DIY Pinecil v2 power cable

I swear, this is by far the BEST bench upgrade I ever did.

In the past, I’ve been using USB-C to power my soldering iron and my best power brick was able to output 9v at best (keep in mind, I didn’t had the best power brick). Heating up solder on ground planes was a work of patience and zenitude. Every now and then, the iron would go in thermal runaway because it was struggling to keep it heat. Let’s just say it wasn’t optimal.

Behold, THE fix:

I’m running the pinecil v2 on my bench power supply, which has 2 variable outputs and I’m dedicating one to 24v, 5a cap. With this, it makes the pinecil heat up in roughly 20 seconds to be around 400c. With the USB-C 9v brick, It was more along the lines of 50-60 seconds and it would barely hold it temperature but with this, I can solder nonstop and it barely drops a few degrees! 😀

The only downside is that I can’t move the soldering iron unless I move the power supply as well, and the banana plugs are not exactly common on other power adapters.

In order to make the cable, I put together a few parts I’ve ordered off AliExpress: 14 gauge silicon wires, a DC5.5×2.5 14mm barrel jack connector and 2 banana plugs. If I consider only the part I needed and not the extra I had to get (I’ll use them in the future I’m 99% sure), It probably cost me ~5$CAD to put it together. I also used some shrink tube bands to keep both wires together to give it a more professional look! I still can’t believe how long I’ve waited before doing this.

Nonetheless, if you have a soldering iron that is running on USB-C and you’re struggling, consider a heavy lifter PSU for it, it’s life changing, I swear.