papogator24

iTrader: (2)

Yes, did I ruin my stuff already? I'm such a noob and that post was so tiny on the ESC. Goodness, I read the tutorial about soldering and tried to practice. Surely, you guys must have some tips to make it fit in that tiny post.

I hope I did not ruin it. Help.

Mopar2Ya

I'm no pro, but I would tin the wires then squeeze them so they are narrow enough to fit in the U in the post. I tried pliers, but like to use a vise. If you have too much solder you can get desoldering braid to remove the excess.

MX304

iTrader: (21)

Make sure you are using a quality soldering iron as well. A lot of the low wattage general purpose irons don't get hot enough to get a quality joint.

EbbTide

iTrader: (39)

Also take some time to look at this thread...

http://www.rctech.net/forum/radio-el...ef-lesson.html

Then you will be in business

WagwanBumba

iTrader: (1)

I wouldn't even say you necessarily need a quality iron - you need an iron that's hot enough and also can transfer enough heat to the item to be soldered quickly enough, without it cooling down.

I use a 60W Goot iron (way less than $20) and it makes soldering a breeze - 1x goot KS-60R 60W/220V , Soldering Iron 60W
As a comparison, I also have a Hakko 936 soldering station with a wide tip (when trying to solder motor wires) and it's much harder to do so on the 936 than it is on my Goot.
Why? The 936 doesn't have enough heat stored in the iron tip.

papogator24

iTrader: (2)

I definitely went through this. I still suck it at. haha

I will need a better soldering iron that's for sure.

Am I able to fix this or can I get away with it? There was no way that the 12ga wires would fit in that tiny slit of the post in the Tekin. I cut the wire strands in half, tinned it, then did all my might to solder it into the post.

EbbTide

iTrader: (39)

To be honest, you don't even need 12ga wire for that motor you are going to run. So to make things easier, get some 14ga wire, pre tin it, then crimp the end with some pliers while it's still hot to compress it all. And when you tin the wire, don't twist it! Twisting the wire just makes it harder for the solder to wick into it.

And as far as "saving" your solder job goes, you should be fine with just desoldering the old wires, clean up the terminals with either a desolder pump or solder wick, then redo everything.

To make it a lot easier, I seriously suggest getting a solder iron with variable temperatures and a chisel tip that's roughly 2mm or 1/8 inch wide. Because you only need around 700f to melt the solder properly. And if you use an iron that can't be turned down, then you run the risk of shotty solder jobs from high heat. Plus with the chisel tip, you get more surface area hitting the solder points which helps heat things up easier. And lastly, I generally don't use extra flux because I'm pretty lazy, but in your case it would really help you out to get some flux paste and use it when you try to redo the job.

anthonyscardina

iTrader: (12)

I always just soldered the wires to the top of the posts and never had any issues. I've seen people grind those grooves wider as well.

papogator24

iTrader: (2)

Thanks a million. The 12ga is definitely thick. I'm going to try again this weekend and with the right equipment.

I will report back with new pictures.

EbbTide

iTrader: (39)

No sweat. And a tip on pre tinning the wires: make sure all of the bare wire has a good coat of solder. The tip of the wire shouldn't look like a blob of metal. You should still be able to see the strands of the cable even with the solder meshed in.

Also, you only need to cut about 6-8mm of the rubber tubing off the end of the wire. It'll keep things looking clean and you won't need as much solder to flow in. From the looks of your current solder job, the wires don't have enough solder on them, and it doesn't look like the solder flowed into the wire at all. So first make sure you remedy that before even trying to solder the wire to the post. And last but not least, you should have a good amount of solder on the post before installing the wire. It should have a nice coat of solder, not a big bulb of lead but enough to cover the terminal.

biz77

iTrader: (47)

No one else asked so I will... What kind of solder are you using? If it's low quality and/or lead free that may be a big part of your problem.

wydopen

iTrader: (6)

use liquid flux when tinning wires...then heat post until solder pools up in recess on top...then reheat and hold tinned wire in pool of solder until wire and solder on post melt together...that's not the easiest esc to solder but just practice..liquid flux helps allot when tinning and having a properly tinned wire makes it much easier

make sure you wipe tip with wet shop towel after every time you touch solder to the tip...

papogator24

iTrader: (2)

I've had it laying around for years. It's 60/40 rosin core leaded solder.

WagwanBumba

iTrader: (1)

Try find and use 63/37 solder instead. 63/37 is eutectic, meaning its melting and freezing point are the same temperature so you don't have to work with temperature window where the solder is somewhere in the middle.

You can still use 60/40, you just have to be more careful, holding the joint until it's fully solidified but with 63/37 you can quite distinctly see when the joint has solidified and take your hand/tools off the join.

the wrench

iTrader: (3)

+2 on the 63-37 solder and liquid flux, went from slow heating, over heated stiff wire, cold grey blobs to instant flow and shine, only took me 20 years to finally understand and master good soldering, if i had youtube back in the day... it would of taken an hour!

another plus is you dont have to crank the iron to max, and overheat all your components...once that flux sizzles your good to tin

cheap 60w irons work great right out the package, but no matter how well you clean and tin the iron, the cheap tips erode fast and near impossible to find replacements, which is usually the number 1 reason for bad heat transfer .... bought a hakko a few years ago and im still using the chisel tip it came with, good practice with any iron is to feed it fresh solder, clean it off (i like the brass scrubber mesh thing vs wet sponge) than re-feed it, and store the iron with a blob on it, just clean and tin before you turn it off, you kinda get into this ocd habit of wiping and tinning the iron

search for videos on how to solder circuit boards, they really give good advice vs the r/c specific stuff