Wireless Otter-Iron???

[Maul81]

Could the Otter-Iron be powered by an integrated lithium battery? I would love to be able to loose the wires for those small jobs not requiring the full 65w of power. One could 3d print or machine a new enclosure with room for the battery

[Michael-Lloyd]

Not to push back against a good idea of some kind of portable power, but I imagine for the battery to be integrated and also supply enough power to make the iron sufficient for most solder alloys (something close to 18V, with at least 40W of discharge power)... the iron size would suffer.

The battery would probably need to be 5 to 6 cell, and without damaging the battery, probably not possible to fit into such a small soldering iron.

I have an alternative suggestion: A portable battery system that is designed to operate in conjunction with the Otter-Iron, preferentially using 18650 batteries (accessibility & power density) that charges over usb-pd, acts as a transceiver for the iron, as well as provides the iron a supply whilst charging.

There are a lot of possibilities that this opens, like a case (power-pack with a mechanical interface to safely store the iron) or a way to examine the health and forewarn the user if the iron's board has failed before it turns on.

Hopefully this is not too far from the original idea; Currently you require a cable, and that cable could already be tied to something portable, but often for some other consumer electronics (very unrelated) intent. Instead, you still have a cable but it's only attached to something on the desk while discharging, and you can take that anywhere.