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> Obviously the one crucial bit of having the Pinecil actually functional is having software support for the device.

Personally, I would’ve thought the one crucial bit of a functional soldering iron is to deliver enough thermal power at the tip to melt solder. All the software in the world won’t help if the hardware can’t manage that.

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Apparently the quality of the temperature control also matters quite a bit. It seems the TS100 has little problem in either of those departments https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgrB5P-rDLw https://hackaday.com/2017/07/24/review-ts100-soldering-iron/ , especially if you use a 24V power supply. It's also embarrassingly cheap compared to the mid-spec soldering irons from prestige brands which it tends to match.

ts100 with a 4S lipo at ~14v has no issues getting to temp or staying at temp. it's great kit, highly recommend. this pine64 pencil looks awesome.

Delivering enough power is the easy part. As a kid I bought a bunch of unregulated soldering irons that cooked their own tip.

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