I've got some gear like table saws and planers where I'd like to reduce both the kick and inrush current, and the obvious solution is one of the vast number of mystery-meat 2- and 3-pin soft starters available from places like Aliexpress and eBay, things like
this. In particular one of the items, a mitre saw, has close to zero space to fit anything so even the smaller 2-pin device is going to be a challenge to install.
Does anyone know what the difference is between the 2- and 3-pin devices? Given the tiny size I assume there's not much more than a thermistor in there, but why 2 vs. 3 pins, and is there any inherent drawback to the 2-pin form?