
USB soldering irons make a good compromise between the low cost of a mains iron and not depending on mains power. As I quickly discovered when I bought a Silverline Tools 463429 USB iron, it would not function off a power bank. At first I thought it was faulty, but found it works fine once plugged into a mains USB charger, defeating the purpose I bought it for.
After watching a video by Big Clive of a different model with a tactile switch that runs fine off a power bank, I was considering purchasing one. However, I thought I would first try modifying mine to see if I could wire the tip directly to the USB input. Once I disassembled my USB iron, I realised a mod would be a lot easier than anticipated – Just bridge out the transistor that controls power to the tip. Even Clive had the same suggestion when I posted a comment about the issue with mine.
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