For a person who uses a soldering iron now and then, I surprise myself by not featuring a single soldering-related technology on this blog in the past 15 years of its existence. Today, we break that “curse”. Folks, we want you to meet the Solder Ninja Pen.
Before we proceed, yes, there are others like this, and yes, soldering irons are now USB-powered, which means you can solder with a laptop as the power source. There are quite a few of them around, but the Solder Ninja Pen stands out as one that does not originate from China. French outfit Sitron Labs is the brainchild behind this sleek, portable soldering iron.
It is USB-powered, has an operating power range from 7.5 W to 45 W, and is compatible with Weller RT Micro tips. This means it is highly versatile, ready for a range of soldering tasks, from large ground planes to submillimeter microsoldering. This handy electronics tool has hot-swappable tips, an adjustable temperature display, a 3.5 mm jack tip connector from CUI rated for 5,000 cycles, and a Würth Elektronik USB-C connector rated for 10,000 cycles.
All these are packed into a lightweight, anodized, machined aluminum body designed to offer mechanical stress relief, weighing just 35 g (1.23 oz.). Each solder pen is supplied with a 1.3 × 0.4 mm chisel tip suitable for most applications. Additional tips are available for purchase.
Because it operates between 7.5 W and 45 W, it plays well with various power sources, including wall chargers, power banks, and laptops. Under the hood is a Raspberry Pi RP2040 microcontroller. Damn. Is there anything Raspberry Pi cannot be used for? It also stands out as an open-hardware device, and you can find the schematics on GitHub if you are interested.
On the safety front, the Solder Ninja Pen features sleep on idle, sleep on magnet detection, and lock on free fall. Other spec-sheet details include a 0–350°C temperature range with a 400°C boost, a 5-second heating time at 45 W (15 seconds at 15 W), a 0.69-inch monochrome OLED display (96 × 16 pixels), two hardware buttons rated for 20,000 cycles, and configuration for left- or right-hand use.
The Solder Ninja Pen USB-powered soldering iron is available from Crowd Supply for US$169.
Images: Sitron Labs.
