Unlike the full blown i-Tool iron, I'd be willing to bet there's zero electronics in either the Nano or Pico. My reasoning for this is twofold.- First, the Nano and Pico are only meant to be used with the irons that come with them. So there's no need to use a serial ROM to store a tool ID string or any other data (i.e. temp. offsets).
- Second, the base units don't use motion for setback settings, so no need for an accelerometer either.
I mention this, as the photo of the full-fledged i-Tools' PCB only appears to contain a ROM + accelerometer. FWIW, Weller uses the same approach with some of their irons as well (irons for the WX stations for example).
Ersa says that the
i-Tool Pico iron stores calibration data in the handle, which would of course necessitate a PCB. But to be perfectly honest, the bullet points there seem kinda cut-and-pasted, so I would take it with a grain of salt. (The page for the i-Tool Nano says nothing at all, but I assume that it would not have less capabilities than the Pico.)
Ideally, both units need to be tested side-by-side under real world conditions from independent sources (aka EEVBlog members ). But AFAIK, Ersa's the only entity that's done side-by-side testing and they're not revealing the whole story (after all, marketing isn't exactly known to be completely truthful ).
Well, I already have the Nano. If you're willing to send a Pico and a "big" i-Con station my way, I'd be more than happy to do whatever tests you like!
Regarding using the same tip for both lead and lead-free solder, no need to panic. Just rinse them off well with the next alloy before using it on any joints (keeps you from mixing the alloys which would give you some very strange properties, mechanical in particular that could cause you all kinds of aggravation when fault finding). Also, best to stick with no-clean or rosin based fluxes as organic/water soluble can corrode a tip and joints if not cleaned off properly (still active at room temp).
OK cool, thanks! Yeah, I know to avoid the water-soluble fluxes. I've always bought ordinary rosin-core so far and it's always served well. As for separate flux, I used to use rosin paste, now I have homemade liquid rosin (more of an experiment than anything else) and purchased no-clean flux liquid in a Bon-kote.
What recommendations regarding tips for the Nano? I was thinking chisel-tips (1.6 or 2.4 as an allround and one thinner and one thicker). I will mostly be doing through-hole with the occasional SMD.
It comes with a
1.6mm chisel, which is a great tip for everyday through-hole work. When I got the Nano, I also bought a 0.4mm chisel (turned out to be useless) and a
2.3mm drag soldering tip (A-MAZING!!). I then bought a
3.2mm chisel, which has been handier for things like solder lugs on potentiometers, and I just ordered a 2.4mm chisel kinda for shits and giggles. The Wick-tip tips (big wide things for using solder wick on a whole side of a device) look really interesting, but are kinda expensive.
I notice some overlap with nanofrog's recommendations above!
I strongly suggest that you get an extra tip holder (the little ferrule and threaded plastic nut) for each tip you get. The tip holders are hard to separate from a tip, and having a tip holder for each tip means you can easily change tips even with the iron hot. It comes in black and green, in case you run separate tips for leaded and lead-free solder and want to color-code them:
Black (3IT1040-00)Green (3IT1045-00)(Sadly, the green ones aren't actually nearly as vibrant a green as the pictures.)