Soldering Advice for Newbie on Mini's PowerPod

[Teirdome]

Heya gang,

In the power pod build video for the mini, Josh recommended soldering the motor directly to the ESC instead of going through a bullet connector. I'm genuinely terrible at soldering and quite scared to solder anything directly onto a circuit board. In one shot it looked like he soldered the wires of the motor to the wires of the ESC, and the other it looked like the motor was directly attached to the ESC.

How would you expert solderizers go about soldering the ESC and motor together? Any useful tips/videos for doing this?

 

[joshuabardwell]

It's a toss-up which one you do. You have to remove the shrink wrap on the ESC to solder the motor directly, so if you don't have replacement shrink wrap, solder the wires. The wires are quite thick, so I would suggest doing this: wrap the wires over-hand and then twist a thin solid-core wire around them in a big long spiral. Then heat the joint and flux in plenty of solder. An over-hand joint is not normally (IMO) strong enough to be trusted, but when combined with a solid wire twisted around them, there is plenty of mechanical strength (IMO).

Or just save yourself trouble and use bullet connectors.

 

[RAM]

Practice on something you don't care about until you get good at it. It's hard to explain and you can watch any number of youtube videos (and you should watch some to get a basic idea) but the best way is to practice getting just the right amount of heat where you need it.

The other thing is to keep surfaces clean. You can keep a wet sponge nearby to clean the iron tip.

You can get something called desoldering braid to help you remove the original wires. The braid is nice to have when you are new to it. The other thing to remember is tinning the soldering iron tip. It really helps to have a small bit of hot solder on the iron when you touch the solid wires you are removing (it causes better heat transfer and they melt quicker).

Next, tin the iron tip again and tin the ends of your new wires. You should have solder left where the old wires were removed (unless you used the braid). Try to pin the esc down with some weight. This way you only have to worry about moving the wire into place and holding the iron. If the tip of the iron is wetted with hot solder everything should flow together quickly once you touch it to the wire on the pad.

Practice first.

 

[RAM]

You asked for videos

 

[joshuabardwell]

You can get something called desoldering braid to help you remove the original wires. The braid is nice to have when you are new to it.

IMO, an inexperienced person is likely to get themselves into trouble with soldering braid. The industrial solder that comes on the board usually won't flow unless you add extra flux to it. An inexperienced person may keep applying heat, wondering why the solder isn't being taken up by the braid, until they overheat the pad and damage something. Obviously, if you are going to use soldering braid, you also need a flux pen. But I skip it entirely. To desolder, apply a little flux and/or put a smidge of rosin-core solder on the tip of the iron, then flow the joint and remove the existing wire. Just leave the factory solder on the pad. Add a bit of fresh solder to the pad on top of the old solder. Tin the new wire and solder it to the pad, re-using the old solder. This is not strictly textbook, but I've never had a problem with it.

 

[RAM]

IMO, an inexperienced person is likely to get themselves into trouble with soldering braid. The industrial solder that comes on the board usually won't flow unless you add extra flux to it. An inexperienced person may keep applying heat, wondering why the solder isn't being taken up by the braid, until they overheat the pad and damage something. Obviously, if you are going to use soldering braid, you also need a flux pen. But I skip it entirely. To desolder, apply a little flux and/or put a smidge of rosin-core solder on the tip of the iron, then flow the joint and remove the existing wire. Just leave the factory solder on the pad. Tin the new wire and solder it to the pad, re-using the old solder. This is not strictly textbook, but I've never had a problem with it.

I use a soldering gun. Don't tell anyone! I found out long ago that fast heat is better than slow heat

 

[rcspaceflight]

Or just save yourself trouble and use bullet connectors.

^ That.

It's not worth ruining an ESC trying to save a little weight. Plus bullet connectors are more serviceable.

 

[Teirdome]

Thanks all, helpful advice!

Trying to learn from youtube hasn't been super useful. With nearly every video, there's a bunch of comments underneath complaining that the author is bad and children laborers do a better job soldering. It seems like there's too much out there, and it's tough for a newbie to decipher what's good advice.

It's not worth ruining an ESC trying to save a little weight. Plus bullet connectors are more serviceable.

I would agree with you, but the wires on the motor for the mini are actually quite tiny (using a Suppo 1510). I could use 2mm connectors, but those seem like severe overkill.

 

[joshuabardwell]

Plus bullet connectors are more serviceable.

It's true. I direct-soldered my motors on my quad, but once upon a time when I thought I might have a bad ESC, I started to really regret it. I know people say bullet connectors can come loose, so direct-solder is more secure, but I've never had an issue with bullets coming loose on any of my planes. Then again, I haven't been flying that long. Maybe I'll regret it some day.

 

[rcspaceflight]

I tried to de-solder a camera and solder on a servo lead for the power supply. I ended up ruining a perfectly good $40 camera. I didn't know what I was doing and I still don't.

I also soldered motor wires directly to ESC wires and failed horribly at that. Soldering wire to wire isn't any easier.

 

[Biff45452]

I am a crimper. My first plane (FT Flyer) was started by trying to solder bullet connectors and I failed. I'm sure I could learn to solder but I wanted fast and mess free. So I bought a crimper and some Anderson powerpole connectors and it was a breeze. For my scout I'm going to have to use butt crimps because powerpoles are too large but I'm not looking back, for me crimping is the way to go.

 

[rcspaceflight]

I am a crimper. My first plane (FT Flyer) was started by trying to solder bullet connectors and I failed. I'm sure I could learn to solder but I wanted fast and mess free. So I bought a crimper and some Anderson powerpole connectors and it was a breeze. For my scout I'm going to have to use butt crimps because powerpoles are too large but I'm not looking back, for me crimping is the way to go.

I started with crimping but moved on to soldering. Bullet connectors aren't hard to solder. I keep the iron on it's stand, use a pliers to hold the bullet connector, hold the connector up to the iron then insert solder (flux core solder) into the little hole on top of the wire hole of the connector (if that makes sense). After I filled the wire hole in the connector (which is where I have the iron), I quickly remove the connector and shove my wire into it. Sometimes I have to re-heat it up because I didn't do it quickly enough. The only hard part is being quick enough to insert the wire. It's probably not the best soldering job, but I haven't had a wire pull out yet.

 

[Jon L]

I have found that using some rosin on the iron tip then touch to solder to get a drop on the iron then tin the wires. Flip the wire over and tin the other side. Once the wire is tinned it will it will be easy to solder. Hold the wire still until the solder cools.

 

[bjornendre]

Solder the wires, but dont make them to short. If you fail, just cut it a little, and try again.
Take some random wires, and practice on them. If the wires are thin, be quick when applying heat and solder. If the wires are thick, use the metod David shows here:

Soldering wires is safer than soldering to the ESC. Why? Cause if you fail, you can just cut it and try again... Just dont cut it to short!!

 

[RAM]

Like I said, practice on something you don't care about before you solder important things. Once you "get it", it will become second nature for you to make good solder joints.

 

[Jon L]

Thanks for the video. That is an excellent way to connect two wires.