Soldering Question with Mamba Max
 

Sorry for the double post, the page wasn't responding and I hit submit again, and then both showed up.

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I want to solder the motor leads directly to the ESC, the supplied ESC wires plus connectors are just way to long for my needs.

My problem is that I can't get the solder to melt on the ESC motor leads, the heat just gets sucked into the ESC and out the heatsink. It comes close to melting but not quite. I've got a weller WLC100 (40W) iron, I've tried both pencil and wedge tips, and it just doesn't seem to be able to deliver enough heat fast enough.

So I'm looking for a more powerful iron and was looking at the Weller SP80L ...

http://www.cooperhandtools.com/brand...c=037103169167

Can anyone who has worked with the Mamba Max please comment what kind of soldering iron they used with it, or if there is something I'm doing wrong.

I have never soldiered on a mamba max but my hakko iron is the best one I have owned. I had an ungar iron before. It was good but his Hakko is by far the best.

I use the Weller WES51 when I change the ones on my MM. The stock solder is hard to melt as I think it is high in silver content. One I get them off I use 60/40 rosin core solder and it is easy to remove the wires after that.

That beast will melt MM solder like butter.

its not the solder thats not wanting to melt the pc board is sucking all the power away
cut the wire about a half inch from the board
tin the wire stubs
and then you have soldering posts and you wont void the mamba max warrenty..

btw good luck getting the 12 guage motor wires in the holes.. been there done that i found the solder posts to be the best

My friend and I were just soldering Deans on our batteries and Castle Sidewinder ESCs just last night. I have a Hakko iron, (pretty certain it is the 455-16 40W / 1110 F). First time soldering deans. Anyway my friend managed to overheat one of his deans plugs so we knew the iron got plenty hot!

We had difficulty melting the solder on the pre-tinned battery leads. Yeah, could really feel the heat travel up through the wires. I pretty much just tinned the deans plug and let the solder on that flow onto the ESC battery leads.

you have to tin the deans quickly . too much heat will melt them . its not hard to do..

The first one is challenging to do when you've never done any soldering before.

I tried soldering desoldering three resistors off a circuit board once (1996 automobile instrument cluster) to replace them with leads and a larger single resistor mounted externally on its own heat sink. That was a disaster..ruined a trace. It turned out to be a five minute job for a TV repair man to repair the damaged trace with a jumper and get my new resistor on there. Yeah that was my first experience soldering. Doing these deans was my second.

Anyway,

I'm not exactly sure what he was doing on that particular one where he melted the deans. I didn't have to much trouble with it once I figured out I could just tin the one side that the wire goes to while the iron was heating the connector from the other side...and do similar when I was ready to actuall solder the wire on. My very first one was a real mess. I ended up redoing that one again once I was done with everything else.

Just so you guys know, ANY soldering done on the speed controller itself VOIDS THE WARRANTY! Don't do it if you value warranty. You can cut the wires as short as you want, but no soldering on the controller.

I'm sure most everyone is aware of this, but leaving the deans plugged together will help with overheating when soldering. It will also keep the lugs inside lined up correctly if you do happen to get the plastic a little too hot. I keep a complete deans plug in my soldering stuff to use for this if I'm only soldering on half a plug for battery pack building or putting a plug on a new esc or whatever.

I just shortened the wires on my MM and with a 30w radio shack iron, I just put the point of the tip into the solder hole on the side of the bullet connector and the solder pooled up in sec.

That sucks :-( its not mentioned anywhere in the manual that direct soldering voids the warranty.

The manual only mentions reverse polarity to the esc, shorting the motor wires , incorrect motor type specified, exceeding the battery/motor specs, and "This warranty does not cover abuse, neglect, or damage due to incorrect wiring, over voltage, or overloading."

Direct soldering the motor wires, uncut, to the esc is abuse then?

I've been away from the hobby for a while but I've always soldered directly to the esc before, and never had a problem. I had already gotten them off when I read the posts about that voiding the warranty, why that is not spelled out clearly in the manual?

BTW its working great for me now, I guess I have to hope it doesn't die on me... So if I ever have to send it in, I'd have to pay the $50 non-warranty repair fee?

It's that way with all of our ESCs...always has been. We cannot warranty a product where customers solder on the controllers as we don't know whether the ESC failed as a result of said soldering. They are all tested prior to leaving here and known to be good. Any soldering done on the ESC may make them inoperable and we will not fix these under warranty.

When you solder wires to the board (heating up the board) that voids the warranty, correct? Direct soldering your factory ESC wires to your motor does not void the warranty. Do I have that right?

I really think you should update the manual, and those of any other ESCs you sell with exposed connectors like that to state that you can't solder to them, right in the front it bold. I thought the whole point of exposing the solder points was to be able to use them.

Now on the Mamba 25, where the solder points are not exposed, but are under the shrink wrap I didn't expect them to be solderable under warranty.

Well like I said I hope it never fails on me then.

happywing, if your using the Castle motor you aren't supposed to cut the wires on the motor at all from my reading of the manual, if its a different motor with solder tabs then I'd expect that you can do that, but Joe should confirm that.