Hi guys, Had a bit of an accident with the fc40 the other day, I was really struggling to remove a battery pulling hard, untill it finaly let go having me pull on the connector very abrutly. Long and short the VCC joint on the distribution board has pulled straight out revealing green pcb underneath with no where to solder it back on. I have looked at soldering it instead to the VCC join on the nearest ESC which i cant imagine would cause issues, however I cannot for the life of me melt the solder bead. Can anyone shed some light on this for me please! Im at a complete loss and just 4 days before heading to snowdon im gutted that i dont seem to be able to get anything to work...
Is it dead?
- Thread starter Joesrevolution
- Start date
I see the problem. The copper where the wire solders to has been pulled from the board so there is nothing to solder to. I have removed and re-soldered these wires many times with a 23 watt iron. It is most definitely not trash, here is how to fix. Use a small flat blade screwdriver to scratch away some of the green insulating coating beside where the wire pulled loose to expose some new copper. Re-solder your wire there. Another way would be to solder the loose lead along side or with the VCC supplying the ESC.
I've tried that already. I can never get the solder to stick. I have flux and that made no difference. It just seems ball up and not stick to the copper. I've tried repeatedly this evening to no avail. Do you have any soldering tricks for doing this sort of work?
Hi the reason you can't melt the solder is that lead free solder has a higher melting point.
Try putting a bit of normal solder on your iron first, then hold it on solder ball you are trying to melt.
It kind of dilutes the lead free stuff, but does take a while.
Hope this helps.
Try putting a bit of normal solder on your iron first, then hold it on solder ball you are trying to melt.
It kind of dilutes the lead free stuff, but does take a while.
Hope this helps.
I have been using lead free solder on everything I've done in the quad so far. That melts just fine... I have bought a new mc board now anyway to satisfy my parinoia and am most likely going to get it professionally fitted. I'm also planning on running a flytrex live and pmu v2 of the main battery conection. can anyone shed any light on how best to route the cables for these?
It sounds like you haven't removed enough of the insulation layer. You really have to scrape down until you have clean, bright copper. Then your solder will stick just fine.
There also is a varnish like substance they put on the solder jointson the power wire and esc connections. That makes it hard to reflow the existing solder. But it usually wlll eventully melt if you clean it and use enough flux and apply a lot of heat.
You can solder to any of the ESC VCC points or the battery VCC point. They are all common (wired together).
1. The tip of the soldering iron will not conduct heat well unless it is clean. To clean it, have a moist sponge or moist paper towel available to rub the hot tip on. Just brush the tip against it briefly on each side to avoid burning the sponge or towel. You don't want the sponge/towel to be soaking wet. Immediately after cleaning the tip, apply some solder to it, and then quickly do the soldering. If you let the tip remain hot without doing anything with it, it will oxidize again and require more cleaning.
2. The solder already on the craft is no-lead, so it has a higher melting point. The joints are also covered with some kind of clear coat, so that's another obstacle. However, if you melt some leaded solder to it, it should melt more easily.
3. It's best to use a temperature-controlled soldering iron if you do soldering regularly. They're worth it.
4. Flux prevents the exposed metal and solder from oxidizing. It makes solder flow easily over the hot surfaces and ball up nicely. If you have an "ugly" solder joint, just apply some flux to it and heat it up. It will become a nice and shiny joint (excepting any oxidized flux, which you can clean off with isopropyl alcohol).
1. The tip of the soldering iron will not conduct heat well unless it is clean. To clean it, have a moist sponge or moist paper towel available to rub the hot tip on. Just brush the tip against it briefly on each side to avoid burning the sponge or towel. You don't want the sponge/towel to be soaking wet. Immediately after cleaning the tip, apply some solder to it, and then quickly do the soldering. If you let the tip remain hot without doing anything with it, it will oxidize again and require more cleaning.
2. The solder already on the craft is no-lead, so it has a higher melting point. The joints are also covered with some kind of clear coat, so that's another obstacle. However, if you melt some leaded solder to it, it should melt more easily.
3. It's best to use a temperature-controlled soldering iron if you do soldering regularly. They're worth it.
4. Flux prevents the exposed metal and solder from oxidizing. It makes solder flow easily over the hot surfaces and ball up nicely. If you have an "ugly" solder joint, just apply some flux to it and heat it up. It will become a nice and shiny joint (excepting any oxidized flux, which you can clean off with isopropyl alcohol).
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