? I do not see any steps or hooks on a tip.
We will also be selling a complete line of replacement parts.
I'm working right now on our distribution partners, but we'll have a variety of local and online distributors who you can also buy the system through.
Rather than designing it to change tips on the fly, we set up the Power Station to handle two irons, with two USB ports and a mounting socket on both sides.
Nice! Thanks, these seems to be the most popular types. Do your bevel tips have a dimple in the middle? It is very useful to contain a drop of solder even when dragging the tip over flat surfaces.
> we set up the Power Station to handle two irons
Having two handles is useful sometimes, but quick changing tips are a game-changer even for double jbc stations )
The heating element and temperature sensor are also in the tips themselves in both Pinecil and the Miniware TS80/TS100 designs. Every modern 'commercial' soldering iron (Hakko T12 line, JBC, many others) has moved this way too.
I was gonna point out the same thing as the parent about the tips but figured that what you said must be true. Those existing tips were meant for specific power and whatnot… y’all needed to do your own thing to meet your higher, different specifications.
These 140w are peak power, only in specific cases. To have useful power at all times you need to perfectly match supply voltage to i-v curve of your tip. Which pinecil (due to its schematic) cannot do.
We really see JBC as our competition here. Performance and responsiveness should be comparable or better, at a fraction of the price.