Any tips for soldering motor & ESC wires to 8mm Castle connectors ?

[properchopper]

Hi

Be sure your cable is hot. You must use quit big cables for these connectors, and they will build a cold bridge if they ain't about the same temp as the solder and connector.

Best regards Henrik

Henrik, I'm begining to realize that therin lies the problem I'm having; the wires weren't heated before inserting into the torch-liquified solder in the connector. Good info, thanks.

[Doug Smock]

Tony my brother, ditch the torch and get yourself a iron.

[stadiumyamaha]

My way is to tin the wire and then set it aside. Then I fill the bullet and while keeping heat on it I'll hold the wire on the iron tip as well until it also flows which is when I submerge the wet wire in the pool.
I do it this way on all sizes and have never had one de solder.
I had found that if it submerge a tinned wire directly, without flowing it, in to the pool they will sometimes cold solder.
Jmo.
All with a weller station. Can't use a torch to save my life.

[iamandrew]

Ive started to use flux on a few of my 10 gauge wires.

Silver Solder is HARDER to solder, its "Flux" is almost non existent, which is how its supposed to be. your basically heating up metal to put onto metal.

I think you need to tin both ends.
Wait till it cools down.
then heat up both ends again, then join parts together.

[martin]

As Doug has said use an iron, i find the solder takes much better with an iron than with a torch flame. I use a Weller 80w on 8mm plugs & get no trouble getting more than enough heat pretty quick into 8mm plugs.

[dana]

How the heat is generated matters how? What difference does it make, as long as it gets hot enough?

[line6]

Tony. Flux and a iron. Also what voltage is this running on. I know ken has issues with Q power. And he is the man with soldering.


Jason Sims

[RaceMechaniX]

Tony, unless you have 200W iron I would use the butane torch. The large solder connections suck up so much heat a small soldering iron rarely allows good solder flow around the entire joint.

I used a propane torch on low and use liquid flow on new wire to help the solder flow into the wire. I use a dud mating connector in a small jewlers vise to hold the connector I am soldering away from the vise slightly. I align the holes in the solder cup horizontal to try and keep the solder in when I feed it in. If you use rosin core solder you'll notice extra flux dripping out the bottom which tends to catch fire. Pause if this happens and wipe up the flux with a paper towel and then resume with the heat. I use an aligator clip on the end of a pipe of steel wire to hold the wire in place without burning my fingers. I pre-tin the solder cup just enough to have good coverage, but not trying to fill empty space. I then insert the wire and directing the torch towards the end of the connector gently heat the entire connector up. Once the pre-tin starts to melt I feed in rosin core 60/40 solder pausing to wipe excess flux up to prevent small fires. I like to feed in the same direction of the wire going into the connector on the top, this seems to trap more solder in the cup instead of dribbling out the holes or the bottom of the cup.

I would not use silver solder, that is more for mechanical brazing than electrical connection.

TG

[properchopper]

Tony. Flux and a iron. Also what voltage is this running on. I know ken has issues with Q power. And he is the man with soldering.


Jason Sims

Jason, it's a 4S2P setup running a Leo 4082 2000KV in a 34" Cat with a 447/3. After digesting the info here, I'm convinced that I didn't prep (tin, heat and flux) the motor wires enough before I placed them in the liquid solder pool in the connector.

[properchopper]

Tony, unless you have 200W iron I would use the butane torch. The large solder connections suck up so much heat a small soldering iron rarely allows good solder flow around the entire joint.

I used a propane torch on low and use liquid flow on new wire to help the solder flow into the wire. I use a dud mating connector in a small jewlers vise to hold the connector I am soldering away from the wire slightly. I align the holes in the in the solder cup horizontal to try and keep the solder in when I feed it in. If you use rosin core solder you'll notice extra flux dripping out the bottom which tends to catch fire. Pause if this happens and wipe up the flux with a paper towel and then resume with the heat. I use an aligator clip on the end of a pipe of steel wire to hold the wire in place without burning my fingers. I pre-tin the solder cup just enough to have good coverage, but not trying to fill empty space. I then insert the wire and directing the torch towards the end of the connector gently heat the entire connector up. Once the pre-tin starts to melt I feed in rosin core 60/40 solder pausing to wipe excess flux up to prevent small fires. I like to feed in the same direction of the wire going into the connector on the top, this seems to trap more solder in the cup instead of dribbling out the holes or the bottom of the cup.

I would not use silver solder, that is more for mechanical brazing than electrical connection.

TG

Tyler, that's exactly how I plan to proceed, thanks for explaining it.

[Doug Smock]

How the heat is generated matters how? What difference does it make, as long as it gets hot enough?

http://www.circuitrework.com/guides/7-1-1.shtml

http://www.digikey.com/Web%20Export/Supplier%20Content/OKIMetcal_389/PDF/OKI_HandSolderingwithLead-FreeAlloys.pdf?redirected=1

http://www.qsl.net/n9zia/solder.html

But at the end of the day use what works for you.
I use a el cheapo Radio Shack dual wattage unit (20/40 watt) on everything including 8mm connectors and 8ga wire without any issues whatsoever.

D.

[dana]

I would not use silver solder, that is more for mechanical brazing than electrical connection.

TG[/QUOTE]
I kinda thought this might be the case, but I wasn't sure, which is why I went back to 60/40.
Pardon if I lead anyone the wrong direction

[line6]

Tony with that setup i c no reason to use 8mm, Just run some 5.5's

[properchopper]

Tony with that setup i c no reason to use 8mm, Just run some 5.5's

Jason,

I'm with you on that; it's just that I built this for a customer and figured a little overkill would keep things in the safety zone.

From everything I'm learning here, particularly the first link in Doug's post I realize that I've been making some errors in my soldering that won't be repeated in the future. Live and learn.

Thanks everyone

[line6]

Here is a great iron for the price i have 2 of them. its a Hakko 936 knock off

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s...h_US_Plug.html


Jason Sims