Bullet desoldering?

[Basstronics]

My little rigger lost a bullet on my last run. Ive run the rigger without issue 4 times prior.

Everything was going good and she just stopped.

Once back in I noticed the wire pocking thru the shrink. I also noticed the male bullet (batt side) was still in the female socket. It was however loose like you could spin it type loose. All the prongs lost all pressure.

I used plumbing solder with a low silver content- no lead, no rosin. I have plenty off heat too.

Just baffled why it happened afrter numerous other runs. Especially since the male had no pressure.

Only one bullet did this. others are solid...

???

[dana]

dunno why you used plumbing solder for electrical connections?
maybe all your other runs you just got lucky. that sucker may have come very close to desoldering before.

[JonD]

....... I also noticed the male bullet (batt side) was still in the female socket. It was however loose like you could spin it type loose. All the prongs lost all pressure....???

Maybe nothing to do with your soldering. Sounds very much like like contact between male and female was poor causing high resitance = lots of heat = melted solder.

Maybe the tension of the prongs was not too good to start with, or maybe you got flux inside the mating surfaces during soldering. I wouldn't have expected the prongs to have lost their tension due to soldering heat alone, but maybe during the "self heating" due to resistance of the contacts the temps could have been a lot higher.

Possibly your soldering may not have been as good as you thought (Sorry - just a possibility that I have to mention). Did you tin the inside surface of the terminal solder pot, and fully tin the wires before inserting the cable and soldering them both together?

Also, like Dana, I am interested in exactly what solder you did use. Doesn't plumber's solder normally have lead? You should be using normal 60/40 lead/tin resin cored electrical solder.

[jcald2000]

Bass, was it the negative bullet thats the one that takes most of the heat. The lead in plumbing solder is very high Resistance causing heat.
Very High heat will take the spring out of the male bullets.

[Basstronics]

dunno why you used plumbing solder for electrical connections?
maybe all your other runs you just got lucky. that sucker may have come very close to desoldering before.

Because its lead free and has a higher temp rating over my 60/40 rosin core solder? It also contains silver.

Maybe nothing to do with your soldering. Sounds very much like like contact between male and female was poor causing high resitance = lots of heat = melted solder.

Maybe the tension of the prongs was not too good to start with, or maybe you got flux inside the mating surfaces during soldering. I wouldn't have expected the prongs to have lost their tension due to soldering heat alone, but maybe during the "self heating" due to resistance of the contacts the temps could have been a lot higher.

Possibly your soldering may not have been as good as you thought (Sorry - just a possibility that I have to mention). Did you tin the inside surface of the terminal solder pot, and fully tin the wires before inserting the cable and soldering them both together?

Also, like Dana, I am interested in exactly what solder you did use. Doesn't plumber's solder normally have lead? You should be using normal 60/40 lead/tin resin cored electrical solder.

Plumbers solder does not contain lead. They dont want lead in contact with drinking water...

http://menards.com/main/plumbing/rou...909-c-8533.htm

Thats the solder I use exactly.

Bullets are Castle... Tension on pins seemed acceptable. I will check that before next outing.

I resoldered connection w/new bullet and heat shrinked it up. Will see what happens again.

[JonD]

No problem using lead free free solder - most of the electronic manufacturing industry these days uses lead free. But it's more difficult to use than leaded solder. Needs higher temperature and surfaces don't gernarally tin as easily as with leaded solder. Needs a good flux to wet and tin the surfaces. What flux did you use?

[siberianhusky]

Check out Multicore HMP High temp electronics solder. Good stuff, need an iron with a good sized tip and wattage to do bigger sized bullets though.