After being called upon to do quite a bit of soldering work in the field, folks at the Innove Workshop Company decided that they needed something made specifically for this application. While you could drag a heavy soldering station into the field, or use a cheap iron that just plugs in, what if there’s not an adequate wall outlet nearby? That means also dragging along another extension cord, or perhaps even a generator in extreme cases.
Their solution comes in the form of the PortaStation, a soldering station that weights just 340g, and accepts a Hakko 907-style iron. Importantly, it can accept power input from a lithium battery pack which is perfect for remote work, but can also use a 24 volt power supply when you’re close to an outlet.
The device also features an LCD for pertinent information, and comes in a nice enclosure. Iron temperatures can be reported in Celsius, Fahrenheit, or even Kelvin. Rankine temperatures are omitted, however, the station’s code is open source, so you could add this in or even come up with your own unit system!
For another portable soldering iron alternative, you might also consider the TS100, reviewed here on Hackaday. While it’s hard to imagine that it works as well as the more expensive setups, it’s an excellent upgrade from the really cheap irons that simply plug in with no temperature control.
