TS100 Soldering Iron Power Supply & Cable Mod - YouTube

How to make a flexible cable for the TS100 soldering iron. It's also worth using around 20V Power supply on the TS100 for best results.

In the video I show how to use a laptop power supply to run the TS100 and also how to wire up a flexible silicone cable.

TS100 Soldering iron.
You can buy the TS-K tip from the same seller

Example Power Supply (or use a Laptop one)

DC Barrel tip - 5.5mm x 2.5mm

Tattoo flexible cable - The exact one I bought off eBay with the spring on the cable

TS100 Custom Firmware

English is the EN file, or choose your language
TS100_EN.hex
Use a decent quality USB cable as I had issues with cheap ones.

Windows
1. Press and hold the button closest to the tip
2. Plug in USB - It will enter DFU mode on the LCD and your conputer will map a drive to it and open as USB
3. Drag the TS100_EN.hex file to the drive letter
4. It will disconnet and reconnet if working
5. You will see a new file ending in RDY if working correctly
6. That's it, unplug and power on normally

If you get a windows Explorer error about not having enough space for the file, try a better quality USB cable as I had this exact issue.

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[maxruff]

Tip for sliding cables through tight sleeves or heatshrink, apply a squirt of IPA (Iso-Propyl-Alcohol). Fantastic for fitting tight clip on covers too. Evaporates leaving no residue. Best trick I've learnt in years!

[liveen]

the dotted line means switching power supply btw, which is smoothed by inductors and capacitors. The ferrite bead you have there will have SOME induction effect on the wire, but barely any. Mostly, those are used to reduce EMF, not really anything else. great for audio setups etc especially in noisy environments like a workshop with a lot of interference, but it won't really help at all for the TS100.
If it doesnt bother you to have it there, though, it won't really hurt to be safe anyways.

[sokoloft]

Just want to say this mod is fantastic. I always recommend it to anyone who gets a TS100/Pinecil. The only thing I changed was I have a female jack so it isn't spliced into the charger itself. Its basically an extension cable and leaves the charger un-modified. Thanks for the video and idea!

[liveen]

Little piece of information that probably won't matter TOO much, but twisting the strands after stripping the wires is actually not something that helps after the job. It helps with soldering, but lessens contact area and decreases the strength of the joint. Could become relevant for something that moves around alot, but I doubt it will be too bad in this case anyway, especially with the double strain relief you've ended up with.
But still good to try to not keep that habit too strong

[choppergirl]

I converted three DELL laptop power supplies to have XT-60 connectors on the end. They are rated at 18.0v 2.6amp.. which is just above 4S max. Multimeter tells me they are putting out 18.9v unloaded. Once I can use on my DJI FPV goggles, one on my TS-100, and one on my Lipo charger. I was afraid it'd be a bit too much for the Goggles but they seem to cope with the extra voltage just above spec just fine. I also bought one of those 24v 17amp server power supplies bundled with the TS-100. It's nice because it comes out at 6S, which I can use to power up my quad on the bench.... or I can use it on the Lipo charger if I should need more amps with a balance board.

So solder on an XT60 male on the end of your power bricki, and then solder up a stand alone TS100 cable with an XT60 female... and then you can use your power brick for multiple things. You could also solder up a XT60 male to aligator clips, then plug your TS100 cable into that if you ever have to power it off a car battery supply.

I write on my XT-60's with a red and black sharpie... +/- symbols, and how much voltage it might put out so I don't mix things up... i.e 17v, 24v, etc.

So you'll end up with all kinds of adapters and cables.. what to do with them? I found slide lock ziplock bags make a great way to store things and keep cables from getting tangled. Just stuff identical or similiar things in zip lock bags, and zip them and label them with a sharpie.
fpv.air-war.org

[VictorNomura]

FYI, The countdown timer is how many seconds before the iron goes into sleep mode. It does not show time to heat up to set temp. Once you move or shake the iron, it resets. Leave it still on the table and it will count down.

[chocolate_squiggle]

Well I don't even have a TS100 but I was just thinking the other day, if I do get one I'd like to use silicone cable for power. I think I have a bit lying around that came with some high powered telecoms equipment at work but I hadn't considered the strain relief, so I enjoyed watching this through. For me a serious bonus was an inadvertent multimeter tutorial. I've owned an Amprobe 37XR-A for about 10 years, it was my first meter. It has a couple of interesting features I haven't seen on many other meters. It took me many many years before I found a use for the inductance measurement in Henry's - the water level pressure sensor on my Fisher Paykel washing machine when it was playing up (a diaphragm pushes a ferrite bead through a copper winding if I remember right - it was a lightbulb moment seeing that). And the other which I've never used until today is the Logic setting. I was wondering why you didn't just use the continuity tester on your awesome old meter but I grabbed mine to try it and sure enough the Logic setting gives me IMMEDIATE continuity feedback whereas the actual continuity buzzer has an annoying lag, the manual actually states about 100ms. So although I still have to one day learn about its actual intended TTL/CMOS usage, I'm gonna call it and say I've finally found a use for all the settings on that meter :-) Geeze there are some whingers on here. Some people seem incapable of realising not everyone knows as much as they already do. Or in fact I'd wager the ones complaining are often the ones who 'know enough to be dangerous' because they already think they know it all. I avoid them at all costs. Thanks for the video.

[darattaqwa]

Wow wonderful video! paused the video to like and sub.. on the laptop charger cable what is that bulky part, always wondered what it was.... EDIT: you answered my question later in the video (Ferrite to smooth out DC)

[motoerhead]

I wonder how you came up with the Idea of that Tattoo Cable. Its just bloody brilliant. Ordered my TS 100 yesterday and since I´m waiting I browsed youtube and found that vid. Really really cool idea mate. Stay save!

[dazecm]

Ultimately you want to have 65 watts going through the iron for the best performance in terms of the power delivery needed to get heat from the tip into the materials you're soldering. You won't see wattage on power supplies but the calculation is to simply multiply the volts, in your case 20, by the amps, in your case 3.25 to get 65 watts.

[tomkenney]

Silicone cord is definitely the way to go. My TS100 feels like a cordless soldering iron, and with a 20v supply and Ralim firmware it has basically replaced my Aeyou 968 A+.

[davidprice]

A worthwhile modification, silicone is excellent choice for soldering irons..

[exnj]

Nice vid and great idea, I'm going to make one of these using a silicone cable with male and female 5.5mm x 2.5mm connectors at each end so I don't have to butcher a laptop power supply.

[wrstew]

Heat shrink on the plastic body is quicker and more effective than tape. Don't use loctite on plastic as it interacts with and ruins the plastic, if you feel that you need an adhesive use some form of glue or steal some of your wife's nail polish. From experience I speak, been here done that.

[billluzius]

You could use a regular car cigarette lighter for the power source correct

[michaelsworkshop]

That cable with the spring is very nice - I have bookmarked the link you provided for it! I have used these exact same ThinkPad 20v adapters to power tons of gear -- most recently a nice Dell 2000FP 4:3 LCD monitor with composite / s-video inputs on it. That soldering iron is definitely interesting - looking forward to seeing how it holds up over time.

[bloodgain]

Nice recommendation for the tattoo gun cable. Your link is dead, but searching "silicone clip cord" on eBay or AliExpress comes up with plenty of good options under $10 that include the spring at the jack.

[brantwinter]

Does this power supply leak AC to the tip like most Y-capacitor coupled switching power supplies discussed in relation to the TS100 ?

[MrBanzoid]

Big chisel tips are good for drag soldering SMD ICs.

[aterack]

I like to use the ferrite cores that have the clip together cases to hide my wire connections, sometimes without the ferrite even if frequencies don’t matter