Having trouble soldering heavier gauge wires to the ESC?

[Dylwad]

Maybe this will help

Shown is high quality 24 gauge wire, and the stock 28 gauge or whatever battery wires.

Strip around 1/4" of insulation off the ends of the wires



Twist them together



Tin them



Cut short pieces of heat shrink tubing, I used 3/64th stretched out a little bit to fit



Shrink them on the ends of the wires



Cut the tinned wires short and solder to the ESC



And solder to the main board



Much easier and cleaner than trying to solder wires over the top of wires already soldered to the esc, as many of you have probably found out can be tricky!

Dylan

[Bladecpnitro]

Its darn near impossible to solder 1 wire on top of another without the bottom one coming off or moving out of its place.

I had about decided I was gonna have to use 2 extra long wires and fold them over, skin and twist them to solder to the esc. Then solder the short ends to the board and long ends to the battery connector. Which might work but your setup looks great.

I'm gonna have to get some wire and a connector. My battery lead mod has been pretty uneventful thus far.


That must be under a magnifying glass, I can't see mine near that good.

[Jodster]

Dylan. I'd love to see a video of you soldering these to the esc...
What temp do you have your iron at? Lead or silver solder?
I want to be able to make nice clean connections like that. Very nice work!!

[Dylwad]

You guys are going to hate me but...

I dont wear glasses, dont use "helping hands", dont use a magnifying glass of any sort. Iron set to 350C and I dont use a tiny tip on it.

63/37 no clean flux core solder (look up "eutectic solder") , no other flux used.

I use double stick duct tape on the edge of my bench to hold things in place, wipe the tip of the iron clean on a wet sponge and re-tin it right before every joint~the tip of the iron should be smoking when your soldering, if its not all the flux has burned off and you get a dull looking or cold joint. I position the tube of solder next to the joint I'm making so I can clean/tin/solder in one motion.

And a good pair of stainless tweezers...

And I'm in my mid Thirties

Pictures were taken with a cheap Canon DSLR with the kit lens in manual focus.

[Bladecpnitro]

Hey Dylan, right above that main motor FET there are 2 little pins sticking up. Are they bridged together?

When I pulled my ESC up originally to do the battery lead to esc mod, it pulled my once repaired tail FET loose. I got that fixed but during the process I mistakenly touched the top of that Main motor FET with the soldering iron and I'm wondering if that's where my motor problems are coming from. This morning I absorbed all the solder off the top of that main FET into some wire and resoldred the top of the main FET. But it looks like those 2 pins above the FET are bridged together.

I know if the tail FET has solder touching a pin its not supposed to the tail motor will start and stop with very little power just like my main motor is doing.

[Dylwad]

Originally Posted by Bladecpnitro

Hey Dylan, right above that main motor FET there are 2 little pins sticking up. Are they bridged together?

When I pulled my ESC up originally to do the battery lead to esc mod, it pulled my once repaired tail FET loose. I got that fixed but during the process I mistakenly touched the top of that Main motor FET with the soldering iron and I'm wondering if that's where my motor problems are coming from. This morning I absorbed all the solder off the top of that main FET into some wire and resoldred the top of the main FET. But it looks like those 2 pins above the FET are bridged together.

I know if the tail FET has solder touching a pin its not supposed to the tail motor will start and stop with very little power just like my main motor is doing.

fyi the esc and main board used for the pics are both bad, main board has binding problems, esc has flashing pads ripped off of it.

But that main board has never seen solder except for the signal and power wires.

sometimes a bad main fet will cause problems with the brushless signal, might try removing the fet and solder signal to the pad on the board?

Sent from tapatalk

[lespaulrob]

Dylan just does the solder with the power of his mind, all Jedi style!

Great post, Dylan! Thanks for this.

Originally Posted by Jodster

Dylan. I'd love to see a video of you soldering these to the esc...
What temp do you have your iron at? Lead or silver solder?
I want to be able to make nice clean connections like that. Very nice work!!

[Bladecpnitro]

Originally Posted by Dylwad

fyi the esc and main board used for the pics are both bad, main board has binding problems, esc has flashing pads ripped off of it.

But that main board has never seen solder except for the signal and power wires.

sometimes a bad main fet will cause problems with the brushless signal, might try removing the fet and solder signal to the pad on the board?

Sent from tapatalk

I resoldered my main FET and ran a new heavier signal wire to the main FET but it didn't change the motor from starting and stopping over and over like its been doing lately. Five turns on the blades and it quits, over and over if I leave the throttle cracked.

Last time I tried the Nano to test my main FET resolder job, I was disappointed but not surprised to find the main motor still slowly starting and stopping with a little throttle cracked on. I decided to check voltage on the esc motor leads at the plug while it was doing this with the throttle cracked just a little. As I moved my tester from lead to lead a few times, the Nano springs to life, spools up and runs. Now I'm thinking its been the plug all the time. I must have wiggled that plug 20 times, bent the prongs on it trying to get it to come back to life.

My Nano had got to where it would cut off about once out of every 4 packs and drop to the ground but pick right back up and go again with out issue. When I did the battery lead to ESC mod I also bent the prongs on the motor plug for a tighter fit hoping to stop that occasion shut down. The motor never worked right again and sent me on a wild goose chase from hell.

Because I had just soldered battery leads to the esc and mistakenly touched the main FET with the soldering Iron while resoldering the tail fet ( the esc sticky tape jerked the once repaired tail FET loose when I removed the esc and the tail motor wouldn't run) I thought the main motor problems had something to do with my battery to esc mod or touching the main FET with the soldering iron. Near as I can tell it was in the motor plug all the time.

I got 2 packs on it tonight after working on it all day wednesday and tonight after work. Its either the motor plug or the motor wires. If my motor cuts out any more I'm gonna solder the motor leads strait to the ESC.
May do it anyway but I'm gonna have to fly it a while first.


I'm using an MCX2 battery plug soldered onto servo wire right now. Its wires are tinier wire than the stock Nano wire. I have my battery leads soldered where the esc solders to the board right now but will get some wire and do it like you have it in this post that looks great. I'm glad its going again.

If my Nano's not working nothing else flys until till its fixed.
My other helis are jealous of the Nano LOL!

[Miracle Boy]

Originally Posted by Dylwad

You guys are going to hate me but...

I dont wear glasses, dont use "helping hands", dont use a magnifying glass of any sort. Iron set to 350C and I dont use a tiny tip on it.

63/37 no clean flux core solder (look up "eutectic solder") , no other flux used.

I use double stick duct tape on the edge of my bench to hold things in place, wipe the tip of the iron clean on a wet sponge and re-tin it right before every joint~the tip of the iron should be smoking when your soldering, if its not all the flux has burned off and you get a dull looking or cold joint. I position the tube of solder next to the joint I'm making so I can clean/tin/solder in one motion.

And a good pair of stainless tweezers...

And I'm in my mid Thirties

Pictures were taken with a cheap Canon DSLR with the kit lens in manual focus.

Dylan,

I must say I'm impressed that you can solder these tiny joints without the aid of any magnification. Kudos to you my friend!!

I've been looking up Eutectic solder and I've been reading some very conflicting information.

Some state that Eutectic solider is a 37/63 mix of silver & copper, while others state that it's a mix of 37/63 of tin & lead.

This is most confusing!! Can you confirm what the Eutectic 37/63 solder you are using is made of please.

Thanks!!

[NCcraig]

Originally Posted by Miracle Boy

Dylan,

I must say I'm impressed that you can solder these tiny joints without the aid of any magnification. Kudos to you my friend!!

I've been looking up Eutectic solder and I've been reading some very conflicting information.

Some state that Eutectic solider is a 37/63 mix of silver & copper, while others state that it's a mix of 37/63 of tin & lead.

This is most confusing!! Can you confirm what the Eutectic 37/63 solder you are using is made of please.

Thanks!!

If it's the same solder I use, it is this,

http://www.digikey.com/product-detai...107-ND/2000378

[Miracle Boy]

Originally Posted by NCcraig

If it's the same solder I use, it is this,

http://www.digikey.com/product-detai...107-ND/2000378

Thanks NCCraig. If that's the same stuff Dylan is using, then it's 63% Tin, 37% Lead

Good to know!!! Alas, I'm struggling to find this through a UK supplier without paying a fortune for P&P from somewhere like Farnell. (p&p $20+)

[65L88]

Eutectic solder is 63% tin and 37% lead, and is preferred for many soldering jobs because it goes directly from a solid state to a liquid state whereas other solders will soften, the melt as they heat up.The advantage to this type of solder is easy to see.

[Miracle Boy]

Originally Posted by 65L88

Eutectic solder is 63% tin and 37% lead, and is preferred for many soldering jobs because it goes directly from a solid state to a liquid state whereas other solders will soften, the melt as they heat up.The advantage to this type of solder is easy to see.

I went to my parents house this evening and had a dig around and managed to find some 63/37 Tin Lead Kester solder that I must have aquired form my old work, So all good on that front.

I'm not trying to arge with you mate, but it seems that Eutectic solder is not exclusively a Tin Lead mix. Audiophiles for example like this stuff

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/3008532433...84.m1423.l2649

Which is a quad mix of Silver, Copper, Tin & Lead (not sure what the %ages are)

This is the site where I read that Eutectic Solder was purely a Silver & Copper mix??

http://www.myuniquesolutions.com/page11.html

I also found a tri mix of 2% Silver, 36% Lead & 62% Tin which is also classed as Eutectic solder

[Dylwad]

Originally Posted by NCcraig

If it's the same solder I use, it is this,

http://www.digikey.com/product-detai...107-ND/2000378

That's the stuff

[65L88]

Originally Posted by Miracle Boy

I went to my parents house this evening and had a dig around and managed to find some 63/37 Tin Lead Kester solder that I must have aquired form my old work, So all good on that front.

I'm not trying to arge with you mate, but it seems that Eutectic solder is not exclusively a Tin Lead mix. Audiophiles for example like this stuff

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/3008532433...84.m1423.l2649

Which is a quad mix of Silver, Copper, Tin & Lead (not sure what the %ages are)

This is the site where I read that Eutectic Solder was purely a Silver & Copper mix??

http://www.myuniquesolutions.com/page11.html

I also found a tri mix of 2% Silver, 36% Lead & 62% Tin which is also classed as Eutectic solder

Technically, a eutectic system is any combination of elements or compounds that, in combination, will melt at a lower temperature than the individual elements or compounds will by themselves.The so-called eutectic solders, unless I'm mistaken, are blended so that the proportion of metals is such that all metals reach their melting point at the same time and so the solder will instantly become fluid at that temperature, rather than going from solid to plastic to a molten phase. There are lots of "eutectic" solders actually, copper and silver being sort of a 'natural" eutectic system as their melting points are nearly the same, so the proportion can be any percentage desired unlike other metals that have different melting points. This same system applies to igneous rocks ( I'm a geologist) and explains why a particular combination of minerals (say, quartz, feldspar, and hornblende, for instance) can form so many different types of rock (granite, diorite, syenite, granodiorite, etc) out of one body of magma or lava.(these aren't the exact rocks you will get out of this particular mix, but you can take my point).

Of course, my discussion is an oversimplification of what really happens, as the interactions can be very complex, depending on how many metals or compounds we're talking about. This link is a bit more detailed for those who might have an interest:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eutectic

BTW, it follows that technically, all solders are eutectic, by the strict definition of the word......

PS, no offense taken, Miracle Boy. I hope I didn't bore you or anyone else to tears....

[Miracle Boy]

Originally Posted by 65L88

Technically, a eutectic system is any combination of elements or compounds that, in combination, will melt at a lower temperature than the individual elements or compounds will by themselves.The so-called eutectic solders, unless I'm mistaken, are blended so that the proportion of metals is such that all metals reach their melting point at the same time and so the solder will instantly become fluid at that temperature, rather than going from solid to plastic to a molten phase. There are lots of "eutectic" solders actually, copper and silver being sort of a 'natural" eutectic system as their melting points are nearly the same, so the proportion can be any percentage desired unlike other metals that have different melting points. This same system applies to igneous rocks ( I'm a geologist) and explains why a particular combination of minerals (say, quartz, feldspar, and hornblende, for instance) can form so many different types of rock (granite, diorite, syenite, granodiorite, etc) out of one body of magma or lava.(these aren't the exact rocks you will get out of this particular mix, but you can take my point).

Of course, my discussion is an oversimplification of what really happens, as the interactions can be very complex, depending on how many metals or compounds we're talking about. This link is a bit more detailed for those who might have an interest:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eutectic

BTW, it follows that technically, all solders are eutectic, by the strict definition of the word......

PS, no offense taken, Miracle Boy. I hope I didn't bore you or anyone else to tears....

Hey 65L88,

Good write up!! I read this myself and thought about putting a link to the wiki page above, but I decided I didn't want to bore you or anyone else with it LOL!!

I'm actually quite interested in what you were saying about rocks. I'd never really thought about it, but now that I have, I suppose that makes perfect sense, although I'd think that the melting point temperatures might be a little bit higher. LOL!!


Anyway, getting rather off topic now. Sorry OP!!

[mark '87 930]

Old thread.. I know.. I have a question about the battery end of the 24 gauge wires, the connector. Are you guys using the stock connector and removing the wires from the pins (to then later reattach the thicker wires to), or are you purchasing a new connector altogether?

[Guapo131]

This connector (from AD) For The Win! But unfortunately out of stock right now.

I guess you could try this website for a pre-soldered lead/connector, link.

[Dylwad]

Originally Posted by guapo131

This connector (from AD) For The Win! But unfortunately out of stock right now.

I guess you could try this website for a pre-soldered lead/connector, link.

Bam! back in stock

This connector comes in the kits, I will also have stock of the slightly lower quality, but pre crimped connectors with wire soon.

[Dustin Mustangs]

A word of warning about those... be kind to your terminals! My fat fingers bent them a few (ok, more than a few) times getting the connector on and off. Eventually I ended up with a huge loss in power that I could not track down. A couple more bends and one finally broke. Stuck a new connector on and the power was back to normal. Be careful with them and if you do bend one you might just want to leave it that way as apposed to bending it back straight.

Not complaining as this was my fault, just something to watch out for.