USB soldering iron test and teardown with schematic. 

at this point, i'm basically watching your videos because soldering is the most satisfying thing to watch ever.

Bought it half a year ago. Had problems with the capacitance switch while powered from the powerbank, didn't trigger. Stripped it, removed all the funny stuff driving the mosfet and installed a small switch to polarize the gate. I carry it everyday with my 5V 2A powerbank, love it a lot! The look on somebody's face when I pull a soldering iron out of my bag and just run it off a powerbank, priceless. Great for small stuff.

Mine arrived yesterday and didn't work. The red light comes on but there was no heat. I opened it up and one of the wires going to the tip wasn't soldered on! The irony. :-)

So Clive, I bought this iron solely because of your review. I must say I'm impressed! Very fast heat, very fast cooling. Stays clean and works just beautifully. Thanks for the review!

Now that's my kind of soldering iron!

Good old 555, nice to see it's still being used.

Soon as you said "NE555" I started laughing. Never thought I'd see one of those in new production stuff. And the intentional use of the non-ideal specs of the diode is quite a nice touch. The person who designed this thing knows their stuff, and is almost certainly Old School. There's a spot-welder at my dad's auto repair shop that uses one of those to control how long the current is on, triggered by a switch on one of the electrode handles. From what I can tell, the thing's from the 70's or 80's.

I have one of these and was similarly impressed. I keep it around in my backpack these days, just in case (I also carry around a power bank for general use). I replaced the dodgy minijack thing in the back with a miniUSB connector, so I wouldn't have to carry around its special snowflake cable. Not something I'd use daily, but having it around has saved my ass a couple times already.

Haha! I just tested out the '3D printing clean up tool' version of this and did the same thing with the collet, I thought the cap unscrewed too... Seems like they're the same device.

You should mod the USB lead to have a ground clip on the end of it for clipping onto grounded things so the suppression cap isnt an issue

Don’t care how old this video is.. I watch all your videos I can.. love them all!!

I've had one of these for the past almost two years, amazing little soldering iron. Very glad it got a great review by big Clive! Only problem with it is its hard to find spare tips for. I have found one site probably 6-12 months back, but forget what it was.

Is there anything they won't power by USB?

FYI, NE555 can be reset mid-cycle. So if you keep your finger on the button, it should keep heating.

555 inside, can't be all evil :-) Nice little circuit.

Clive you have opened up the whole world of electronics to me. I had literally 0 interest before I saw a few of your videos and since then I've been left with this massive thirst for knowledge and info. I am going to start soldering like you suggest and then maybe have a go at some of those LED light kits. Thanks again Clive, if we ever happen to be in the same town I will buy you a drink! or dinner ;)

But Clive you didn't tell us how suprised you were by the USB soldering iron. I was waiting for you to tell us how suprised you were by it. Were you suprised by it? Was it a suprise? I'm suprised you didn't tell us...

This is shockingly very useful for small repairs when you're out and have a portable power bank. I might actually pick one up. I don't know how many times I've wished I had a small soldering iron to fix little things when I'm out of the house.

I use this little iron for re-soldering and repairing USB ports on tablets and phones - it's the perfect sized tip and gives out just enough heat for those tricky little smt solder dabs. Nice to see I wasn't the only one impressed by it!

My one looks just like it and I didn't realise Clive had a video on it until this old video popped up in my recommendations today. Unlike that the one featured here, mine would only run off a mains USB charger, so I did as Clive told me in a comment of another video, bridge out the drain+source pins. It now works well on power banks and great not having it cut out every few seconds. I now use it as my main iron as the power lead is not cumbersome like the chunky lead on my mains iron. It runs for around 4 hours continuous on my 10,000mAh bank. The only minor issue is that it can slide all the way through the hole in a typical soldering iron stand.

I was as surprised as you how good it actually works. it took me back as I expected nothing really when I purchased one.

I find it very funny that this was the next video after a video in which mikeselectricstuff said, word for word, "If you see someone trying to sell a 5V soldering iron, laugh at them"

I think I was just as surprised as Clive, if not more so, when he soldered that resistor; it warmed up quickly, and the solder melted FAST! I was expecting him to have to hold it at the joint for at least 10 seconds or so. This seems to be a fairly decent backup for non-critical (ESD-sensitive, etc.) applications, although I do share Clive's concern over the leakage current. To be fair though, quite a few of the vacuum-tube instruments I own have very similar leakage currents and voltages, or at least the ones to which I have not yet added a 3-wire power cord; my Knight KG-650 R.F. signal generator is a noteworthy death trap (120 VAC on the 'isolated' chassis!). Thanks for the detailed tear-down, Clive!

This was a fun little soldering iron while it lasted. It was easy to work on smaller soldering joints with than my previous main soldering iron. However, two weeks ago the tip of mine broke and the price for a new tip wasnt really worth it IMO. So instead I bought myself a pinecil with 11 extra tips so far I'm quite happy with the choice.

Seems to be better than the $30 2 AA battery soldering iron I bought a few years ago that can't solder shit.

hi clive! awesome channel, i love your videos. recently i've bought one of theese usb soldering irons and i converter the 555 based circuit to run at about 2 hz 50% duty cicle and i removed the touch button and inserted instead a normal push button to force down the timing cap (so all time heater on). with this config the soldering iron is awesome! bye ;)

Just received one via eBay that purported to be the same -- and looks the same externally with "8w" spec, but turns out to be arguably a bit better. Cap a lot easier to pull off. Instead of a finicky touch sensitive switch there's a positive action on/off push button that looks exactly the same, and (as far as I know so far) there's no automatic turn off after 25-30 seconds, you just push the button again to turn it off. Blue LED. Gray collar instead of yellow. $10 from U.S. shipper (so a bit more than from China with a long wait). Heats within 15 seconds, as promoted. Very nice little tool. Thanks for the review!

I bought one of these to pick up soldering and electronics (as well as a larger 40w unit) and I found that I don't even touch the big iron... the small tip really makes this a handy little device. I made the exact same mistake you did with trying to unscrew the cap, thought it was broke for a while until I pieced that part together. Felt like an idiot, glad to see I'm not the only one who did that It's cool, you can plug it in and within about 5 seconds the tip is ready to go, and the needle tip and low power makes it a lot easier to keep yourself away from all other nearby connections.I haven't really tried anything too heavy with it but it's performed great on everything I've tried it with. Thought the use of the 1/8" /3.5mm jack was a bit odd, never seen it used for power before only audio.

Such a clever yet simple circuit to control the iron power! Not heard of 555 being used in decades!

right, so ill buy this, and make my projects at the bus stop while i wait, and get arrested for making shifty things in plain view... bit dodgy...

I have one of these, had it long before your video in fact. She is not without a down side, for one the male plug is troublesome you see I was in the habit of using her for short jobs then just unplugging it from the iron side and laying the plug aside. I had it hooked to a 110 to 5 volt multi outlet USB charger device that puts out lots of power. Anyhow one day the plug fell against something that shorted it out. I could smell something burning, and like an idiot I began to feel around. I now have a perfect mark of that plug on my left hand, man that thing was HOT. My chair nearly burst into flames because the cord was against the upholstery (i do my work in a recliner, not a great idea but the only comfortable place I have to sit any more). I went back to using my regular regulated 110 volt iron and unplug her from the wall when not in use, the little iron is in her box and used only when I have just a couple of joints to solder. Also she gets way to hot if used to say, put together a kit. I have several I was putting together for Christmas to sit on the dash of our motor home that have the traces burned off, We are always living in the motor home in the winter months down in Arizona, avoiding the cold and snow of the Dakotas.

Thank you so much for this video, I know it's over a year old but I just recently saw it. Was so impressed I bought one. It didn't work. Figuring it would cost more to send back than just buying a new one I just bought another and emailed the company and let them know it was DOA. The day after receiving the replacement I got another. The company had sent me a replacement free of charge. With the second one I was able to fix the first. I now have 3 for the price of 2 and I am very happy with them!! Thanks to this video and you I also know how to remove the replaceable tips.

I'm glad I saw your most recent 2021 version of a rechargeable portable soldering iron. It gave me a chance to compare it to this earlier USB version. The latter type reviewed here by Clive; I would say may have been updated to current day standards. Though like Clive has stated this wee iron could handle a soldering job very well. It fared well during the practical usage test with the given circuit board and various components. The solder flowed smoothly onto the two surfaces to make good electrical contact. I am impressed at how cleanly the joints; with solid connects the little soldering iron made each time.

They have improved this a lot over the years. I had one before you did your video on them and it was a real pain in the ass to use, kept timing out and didn't read the touch sensor most of the time. I decided to give it another try last year and ordered another. They have fixed the problem, it is no longer a touch sensor, but a push button and she doesn't time out as quickly either. Now it is a nice little iron and can do a lot of work without having to toss it up against the wall to get it to come back on.

Wow that's cool! I might have to get one now. Also +3 internets for conversational use of "aplomb"!

Got it recently and just love it. It's amazing for the little joints i would do anyway, no need to wait for my Antex to heat up anymore. All the short sessions were easily managed even with a Poundland's single cell powerbank.

Hi Clive, great video, bought one a few weeks ago, works fine. Quick tip, spare pack of tip sections are available from Maplin Martin

So this would be about $10 Canadian and $150 Australian.

Thank you very much. I thought mine were defective. That bit about the collar saved me.

Cool, you have just answered some questions that have been bothering me for some time. I first saw one of these on another channel some time ago, and ordered one in from China. It was an earlier model with no touch pad, but seemed like the real deal. The one I have came with a cord that had two plugs on the USB in side, and a USB mini on the output side of the cable. It generated plenty of heat, in fact I had problems with it burning off pads if I held it on for to long. A few days ago I tore down some kits that I had ruined with the iron, an discovered over half the LED's had failed, my guess was that those were the ones where my power pack went dead and I Plugged it into a wall wart. At any rate it now lays in the tool box in my motor home as I deemed it only useful for on the road emergencies. I had thought it the real answer to soldering in my easy chair as it heated up so quickly and was so easy to use. Perhaps I will try the newer version now and see if that works better, and now that I understand where the problems lay, it may solve some problems. Thankfully I found a nicer 110 volt that I can use at my chair now, heats up very fast and has replaceable tips, and a thermostat on the handle that actually works fairly well.

I bought this little soldering iron, and it is amazing. I am not some pro but, I done many home projects with it, fixing some stuf etc.

I got one, and it really does work. Its by no means the best iron ever, but its remarkable how much it doesnt suck. I think it will be hand for times that I want 2 irons at the same time.

Kind of put of by the Chinglish instructions: Method: 1.Open the iron burger skull, not to the left twist, pull off can be used directly. If left to turn the screw wrench to Gary, iron head shaking does not connect, unable to work! Then cover the right screw directly pull under it. 2. The product switch is the human body induction switch, the hand holds the handle 5 seconds to begin to heat up, after leaving the handle, the handle will slow down. 3. The power supply is best to convert the USB power supply, computer power supply, or more than ten thousand Ma mobile power supply. Small capacitance of the mobile power will not move!

You don't have to apologize for your speech or for your lack of 100% understanding of the workings of the device the second you opened it. Those are the things a lot of us come here to watch.

The good performance is all due to the near perfect thermal coupling between the heater wire and the tip because those are one indivisible part.

I bought one of these a while ago and like you did at first, I unscrewed the cap to remove it, and the thing completely failed to work, so I complained and was given a refund. I later bought another one, which arrived today and I watched your video and realised my mistake. Now, I feel guilty about that refund...

I bought myself one of these years ago because it cost less than a new bit for my Antex mini iron (an original but still works) and I just needed to do a quick job to repair a mod, did the job and I was very happy, I have bought a couple of new irons since as I am getting into back into little projects and it is easier than changing bits for different jobs

dang good little soldering iron i have had one for a couple of months and it still surprises me as what it can do (if you respect its low-ish power) i would recommend one to anyone BUT NOT to use from a standard PC or laptop. i use it from a converted PC PSU/bench PSU

The same product is sold at Jaycar Electronics in Australia. All 5 soldering irons on the shelf were visibly opened and returned because the previous customers assumed they were broken. It turns out I'm not the only one that twisted off the plastic cap...

Oh so mains voltage present at the tip due to capacitive coupling explains why my Hakko FX-951 and other decent transformer based soldering stations have the tip connected to mains ground? To bleed off the capacitive build up of mains voltage at the tip before it builds to a dangerous level for components?

8:15 damn waste of a joint then.

Modified mine to work with an onboard 18650 and used it to solder my car alarm in. Works reaaaallly well and is one of my favorite irons. Initially modified it because I hate proprietary connectors that turn USB into a stupid headphone jack or the like. Anything I get like that instantly gets ripped apart and has a micro female port butchered on. Also stuck a charge controller on it so now I can plug it into any USB socket and have it charge, and then solder cordlessly.

Delivered from China for less than 30% of the price of a Metcal tip. Mindblowing. Not sure if I'd ever need one but can't resist buying one.

should have tested the temp

thats really impressive, several years ago I was given a AA battery powered soldering iron that according to amazon was ~$45 and it forced me to do all my soldering between two poorly forged metal prongs on the tip making it utterly useless for anything that required fine detail, not only that but it could barely melt solder even when something like a wire or a board wasn't there pulling heat from it. Seeing a soldering iron that can, off a usb power bank, for that little money, over that little current successfully flow solder on a joint like that was really interesting. I'd love to see how it handles various gauges of wire.

Awesome Video, Schematic & Teardown Clive. Very Cool. I love these Irons & I've been using them for years now and they are fantastic I've had no issues using an Apple plug too. Keep up the great work. Nick.

I'm sold. Just placed my order for 2 of them on eBay. Thanks for the great review!

finally, a good youtuber that comes from the uk

Just got mine, BT-8U slightly different toggle switch on body and a 3.5 mono jack to USB cable. It is very light and feels like the weight of a biro and is very comfortable in hand and there is no fight with the power cable. It's actually enjoyable working with it. First Job I gave it was resoldering a microusb socket on to a board on a battery bank of course the wires from the battery to the board broke off so I had to do those wires as well. The pins on usb micro B are about 0.4 mm wide and quite tightly spaced, so having a tip fine enough for my shaky hands to do the job was ideal. I had to use a magnifying glass on my third hand in order to focus on where i was placing the tip. I would have destroyed the board with my regular iron. It's very quick to heat up and cool down and being able to switch the power off I was able to melt the solder on the board for a hole and power off and spin the tip in the hole making reattaching the battery cables much easier. Jobs done and the PCB didn't get overheated. Cost me 12 euro to repair a powerbank that cost me 10 (Amazon charge 21.47 sterling for this 10,800mah juicebank out of stock). So still a win for me. If I hadn't been able to fix the connector I would probably modded the powerbank with a couple of wires to charge from an old powerbank. Thanks Clive for the review it was worth it even with the mark up to get it from Dublin instead of China :) There is an interesting russian video ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-XdJavqX-90U.html where he modified the circuit so it has a variable duty cycle and thus some temperature control. It might be nice to revisit the subject.

I've had one of these for ages, generally using it very happily, but I recently bought a "Hakko 191" soldering iron thermometer (I include quote marks, there, as it cost me less than £10 from AliExpress, and the top segment of the most-significant-digit of the LCD doesn't work, so I've no idea how accurate it is). So I decided to see how hot this tiny little USB iron gets to. The 191's display instantly jumped to the mid-400s and climbed all the way to around 570°C! At one point, with a bit of wiggling of the tip, it actually displayed around 620°C! (Bearing in mind the Hakko 191's Type-K thermocouple is rated for 0-600°C use, so it actually took the thermocouple out of range!) Clive, if your iron thermometer is a little more reliable than mine, could you give that a test? 600°C from USB, and onto components that aren't going to necessarily like that level of heat, is a bit terrifying! That would certainly explain why I've so easily damaged a few PCBs with it in the past - both pulling smaller tracks straight off the board, and then even burning the board itself (I'd say FR4, but it was one of these odd white PCBs from China so it may well not be FR4). It's definitely an impressive and very handy iron, and I've preferred it over various others I have which cost me much more money, but with great power comes great responsibility, I guess... (I now have a "HYLKKO 998D" soldering station with hot air gun, so the USB thing has been relegated to being a handy portable thing for working in/around the car or whatever)

When I started to teach myself electronics the 555 timer chip was one I started with it is a really neat chip to play around with but I never would have thought of it in this manner - really cool - Thanks Clive for sharing- two thumbs up !!!

mine arrived earlier this week and I also unscrewed the cap and wondered why it wouldn't work for a minute!..a handy tool for next to no money!

These are perfectly capable of soldering the cheapie Chinese electronics kits, and are intrinsically pretty safe for those likely to leave irons unattended. Our Occupational Therapists use these as part of their "improving fine manual dexterity" programme for our post-Stroke Patients - along with the ubiquitous "Chinese LED Clock Kits" :-)

It is very surprising to me that it actually soldered well. I was sitting here thinking "oh there's no way it will solder, or if it does not as well." Color me impressed. EDIT: Nevermind, found my answer in a comment below.

Hey, what a great little tool for the small stuff ! Its not like we all dont have several soldering irons but, its just a handy little tool !

My mate has one of these irons and it didn't seem too clever running from usb so we cut off the usb plug and wired it into an old pc power supply that he uses as a bench supply. The iron is absolutely brilliant now and is used more than his "propper" iron :)

Can the USB power units have a ground resistor added to them to drain off the parasitic voltage ? that way you would be able to use a mains powered supply and have a grounded tip at the same time.

I am using this for over one year, and for small projects it works perfectly

I bought one of these for a laugh - as I guess most do - but I was very pleasantly surprised. It's perfect for more delicate soldering jobs - it's particularly excellent at soldering header pins onto Arduinos and Raspberry Pi's, runs happily off a powerbank I have and it's faster warming and cooling than my decent 'normal' quality iron. For that odd job every now and again I think it's excellent for the price. I wouldn't fancy using it with a mains charging brick mind!

Working with it no where near mains noise meant I was forever tapping it to keep it on. I bypassed it as others have done and now it just on all the time and brilliant.

Clive, didn't you test a NICD battery powered iron a while back? This isn't a lot different except that the battery is on your belt or the table. As for a 6W iron, back in the 1960s my father worked at Spectrol, and they used 6W 6V transformer-powered irons for all their work. He brought one home and we used it for decades for the majority of PCB work. Only rarely did I have to resort to a larger iron. That iron gave up the ghost some decades ago, but I was able to get an exact replacement, made by some English company as I recall. I used that up till about 10 years ago when I finally bought a Chinese combination solder/desolder/hot air gun soldering station. I still think the 6W things are great little irons. Weigh about half an ounce and the 4' of twisted pair cable is almost weightless too.

I was hesitant to buy this based on the Amazon reviews, but based on your tear-down I went ahead and picked it up. Like you I am surprised that it actually works very well. Thank you for the review, it is exactly what I needed for my project.

I'm sold! Perfect for those quick fixes where you don't want to bring out the big soldering station.

A surprising find and looks like it could be really handy for quick, light jobs in the field.

i wonder if those soldering iron tips are still available to buy on ebay and how much. Excellent as usual, mister Clive.

Hey, I'm new to soldering and working with electrical circuit analysis. Where would you get those kits? They seem like a good way to practice soldering and understand how circuits work.

I'm amazed as you are that it actually manages to function, but I'll be sticking to my Portasol butane-powered iron for mobile work.

I've just figured out why I really enjoy listening to you ramble on about soldering....... It's because you pronounce it "SoLdering" and not "Soddering". Maybe I shouldn't get miffed when I hear it pronounced wrong, but I guess that could be classified as one of my "Bad" points. 🤷🤷🤷 So, Thumbs Up to You 👍👍👍

This looks pretty convincing, I once had one that seemed to try an solder between two pieces of graphite, that was not very good at all and there was a measurable voltage between the 'probes'.

One problem that doesn't come up in testing is that, after a while, the ceramic insulation between the two poles of the heating element can crumble, shorting the connection. I made a wooden ring from a sliver of toothpick, which kept it going till i got a replacement. I now have these all over. One at home, one at work, a couple in tool boxes, so I usually have one to hand when I need one. oh, and de-soldering anything but the smallest connections is orders of magnitude more difficult than soldering :-)

Clive are you surprised how good it is it looks good to me just simple it works

I'll probably grab one of those. My main iron will be mostly in the garage on a workbench or in a shelve there, so when I need to do small work upstairs in my bed or hobbyroom, I wouldn't need to take everything downstairs all the way to the garage, although I'd need to keep a roll of solder around upstairs. But, it'd be pretty handy, and with a powerbank I could also take it on the go for other stuff. Since I've always been intrigued with near space ballooning, I could take it with me if I ever launch my own balloon, just in case I'd need to repair something (as I would use something like a Raspberry Pi or Arduino for GPS tracking next to a GSM system, redundancy would be key!). So definitely not just a silly USB gimmick. Can't beat it for 4 euros either.

Hi Clive... I bought a couple of these after seeing your review. Can't find a source for spare elements/bits but at this price I can just buy a new one and have a handy USB lead for future projects. I use it with a power bank like the one you're using. It won't replace my trusty Antex but it's handy for a quick soldering job which I can do in less time it takes for the Antex to warm up! It's also half the price of an Antex tip.

I've ordered a couple of these to play with. I'm hoping I can extend the 'on' time by customising the R/C on pins 6 & 7 of the 555. Greaat to see Julian Ilett giving one a go too. I bet sales are booming!

This is how impressed I was with the Radio Shack battery powered soldering iron. It really did heat up much faster and just generally seemed to work better than any of the mains pencil irons I had tried before. it doesn't work on really large stuff, especially when the batteries are running a little low, but it works for most of what I need it for. The only problem is the batteries don't last extremely long... I'm thinking about adding a DC jack to it.

I can't believe I haven't seen this video earlier! I have one of these soldering irons and I just love it. It's very fast. seems to be hot enough in about six or seven seconds. I have it in a little kit with a small 18650 power bank and it lasts a pretty good long time. It really does work surprisingly well.

Wow. Truly surprising. I said no right away when you mentioned the wattage, but oh did you prove me wrong. I'm into buying this thing, as I usually do repair work outside my little workshop, so this could really come in handy.

I bought one like... eight years back (holy crap I feel old X3), made by a company called Mega Power. Worked awesome, learned to solder with it by replacing capacitors on a motherboard. Didn't last though because I didn't know how to take care of it. Bought another one recently, thing's been redesigned and is complete crap. Melts solder but just barely. Super excited to find another one that works! :3

Think they might have changed these I got one a while back and recently just started to try use it as my main station finally died after 4 years the touch button is now just a tactile switch and heat retention was awful couldn’t even solder one connection before the iron went cold lol I was trying for 15 mins to get 2 battery terminals done and just gave up after just about getting one connected 😂 kinda sad as I want to get my project finished 😭 Great video Clive!!

Been enjoying your videos for awhile, Clive. Keep em up! Side note, as an American, I still can't get used to hearing "mains"

Clive, how come you never fix something like this to your liking & for your followers? This is the time to start because here is a truly USEFUL little item that many of us soldering iron collectors would actually use in certain circumstances. So FIX THE HIGH VOLTAGE problem for another vid and start empowering your audience more! Anyone have a link on this thing? This also reminds me long ago radio shack had thin strips of solder they sold as "Match Solder" and you could wrap two wires in it and light a cardboard match (which were given away free all over in banks and the like in those days) and permanently and decently connect 2 wires together. I remember buying my package for like $1.37 in our local strip mall's Radio Shack. That was all we had. THIS WOULD BE A BIG STEP UP FROM THAT! Other thoughts: At first I thought this was hokey but seeing it work and seeing a circuit in it seemed even hokier but that is probably meant to conserve battery power so it makes perfect sense along with the fact that chinese directions are always awful so they omit the statement that it should be used with a battery bank. You should try to run this thing from the "Inside a slightly bizarre car to mains adaptor" item featured in the video. PS: Seems we are having a nice thunder storm.

Should do a teardown of one of those cheap $8 adjustable soldering irons that look identical to the Hakko iron and takes the same tips.

Count me in on buying one - currently seeing them at $4.79 on eBay, shipping included from China or Hong Kong. I'm going for the latter, because HK Post seems to move significantly faster than China Post does. I've got plenty of beefy USB power banks, so that won't be an issue. First thing I think I've bought after seeing it in one of Clive's videos since those little LED circuit-board lights that plug into a USB port. ;)

Having seen these before, laughed at them and never gave it another thought, until now.. I am pleasantly surprised at how well it actually works! Another good find from the Electrical Bear ! :-)

Is there anything you can't do with a 555?

I wonder if that would work from a USB OTG device? Probably not due to the current limit, but it'd be weird seeing a smartphone or tablet powered soldering iron. . I wouldn't plug it into my gear, that's for sure.

I was wondering why my iron wouldn't heat up. Thanks for letting us know about the whole cap situation.

Bought one a few months ago, love it for small patch jobs with a 5 dollar usb battery. 10 dollars for a workable portable soldering iron.

The 100n on pin 5 (CV or Control Voltage) is just a decoupling cap (fitted when the pin is not used) and the 555 can be re-triggered. £3.50 post free, worth a look.

please don't requires about this item the same skills than a professionnal soldering station. It remain just an extra soldering iron to make little joint for repair some stuffs, on the table kitchen, or on a student office