kwiens

10 ms·

1.
by kwiens 8mo ago
I guess 2018. I learned about them relatively recently and IMHO they're doing a pretty darn good job.
2.
by kwiens 8mo ago
He's not in this to sell books. Stewart is investigating a way of life, and a means of keeping things working a long time. And he's documenting it thoroughly. https://longnow.org/clock/
3.
by kwiens 8mo ago
I was fortunate to read a preprint of Brand's latest. It's magnificent. How and why do things fail? What are the cultures that lead to long-lasting products? The undercurrent here is that Brand is behind the 10,000 year clock and
4.
by kwiens 1y ago
We loved writing them, too! Traffic to the photo teardowns dropped and has been replaced by video. If you can help us figure out how to get people to pay attention to long-form articles again, we're all ears!
5.
by kwiens 2y ago
Thanks for the feedback! Fellow Tennessean here so I'm a bit embarrassed. I fixed the Make your voice heard embed (we removed a CallPower integration). I'm working on fixing the letter now. We built this tech when having five or s
6.
by kwiens 2y ago
The Toyota Sienna is the only minivan with all-wheel drive, which matters in cold climates or for the more adventerous families. It's built on the same chassis as the Highlander.
7.
by kwiens 2y ago
Yes. https://github.com/rashiq/mcbroken-archive
8.
by kwiens 2y ago
Hot tweezers is a fun idea we've been talking about. How would you like to see it implemented? Yes, we really love the cap. It instantly safes the iron when you're done. We'll post more documentation on the serial interface,
9.
by kwiens 2y ago
Thanks for the feedback! The storage cap indeed makes a huge difference when you have to do something quickly and then put the iron away. In our testing, we rarely need to change temperatures. I think our algorithm does a better job of resp
10.
by kwiens 2y ago
The cap has a magnet on it that auto-homes so that really isn't a risk. The Power Station has a 55 Watt Hour battery, which is where most of the cost comes from. It doubles as a battery bank for your phone or laptop, or any other USB-C
11.
by kwiens 2y ago
I agree with you. We wanted to use individual 18650 cells so badly ! We designed the whole thing that way. We did exactly what you proposed, and built cell balancing circuitry and code. It worked great! Then we went to the safety certifica
12.
by kwiens 2y ago
We're talking with Digikey! Stay tuned. Preorders start today and will ship on October 15.
13.
by kwiens 2y ago
Good questions! Tips we'll have at launch: Cone, Bevel 1.5, Wedge 1.5, Point, Bevel 2.6, Knife 2.5, Knife 1.4. They'll be on sale in our store on October 15. https://www.ifixit.com/Tools/Soldering_and_Wiring
14.
by kwiens 2y ago
We didn't lock down the firmware on the Power Station, so go right ahead!
15.
by kwiens 2y ago
I completely agree and love buttons and knobs. In this case, we didn't think the setting was necessary at all. It's very rare that you need to change the soldering temperature. We found that most of the reasons that people histori
16.
by kwiens 2y ago
Here are some other reviews! We'll be shipping on October 15 and you can try it out for yourself. https://www.pcmag.com/news/ifixit-new-soldering-iron-power-s... https://www.tomshardware.com/maker-
17.
by kwiens 2y ago
We considered having a sensor to detect when the cap is installed, but found that the accelerometer met that need. The default sleep timer is 30 seconds, but I set mine to 5 seconds and it works great. All of the settings, including the tem
18.
by kwiens 2y ago
Schematics are table stakes! https://www.ifixit.com/Device/iFixit_Soldering
19.
by kwiens 2y ago
Our goal here was to provide workstation-level performance in a portable form factor. Phone configuration: I agree, that would be nice. If we can find a way to do it from a web browser on a phone, that's our preference. Otherwise we&#x
20.
by kwiens 2y ago
Agree. It's kind of like a chef's knife: a better tool makes you a better chef. A sharp knife is also quite a bit safer than a dull knife. By heating to operating temperature in 5 seconds and rapidly pouring heat into the material
21.
by kwiens 2y ago
We use a TRS connector between the tip and the iron. And yes, it's a lot of amps! It's amazing how versatile a well designed analog connector can be.
22.
by kwiens 2y ago
The LED on the iron turns orange once it reaches your target temperature. It glows purple while it's heating, and blue when it's safe to touch.
23.
by kwiens 2y ago
We designed the system to work for people at a variety of price points. If you just buy the iron, you have access to all the settings in our web console: https://www.ifixit.com/fixhub/console The iron persists settings
24.
by kwiens 2y ago
Google depends on it for firmware updates and repairs on the Pixel lineup. https://pixelrepair.withgoogle.com
25.
by kwiens 2y ago
Thanks! It cost more but I think the outcome was worth it. We really pushed the envelope on every aspect of the hardware to max out the joules we could push into the material. The trick is being really responsive to the load so that you don
26.
by kwiens 2y ago
We are, too! It didn't seem fair for us to rate it ourselves. Hackaday took theirs apart and seemed to like it. We're posting full service information and schematics here: https://www.ifixit.com/Device/iFixit_
27.
by kwiens 2y ago
Very interesting, I will check that out! And yes, if it seems like mobile browsers don't plan to add support then we'll have to look at wrapping it in a native app. I'm hopeful that smartphones will start supporting higher po
28.
by kwiens 2y ago
Yes! You need a way to pull the iron out and put it away quickly. Our cap is just a game changer there. You handle it more like a Sharpie than a soldering iron. Put the cap on and stick it back in your bag. https://pbs.twimg.com&
29.
by kwiens 2y ago
You can set the temperature on the iron with our web console, which uses Web Serial: https://www.ifixit.com/fixhub/console Once you set the temperature, the iron remembers it and you can use any power source. We'v
30.
by kwiens 2y ago
Yes, the thermistor is inside the tip. That's essential to getting good performance out of the algorithm. The instant that the iron detects that it's under load, it pours power into the heating element. That makes it feel and perf

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