Solder temps & ?

[Steven Vaccaro]

Use the highest temp. highest silver content solder you can find.
If you look at a conductivity chart silver is at the top.
The solder doesn't have to come with flux inside it, you can buy rosin flux at Radio shack.
We found some with 6% silver.
T.C.

Where did you find the 6% stuff?

[Steven Vaccaro]

Where did you find the 6% stuff?

found some http://www.silfos.com/products/catal...1lb-p-179.html

[T.C.]

Steven go to this address, it is for the Harris "AKA Stay Brite" solder company Its not the same as what comes in the kits sold through the hobby industry as it contains more silver.
A Stay-Brite kit only contains 4% silver this contains 5.5-6% silver and you can find it on line at a decent price.
I use for electrical as well as all my wire drives as I am not comfortable with gluing them.
This solder can be used either with acid or rosin flux and is just below the annealing point for metals, so you don't weaken the wire when you solder using this. http://www.harrisproductsgroup.com/~...RITE8Spec.ashx
Hope this helps?
T.C.

[sailr]

ABSOLUTELY AGREE! I have gone to silver solder on all my connectors. I also re-tin the wires with the silver solder, not relying on the non lead crap from China. It takes a LOT of heat to use the silver solder. I recently bought a big mama gun at Radio Shack that makes short work of it! I melt the solder into the bullet connector and then insert the wire and while holding the gun on the connector, work the wire up and down a bit to ensure it is completely covered with solder. I haven't had a connector come unsoldered for any reason since switching to silver solder that is higher silver content than the stuff from Radio Shack. It is called "silver bearing". It works pretty well also but the last time I was at Radio Shack they no longer had it.

Use the highest temp. highest silver content solder you can find.
If you look at a conductivity chart silver is at the top.
The solder doesn't have to come with flux inside it, you can buy rosin flux at Radio shack.
We found some with 6% silver.
T.C.

[T.C.]

Here's an evil-bay link to what we use, if you look around you can find it cheeper, I think we payed 70.00 shipped ?
The deal is most other "silver bearing solders" are low silver content, this has 5.5-6%. Novak only has 3%, Stay-brite kits only have 4%.
This is the most bang for the buck in a lower metal safe melting point solder I have found, if ya get to hot you start anealing the metal and thats not good for a wire drive. (or electrical parts)
T.C. http://cgi.ebay.com/Harris-Stay-Brit...88193870591491

[Insaniac]

Steve,
The 40/60 is certainly better than 37/63 (eutectic). I had the same problem running a UL-1 motor on 4S in an FE-30. The only way to "keep-it-together" was to go to 5.5mm bullets. They still get pretty warm but the solder doesn't melt.

[longballlumber]

So the question is; did you change to silver solder and keep the 3.5mm-4mm connectors or did you go up to the 5.5mm connectors too...


I still have the question of; Is it the solder quaility or is the connector creating the heat?

[Steven Vaccaro]

So the question is; did you change to silver solder and keep the 3.5mm-4mm connectors or did you go up to the 5.5mm connectors too...


I still have the question of; Is it the solder quality or is the connector creating the heat?

Thats the same question I'm after. I've tried different connectors. From different manufacturers. All of them are getting very hot.
Hot enough to say that the connector must be a major area of power loss. I've been soldering for 30 years. I dont(or hope) think its not my solder method.
Andy Kunz said that the fix is a connector with much larger surface area. I may try some castle 8mm bullets in the jae, the castle bullets are very heavy, which I hope helps dissipate the heat.

[T.C.]

If this is a spec. setup ya better check the temps at the motor leads, I would bet the heat is going into the motor and the motor insulation is starting to melt.
Time for a smaller prop or the boats to wet if this is what's happening, I would say you are at the limits of the system.
Unless you can put heavier wire going into the motor to handle the load and keep the heat down?
T.C.

[Steven Vaccaro]

If this is a spec. setup ya better check the temps at the motor leads, I would bet the heat is going into the motor and the motor insulation is starting to melt.
Time for a smaller prop or the boats to wet if this is what's happening, I would say you are at the limits of the system.
Unless you can put heavier wire going into the motor to handle the load and keep the heat down?
T.C.

Boat screams. Motor is well within temps. Boat has well over 3 dozen packs gone into it. Thats the strange thing.

[T.C.]

Eventually you will get to where the connectors stay on just due to mass and high temp solder, but then What will happen is the wire insulation will melt and short out where they go into the can.
Take the end off the motor and put double or triple layers of shrink tubing on the motor leads, that will help, but it's not a fix.
When ya find the answer I'd like to know ?
T.C.

[Doug Smock]

.
Andy Kunz said that the fix is a connector with much larger surface area.

I agree. I refuse to use any connector in my boats with the thin springs (fuse links lol) around them like the bananna plugs.
We use the 5.5s from this place called OSE on our limited boats and the hot connectors are a thing of the past.
Doug

[jcald2000]

Bigger is always better, 200 amps thur 8mm bullets = 115 degrees F.

[sjslhill]

This is what I use Steven, Radio Shack on line has the best price. 80 watts is plenty to work with this.

[longballlumber]

Smart enough in my book, thanks!!


One of my favorite sites is

http://www.mcmaster.com

The descriptions of their items is unmatched.

I'm going to try some of my next high current parallel connectors with this copper rod.

http://www.mcmaster.com/#copper-rods/=d5b1kn

Steven,

I am going to put in an order from McMaster Carr, what diameter of rod will work in the 5.5's with the hole? Right now I only have the half moon version of connectors, so I can't measure.

Thanks,
Mike