Introducing PineTool — an iOS Companion for the Pinecil – Lachy’s Weblog
The Pinecil is a $25 soldering iron from PINE64 that runs off any USB-C charging brick. Itʼs a surprisingly succesful unit with efficiency that punches properly above its worth. (My great Hakko FX-888D has seen little use because the Pinecil arrived!)
Internally it makes use of a BL706 RISC-V microcontroller from Bouffalo Lab, operating the open-source IronOS firmware. The BL706 has a built-in Bluetooth Low Power radio, and final week IronOS 2.21 was launched including BLE functionality.
I assumed Iʼd have a crack at constructing a companion app for this new functionality1, and hereʼs what Iʼve provide you with:
PineTool shows stay information from the iron and may configure its temperature setpoint. Iʼve discovered it way more ergonomic than utilizing the two-button interface on the gadget.
Is that this pointless? Completely. However I determine that thereʼs overlap between those that use open supply RISC-V soldering irons, and people who would get pleasure from fairly stay temperature and energy charts whereas soldering ????.
PineTool is obtainable free of charge on the App Store at present and the source code is on GitHub.