soldering !!

[simon1]

As I bought a soldering iron a couple of weeks back I thought I better have a crack at soldering the bullets and ec5 connectors onto my HW esc for the trex 550. Now this is the first time I have soldered, so it was fun

Firstly I tinned the two wires, great easy enough, then tinned the ec5 connectors, thought this is going to be easy ?! A little bit of solder tin onto the solder tip and heated up the tin inside the connector lovely jubbly then pop the wire into connector then walah?! erm not quite. The wire stuck solid lovely in the ec5 connector but I had solder all over the side of the little bullets ! there was no way that was going to fit into the ec5 plastic casing, sure enough it hasn't and I havn't a clue how to get the rock hard solder off the connector?!

SO threw a huffy, and decided to try the 4mm bullets for the motor side of the esc, they went on fine but again dripped solder down the side of the connectors, I dont know whether its coming from the solder tip or out of the little holes in the side but its annoying!. Put the heat shrink on them and realised that I can't leave the 3 leads exposed like I have! Numpty!

What am I doing wrong?!

[the doc]

Heat up the solder with your iron then use a desolder pump on it.

[cjcj1949]

You can heat it up and get it off with the iron. You can use solder braid to wick it of. You can use a solder sucker. You can even file it off if you want.

[Kozmyk]

I prefer a butane torch to an iron for EC# connectors.
One little bit of solder in that groove and your knackered.
Trouble with an iron is that it HAS to contact the bullet to heat it up and any solder on it is going to transfer, and without any solder on the iron to "tin" it , the heat transfer isn't so good.

I grip the bullet in a mini vice. The bullet has a bit of cardboard around it so it doesn't lose heat to the vice jaws.
The little hole on the end cup points up so solder doesn't spill out.
I heat the bullet and dab a little solder to tin the inside of the cup.
I don't fill it right up cos the cable is going to take up most of the space in there.
Once it's tinned I give it another blast from the torch then shove the tinned cable end.
That's usually enough to do the job, just occasionally I need to wave the torch over the bullet again to see the solder run together completely but usually it joins first time.

[xygax]

Its posibel to recover from this but you need to wipe the outside of the connector whilst its hot. easy way is to remove the cable and then with the tip of the iron inside the cup to keep the solder fluid wipe the outside with a piece of suade or cloth you should be able to get all the solder off the outside like this then replace the cable being careful not to get any more solder on the outside

Steve

[sunny_manku1985]

Had exactly the same problem. What I did was use a Stanley knife and cut the excess away, be careful doing it this way tho!. Worked well for me.

[johnsandywhite]

You can't beat a Butane torch for soldering EC5's and EC3's. If I get any solder on the sides of the connector, I file it off nice and smooth. It also helps getting the connectors into the Plastic by filing the leading edge to a slight taper and then use the opposite plastic (male to female and visa versa) as a cushion on the table when pushing the connectors in.

[BenjaminKenobi]

+1 to a butane soldering iron. Very hot and no chords. You gotta get that heat in quickly or the plastic starts to melt.

YouTube has a few good vids.


Cheers!

[Cuppa]

As I bought a soldering iron a couple of weeks back I thought I better have a crack at soldering the bullets and ec5 connectors onto my HW esc for the trex 550. Now this is the first time I have soldered, so it was fun

Firstly I tinned the two wires, great easy enough, then tinned the ec5 connectors, thought this is going to be easy ?! A little bit of solder tin onto the solder tip and heated up the tin inside the connector lovely jubbly then pop the wire into connector then walah?! erm not quite. The wire stuck solid lovely in the ec5 connector but I had solder all over the side of the little bullets ! there was no way that was going to fit into the ec5 plastic casing, sure enough it hasn't and I havn't a clue how to get the rock hard solder off the connector?!

SO threw a huffy, and decided to try the 4mm bullets for the motor side of the esc, they went on fine but again dripped solder down the side of the connectors, I dont know whether its coming from the solder tip or out of the little holes in the side but its annoying!. Put the heat shrink on them and realised that I can't leave the 3 leads exposed like I have! Numpty!

What am I doing wrong?!

Ray's vids are quite good he gose into soldering on one of his first vidios, he just about covers the lot!

http://www.rayshelitech.com/#/home

cheers cuppa.

[danch]

+1 on butane solder iron, had been using electric ones but cords small & real pain to solder with.

Bought the iroda solderpro 120k from maplin & haven't looked back, soldered the EC5's in no time

Dan

[lankey]

I just dremel/file that solder off.

[Cagey]

Hold the bullets in a tight fitting hole in a small piece of wood for the soldering bit, wipe the bullet quickly with a piece of webbing tape for a smooth clean finish and polish off excess with a fine file always works for me.