Hardware

For most hobbyist PCB work, the Pinecil V2 at around $26 is the best value soldering iron thanks to its USB-C PD and QC3.0 power flexibility, RISC-V open-source firmware (IronOS ), and sub-10-second heat-up time. But the Hakko FX-888D (now succeeded by the FX-888DX at around $130-150) remains the superior benchtop station for marathon soldering sessions due to its thermal recovery and ceramic heater. The Miniware TS101 at roughly $50-70 splits the difference as a portable iron with an OLED display and dual power input that handles everything from SMD rework to through-hole joints with interchangeable TS-series tips.

The three best ergonomic split keyboards for programmers in 2026 are the MoErgo Glove80 ($399, best overall comfort with contoured key wells and aggressive tenting), the ZSA Voyager ($365, best portable option with a low-profile design and magnetic tenting legs), and the Kinesis Advantage360 Pro ($499, best for deep key well fans with wireless ZMK firmware). All three offer full Linux support, open-source firmware tweaks, and columnar stagger layouts that cut finger strain on long coding days.

USB Power Delivery (USB-PD) is supposed to be the universal charging standard that ends cable chaos. In practice, plugging in the wrong cable or charger gives you a device that charges at 5W instead of 100W - or refuses to charge at all. The root cause is almost always one of three things: a cable rated below what the device needs, a charger that advertises high wattage but only supports a narrow set of voltage profiles, or confusion between USB-PD and the half-dozen proprietary fast-charging protocols that coexist with it.

Klipper is a 3D printer firmware that moves motion planning off the printer’s microcontroller. The work runs on a Raspberry Pi or similar single-board computer instead. You get faster print speeds (300-500mm/s on a tuned Voron), pressure advance for cleaner corners, input shaping to kill ringing artifacts, and live config changes with no re-flashing. Klipper paired with a Mainsail or Fluidd web UI on a Raspberry Pi 5 is now the default stack for serious 3D printing.

If you’ve been following the mechanical keyboard scene over the past couple of years, you’ve probably noticed Hall Effect keyboards moving from niche curiosity to genuine mainstream contender. The technology that was once confined to expensive custom builds and obscure group buys is now showing up in mid-range boards from Keychron, Razer, and SteelSeries. And at the top of the pile, two keyboards have emerged as the flagships of the Hall Effect world: the Wooting 80HE and the Geon Raw HE .

Fixing a broken mechanical keyboard PCB usually means re-soldering a loose hotswap socket or bridging a damaged trace with a small piece of wire. With a basic soldering iron, some flux, and a multimeter, you can fix the most common keyboard faults yourself. You don’t need to replace the whole keyboard. Most repairs take 15 to 30 minutes once you’ve found the fault.

ESD Safety First

Before you touch any PCB, set up your ESD (electrostatic discharge) precautions. A static jolt too small to feel can wreck the microcontroller or the key matrix diodes on a keyboard PCB. Two steps cover almost every build: