Night of the Living Numpty - Part I

[Ted Maul]

Ok so having a great evening, but fed up so going to hold myself up to ridicule here.... twice
Part I. Been out of the scene for a long time and now have my 1st brushless motor and speedo, yay - SP GT2 and SP 6.5 pro.

Cannot for life of me solder the 5 wires to the speedo, eitehr the black/red power or the three motor wires. Motor connections fine, but *******d if I can do the speedo end. Iron is very old, like 20 years old I used at Uni for pcb work, marking faded but think it says 25w which sounds a bit feeble, is this the problem? Heatsink gets plenty warm enough...

Is there a trick to this or am I just rubbish at soldering

[MRD]

When I'm doing a speedo I use the biggest iron I have and the trick is to be quick. A small iron will cool down too quick and just heat up the speedo. The thick wires make it harder too as they take away heat quickly and suck up all the solder. I don't find it that easy so you're not alone, but a big iron and nice clean joints with fresh solder will make it easier.

[SHY]

I'd say 25W is way WAY too cold! Try a 65 or 100W and make it quick! (I use an el cheapo 100W and that works like a charm)

Plus make sure the tip is clean, use a wet sponge to wipe it off quite often.

Good luck! I've been there myself!

[SHY]

Oh, and make sure you apply solder to the wire ends before you solder to the ESC. A "helping hand" is of great use here, as the wires get smokin' hot!



-very handy for all the soldering actually, can't live without it anymore!!!

Another tip is to use cleaning gum to make the ESC stay put while soldering.

So here's the procedure:

1) hold the ESC in place to your workbench with cleaning gum (for instance Xceed), at an angle is often practial
2) use the helping hand to hold the wire one at a time, apply solder to the end first.
3) Let it cool down, positon the wire into the ESC hole (I sometime enlargen them with a Dremel to get the wire through). Use the helping hand to keep it in position.
4) Hold the soldering iron with one hand, the solder with the other...

BINGO!

[MRD]

I still don't know why they don't make the 1/10th speedos with plugs like the v3 Speed pash motors . It would save alot of hastle.

[SHY]

Even better: Make a standardized 3-face plug for all speedos and motors, which could then be bought in different lengths... (like a beefed up sensor cable)

I just hate three things about RC cars: Soldering, cleaning and re-building ball diffs!

[Ted Maul]

Cheers for all the advice, speedo did get warm but even dropping solder on wires didn't help as the solder wouldnt melt when wire touching speedo so guess iron just too weak.

don't feel quite such a numpty now, thank you!

[Ted Maul]

Originally Posted by SHY

Oh, and make sure you apply solder to the wire ends before you solder to the ESC. A "helping hand" is of great use here, as the wires get smokin' hot!



-very handy for all the soldering actually, can't live without it anymore!!!

Another tip is to use cleaning gum to make the ESC stay put while soldering.

So here's the procedure:

1) hold the ESC in place to your workbench with cleaning gum (for instance Xceed), at an angle is often practial
2) use the helping hand to hold the wire one at a time, apply solder to the end first.
3) Let it cool down, positon the wire into the ESC hole (I sometime enlargen them with a Dremel to get the wire through). Use the helping hand to keep it in position.
4) Hold the soldering iron with one hand, the solder with the other...

BINGO!

Got one of these saturday from amazon, £7 delivered and mine had a soldering iron stand too.... 100w iron arrived, will try again this week..

[SHY]

It'll be much better, I promise!

Remember to clean the tip with a wet sponge or a copper brush now and then. You may also give the soldering iron a "wack" to get rid of old solder on the tip. But don't go wild there...

Happy soldering!