Most FPV pilots need to watch this soldering tutorial
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- čas přidán 24. 06. 2024
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The Sequre D60 is probably the best inexpensive soldering iron. Purchase Sequre soldering irons and accessories at:
* SequreMall - bit.ly/32v3pwV
* RaceDayQuads - bit.ly/34yZe60
* GetFPV - bit.ly/3lmVOJJ
* Banggood - bit.ly/2Qo3XPG
The Sequre SQ-001 is slightly more expensive than the D60 but has more features. Similar soldering performance though. Be sure to order it with the DS24 tip!
* RaceDayQuads - bit.ly/3bN2opb
* Pyro-Drone - bit.ly/3qdU3mI
* GetFPV - bit.ly/3GUH0N3
* Banggood - bit.ly/3wjuqCc
* Amazon - amzn.to/3nXDvwI
SRA solder no-clean liquid flux pen:
* Amazon - amzn.to/3EP3RYy
Kester 63/37 rosin-core leaded solder, 0.31 diameter
* Amazon - amzn.to/3EO8fXO
MANDATORY DISCLAIMER: I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for me to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.
-- TABLE OF CONTENTS --
0:00 - Intro
1:09 - MuteFPV solder practice board is amazing!!!!
Learn more about the MuteFPV Solder Practice board (and order yours) at: • The Ultimate Soldering...
2:42 - How to pick a good soldering iron
5:09 - How to choose the best solder for FPV
6:31 - Flux is incredibly important!
10:57 - Clean your iron with a brass sponge (not sandpaper!)
13:00 - How to choose the right style of iron tip
16:20 - What temperature to set your iron to?
23:17 - What does a healthy clean soldering iron tip look like
27:05 - Correct technique for soldering
31:35 - How to prep wire for soldering
37:39 - Trim wire to the correct length
39:52 - How to complete the solder joint (dry fit is critical!)
41:29 - What does a good vs. bad solder joint look like
47:52 - Conclusion
This is one of the best solder tutorials I have ever seen. It has lots of magnified views of what happens in the joint when you solder, as well as a bunch of information that I left out of this high-level how-to:
• How to Solder Electronics
Ok this is your chance. What did I get wrong and/or leave out?
I checked out the link provided to order this practice board but on his channel he provides a link to a mamba practice board.
@@msaunders300 might be cheaper? Or sold out atm
A big warning not to eat the solder with lead in it ;-)
Talk about solder fumes?
Do not ever apply flux directly to the tip. Yes I found out the hard way. It makes the solder not stick to the tip
This was the most thorough soldering tutorial I've ever seen. I've pointed my daughter to this video (she's majoring in Computer Engineering, so will be living with a soldering iron in her hand from now on). I've ordered a stack of the practice boards for her and I to work on while we fine tune our skills. Take this $10 and buy a coffee or a burger, and rest in the knowledge that you did a great job.
Thank you.
Glad it helped!
@@JoshuaBardwell i smell jew on u
@@voorbaamach4970 gqvl kqhlhlqkqas
bvalalvalvyb
@@voorbaamach4970 bro why 💀
Remember when you could walk into Radioshack with a list of resistors, transistors and capacitors, and the guy behind the counter would come back with it all in 5 minutes?
yup I was needing a 2.2uf capacitor the other day and had to wait 3 days to get it instead of just walking in a shop that day :( i miss tandy in the UK.
not only do I remember those days, I remember where it was all set up at and which drawer and bin it was stored in... spent way too much time and money in that store...
I was one of those guys during college. “Force feed” was the term for mindlessly stacking groups of 19 cent resistors, capacitors, etc. on the wall pegs. We used to tell the new “managers in training” that the manager would love when folks volunteered for force feed. And since we were on commission, while that guy would restock, others would sell.
Actually had some fun times…
Remember going in as a kid in Marvel at all those components. Later at about age 10 going in to purchase parts for my CB radio to hit new frequencies. Ahhh those were the days...
Yep Terminal Insanity and yep Gary Garland I was one of those guys who worked there too. My friend and I would hang out like nerds there when we were younger, except we were the badass nerds. I would ride my Indian Enduro bike there when younger and my buddy and I would write clones of games on the "Tandy CoCo 3" 128k computer (I preferred my Ti99-4/A at home, it had an asynchronous sprite chip and 3 voice sound chip and super fun speech synthesizer!).
So when I was a senior in highschool I asked for a job there which they instantly gave me. Did the forcefeed and the whole 9 yards. OMG the commission was really good at that time, something like 12%?!?! I ended up being the number one salesman in New England for most of the time because I sold a lot of the high ticket items like the computers and car stereos. I used to bring home checks of like $3000 a week (!!!!!) there during spring and fall. For a kid who graduated at 16 that was a killer job. And my boss was a lot of fun. He was in his 30s and jealous haha when my 'babes' would stop by to kiss me haaa. And during Christmas the customers all knew me and would hand me their 💳 credit card and say, "hey I need gifts for 3 hs aged grandkids and 2 young ones." Of course I would grab computers or $120 RC trucks for them. They loved me. Christmas shopping done! At Christmas 🎄 I would bring home $4000 to $6000 paychecks, then head over to the Radio shack in the mall and work from 6 to 10pm and make gobs of money 💰.
Loved working there until I got good software development contracts and made too much money doing that.
My young wife spent it all haha. But that place did rock in the 80's.... Fun to shop there and great working there 😜
I soldered electronics professionally for almost 10 years and this is a fantastic tutorial. A few things I would add:
1. Just like tinning, when you solder the final joint, you want all the metal to get to temp and heat the solder evenly. On small connections it's not a big deal, but on that larger ESC wire/pad this technique becomes more necessary. Always apply the iron to the larger piece of metal. Nothing worse than a cold solder joint.
2. Get yourself a set of "third hands" cheap stands with alligator clips and a magnifying glass. Soldering iron on the bench doesn't work in all cases.
3. Solder sucker. Worth it!
4. Setup, setup, setup for that final joint. Get all the components secure (third hand for wire, rubber vise for board), magnifying glass in place, iron hot, flux on. Then apply heat. Rookie mistakes happen and other components get damaged when a solder joint is rushed or bunged up due to the PCB sliding around the table.
Gotta get that set of helping hands with a LED lighted magnifying glass and some FUN-TAK. I use silver solder it was 25 bucks for a 1/4lb worth it.
does cold solder cause the ripped pads? I tried soldering a few whoop 25x25 aio from happymodel and geprc. more than twice, the pads got ripped by small force in the 30awg soldered wire. Could it be cold solder or too much heat during solder? or the pad is weak and manufacturing issue? Thank you.
@@jeffclassics it can, yes. If you think the solder is flowing (in liquid form) but it is actually cooled, and then you apply upward force, it can rip the pad off. As JB explained, it can also happen with too much heat.
I see a lot of guys just putting flux on the pad and letting a drop of solder fall on it, they say there is no problem?? they're gold plated aren't they? I try to heat the whole thing up till it all flows nice.
@@embededfabrication4482 it's all easy on those F7 fcs with a lot of uarts and big pads. for AIO whoops, pads are very tiny, cramped etc that it's very easy to rip. I have accidentally destroyed 3 aios by far, but not f4 stacks, F405s and F7s
I have a spool of Kester “44”I purchased back in the 60’s. It’s .015” dia. Very thin and perfect for my type of work. Back then I was building my own Digital Radio Control Systems, from scratch. Here I am 75 and still building models and electronics gear. For what its worth, Joshua is giving you the very best, clear and well proven advice available here on the web.
I thought I was one of the old dude here but at 65, I feel young :)
Don't do much soldering anymore, so I will have to practice before I solder my FC/ESc combo as my hands are not as steady
@@JDDupuy my bones are OK (most of them), but my hands are shaky at times and I would not be surprise if I solder 5 pas in one shot.
Awesome, i hope im still doing this in 20 years. i use to bug mum ,please take me to buy another electronics kit so i can build whatever...first thing somewhere mid 70s built my first fm radio. i was soooo happy when it tuned to a station , so was mum. God bless yall. from sth aussie.
💯 percent
❤
MuteFPV has been consistently creating high quality fpv-related content. He is a great assett to the fpv community!
Σε ευχαριστώ πολύ 😉
This tutorial is probably one of the best FPV soldering tutorials I have ever seen.
"always keep a clean tip guys!" -Joshua Bardwell. This needs to be a t-shirt!
😅
And Steele advises to always wet the tip in his soldering vids.
@@kurtzFPV in contrast to Jushua, Steele can at least solder 🤣
" F A H R E N H E I T "
I love the humor you consistently have in your vids. Makes me come back to watch them more than once. 😂
Who else could watch this for hours Evan though been soldering for 6 years 😂
I've been soldering at least 35 years and I still enjoyed it. It is always a joy to watch a professional at work, and there is always something still to learn. Once you stop believing that, you have put a cap on your ability to improve.
Me me
@@timlong7289 if I remember correctly I have to add 3 more years to your 35, I was 10 when I started
really good video, I enjoy it
Hi
I've been in the fpv hobby for a couple years now. I have not done a complete build yet. I have limited time, so I tend to use bnf's ,buttttt I have had to solder to do repairs on quads. I have struggled alot, but have gotten better. This video pretty much covers every issue I've had soldering. Thank you for a great tutorial. Showing the incorrect moves is as much or more important. It helps us recognize when and how we screwed up. Then you showed us how to make it right ... thank you JB!
I'm just getting into FPV and I'm on a mission to learn everything from scratch and build me own quad. You sir are by far the best teacher I've seen for builds and these topics. Thank you so much and keep up the fantastic work Joshua! Cheers brother!
How did ur journey go
@@BabyKnxckz Had to take a step back and focus on other things due to financial situations :(
@@BenAmaralkeep goin brother
Same! I'm eating up videos and forum posts like there was no tomorrow. Hope I'll remember at least some of it for when the parts arrive.
Thank you very much, you taught me how to solder. I haven't learned how to clean tin yet. I will be soldering onto a neatly thin wire. I respect you.
OK, you asked for it. ;) Flux removes the oxide layer from the metals that you are soldering (like copper oxide), not the solder. Incidentally, if you are soldering to a gold pad, you don't need flux because gold doesn't form an oxide layer, but the copper wire that you would be attaching would still need it. If you tin the wire first, then you can skip the flux when you solder to the gold pad.
Solder doesn't oxidize.
You would still need flux in space because it is likely that the copper pad was formed in an oxygen atmosphere or was exposed to oxygen at some point before you took it into space. :D
Thanks for the video, it's a great tutorial. :)
You can sand or file a soldering iron tip. It is just a piece of copper coated with solder. That being said, you need to re-tin the tip after. That just entails making sure you get a well adhered layer of solder over the exposed copper by using flux. I have filed many a soldering iron tip in my life. In fact, if you leave flux on your iron at too high a heat setting, you will eat away the copper and will need to file out the pits and holes or replace the tip.
Yes
I've been soldering since I was a kid from watching my dad tinker with electronics. Although I've been getting good results, what you shared here shed light on quite a few things I did NOT know. I definitely 'learned something today!' Thank you.
Learning to solder was my favorite part of getting into FPV. It was VERY empowering, and very satisfying to be able to confidently wire my quad, and make repairs.
The Hakko is by far my best investment in this hobby 😎
I haven’t soldered in 15 years but soldering my receiver to my 5” today and came her for the pep talk! Thanks Joshua for all you do for the community! You’ve made this complex hobby so much easier to understand and digest.
Joshua has to be one of the most pleasant, calm and easy going fellas Ive seen.
Enjoyed it Josh. You basically re-hashed all those other soldering CZcamsS out there, threw out all the junk ,packaged it in classic JB style so we can understand the brevity of soldering. Love it , keep them coming :)
I've been doing this for 50+ years and there are plenty of people who are better at this than me. This was an excellent lesson in the art/craft of soldering. Thanks Joshua 👍
PS Don't under tin the wire.
My wife thinks I'm a dork for getting excited about a 50 minute long video on soldering. Thanks for making my Saturday special, JB.
Yeah and getting excited for a make-up video for the 100th time is making her a dork as well. Just in a different sport
There's never to many solder videos, always place for a refresh and update.. Just when u think u know it all.. u find something new 😊👍👍
I learned to solder as an Air Force mechanic...and the best I could do was a serviceable joint. The breadth of the instruction we received could be distilled down into, "Make the iron hot, put on some flux, and good luck."
Your teaching style, attention to detail, and thoroughness without being burdensome certainly earned a subscriber.
I've not purchased any FPV gear yet but will learn all I can from your channel. Thanks for providing such great information and sharing your knowledge!
Thank you for the kind words.
So, I’ve been soldering for decades…and learned some great stuff. THANK YOU!
Me too!
Great Job! I use to teach soldering in the 1980’s when I was in the USAF.
Wow! This is the best solder tutorial I have seen for RC Hobby soldering. I retired from a national laboratory and did an awful lot of soldering and had a lot of training including surface mount PACE certifications. I've seen a lot of solder tutorials and videos but yours is the one I want my young grandson to watch. You just did great! Especially showing examples of common mistakes. Joshua, sir; I SALUTE YOU! THANK YOU!
What a coincidence that my new soldering station arrived just today. I didn't solder for more than thirty years. I'm new in RC hobby (again) and I enjoyed your nice speech.
Thanks Mr Bardwell
Dude! I can't thank you enough. I've been having such a hard time and now I know what I was doing wrong. Just the tutorial I needed. Thanks again Joshua.
I'm new to the hobby and am still learning how to solder well.
Ain't being able to make all my solderings shiny as I would like and your tutorial addressed some issues that I have to improve.
Keep up the great service you provide to our community 👍.
You're my number 1 teacher for FPV!
my dude, didatic as always. been doing some solder stuff for some years and NEVER I realizes the solder flows to the hotter place. this explains a lot. thank you for your time. the drone community wouldnt be the same without u
thanks for even more information about soldering
i „learned“ soldering by watching your build videos but this combines all that skill i’ve learned from you
Never get tired of watching solder melt and cool. That practice board is pretty awesome!!
Thank you so much for this video. I've soldered for years involving so many projects, and it's nice to see pros like yourself to teach with great detail. I look forward to any future videos
Thank you so very much for making this video and all the time and efforts to putting this (and all your videos) up for our FPV community, you make such a difference for so many
Mr. Bardwell never fail at teaching and I'm always learning thanks
When I first started soldering, I always had cold solders & could never figure out why. So I found your videos on soldering tips (including this one) & has helped me out a lot with my soldering skills. Excellent tutorial Joshua!!
This was great! Thanks for putting it together. I’ve been soldering for years and picked up several helpful things from the video. The tinning process for the wire and the breakdown of the tips and temperatures were excellent!
Great video. I teach one additional thing to ham students. Clean the tip constantly. Tin / clean / tin / solder / repeat. Also, keep the tip tinned between operations and when stored. That helps make the tip last, and makes them become more aware of how much better a cleaned, tinned tip performs compared to sticking a dry iron to something.
Thanks a lot for the video!!! I've been soldering some time now but this showed once again to me how much there is to learn about a topic. Great work!
Ooooo, you're brave JB! Soldering is the most divisive thing I've seen in FPV. Almost as bad as if anyone mentions HDZero around a bunch of DJI flyers...
It's all over the reddit. And there are always conficting opinions
YES!!! I was trying to teach a classmate who wants to get into fpv how to solder on a old busted esc and he wasnt getting it. I told him to just watch me because for me soldering is all about the feel. its like driving standard you gotta feel whats going on. and though this video wont directly make him a good solderer, it will give him the tools and understanding to become one.
I have seen a lot of soldering tutorials, but this one was really useful. I have been fairly adequate at this for a long time, but I feel this video finally put an end to my 35 year old status as a soldering newbie. I certainly learned something today.
Been soldering “forever,” but always looking for ways to improve. Your videos are comforting to watch, Joshua. I always know that for at least a little while, the world will make sense! 😃🤔👍
I have been soldering for DIY projects for years, not very well at all until watching this tutorial amongst others, but I found yours very helpful. I got to the point where I almost gave up, and just filed down the tip of my gas soldering iron, and just used a flux pen with lead solder, and yes it works great, the secret is to use a flux, and a decent solder, worked great first attempt. Thanks for your videos, thanks to people like you, it helps to make others life easier, always good to see people share knowledge.
Been soldering for years and I still learned something from this video. Toughest solder for me, Ground pads for the main battery...UGH!
I used to watch every video that you came out with as soon as they went live I used to fly a couple times a week I'm still a patreon because I learned so much from you and I believe you're a good teacher and I believe in what you do.
I've been modding Nintendo switches lately and I've had to buy a digital microscope for small up-close soldering and I happened on your video and realized how much I miss the bardwell videos a couple times a week and fpv in general.
Thanks for taking the time to make this video Joshua. Much respect for sticking to an idea.
Thanks for another great video Joshua. I’ve been soldering for 33 years and STILL “learned something today”.
Thank you Joshua this has been the most helpful video on soldering that I have ever watched on youtube and you can count on it, I will be getting my old soldering iron out and start back on practicing very soon. This is most helpful ! Thanks for all the time you put into making this video. Just AWESOME !!!!
This continues to be the best tutorial for soldering on CZcams. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts, JB
thank you! this makes getting into the hobby so much easier for people like me
“Get me away from this cold tip man” 🥶
Been soldering for 30+ years ; this video is great. I am glad you made it. It is a great resource for youngsters (or those life experienced people but new to electronics) to check out!
For me I just enjoy JB styles!
I was hoping you would mention solder paste for preventing oxidation over the tip of your iron while in storage.. You definitely improved my soldering ability thank you for the video Josh.
I've been soldering for years (not often, but a couple projects a year) and still learned a ton from this video. thank you!!!
Very helpful, don't be afraid to record long videos. Currently soldering my first project along with this video and it's relaxing to hear in the background.
I have been soldering (hobby) for 30 years and learned more than I thought I would in the video. Thanks JB, another useful and well made tutorial. Much appreciated.
Been soldering for close to 20 years now, but still love seeing how everyone does it, and sometimes I see how complacent I've gotten soldering.
Thanks for the content and keep it up! I'll be watching 👀...lol
Just finished my soldering session! Perfect for retrospective) Many thanks!
I'm 15 and just bought the DJI fpv, flew it 3 times and crashed, and had to send it back. So now I'm going to learn how to build my own fpv and this is the best tutorial I've seen so far about soldering. Thank you so much, I can't wait to keep learning from you!
Great tips, and unless you work on an assembly line in electronic, no one soldier will look the same every time . Glad you made it clear you don’t just melt the solder on the iron. Also getting practice pads to practice will make a difference. Well done, I do mostly plumbing and will be ordering my tool, solder, flux and scolding iron from your links. In plumbing practice made perfect as it will with this more delicate work.
I learned to solder about 25 years ago, and I like to think I'm pretty good at it. I completely agree with every single point you've made in this video. You have a ton of experience, and it shows. This is an excellent tutorial.
Nice tutorial. I've learned most of these things the hard way but love watching other's technique to refine my own. Still learning the value of flux, flux, and more flux!
Fantastic video!! Been hesitant to solder. This makes it look so much easier than I thought. Thank you!
Awesome man! I just got into the FPV world and you’ve helped me a lot! I appreciate you man.
Fastest 1hour of my time ever. Probably watch this at least 100 more times. By far an amazing soldiering tutorial
Your demo of the problem with oxidized tips showing the solder running away from the cold oxide layer is great! For thin 24 gauge wire I use 320 C ( 608 Fahrenheit ) while for 14 gauge wire I'd use 380-400 C. Soldering on the small FPV parts I think, even if you'd use 12 gauge wire for XT60 connection, requires at most 400 C ( 752 Fahrenheit )
Honestly, great video. Well explained, and even to an experienced user, things were mentioned that anyone could improve on. Thanks for all you do JB!
Great video! As an engineer who has been soldering for almost 40 years, I can say you got this just right. Any more info would have been overwhelming to the average noob. Any less wouldn't have been very useful. Soldering 101 was a 6 week class in collage, and was really only meant to keep us from burning our tongues and setting the lab on fire. Soldering is both an art and a skill, and there is no way to cover all of the basics in even a 10 video series. But this video covers exactly enough to get someone started.
Perfect way to spend my Sunday coffee. Thank you Joshua.
Excellent and easy going. I've been soldering and making Heath Kits since the early 1960's (yes 1960's) My technique has changed many times but the basic results a you've demonstrated is spot on. Advancement of precise temp controlled irons and better tips have made it easy for everyone to have great success in soldering. Always enjoy your instructional videos.
I've watched your soldering tutorial quite lot, as well as yor building tutorial for almost a year. Thanks to the knowledge you've shared, I've finally gotten good at soldering and built my second quad from the ground up by myself. Still needed some help on some configurations in Betaflight, but overall I can proudly say I built it myself. And this soldering tutorial is part of that, and I thank you! Keep sharing knowledge, and have a great day JB. Cheers!
I've been sodering all my life. I was taught by my dad who was a TV engineer at the time when you could fix TV's by replacing components. - Excellent tutorial and I actually learned something today - Thank you! Maybe one tip - try not to inhale the fumes. I normally hold my breath when my head is over the joint.
I owe you so much, You have gotten me outta all kinds of binds, And non bind, Only in FPV!!! love it...
thank you so much for this video, I was actually soldering the wrong way for so many years as I didn't know about warming up the pads to make the solder stick correctly! I am now seen so much better results.
Joshua you are the GODFATHER of FPV. Thank you
Great vid. Ive been soldering for years and I learned something today.
Obviously, there are countless videos available about soldering. And they run the gamut from outstanding to literally useless. I’ve been soldering for over 45 years and I can say that while this may not be the best, I sure wish I had as thorough an explanation and demonstration to learn from when I got started. It would have saved me a lot of grief, and answered virtually all of my noob questions. I have saved this vid so that I can share it with any beginners.
Thank you for deciding to do this excellent tutorial. 👍
way better instruction then my technical college professor..thank you!!
That's why I love your show. You know your stuff.ive learned a lot from you. Keep up the good work and informative content. Thank you
Thanks - awesome work! I don't like soldering. The least fav part of this hobby for clumsy me - but with your instructions and insights I'm looking forward to the next time I need this! Definitly learned something today! greets and nice weekend!
Thanks for the refresher Bardwell!
congratulations to Mutefpv! Thanks for the video
Best soldering tutorial I’ve seen,thanks JB👍
. thank you so much for your video on soldering I have not soldered since Í was 16yrs old. I screened up a radio kit. I'm now 66yrs you touch on so many areas that I remembered having problems,you have made me wanting to try again on something.
I also don't comment on video's so you have really moved me.
😁 Thank you again. I have to go find something to work on.
Good job.
Bardwell, your the dad I never had. Thanks for the lessons and the patients.
I have been soldering for several decades with no problems. My iron is a $15 temperature controlled unit with the temp adjustment wheel taped at 425 C degrees (so it won't move). It always works and nothing gets "burnt"...work fast, get in, get out, done. Yes, more flux. I use what you are using. I have the brass sponge, too. However, I also always keep a folded up wet paper towel for tip cleaning as well; it smooths and cleans really well. Want a shiny tip? Wipe it off with the wet paper towel. GOOD JOB explaining that the material (pad, wire, whatever) MUST be hot to accept the solder. The iron heats the metal and the metal then melts (and bonds to) the solder. I use that blue "tack" putty to hold wires and boards while I solder them. It works better than those extra hands with alligator clips. Yeah, it also has a high heat tolerance. GOOD JOB Joshua. This is the BEST soldering tutorial video that I have seen. EXCELLENT JOB.
That was awesome.. just finished my first build.
It would have been great to see this video 2 weeks ago !....My second build will be awesome for seeing this video.
Thanks Joshua...love watching your videos and I have learnt so much.
Thank you Josh. I ordered your hd version of kit you have. Got my practice solder board today. And Holy crap that was easy. Your videos explain things so well.
can u send the link for the practice board u used`?
Best soldering tip that I actually got from Mr. Steele. Have a small bit of solder on the iron before touching it to the board. It means that solder blob works to heat the existing joint or pad, rather than the iron tip doing all the work. Way better and faster heat transfer with a bit of solder on the iron.
I've been soldering for over 20 years and still enjoyed this video
Cheers Joshua! Watched this video over 2 times now, did order a practice board and trying it out as the video is playing. Gonna work out realy well now, I do learn a lot from your video's, thanks bud!
As an RC and FPV enthusiast, this was fantastic for helping me getting started with Soldering. Thank you!!!!
Seen a fair few tutorials now, but there were defintely a few new things for me to learn here, or perhaps I was just finally ready to appreciate the nuances, regardless, thank you!
Great job Joshua! Yes , I learned something today. THANKS!
I've been soldering and working on electronics since i was around 9, im a bit over 30 now, and i learned some great tips from this video that i havent figured out in 20 years of experience. thank you for a wonderful tutorial!
Years ago I worked for RCA in Camden and started as an assembler, went into repair and later test/troubleshoot but I did my fair share of soldering, most of it government work. When I started most of the work was hand soldered, solder wave machines were new and not very much of the work was wave soldered.
Things to remember is the solder should flow to the wires, boards, objects or whatever that you are soldering and you must have proper "wetting" to be physically strong and a good electrical connection. Putting a puddle of solder on an iron and dropping it on cold components is not a good technique. Hitting it fast with a hot iron is good but you do not want to lift pad or measling the circuit board (delaminate, the heat will separate the layers, you usually see white dots on the board). If you are trying to solder (for example) a 10 awg finely stranded tinned wire with silicone insulation to a 4mm banana connector, a 40 watt iron won't do the job. Solder should flow between the strands, be "wetted" in the connector cup, have a concave look and you should be able to see the wire strands in the soldered wire. It should not be a cold solder joint that looks like a hawk flew by and took a dump on it. For anything I solder that will absorb a lot of heat I prefer a 100w iron with smallest tip I can find. In some cases pre tinning is helpful but in others it's a hindrance. A 40 watt iron is fine for small wires, pads, tiny resistors, caps on boards, etc. but not for larger objects that will take a lot of heat they are useless. Those irons with the temperature readout and adjustable wattage are nice but really a novelty and totally unnecessary. Also always be sure to use wire with the proper insulation that will take the heat. Cheap plastic insulation on a lot of wire will just melt. Solid wire is always easier and is believed is a better conductor but any wire that is going to flex or move should be finely stranded.
If you can't see your work don't be afraid to use a magnifying glass, lamp, goggles or whatever and plenty of light. If you can't see your work you can't do your work. Flux core solder, a couple good irons (I prefer 40 watt and 100 watt), a damp sponge and dri-wick is about all you need for 99% of all solder jobs. If that don't work, get out the turbo torch and sledge hammer!
Oh man I needed this. Thanks so much JB! I gotta say- you gotta be one of the best on camera teachers of anything I’ve ever seen. And the dry humor kills me lol. New to fpv but come from a film background and loving it so far. The attention to detail but kept within a simple approachability is just top notch. You rock.
Thank you JB. This was great. Now I need to go do some practice and correct some of my 10 year old bad habbits I have developed since I started in the RC and electronics hobby.
Good tutorial. I come from being a hobbiest for around 30 years. I got started with R/C trucks (RC10T primarily) when I was a kid (90's were my teenage years). Went to school for electrical engineering initially (ended up being a front end software developer), and kept up with electronics tinkering through the years. I'm not into FPV yet but I do have small drone I messed with a few years ago but it had no camera. I want to get back into the hobby, so I figured seeing the common soldering techniques in the hobby today would be useful. Running a Hakko 936 and Hakko 907 right now. The last project I worked on that involved soldering was replacing a Micro-USB port on a tablet for a friend, and yes it's working again.
My list:
-All you need is the brass sponge. I did away with my wet sponge years ago.
-A soldering wick is also very useful for cleaning up extra solder. Heat it up and wick away the extra solder like the wire wicks the solder inside of the strands. That's a good way to clean pads up too.
-The way I learned flux is that is just lets the solder flow to where it should be. I prefer the syringe method with a precise tip for applying flux.
-One other thing I would caution against is having too hot of an iron on the wire for too long. It will cook away the insulation as the wire heats up enough to cook it. I'm glad you demonstrated the wicking of the solder to inside of the wire, but taking it a step further by showing the cooking of the insulation would help encourage better quality soldering.
Your great sense of humor! Thanks!
You crack me up man. So entertaining. I wish I didn’t have to go to work so I could keep watching. “Whatever! I’m not building a spaceship here!”