I'm done with EC5's... What next?

[philipjdall]

Thats great news as I've just cleared fast lads out!

p

[waveydavey]

I suspect you've been doing it wrong - honestly - there are soo many people using EC5s with almost no issues at all - either cheap EC5s or poor soldering ... I know for myself the job it takes after I thought I did a good job but the EC5 came off - never ever since ... use a large tip - melt enough 60/40 solder into the wire - I tend to have up to 1-1.5cm rocksolid with solder and since never had an issue, let it be desoldering, breaking or anything else ...

It might work for you, but that's not the way to solder. A soldered joint is a connection between the cable and connector only. Any solder that has wicked along the cable is increasing the risk of fracture.

Phil, you aint no noob so look at this sensibly, if your connectors are desoldering then they're getting too hot IE you're pulling too much current or the connectors aren't rated for the current you're pulling or need to pull. Solder melts at around 190/200 degrees, IMO thats getting dangerously hot

[George J]

Connectors are getting so hot and melting the solder, really? The rest of the system must be melted as well surely?!! After a flight, if that's the case, you wouldn't be able to touch the wires and everything connected to them if they're getting so hot to melt solder.

[Phill. H]

My input, I use castle 6.5mm individual bullets on 700 helis and 10- 12S planes. Reasoning behind this is that you can feel the tension on individual connectors when connecting up, if it feels slack then the male bullets can be tensioned up by a inserting small tapered pin in the male connector and just forcing it open slightly. Have seen a few EC5 and similar connectors with plastic shrouds de-solder themselves due to slack fits between the brass plugs and sockets, they start arcing and just de-solder due to the heat build up from electrical resistance as the motor calls for more amps. Even if they are soldered correctly they will de-solder with the heat from arcing and resistance. Can't tell if the connection is good when pushing EC5 and similar plugs together, one side may be a slack fit and you'll never know it till it's too late. Wires won't be too hot as the heat is generated in the plugs.

[Nick B]

I agree with George,theres no way your connectors are getting to the temp of solder melting...it's either poor tinning(not just the bit you can see but through out the wire) or you're simply not using enough solder in the cup of the connector.

For me,relying on fluxed solder would not do....all my soldered joins are done with Bakers Fluid.

[Peper]

Trouble with EC5's is when put the wire into the bullet there will be very little solder left in the cup,
this together with bad tension as Phil explained above its a good receipt for disaster,
I've seen this happening too many times, specially on 12S setups which in theory shouldn't be the case,
still to see one Supra connector or Castle fail

[philipjdall]

Agree, there just isn't enough contact area on EC5's, this creates an area of resistance that causes temps to spiral. This coupled with a very shallow area for the cable to seat into the connector... BINGO

Obviously I am the only one who knows what the connection was like before it failed (it was perfect ). I was being so pedantic about it. I wouldn't have just dropped £100 on new connectors if I wasn't sure the ec5 was at fault. And it was a brand new eflite one FFS.

[Mike Sanders]

the solder pours over the top resulting in a ruined connector.

The connector is not necessarily ruined. You can file the excess solder off when it has cooled.

[Peper]

Get those ProD6 installed and fly with confidence

that's what I did and recommend to anyone having issues with the EC5's..
good or bad soldering skills apart, they are better connectors.

[George J]

Yes if you fill the cup on an EC5 with solder and then push your tinned wire in and it spills over the top and you do nothing else then that is not a proper soldered EC5!! You need to keep the heat on the side of the cup so the tinning on the wire melts into the solder in the cup and also keep the wire completely still while it cools. If you've done it correctly there is no way it's coming apart, you should also end up with a nice rounded cap of solder at the top as well.

ProD6 maybe better connectors which is not to say EC5's aren't good either but to move away from EC5's because you've potentially not soldered them properly is a different thing in my opinion.

[Peper]

Done all that George,
and just to add a bit of wood into the fire, one of the connectors that came loose was one that was pre-soldered on a current sensor by Mikado.
not saying the solder better than me but having panic attacks while flying due to a connector coming loose is not funny

I also know that there are hundreds of pro pilots using them with no problems, (and there is also Alan Szabo using Dean connectors in his 700)
when we see these things happening everyone blames the soldering (as if we were retarded and didn't know what we are doing) but the design of the EC5 doesn't help and the connector itself is not rated for the huge amp draw's of today's setups.

[George J]

You may be right Bruno but imo a soldered joint can only part if it's been done correctly just like any normal metal weld. However, those Supra connectors do look really good how you get the solder into the connector especially if you use the helping hand thingy and if I were to ever change from EC5's they are the ones I'd go for.

[waveydavey]

the connector itself is not rated for the huge amp draw's of today's setups.

That's more like it, the EC5 is rated at 120a continuous. So, regardless of soldering you've chosen the wrong connector for your setup if you're expecting to pull in excess of this.

With proper EC5's, the sprung type if they're soldered correctly there is no way you should be creating enough heat for the solder to melt. I agree with Phil H above, that the castle version of the EC5 can get a bit loose and you could see heat build up in there. But 300 degrees ? You wouldn't be able to disconnect it and it would melt the plastic housing together.

You 3D animals, give nitro a go

[philipjdall]

Get those ProD6 installed and fly with confidence

Yeah I Will do. Thanks for the tips mate.

[waveydavey]

You may be right Bruno but imo a soldered joint can only part if it's been done correctly just like any normal metal weld. However, those Supra connectors do look really good how you get the solder into the connector especially if you use the helping hand thingy and if I were to ever change from EC5's they are the ones I'd go for.

Got to be picky here a soldered joint isn't a weld, it's a glue, although a conductive one. A welded joint is formed by melting the parent metals, a soldered joint is an alloy that sticks to the parent metals