The blue soldering iron wasn't working for me so I bought the red kit from Home Depot yesterday http://img1.imagehousing.com/44/b1af...ff1fb66bff.jpg

Whole car..

I had it the same way but some guy hit my rc from the back and pulled a esc wire off the motor tab so I had to leave that day I was done for the night I don't know people at the track I feel weird asking people for stuff or help kinda shy I'll say but I'll try getting some off today :)

Can you guys point out wat I did maybe wrong setting the stuff up ??? I just started electric on august I'm new to electric http://img1.imagehousing.com/93/ee0d...f941d5e78f.jpg

Excellent advice but I'd go with a Hobbico 60 Watt iron instead. The 40 Watt iron does not heat things up as quick as a 60. Plus, the Hobbico iron is only $12 and is usually on sale for $9.00!!!

FWIW, as a side note, you need to rotate the motor so the tabs are a little more to the middle of the car, back there in the "impact zone" as they are now you are asking for trouble... they can be broken or shorted together in a crash. Not sure how many sets of mounting points you have on the front endbell to rotate it a few degrees but most motors have three screws that pass through the front endbell to grab the rear and squeeze it all together, you can take that endbell off and get the option of 120 degree mounting positions.. the endbell itself likely has 90 degree or 45 degree positions depending on if it has 4 or 9 holes to mount it up... between the two you can find a "best" so that you shelter your motor tabs and wires better. (I have no idea if that long rant made any sense without a visual aid)

You should also re-solder the wires so they exit the other direction, point them off the back of the motor for your car, the way they are now they are or were binding up on the shelter they did have and you were forced to trim it off.

As a rule, you of course have to run the wires where they fit and avoid some moving parts with the routing... but you want them fairly short so there is some play as the car flexes or to allow maintenance, but not much more than that. Neat and Tidy...

Your soldering gun looks a lot nicer than mine, a nice trigger gun is well worth the money (assuming you use it).
Not bad for your first job, may or may not hold up to abuse, time will tell, or just re-do it till it's perfect.
Listen to incubus, good info. And i still maintain the soldering wires together from a roll until you get the hang of it, great way to practice for cheap!

I swear by a weller portasol gas iron for RC stuff these days. I leave my Hakko and my Goot stations for doing actual work.

One guy I used to work for got us to solder together little cube wireframes for practice - And then do one purely out of solder. That was fun.

You're missing one very important thing in that picture..an additional paste flux. Yeah I know a rosin core solder has flux in it, which I use. But an additional flux aids in heat transfer and the flow of the solder. You can live without it but your results won't ever be the same.

And whether it's "wrong" or not I always add solder to the tip of my iron vs. feeding it into the joint. If I need to add any at all.

To tin my wires..I twist the wire, just a little so the strands are all bundled, I then did or apply some paste flux to the wire. I then clean the tip of my iron on a sponge (you have one of those right?) and then add the required amount of solder to the tip of my iron. I then touch the iron to the end of the wire, the solder then flows nicely up the wire. (If you have too much solder on the iron it will flow too far, if not enough the wire will look "dry" and dull.) In reference to the pic of my battery posts, I do the same with them. Once both are tinned I again put paste flux on both the wire and the bullet connector. Clean my iron tip and again tin it with solder, lay the wire on the bullet (which again both have flux on them) and apply the iron pushing the wire onto/into the bullet. Done right they should come out like the picture I posted. A good joint will not be globy (sp) or have a dull finish.

That's just me and it's WAY harder to explain that actually do...

A gun vs. an iron...if they were really that great you would see people using them..IMO

How many people do you really see using them? Not many would be my guess.

Another myth is that more watts is always better, wrong. It's about more about heat retention and recovery, which is a design thing. I would guess that's covered in the sticky at the top of this forum.

Once my iron is up to temp (about 5-6 minutes), It presses and bonds solder in a fraction of a second. The key, is to use the RADIOSHACK 60/40 rosin core solder, AND additional dab of soldering flux. The 40watt is MORE than enough. And also, I have never seen a "pistol" style soldering iron work as well as my weller. They might heat up faster, but they aren't any hotter, they draw more power, and they are far harder to manipulate/hold.. etc. My opinion (and yes, I have had two of them in years past)

I'm about ready to buy a video camera as I have a little one on the way, so I think I will get it early and do a soldering video for all the new folks. You will see :nod:

The only reason you don't see more people using Trigger Irons is because they are cumbersome to carry and transport. In contrast, a stick iron can fit anywhere without taking up much space. Trigger Irons can also be a bit tricky to use in tighter areas but the speed with which they build and hold temp is unsurpassed by most Stick Irons unless you spend a bit more on a higher end model.

For the field, I used to have a butane soldering iron that was far better than any iron I've ever used but it's impossible to find a butane iron today that gets to that temperature so I carry my stick iron at all times.

way better videos and advise,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPD1AIov6tY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haN5VSM5AF4

I've never needed a thing of flux. that's for plumbers.
if you tin your wires and connectors and your tip ( tinning the tip of the soldering gun is in the instructions of my soldering gun. it says it helps the tip heat the joint faster. so anyone that says it's wrong is wrong themselves) your soldering efforts will turn out professional and without the mess of more flux. there's no need to "scrape joints" either. that's just poor practice from lack of soldering knowledge. also "pressing" down on the tip to get the solder to melt is WRONG. if you need more heat to melt the solder you need to turn the heat up on the station or buy a higher watt iron. never ever leave the tip of the iron on your parts for longer than 5 seconds. if it takes more than 5 to melt your iron isn't hot enough. you're going to ruin your electronics if you keep it on there to melt the joint. you need to turn up the heat or buy a higher watt iron.

clean your tip with solder also. tin it and wipe it on the wet sponge. then tin it again to solder a joint. also store the gun with the tip tinned.

stay away from lead free silver solder. it needs almost 100 degrees more heat to melt and doesn't stick as well as a 60/40 leaded solder will.



I have a weller WLC 100 and it works great. why I chose it over all the normal faves like hakko and trakpower is it can be used with any iron that plugs into a standard 110v outlet.

right now radio shack has their stations on sale.
the hard core bad boy, http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...ductId=3132686

and another decent one, http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...oldering+irons

and the weller WLC 100
http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...oldering+irons

That's fine, and no, it isn't just for plumbers. The stuff is AMAZING when used on RC solder joints as well. I even use it when I want to UN-solder something. It literally reduces the amount of time it takes for the solder to melt from 1 second, to almost instantly. Anything that reduces the amount of heat that makes it into the electronics, the better.

The only downside to using Flux, is that it requires a tiny bit of a wipe down when finished as it leaves a sticky residue on the wires when done.

"The role of a flux in joining processes is typically dual: dissolving of the oxides on the metal surface, which facilitates wetting by molten metal, and acting as an oxygen barrier by coating the hot surface, preventing its oxidation. In some applications molten flux also serves as a heat transfer medium, facilitating heating of the joint by the soldering tool or molten solder."

I run the wires the opposite way. I've seen guys crash and the guy who came in from the rear got something tangled in the wires and one of the leads was unplugged. I'd rather run them inward and kill the possibility of that EVER happening.

As for Flux, it is an excellent additive for certain applications. So long as it's not used in excess it actually assists soldering by better transmitting heat throughout everything with solder that is in contact with the tip of the iron. The shinier finished leads are usually achieved with Flux. In fact, if you turn over some ESC's and look at the solder points, you can usually see flux residue on and/or around them. The hotter your iron gets, the less flux you'll need. I use a little flux but the way I do it is to scoop up a tiny bit with the end of my solder and once the lead is up to temp, I then slide the solder onto the wire and the flux makes the tinning process almost instant and I am able to use less solder as a result.