[josh_smaxx]

Part 2

Soldering guide for begginers - part 2

Soldering Deans connectors
Deans are regarded as one of the hardest connectors to solder because of the small size, don’t let this put you off, with this guide they are fairly easy. The key to having well soldered Deans that perform well is speed, putting to much heat into them will deform the casing and you will loose pressure on the connection inside, thus loosing performance from the cells. Use the highest heat setting so you can melt the solder as quickly as possible. Take a small pair of pliers, place the connector in the pliers so the soldering contacts are coming out of the top, wrap an elastic band around the pliers to hold the connector in. To tin the connector, place the tinned iron tip on the soldering contact and apply about 8mm of solder, this should evenly cover the contact area, this should only take around 2-3 seconds. Repeat for other contact. Next take your tinned wire end, place about 10mm of heat shrink tubing over the end, relevant to the colour of the wire. Place the pliers with the connectors in on a brick or block of wood around 3” high and put the reel of solder on top of it to stop the pliers moving. Holding the wire with the pliers again place the tinned end on the tinned solder contact and heat from underneath with the iron, the wire and tinned contact should appear to melt together, once fused remove the iron and leave to cool, this should take around 2-3 seconds again. Once cooled, pull heat shrink tubing up and heat with a cigarette lighter for about 2 seconds till completely shrank over the connection. Repeat for the other contact.

Soldering corally connectors
Corally connectors are one of the most widely used ways of connecting battery packs to the ESC as they have an incredibly low electrical resistance and are easy to use. First thing when soldering a male corally is to make sure it is held securely, the best way to do this is holding it in a pair of pliers held shut or in a vice. Most corally connectors have 2 holes at the wire end, one going into the connector from the back and one into the side, use one of these holes to feed in solder till it is well tinned inside. Now insert the tinned wire into a hole of your choice, melt more solder through the other hole till its filled with solder and the wire is embedded in it inside the hole. Now pull shrink wrap over the hole to cover the bare joint and that’s all there is to it. For the female connectors going onto the battery pack the best way is to tin the cell/tab, the hold the tube (female connector) onto it and heat from side (or underneath if using tabs). This way should hold the tube onto the cell with a very good connection. If you are finding it difficult to get the tube to stick to the cell/tab then you can roughen up the outside of the tube to give the solder a better surface to stick to, this may not be necessary though.

Soldering cells together
Soldering your own battery packs together takes skill, practice and speed. It is by far the hardest thing to solder but once mastered can be extremely cost effective, I recommend nipping down to your local club and asking around if anyone has any old, ruined cells you can practice on, because there’s no point burning out those brand new matched IB4200 World Champion edition cells. Use the highest heat setting, 60W will be adequate but a lot of people tend to go for the more powerful 80W+ irons. First thing to do to prepare the cells will be to take a file, or even better a dremel with sanding disc on, and rough up each end of the cell so the solder has something to stick to. Once you have done this you will have to tin each end of the cells, for this you will need a 8mm or bigger chisel tip for your soldering iron. Start by tinning the tip, then place tip on the cells and apply about 12mm of solder and move it around the cell to form a thin layer on top, this should take around 3-4 seconds maximum. Then place all the cells in the assembly jig, make sure all the labels are facing up to make for a neat looking battery pack and that they are opposite polarities at each end (-+-+-+, not ++++++ or ------). Place the battery connection bar (gold plated bars are the best, but practice on cheap nickel bars) across the two cells you want to solder together, next apply the iron tip to one end of the bar and apply around 12mm more solder so it flows into the solder underneath, it will appear that the bar has melted into the cell, this should take around 3-4 seconds maximum to complete. Repeat this for the rest of the bars. Once the cells have cooled you can solder on the wires for the connection if not using corallies, the red wire being the positive will go onto the smallest button on the cell, if the cell does not have the + and – markings on. Tin the wire the same way and then apply it to the tinned cell with the iron and the wire will appear to melt in the cell, this, again, should take around 3 seconds maximum. Repeat with the other wire. If using corallies and tabs then solder the tab on in much the same way as you would a connecting bar, the tab is like a bent connecting bar going up the cell and bending over at the top to allow a good surface to solder wires or tube connectors on.

Conclusion
Thank you for reading this guide, I dearly hope that it will help you on your ways and that soldering will never haunt you again, and remember this, a good quality soldering iron will improve your soldering, it worked wonders for me. If you are a beginner at soldering then I'd suggest you stay away from gas-powered irons; they can be dangerous if used incorrectly, and are only for experienced users. Tips on gas irons also tend to "wear out" more quickly than on their electric counterparts.