How to Install a Hall Effect Sensor on the Pinecil

The Pinecil 64 is a portable soldering iron that heats up in 6 seconds just by plugging it in to a power source. The convenience of this tool also brings some safety concerns: the Pinecil doesn’t turn off immediately when put down on the table or display that the tip is hot. To avoid being burnt by the hot tip or unintentionally causing a fire, we can implement the Pinecil by installing a Hall Effect Sensor.

What is a Hall Effect Sensor and what does it do?

The Hall Effect Sensor detects the presence or change in magnetic fields. If the change passes a certain preset threshold, the sensor sends a signal. In this case regarding Pinecil 64, we are using digital Hall Effect Sensor Si7210.

The Si7210 Hall Effect Sensor at U14

How to install it?

Aleksa Angjeliu Soldering

Referring to the schematics, we can see that there is a reserved spot for our Hall Effect Sensor: U14. Be careful to differentiate U10 and U14, U14 is on the same side with the display screen. Then, start soldering! It is best to test for shorts using a multimeter before plugging it in.

This is the wrong side! DO NOT solder here

If everything works out, the Pinecil should immediately goes into sleep mode when the front of the Pinecil body approaches a magnet, displaying “Zzzzzz” on the screen before temperature.

Best of luck!

-Jenny Tang