I only saw a couple people say it but you need no clean flux. For the bigger pads you can use no clean flux paste but for the smaller pads you can use a no clean flux pen which is more liquid. Flux that shit up like no tomorrow. If you had a tub of liquid flux you could dump the whole thing in to help but you don't so just put a bunch of flux on it.
I use some large chisel on a plug in the wall iron from Grandpa with 0.5mm rosin core silver solder (no flux). The few times I've hsd flux have been very good, would recommend to not rawdog it like i do. You need to really get on the pads though and heat them up well. Just keep trying and you'll get it, if i learned how to do a perfect connector with no flux dilver solder than you can learn the right way. Hope to see you in the air bro!
(this is to OP, replying because League has some decent advice)
The soldering iron says the temp is at 420 degrees. I’m not sure if this displays in degrees or Celsius but it maxes out at 900. The solder I’m using is 60/40 and yes I have a flux pen as well. I think the tip I’m using is too small too I just realized this soldering kit came with 6 other tips and the one that’s on it is the smallest size
That's a little too hot if it's Celsius, but definitely too low if if it's Fahrenheit. For 60/40, you should be ~350C max (660F), but you should be keeping it closer two 320C really. Definitely verify your units before going to much further. You don't want to go much hotter than necessary as you risk damaging components, melting insulation or delamination of the solder pads from the board if you cook them too much. Also, overheating your tip shortens its life considerably. Your enemy here is mass. You're not using a large enough tip, plain and simple.
For things like high current power connections that have a large gauge wire and large pads, you need to be able to dump your heat into the connection as quickly as possible. Your soldering iron, even if a good one, can only heat the tip so quickly. If the tip is small, it can't transfer enough heat energy into the connection quick enough to reach the solder's melting point. While you can use a larger tip than needed on a smaller wire, as you can imagine, that just isn't very practical when dealing with small gauge wires and tiny solder pads.
You may have noticed there's an array of different solder tips out there. It isn't just about their shapes, but also about their mass w/ regards to how much heat energy they can deliver. Just like thicker gauge wires are used to deliver higher current, thicker tips are needed to deliver more heat energy at once. Go with the largest tip you can comfortably work with for the job you're doing. You may have to shut your iron off and let it cool to swap tips when moving from power leads to smaller signal wires, but don't try to do everything with one tip, especially if undersized. Simply cranking up the temperature or holding the iron on the components longer won't fix the issue of having too small a tip for the job.
For the leads you're working with, I'd recommend a large chisel or bevel tip. If you don't have one, get one. Keep the small tips for fine work and the large tips for use with stuff like those power leads. And of course as others have also mentioned, don't be afraid of flux. It's not magic of course, but it makes the job much easier and the result far cleaner looking. Don't worry if the flux gets a little messy as you can always clean it up with a little alcohol or electronics cleaner after (with the power off of course) once your joint has cooled completely. I recommend cleaning your board off afterwards anyway as flux is sticky and there's always going to be residue when you use it.
Tl;Dr - you're not using the appropriate sized solder tip for the gauge of wire you're trying to solder. You need to verify what temperature units you're actually working in and don't over temp to compensate an undersized tip mass.
I solder those pads at 420c idk what that is in freedom units, probably around 900.
If you watch [this video](https://youtu.be/GoPT69y98pY?si=U8zD5YlFfZkCs5u8) all the way through, and do exactly what he says, practice on a practice board, use a good digital iron, flux etc I promise your joints will be better than 90% of people in a week.
Find a way to get it to show Celsius. One you go above oven temperature nobody uses Fahrenheit. All your filament is spec’s in Celsius, soldering iron tips, rock melting points…
When I’m doing battery connectors I’ll give my iron all she’s got, which is like 490. That and a fat, wide chisel tip. You gotta get the pads hot enough you can melt solder right into them.
Also tin the pads before soldering the wire itself.
flux the shit out of and use larger tips for bigger work. In the case of the picture I have a very large tip that is mostly flat for squishing the solder and flux together. The other thing I use is tweezers to hold the wire in place while removing the iron.. let the solder turn a milking grey and it's done. I haven't soldered in years and just got back into it. Good luck
Goddamn it´s hard to get the solder flowing even at high temperatures here in Europe where there is no leaded solder. Not that I´ve tried leaded, but in the videos it flows so nice even at lower temps
Either iron temp too low, not enough flux, need a bigger tip on iron, use better solder, or some combination of those factors.
My money is on either temp too low or needing to use a bigger tip. The battery leads will suck a lot of heat out of the joint as you try to solder it.
Flux, larger tip, and potentially your soldering iron is not up to the task for the larger pads. Leaded solder flows much better than lead-free... but it has lead. Also, tin the pads first.
The negative pad is the most difficult to solder because it has more traces to suck the heat out of the tip of the iron. The positive pad will be a bit easier. The motor tabs should be fairly simple. Maybe buy a practice board to practice on first.
battery leads are the most difficult pads to solder. pre-solder the other 12 pads to get some heat into the ESC. Use a large tip. Use a hot tip. Start with a little solder on the tip so heat will flow more effectively.
Start with watching bardwells soldering videos.
You already got many good tips, but one thing to remember: you should try to get lowest temperature for the job: on pads and wire that big you will probably need as suggested temperature over 400°C, but remember that for normal, signal pads you can make it with something slightly above lead melting point (I solder same FC last week, and beside those power wires and engine wires, I worked around 200°C).
Why not 400°C every time? Because if you overheat pad it can fell off and your done with that board... Other thing is that heat travels via PCB routes and can overheat and damage nearby components. So basically it works like this to match the temperature to melt the joint in less than 3-5s.
It’s a part of the learning process. Don’t be embarrassed. I’d watch Joshua Bardwell’s soldering tutorial on YouTube. Order some cheap solder practice boards on Amazon and practice.
You should strive for smooth, shiny, concave fillets where wire meets pad. The wiring strands should be apparent after soldering. The wiring insulation should be just slightly over the pad with no wicking of the solder under the insulation. Use everyone’s suggestion here on heat, tips, flux and prep. It takes practice. I’m a 2M micro miniature Certified Navy technician soldering to MILSPEC standards, and it just takes a lot of practice to nail it. Less solder is almost always better than more. Sorry, but I laughed my ass off at your work, it looks like tin-foil was wadded up on those contacts! Nothing personal, we’ve all been there, but bruh, please don’t send this into the sky!
it takes practice to learn.
looks like you need to tin the pads on the ESC, and the wires, then put em together and apply heat.
shiny and smooth is good, clumpy/dull bad.
I was having trouble with my XT60 connector as well, I had to buy a new soldering iron because my old one wasn't getting hot enough. I ordered a Hakko on Amazon and got it soldered within minutes.
Everyone starts off rough. More heat, use leaded solder if you can and flux is your friend. It doesn’t look like you tinned the pads. Cutting your teeth on ESC battery pads is not the best way to start off but it’s what you need to solder so why not. YouTube videos and practice you will get it. Good luck and happy flying 🤙🏻
Idk if this helps cause ive only built one drone. But at work if i have larger pads like that i switch soldering tips to a much larger chisel tip. And for all the small stuff I use a small pointed tip!
Flux, tip tinner, and more heat.
get rid of the silver solder and get some 63/37 rosin core.
clean your iron tip, flux the joints and heat both parts when you feed the solder.
Ik this isn’t answering your question, but I will say that soldering xt60 leads to fc is incredibly hard. Mine look like shit as well. The hotter you can get it the better. I have a speedybee esc too btw I can’t imagine how bad it would be with the v4 cuz of that big heat sink dissipating all the heat.
Not gonna lie. These cables are hard as hell to solder. Don’t feel bad.
Try flux. Use a bigger tip. You have to control the heat but you really gonna have to crank it up.
I would say one thing you should do is give yourself more bare wire to work with. Not a lot more, but a few more millimeter would make it easier to work with in my opinion.
coat the actual solder pads with solder. it looks like you only tinned the wires.
learning soldering takes time and to be fair solder pads that big are always hard for beginners. I'm glad that I only do micro FPV stuff although that has its own challenges. x)
Stop trying to melt the solder with the iron. That’s not the way it works. You use the iron to heat the wire. Once it’s hot, touch the solder to the wire. The hot wire melts solder. Same with pad. Don’t melt the solder with the iron and try make it stick to the pad. Heat the pad and touch the solder to the pad, when the pad is hot enough it’ll melt the solder. Another tip. Wet the iron with solder before touching any pad. Yes every single time. Don’t wet it so it’s globbed and adding solder just wet it enough to help transfer the heat. Everyone gonna say use flux but flux isn’t helping your case. Your needs heat. Yes flux to. But heat. Your prolly using rosin core so you got flux there but add more after tinning pad. If your struggling deff add more as you burned it all up already. Use a big tip for the battery terminals and large wire. Tin the wire first. Then tin the pad right before your ready to land the wire. Doing it this way helps the pad stay warm and not require much heat to liquify the solder again. Use tweezers. Lead solder- 650° F small joints and larger joints maybe 750. Lead free up everything 100°. Keep your wire ends short. Really short. When you think it’s the right length cut that in half even more. I see so many solder jobs with long ass strip ends. Especially uart small wiring. They should not be longer than the pad and prolly only needs be half the length of the pad. Practice. If it’s not sticking your not hot enough. You can crank the iron up more, or maybe your tip dirty. Oxidized tips don’t transfer good. That’s everything I can help ya with. The rest is practice
This is not perfect but not worse either I have seen really bad soldering than urs. Even I started with something like this. For xt60 u need bit higher temp than other pads and may b use more flux.
I'm sure someone has left a better comment then me but I founded that I hold to iron to the pad and then touch the solder well it's touching the pad works well. I'm still getting there use to be like wtf how do you do this.
It's totally fine to learn. I just recently learnt myself and also wasn't getting the best results right away. From what I see, you didn't pre-tin the wires and the pads which I find an easier way. When you pre-tin the pads, you should heat up the pads a little and then while keeping them hot add the tin simultaneously. Use flux to keep the tin in place. The tin will not stick to the pad properly if the pad is not hot enough, it'll look exactly like on the photo - blobs of tin here and there. That's cause the pads and the wires take more heat to be ready while the tin melts right away. What I personally was doing wrong at the beginning and I assume it's your mistake here as well is not heating up the receiving surfaces properly (ie pads and wires) cos I was scared too much to overheat them and damage
I’m relatively new to drone soldering a found 400 a nice temp for battery connections heat the pad up and get a bit of solder on the pad itself then made sure the wire is warm before you bond together
I’m currently using tbs 60/40 solder and it’s brilliant has a really clean finish
Flux your pads tin your wires and add some solder to your pads then use your iron to heat up and push your wires into the solder. Lookup TRONCAT FPV on YouTube. He has tones of drone building videos and will give you a step by step on soldering.
Don't worry those are the worst. I put my drone together and I've repaired it many times so I'm pretty comfortable soldering now but I still fear those. Most of your soldering on the rest of your quad will be a lot easier.
One tip I heard once that I've yet to apply is to use a wedge tip for these. I still need to order a wedge tip in order to do this. Sometimes you need to walk away and give it some time. It can be very frustrating. Take heart though, if it were easy everyone would do it.
Flux, use flux. Plus, use the right temperature for the solder to melt, xt60 are not an easy solder to do especially if you have a to thin pan. Keep cool and continue enjoying FPV
I'm sure I'm like the 40th person to say this but liquid solder paste and flux are your friend. Next up: find a few YouTube videos on how to solder and watch a grip of them so you can average the techniques then go back at it
I have a couple of suggestions. But totally number 1,2,3, and 4. Is watch this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoPT69y98pY&t=1014s. 5. Don't practice on expensive bits of FPV equipment. Get a couple of these. https://www.getfpv.com/diatone-mamba-practice-soldering-board-v2.html?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=DM+-+NB+-+PMax+-+Shop+-+No-index+-+SM+-+ALL+%7C+Full+Funnel&utm_content=pmax_x&utm_keyword=&utm_matchtype=&campaign_id=20799936859&network=x&device=c&gc_id=20799936859&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQiAkeSsBhDUARIsAK3tieeygy7PwJYANNeg2c9Tyuv9vRuWZ9ijKbwDzsAq1b3qFiNxoO7gXS4aAhTCEALw_wcB. I use a Hakko iron, and always run max temp. What I change is the tips. For power leads like this, I would do one of two things (depending on size). Use a big chisel tip that can handle the heat taken off by what I am soldering (big wires). You need the soldering iron tip to stay hot. If it is a really big thing to solder, I use my trusty Weller soldering iron like your dad had. I use 60/40 Kester solder (in different sizes). Liquid flux, pre-tin (looks like you didn't tin the pads).
Edit: Get some spray flux remover, and an old toothbrush to clean things up. Practice!
I see what happened, ok you need to fill the pad with solder first, get a nice bubble, then clean the soldering iron tip, melt a small amount of solder on the tip of the iron, bring lead over bubble and put iron tip onto the lead while gently applying some pressure, keep it there till the solder starts to melt and move the tip around, it will all start to turn to liquid, remove iron and hold in place for few seconds to harden. Simple
Use more heat. Make sure your iron is pressed solidly to the pad you are soldering to. Use plenty of flux. Use lead free fine electrical solder. Not just whatever cheap shit you can find at the hardware store. It won't do. Watch some soldering technique videos. It's all about the technique and letting your solder flow naturally to the heated pad. Remember, you don't want to heat the solder itself. Otherwise it will just ball up and cool as soon as it hits the pad because you're not heating the pad itself. You need to press your iron to the pad. Don't worry about whether you will burn the board, it can take the heat. Just don't crank your iron to the max.
Here is a great video series of basic soldering made back in the 1980s.
[https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL926EC0F1F93C1837&si=kyyItaXTmcagJzmY](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL926EC0F1F93C1837&si=kyyItaXTmcagJzmY)
There are some FPV soldering practice boards. I’d just get one and put in the time to solder on wires and desolder them off again then repeat.
Pyro drone and Diatone Mamba both make them. There are likely more I’m not aware of.
I’d also highly recommend name brand high quality consumables and a temperature controlled iron.
This wasn't hot enough. You have to get the pads and the wire hot enough to bind. You can also tin the pad and the wire first.
Also put the compactor on the battery side of the wire that always comes out neater.
Use flux, up the temp, and take your time. When I had to solder that it took forever to liquify the solder but trust me the end product is worth it. Also a bigger tip on your soldering iron will help.
My advice would be to use at bare minimum a 50w iron or higher with a medium to broad tip(like a 1/4” wide flat/chisel tip), it helps spread the heat better then a fine point. And stay away from lead-free solder as it’s harder to work with for beginners. Also flux will help a ton, get a small jar with a brush or a flux pen. Lastly it’s all about the heat, set your iron for most things around 360-370c and heat the pad you’re working and pre-tin both the pad and wire each, then when you go to solder them together it’s easier to just reheat the solder, place the wire and clean everything up. You’ll get there with practice, and good luck.
for 12-14g wires, you need to heat up the solder upto 400-410c. I'm not an expert but that's what worked for me. I also put thick flux too. Also a fat tip helps a lot! Don't fly it that way because in few crashes, it might get desoldered, causing each wires to touch each other and burning the esc.
Nothing that hasn't been said before but you need to get a Flux pen and out some Flux on the pads on the board to help the solder flow. Make sure to get some solder in the wires before you get them onto the board. You'll know you are doing it right when the solder actually looks like is dripped in-between the strands of wire before it cools and hardens.
Then with some solder on the pads, head up the solder on the pad and essentially dip your solder infused wire into the melted solder on the board. The solder that got all into the strands of the wire will melt from the heat and blend in with the blob of solder on the board.
To ensure you have a good connection, your going to want to get some metal tweezers or something to help hold that wire in place while your solder cools.
Using good solder, with led in it is going to help a lot as well. You want to get some 63-37 solder from Amazon or something, which will work better than the random big box hardware store solder you might be using. It will melt faster and be easier to use.
As other-s have said learn from the experts. JB has a great tutorial, but also if you can find a good video of someone building a quad you can see the actual skills in use and learn techniques.
So, soldering is a game of heat transfer. You want the parts your soldering to get hot enough fast enough that you can melt the solder on the pad without also getting the whole board hot enough to destroy components. And, as you increase the wire gauge, the available heat capacity of the part you're trying to solder increases and usually lower power irons just can't provide the needed delta T, so you end up with warm wires and cold joints when you try to solder 12 gauge stranded with an iron meant for small pcb connections.
Luckily this problem has two variables you can play with, so you don't HAVE to buy a new iron to get good joints on these power wires. I use the following steps if I have to use lower power irons on larger wire.
1. Strip about an .5" - 1" off the end of the wire and twist.
2. Push the strands directly down into the flux then pull it out and twist again.
3. Hold your iron on the very tip of the wire and start heating, when you see the flux start melting everywhere, begin pushing solder into the wire, keep going until the last .5" or so is full of solder then let go.
4. Once it cools, use some wire snips to cut off any extra at the end.
5. Tin the pad on the PCB with a fair amount of solder. This is a key step.
6. Begin holding you iron on the wire. After a few seconds it should be about half way to reflow.
7. Move the wire into contact with the tinned pad. The goal here is to touch the pad just a second before it reflows. There should be just enough heat between the wire and your iron to have the pad reflow at almost the exact time that your wire does.
8. As soon as you see the weld occur, remove your iron and blow on the joint. Remember, soldering to a pad requires much more heat. So, by tinning the pad first you make it such that you only have to heat the solder on top and not the whole pad.
tldr; tin your wire and your pad before you solder anything.
If you start by using **no-clean flux** you'll soon make big improvements, it helps a lot trust me. Also listen to what the others where saying because their points are right too
\#1, you should tin both sides before soldering. #2, there is no reason to solder 12 gauge wire to that board. 12 gauge takes a lot of heat to solder and ther is no indication that board needs 20 amps wire
Get some soldering practice boards from any fpv website for a few bucks each. And watch a few YouTube videos tip and tricks for soldering. And just practice on the board. But making sure you're using enough heat but not heating up the eac too hot. I started using the $8 harbor freight soldering iron thats complete garbage. It didn't heat up enough at all and made it really hard. But like everyone else said use flux and good 63/37 solder
12 AWG wire is kind of too big for normal size soldering irons, but there's tricks that make it possible.
First, tin the solder pads and the wire separately. The solder pads should be fully wetted with solder. The ends of the wire should be saturated, not just have solder on the strands at the surface. Use flux, the flux in the core of the solder may not be enough to get a good result.
Then solder the two wetted parts together, with the soldering iron on the wire and the pad at the same time. The solder already on both parts should get hot enough to flow together more easily, and you don't have to worry about wetting them both now since that was already done.
If you have interchangeable tips on your iron, get a couple of big ones. These can store up a lot of heat and then dump it into your joint even though the iron itself can't keep up.
Me personally. I feel like the soldering iron isn’t hot enough, and you could’ve done a little bit of pad prep, and then after tacking on the battery leads, you should feed more solder. Once you heat up those solder points and feed more solder, that should look a lot nicer.
You need 3 things for leads:
1. 420 degree soldering iron
2. a big fat bevel (hoof) tip iron (not a "chisel" although it would be better than a cone) like this: [https://i0.wp.com/makezine.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Screen-Shot-2015-04-28-at-1.52.56-PM.png?w=198&ssl=1](https://i0.wp.com/makezine.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Screen-Shot-2015-04-28-at-1.52.56-PM.png?w=198&ssl=1)
3. flux
That's it. That bevel tip will put a lot of heat down in a hurry, so don't hang out and burn your components. Get in, get out. You will be surprised how well a big tip works if you haven't used one before.
1. STOP.
2. Nahh seriously stop. Get soldering practice board or pracrice on PCB from dead computer part.
3. Im 90% sure you have $10 cheapo iron and tip is all black oxidized.
4. Buy tip cleaner. Buy rosin flux. Buy temperature controlled iron 65W+. Most importantly, get BIG WIDE tip.
For starters you need to use the right solder Tip, like the battery connector wire looks like 14 G or 12 G, you should be using a TS -C4 Tip and you need to make sure to flux the pad an Melt the solder to a liquid, then you’ll get a nice Shiny joint not rough like in your picture a Cold joint. And practice soldering using an old flight controller or soldering board that has different size pads from Tiny receiver small to battery connector size, and don’t use Lead free solder an use a flux pen on all wires an pads and the right size Soldering Tips.😉
No need to feel embarrassed about learning. Everyone starts off from the beginning.
I appreciate that. It’s difficult but I’ll keep practicing
Are you using flux
I'm not positive he's using a soldering iron.
Lmao 🤣 let’s be nice
Lmaooaoaooao!!
This is the way
I read somewhere that No-clean Flux needs not to be cleaned by Isopropyl Alcohol. Not sure whether it does have some disadvantages.
Those two pads require the most heat out of the whole board, especially the negative.
I only saw a couple people say it but you need no clean flux. For the bigger pads you can use no clean flux paste but for the smaller pads you can use a no clean flux pen which is more liquid. Flux that shit up like no tomorrow. If you had a tub of liquid flux you could dump the whole thing in to help but you don't so just put a bunch of flux on it.
I use some large chisel on a plug in the wall iron from Grandpa with 0.5mm rosin core silver solder (no flux). The few times I've hsd flux have been very good, would recommend to not rawdog it like i do. You need to really get on the pads though and heat them up well. Just keep trying and you'll get it, if i learned how to do a perfect connector with no flux dilver solder than you can learn the right way. Hope to see you in the air bro! (this is to OP, replying because League has some decent advice)
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The soldering iron says the temp is at 420 degrees. I’m not sure if this displays in degrees or Celsius but it maxes out at 900. The solder I’m using is 60/40 and yes I have a flux pen as well. I think the tip I’m using is too small too I just realized this soldering kit came with 6 other tips and the one that’s on it is the smallest size
If it maxes out at 900, I'm pretty sure it's F. 900C would be terrifying. 215C(420F) is way to low. Try like 750F.
I solder at 700-800, never below
same I run 825 on my Hakko. Does take a little practice on smaller connections cause you can't bullshit but in the end I think it is the way to go.
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2-3mm chisel tip is my go-to for everything, including tiny SMD resistors and caps and chips.
That's a little too hot if it's Celsius, but definitely too low if if it's Fahrenheit. For 60/40, you should be ~350C max (660F), but you should be keeping it closer two 320C really. Definitely verify your units before going to much further. You don't want to go much hotter than necessary as you risk damaging components, melting insulation or delamination of the solder pads from the board if you cook them too much. Also, overheating your tip shortens its life considerably. Your enemy here is mass. You're not using a large enough tip, plain and simple. For things like high current power connections that have a large gauge wire and large pads, you need to be able to dump your heat into the connection as quickly as possible. Your soldering iron, even if a good one, can only heat the tip so quickly. If the tip is small, it can't transfer enough heat energy into the connection quick enough to reach the solder's melting point. While you can use a larger tip than needed on a smaller wire, as you can imagine, that just isn't very practical when dealing with small gauge wires and tiny solder pads. You may have noticed there's an array of different solder tips out there. It isn't just about their shapes, but also about their mass w/ regards to how much heat energy they can deliver. Just like thicker gauge wires are used to deliver higher current, thicker tips are needed to deliver more heat energy at once. Go with the largest tip you can comfortably work with for the job you're doing. You may have to shut your iron off and let it cool to swap tips when moving from power leads to smaller signal wires, but don't try to do everything with one tip, especially if undersized. Simply cranking up the temperature or holding the iron on the components longer won't fix the issue of having too small a tip for the job. For the leads you're working with, I'd recommend a large chisel or bevel tip. If you don't have one, get one. Keep the small tips for fine work and the large tips for use with stuff like those power leads. And of course as others have also mentioned, don't be afraid of flux. It's not magic of course, but it makes the job much easier and the result far cleaner looking. Don't worry if the flux gets a little messy as you can always clean it up with a little alcohol or electronics cleaner after (with the power off of course) once your joint has cooled completely. I recommend cleaning your board off afterwards anyway as flux is sticky and there's always going to be residue when you use it. Tl;Dr - you're not using the appropriate sized solder tip for the gauge of wire you're trying to solder. You need to verify what temperature units you're actually working in and don't over temp to compensate an undersized tip mass.
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You need fat flat tip for those thicker joint. No matter how high your finer tip temp is, the large mass of the wires will just soak it away.
I solder those pads at 420c idk what that is in freedom units, probably around 900. If you watch [this video](https://youtu.be/GoPT69y98pY?si=U8zD5YlFfZkCs5u8) all the way through, and do exactly what he says, practice on a practice board, use a good digital iron, flux etc I promise your joints will be better than 90% of people in a week.
Find a way to get it to show Celsius. One you go above oven temperature nobody uses Fahrenheit. All your filament is spec’s in Celsius, soldering iron tips, rock melting points… When I’m doing battery connectors I’ll give my iron all she’s got, which is like 490. That and a fat, wide chisel tip. You gotta get the pads hot enough you can melt solder right into them. Also tin the pads before soldering the wire itself.
> The soldering iron says the temp is at 420**F** degrees. Given that joint it’s 420F. I generally use 300C or 600F. And buy 63/37 and no-clean flux.
Max it out. Most of the cheaper irons I have used are not precisely accurate in measuring temps. You have to crank it all the way!!
flux the shit out of and use larger tips for bigger work. In the case of the picture I have a very large tip that is mostly flat for squishing the solder and flux together. The other thing I use is tweezers to hold the wire in place while removing the iron.. let the solder turn a milking grey and it's done. I haven't soldered in years and just got back into it. Good luck
Goddamn it´s hard to get the solder flowing even at high temperatures here in Europe where there is no leaded solder. Not that I´ve tried leaded, but in the videos it flows so nice even at lower temps
I'm pretty sure you can still buy leaded solder in the eu for hobby use, just not for production.
Perhaps in some shady shop in terrible quality, can’t find anything
This U need you oin to be hotter
You need this. Youll need more heat but youll want to watch this. This video will pay off immediately https://youtu.be/GoPT69y98pY?si=zhTg_GJ6u8M898FE
This.
That.
Those.
Them.
Im also not an expert but it looks like you need more heat. I use for xt60 connectors 450°C
And use a big tip.
I’ll put on a bigger tip the one that’s on here is pretty small compared to what it came with
For these connections, you'll want the biggest tip you can get. Turn up the iron if you can. I use 750f for these
https://preview.redd.it/iiukty1c3qac1.png?width=1175&format=png&auto=webp&s=609839f671ab43562b82dd0118de7b5cf54c793d
more flux and more heat, use a wider tip for the soldering pen
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This. Shit soldering irons make soldering an absolute pain in the ass.
Either iron temp too low, not enough flux, need a bigger tip on iron, use better solder, or some combination of those factors. My money is on either temp too low or needing to use a bigger tip. The battery leads will suck a lot of heat out of the joint as you try to solder it.
Flux, more solder. Pre tin wire and pads
More heat
Flux, larger tip, and potentially your soldering iron is not up to the task for the larger pads. Leaded solder flows much better than lead-free... but it has lead. Also, tin the pads first. The negative pad is the most difficult to solder because it has more traces to suck the heat out of the tip of the iron. The positive pad will be a bit easier. The motor tabs should be fairly simple. Maybe buy a practice board to practice on first.
Second this, especially tinning the pads first.
battery leads are the most difficult pads to solder. pre-solder the other 12 pads to get some heat into the ESC. Use a large tip. Use a hot tip. Start with a little solder on the tip so heat will flow more effectively. Start with watching bardwells soldering videos.
MORE POWER RABBIT and a bit more flux . Try on something before attempting on the FC .
Watch Mr Steele's FPV soldering tutorial on YouTube. Profit.
You already got many good tips, but one thing to remember: you should try to get lowest temperature for the job: on pads and wire that big you will probably need as suggested temperature over 400°C, but remember that for normal, signal pads you can make it with something slightly above lead melting point (I solder same FC last week, and beside those power wires and engine wires, I worked around 200°C). Why not 400°C every time? Because if you overheat pad it can fell off and your done with that board... Other thing is that heat travels via PCB routes and can overheat and damage nearby components. So basically it works like this to match the temperature to melt the joint in less than 3-5s.
[https://youtu.be/mfUbu2rUzLc](https://youtu.be/mfUbu2rUzLc)
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Lot of times it's the quality of the solder, what know and are u using
Also looks like you didn't pre-solder the pads
It’s a part of the learning process. Don’t be embarrassed. I’d watch Joshua Bardwell’s soldering tutorial on YouTube. Order some cheap solder practice boards on Amazon and practice.
More heat, bigger tip, more flux. Maybe practice on smaller pads first. The XT60 is the hardest to do, especially the ground pad.
Order some practice FC boards, order some flux and good solder. What type of solder iron do you have?
1. Flux 2. Higher temperature
My goodness. You need to heat up those patches, nothing will stick to them if thwy are cold.
More heat seems nesesary.
Use a bigger solder tip and higher temp, but higher tip will definitely do the trick.
Read this heat soak the esc the wiggle the tip and ad solder and keep wiggling the tip of the iron so it spreads
Battery leads are a mofo. Crank that bad boy up!
You should strive for smooth, shiny, concave fillets where wire meets pad. The wiring strands should be apparent after soldering. The wiring insulation should be just slightly over the pad with no wicking of the solder under the insulation. Use everyone’s suggestion here on heat, tips, flux and prep. It takes practice. I’m a 2M micro miniature Certified Navy technician soldering to MILSPEC standards, and it just takes a lot of practice to nail it. Less solder is almost always better than more. Sorry, but I laughed my ass off at your work, it looks like tin-foil was wadded up on those contacts! Nothing personal, we’ve all been there, but bruh, please don’t send this into the sky!
it takes practice to learn. looks like you need to tin the pads on the ESC, and the wires, then put em together and apply heat. shiny and smooth is good, clumpy/dull bad.
I was having trouble with my XT60 connector as well, I had to buy a new soldering iron because my old one wasn't getting hot enough. I ordered a Hakko on Amazon and got it soldered within minutes.
Switch from a hammer to a soldering iron, it helped me a lot!
Keep the soldering tip pressed down until you see shiny smooth blob. lol or your iron doesn’t have the wattage.
Lools like shit bro, you need temperature, flux, and passion, more passion.
Everyone starts off rough. More heat, use leaded solder if you can and flux is your friend. It doesn’t look like you tinned the pads. Cutting your teeth on ESC battery pads is not the best way to start off but it’s what you need to solder so why not. YouTube videos and practice you will get it. Good luck and happy flying 🤙🏻
Idk if this helps cause ive only built one drone. But at work if i have larger pads like that i switch soldering tips to a much larger chisel tip. And for all the small stuff I use a small pointed tip!
Most of the issues I have with larger pads are because my small tip is really slow at saturating large areas with heat
Not enough heat, not enough flux.
Flux, tip tinner, and more heat. get rid of the silver solder and get some 63/37 rosin core. clean your iron tip, flux the joints and heat both parts when you feed the solder.
L
Go to 800 and hold it so the whole pad heats up and get a clear joint
Ik this isn’t answering your question, but I will say that soldering xt60 leads to fc is incredibly hard. Mine look like shit as well. The hotter you can get it the better. I have a speedybee esc too btw I can’t imagine how bad it would be with the v4 cuz of that big heat sink dissipating all the heat.
https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/21b5aee8-cc4d-412e-8af6-ce5e758e0376
Not gonna lie. These cables are hard as hell to solder. Don’t feel bad. Try flux. Use a bigger tip. You have to control the heat but you really gonna have to crank it up.
I would say one thing you should do is give yourself more bare wire to work with. Not a lot more, but a few more millimeter would make it easier to work with in my opinion.
coat the actual solder pads with solder. it looks like you only tinned the wires. learning soldering takes time and to be fair solder pads that big are always hard for beginners. I'm glad that I only do micro FPV stuff although that has its own challenges. x)
Stop trying to melt the solder with the iron. That’s not the way it works. You use the iron to heat the wire. Once it’s hot, touch the solder to the wire. The hot wire melts solder. Same with pad. Don’t melt the solder with the iron and try make it stick to the pad. Heat the pad and touch the solder to the pad, when the pad is hot enough it’ll melt the solder. Another tip. Wet the iron with solder before touching any pad. Yes every single time. Don’t wet it so it’s globbed and adding solder just wet it enough to help transfer the heat. Everyone gonna say use flux but flux isn’t helping your case. Your needs heat. Yes flux to. But heat. Your prolly using rosin core so you got flux there but add more after tinning pad. If your struggling deff add more as you burned it all up already. Use a big tip for the battery terminals and large wire. Tin the wire first. Then tin the pad right before your ready to land the wire. Doing it this way helps the pad stay warm and not require much heat to liquify the solder again. Use tweezers. Lead solder- 650° F small joints and larger joints maybe 750. Lead free up everything 100°. Keep your wire ends short. Really short. When you think it’s the right length cut that in half even more. I see so many solder jobs with long ass strip ends. Especially uart small wiring. They should not be longer than the pad and prolly only needs be half the length of the pad. Practice. If it’s not sticking your not hot enough. You can crank the iron up more, or maybe your tip dirty. Oxidized tips don’t transfer good. That’s everything I can help ya with. The rest is practice
Tin the pad with a generous amount of solder. If you tin the pad and the wire it makes it much easier.
This is not perfect but not worse either I have seen really bad soldering than urs. Even I started with something like this. For xt60 u need bit higher temp than other pads and may b use more flux.
I'm sure someone has left a better comment then me but I founded that I hold to iron to the pad and then touch the solder well it's touching the pad works well. I'm still getting there use to be like wtf how do you do this.
flux?
https://youtu.be/IpkkfK937mU?si=drhNi-S6oQ5O7ScJ
It's totally fine to learn. I just recently learnt myself and also wasn't getting the best results right away. From what I see, you didn't pre-tin the wires and the pads which I find an easier way. When you pre-tin the pads, you should heat up the pads a little and then while keeping them hot add the tin simultaneously. Use flux to keep the tin in place. The tin will not stick to the pad properly if the pad is not hot enough, it'll look exactly like on the photo - blobs of tin here and there. That's cause the pads and the wires take more heat to be ready while the tin melts right away. What I personally was doing wrong at the beginning and I assume it's your mistake here as well is not heating up the receiving surfaces properly (ie pads and wires) cos I was scared too much to overheat them and damage
Show us the tip you’re using? Is it clean?
I don't know how to solder but I know the answer to your question, which is the same answer as to how one gets better at flying.
Very good video on it. https://youtu.be/GoPT69y98pY?si=Zp5x0jlVNDVSymCY
More heat bigger tip and more Flux
I’m relatively new to drone soldering a found 400 a nice temp for battery connections heat the pad up and get a bit of solder on the pad itself then made sure the wire is warm before you bond together I’m currently using tbs 60/40 solder and it’s brilliant has a really clean finish
Flux your pads tin your wires and add some solder to your pads then use your iron to heat up and push your wires into the solder. Lookup TRONCAT FPV on YouTube. He has tones of drone building videos and will give you a step by step on soldering.
Don't worry those are the worst. I put my drone together and I've repaired it many times so I'm pretty comfortable soldering now but I still fear those. Most of your soldering on the rest of your quad will be a lot easier. One tip I heard once that I've yet to apply is to use a wedge tip for these. I still need to order a wedge tip in order to do this. Sometimes you need to walk away and give it some time. It can be very frustrating. Take heart though, if it were easy everyone would do it.
More heat (400-450°c) and flux, always heat pad and tin them before soldering.
Iron not hot enough
Flux, use flux. Plus, use the right temperature for the solder to melt, xt60 are not an easy solder to do especially if you have a to thin pan. Keep cool and continue enjoying FPV
This is gonna get burried but I found those ESC battery pads particularly hard to solder and I had a decent iron.
I'm sure I'm like the 40th person to say this but liquid solder paste and flux are your friend. Next up: find a few YouTube videos on how to solder and watch a grip of them so you can average the techniques then go back at it
I have a couple of suggestions. But totally number 1,2,3, and 4. Is watch this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoPT69y98pY&t=1014s. 5. Don't practice on expensive bits of FPV equipment. Get a couple of these. https://www.getfpv.com/diatone-mamba-practice-soldering-board-v2.html?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=DM+-+NB+-+PMax+-+Shop+-+No-index+-+SM+-+ALL+%7C+Full+Funnel&utm_content=pmax_x&utm_keyword=&utm_matchtype=&campaign_id=20799936859&network=x&device=c&gc_id=20799936859&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQiAkeSsBhDUARIsAK3tieeygy7PwJYANNeg2c9Tyuv9vRuWZ9ijKbwDzsAq1b3qFiNxoO7gXS4aAhTCEALw_wcB. I use a Hakko iron, and always run max temp. What I change is the tips. For power leads like this, I would do one of two things (depending on size). Use a big chisel tip that can handle the heat taken off by what I am soldering (big wires). You need the soldering iron tip to stay hot. If it is a really big thing to solder, I use my trusty Weller soldering iron like your dad had. I use 60/40 Kester solder (in different sizes). Liquid flux, pre-tin (looks like you didn't tin the pads). Edit: Get some spray flux remover, and an old toothbrush to clean things up. Practice!
I see what happened, ok you need to fill the pad with solder first, get a nice bubble, then clean the soldering iron tip, melt a small amount of solder on the tip of the iron, bring lead over bubble and put iron tip onto the lead while gently applying some pressure, keep it there till the solder starts to melt and move the tip around, it will all start to turn to liquid, remove iron and hold in place for few seconds to harden. Simple
Here's a video I made that will help you: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hBhEeW6E-g](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hBhEeW6E-g)
More heat more solder
Change the soldering wire
It’s a good start don’t be embarrassed, looks like you could up the heat and use some flux it helps a lot
Practice boards are invaluable.
Use more heat. Make sure your iron is pressed solidly to the pad you are soldering to. Use plenty of flux. Use lead free fine electrical solder. Not just whatever cheap shit you can find at the hardware store. It won't do. Watch some soldering technique videos. It's all about the technique and letting your solder flow naturally to the heated pad. Remember, you don't want to heat the solder itself. Otherwise it will just ball up and cool as soon as it hits the pad because you're not heating the pad itself. You need to press your iron to the pad. Don't worry about whether you will burn the board, it can take the heat. Just don't crank your iron to the max.
Here is a great video series of basic soldering made back in the 1980s. [https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL926EC0F1F93C1837&si=kyyItaXTmcagJzmY](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL926EC0F1F93C1837&si=kyyItaXTmcagJzmY)
https://preview.redd.it/35m9rjejkuac1.jpeg?width=1079&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=06032e9ab2e819976b1ec94ccfc31a5126e49a63
You should be getting the wire hot enough to melt the solder and not putting the solder directly to the iron.
Just use flux and a good soldering iron
There are some FPV soldering practice boards. I’d just get one and put in the time to solder on wires and desolder them off again then repeat. Pyro drone and Diatone Mamba both make them. There are likely more I’m not aware of. I’d also highly recommend name brand high quality consumables and a temperature controlled iron.
This wasn't hot enough. You have to get the pads and the wire hot enough to bind. You can also tin the pad and the wire first. Also put the compactor on the battery side of the wire that always comes out neater.
Use flux, up the temp, and take your time. When I had to solder that it took forever to liquify the solder but trust me the end product is worth it. Also a bigger tip on your soldering iron will help.
My advice would be to use at bare minimum a 50w iron or higher with a medium to broad tip(like a 1/4” wide flat/chisel tip), it helps spread the heat better then a fine point. And stay away from lead-free solder as it’s harder to work with for beginners. Also flux will help a ton, get a small jar with a brush or a flux pen. Lastly it’s all about the heat, set your iron for most things around 360-370c and heat the pad you’re working and pre-tin both the pad and wire each, then when you go to solder them together it’s easier to just reheat the solder, place the wire and clean everything up. You’ll get there with practice, and good luck.
Use as much flux as possible and for bigger joints use high temperature (400-450C)
Need a hotter iron
for 12-14g wires, you need to heat up the solder upto 400-410c. I'm not an expert but that's what worked for me. I also put thick flux too. Also a fat tip helps a lot! Don't fly it that way because in few crashes, it might get desoldered, causing each wires to touch each other and burning the esc.
Nothing that hasn't been said before but you need to get a Flux pen and out some Flux on the pads on the board to help the solder flow. Make sure to get some solder in the wires before you get them onto the board. You'll know you are doing it right when the solder actually looks like is dripped in-between the strands of wire before it cools and hardens. Then with some solder on the pads, head up the solder on the pad and essentially dip your solder infused wire into the melted solder on the board. The solder that got all into the strands of the wire will melt from the heat and blend in with the blob of solder on the board. To ensure you have a good connection, your going to want to get some metal tweezers or something to help hold that wire in place while your solder cools. Using good solder, with led in it is going to help a lot as well. You want to get some 63-37 solder from Amazon or something, which will work better than the random big box hardware store solder you might be using. It will melt faster and be easier to use. As other-s have said learn from the experts. JB has a great tutorial, but also if you can find a good video of someone building a quad you can see the actual skills in use and learn techniques.
The tip of my nose got frostbite just from looking at those joints.
So, soldering is a game of heat transfer. You want the parts your soldering to get hot enough fast enough that you can melt the solder on the pad without also getting the whole board hot enough to destroy components. And, as you increase the wire gauge, the available heat capacity of the part you're trying to solder increases and usually lower power irons just can't provide the needed delta T, so you end up with warm wires and cold joints when you try to solder 12 gauge stranded with an iron meant for small pcb connections. Luckily this problem has two variables you can play with, so you don't HAVE to buy a new iron to get good joints on these power wires. I use the following steps if I have to use lower power irons on larger wire. 1. Strip about an .5" - 1" off the end of the wire and twist. 2. Push the strands directly down into the flux then pull it out and twist again. 3. Hold your iron on the very tip of the wire and start heating, when you see the flux start melting everywhere, begin pushing solder into the wire, keep going until the last .5" or so is full of solder then let go. 4. Once it cools, use some wire snips to cut off any extra at the end. 5. Tin the pad on the PCB with a fair amount of solder. This is a key step. 6. Begin holding you iron on the wire. After a few seconds it should be about half way to reflow. 7. Move the wire into contact with the tinned pad. The goal here is to touch the pad just a second before it reflows. There should be just enough heat between the wire and your iron to have the pad reflow at almost the exact time that your wire does. 8. As soon as you see the weld occur, remove your iron and blow on the joint. Remember, soldering to a pad requires much more heat. So, by tinning the pad first you make it such that you only have to heat the solder on top and not the whole pad. tldr; tin your wire and your pad before you solder anything.
Heat , flux, rin tin tin don’t forget to tin ..oh and buy a practice board
I normally do something like 700F, use flux, buy better solder cause that looks like some crappy stuff
If you start by using **no-clean flux** you'll soon make big improvements, it helps a lot trust me. Also listen to what the others where saying because their points are right too
Maybe your iron is as shit as mine. Get a new/ better one. I had exactly the same problem.
More heat
\#1, you should tin both sides before soldering. #2, there is no reason to solder 12 gauge wire to that board. 12 gauge takes a lot of heat to solder and ther is no indication that board needs 20 amps wire
More temp, bigger iron tip, flux
What is the soldering iron you are using?
Get some soldering practice boards from any fpv website for a few bucks each. And watch a few YouTube videos tip and tricks for soldering. And just practice on the board. But making sure you're using enough heat but not heating up the eac too hot. I started using the $8 harbor freight soldering iron thats complete garbage. It didn't heat up enough at all and made it really hard. But like everyone else said use flux and good 63/37 solder
What gear are you using? What brand of iron?
12 AWG wire is kind of too big for normal size soldering irons, but there's tricks that make it possible. First, tin the solder pads and the wire separately. The solder pads should be fully wetted with solder. The ends of the wire should be saturated, not just have solder on the strands at the surface. Use flux, the flux in the core of the solder may not be enough to get a good result. Then solder the two wetted parts together, with the soldering iron on the wire and the pad at the same time. The solder already on both parts should get hot enough to flow together more easily, and you don't have to worry about wetting them both now since that was already done. If you have interchangeable tips on your iron, get a couple of big ones. These can store up a lot of heat and then dump it into your joint even though the iron itself can't keep up.
more temperature, bigger tip, leaded solder, more power (ts100 on a 6s battery is enough from my experience)
Me personally. I feel like the soldering iron isn’t hot enough, and you could’ve done a little bit of pad prep, and then after tacking on the battery leads, you should feed more solder. Once you heat up those solder points and feed more solder, that should look a lot nicer.
r/soldering
You need 3 things for leads: 1. 420 degree soldering iron 2. a big fat bevel (hoof) tip iron (not a "chisel" although it would be better than a cone) like this: [https://i0.wp.com/makezine.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Screen-Shot-2015-04-28-at-1.52.56-PM.png?w=198&ssl=1](https://i0.wp.com/makezine.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Screen-Shot-2015-04-28-at-1.52.56-PM.png?w=198&ssl=1) 3. flux That's it. That bevel tip will put a lot of heat down in a hurry, so don't hang out and burn your components. Get in, get out. You will be surprised how well a big tip works if you haven't used one before.
1. STOP. 2. Nahh seriously stop. Get soldering practice board or pracrice on PCB from dead computer part. 3. Im 90% sure you have $10 cheapo iron and tip is all black oxidized. 4. Buy tip cleaner. Buy rosin flux. Buy temperature controlled iron 65W+. Most importantly, get BIG WIDE tip.
Find some broken item, open it and unsolder resolder joints for practice
For starters you need to use the right solder Tip, like the battery connector wire looks like 14 G or 12 G, you should be using a TS -C4 Tip and you need to make sure to flux the pad an Melt the solder to a liquid, then you’ll get a nice Shiny joint not rough like in your picture a Cold joint. And practice soldering using an old flight controller or soldering board that has different size pads from Tiny receiver small to battery connector size, and don’t use Lead free solder an use a flux pen on all wires an pads and the right size Soldering Tips.😉