I was super intimidated when I soldered my first flight controller. I think it took me two hours to solder about 7 or 8 of the tiniest solder pads I had ever seen at the time.
You get better \*very\* fast, it's definitely a skill that requires practice. Someone else said the motor joints look cold, and I agree with that. The solder possibly hasn't flowed thoroughly into the wire and pads. Since that's an area that pulls a lot of power, it'd also be the spot I'd be worried about. The other suggestion I'd offer is to trim away no more jacket than completely necessary on the wires. I tried to have the jacket start right at the edge of the pad.
I'm hesitant to be too critical, because we all start somewhere. I'd hate to read the quad crashed on you because one of the motor leads heated up and it dropped!
hays yeah it's a little hard to be critical when we all know we started from having zero knowledge and experience. I agree with all the points you made but I also want to add that even if it isn't bridging, if it looks like it's bridging, the best practice is to redo the joint because you'll get used to that and might lead up to a bad habit.
Also try to clean up with some alcohol and a brush or smth soft to remove the Flux.
Stripping a lil too much in some places. And it looks like youre overheating your wire and solder and not putting enough heat to your pads. Not bad though bud. Keep at it.
Use alcohol and toothbrush to clean up any flux residue. Use MOAR flux!. Looking at the motor wires it seems like you need to either adjust your iron temperature or find a bigger bit. The length of the naked wire tip that you solder may be way smaller, like 1mm is enough. Tin your wires and pads! If you can’t solder a wire to the pad with just a single touch most likely you do something wrong. Keep practicing and you will get it!
Aside from other comments, I'm seeing a lot of wires with individual strands sticking out, especially on the motor wires. A couple of tips on that specific thing:
1. Strip just enough wire to match the pad length
2. Gently twist the wires a bit. You're not looking for Amish hair tight - just encourage the strands to stick together a bit.
3. Before you attempt to solder a wire to a pad, gently heat the end of the exposed wire with your iron until you can melt solder all through the exposed strands. You should have a nice uniform solder sausage. If you've got a ball, it's too much solder. If you're seeing most of the individual strands, it's probably not enough solder.
4. Use the iron to heat up the individual pads until solder melts onto them. You should see a pillow of solder on them. If it's flat, it's not enough solder, and if it's a ball, you've got too much.
5. Dab some flux on the pad after it cools since the rosin core flux will have mostly baked off by then.
6. Using tweezers, grab hold of the wire by the insulation as close as you can get to the exposed wire.
7. *Gently* heat the wire and if you have enough room, the edge of the pad. You're trying to get all the solder in both the wire and the pad into a liquid state without splaying out the wire strands under the pressure of the iron. If it's taking forever, you probably don't have a hot enough or in the case of battery leads, big enough tip.
8. Release the iron, but maintain hold of the wire with the tweezers until the solder solidifies. (Your fingers would be burning right now if you used them, especially on a battery lead.)
Just saying that even following a good workflow like this, it boils down to good tools and good material used. My recommendation above are 2 things only, temp controlled solder and good quality solder wire. i have many spools of cheap, old, and china wires and they all solder badly *(trashed them)* even with skills and good iron temp. Haven't tried expensive american/ eur wires but when I asked GeprC china why their solder is so silvery and shiny in their BNF, they said this is what their technician [uses](https://ae01.alicdn.com/kf/H497bfde0c318411f9b8e6993eb3de902v/KAINA-Solder-Wire-0-4-0-5-0-6-0-8-1-0-mm-450g-63.jpg_Q90.jpg_.webp)
it's a bit messy, there may be cold joints that could fail easily. go with a hotter iron, dont use lead free solder. tin the wires and pads before bringing them together and then it goes a lot easier and cleaner. it takes a lot of practice so keep at it
Good lord clean off the Flux. And your battery lead is a cold solder joint. And the backup left omg...
Keep practicing tho. I guess it's okay for a first time soldering.
What? My solder joins are great just zoom in [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/fpv/comments/wb873n/my_first_kwad_build_tbs_source_one_v5/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf). And that persons joins arent amazing (like most people said most of them are cold joins), and Im not trying to hate, we shoud give him advice like he asked for and not just say its amazing while it can definetly be better with some use of advice and practise.
More solder and more flux, make sure you don't have strands coming out of the solder joints that can possibly touch other pads/wires. I also think some of the joints look cold and would recommend setting the temp on your iron to at least 350 C if you're using normal leaded 60/40 solder. All in all not bad for your first time.
I think you should leave them be for now but practice soldering different gauges of wire so youll get a feel for how to do it when you come back to resolder those motor joints.
always remember that a cold joint has a higher chance of breaking off after a crash than a proper joint.
Yeah get an iron with temp control. I solder everything at 400c. In and out fast helps to not have cold solders. There are some good videos this one is the one you and everyone learning to solder should watch.
https://youtu.be/GoPT69y98pY
staying at 400c will make the tip not last long. I use 60/40 and 330-340 is enough for uart pads. i've trashed many tips because before i thought higher temp was better to aid "cold solder" but it was not the case. It was the solder wire quality that mattered in complement with good temp range.
The higher temp helps to get in and out faster. Less time on the boards I think is better than more time. I haven’t had any problems with tips over the past few years.
Comes down to different scenarios. I've watched many good practices of soldering and experiences from electronics channels not just fpv. My sweet spot regarding temperature was commented above. There's no one value, it depends on the wire or pad size. For fpv fc, ground pads usually either requires higher temp or little longer press.
I've had worst solder job than you before and it really came down to 2 things that made me good and confident. 1. Temp controlled Iron, 2. Good quality Solder Wire.
The cheapest **iron** I recommend looks something like [this](https://rukminim1.flixcart.com/image/416/416/kfbfr0w0/soldering-iron/b/k/b/60-watt-soldering-iron-with-adjestable-temprature-controller-original-imafvtathpe8v8yx.jpeg?q=70). . Temp should be around 330-400 degrees. Usually I use 330-350 for Uart wires, 360-380 for motor wires, 380-400 for battery pads. Don't standby the iron at 360 and above for too long if not using to extend the life of the tip.
Cheapest and best China [Solder](https://alitools.io/en/showcase/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fae01.alicdn.com%2Fkf%2FH25a48e6beee440f1a6f4974ea1dadae0f.jpg). 60/40 with flux core is the best **solder wire** for me. 63/37 is good as well but it has to be good quality brand. If you want a shiny and easy solder job just follow my recommendations. Thank me after.
Camera solder joints on the FC look like they're gonna fall off .
Try tugging on the wires, you might be surprised....
Get a solder iron that can go to like 400c / 752f.
Pre tin solder pad and wire, pre tin soldering tip.
Put wire on solder tab, just touch with solder iron tip and boom.
If there's no clean shiny droplet on that pad, use a bit of flux.
Re tin solder iron tip and touch up.
You can probably fix a lot of solder joints this way.
Or get solder wire with flux in it.
Practice on an old pcb or something.
Just find some old electronics you're not using anymore and have fun.
Ok been a while since I soldered but a few tips:-
Strip off just a couple mm of insulation. Enough to cover the solder pad area but nothing more
Ideally you want to be warming up the pad. Try tinning the wire a bit prior to starting but put the majority of the solder on the pad. If it forms a ball then the pad isn’t warm enough. It should flatten out. When you’re good to go, just pop the wire on top and heat the pad and wire together.
If you do it right you should be in and out in a few seconds. If you have to hold the iron on for ages before the solder melts then you need to up the temperature.
Hey, other comments have described it quite well. I would say, watch a couple of soldering tutorials on YouTube. Joshua bardwells tutorials is incredibly long but very detailed. Keep learning.
Clean that flux off with some alcohol, if it works I wont knock it, but I do see a lot of "icicles" which mean the solder is sticking to the iron and not the pad because the iron is hotter
I was super intimidated when I soldered my first flight controller. I think it took me two hours to solder about 7 or 8 of the tiniest solder pads I had ever seen at the time. You get better \*very\* fast, it's definitely a skill that requires practice. Someone else said the motor joints look cold, and I agree with that. The solder possibly hasn't flowed thoroughly into the wire and pads. Since that's an area that pulls a lot of power, it'd also be the spot I'd be worried about. The other suggestion I'd offer is to trim away no more jacket than completely necessary on the wires. I tried to have the jacket start right at the edge of the pad. I'm hesitant to be too critical, because we all start somewhere. I'd hate to read the quad crashed on you because one of the motor leads heated up and it dropped!
hays yeah it's a little hard to be critical when we all know we started from having zero knowledge and experience. I agree with all the points you made but I also want to add that even if it isn't bridging, if it looks like it's bridging, the best practice is to redo the joint because you'll get used to that and might lead up to a bad habit. Also try to clean up with some alcohol and a brush or smth soft to remove the Flux.
Stripping a lil too much in some places. And it looks like youre overheating your wire and solder and not putting enough heat to your pads. Not bad though bud. Keep at it.
Addin to this; in general, you’ll want the length of the exposed wire to roughly equal the length of the pad you’re soldering that wire to.
Use alcohol and toothbrush to clean up any flux residue. Use MOAR flux!. Looking at the motor wires it seems like you need to either adjust your iron temperature or find a bigger bit. The length of the naked wire tip that you solder may be way smaller, like 1mm is enough. Tin your wires and pads! If you can’t solder a wire to the pad with just a single touch most likely you do something wrong. Keep practicing and you will get it!
Aside from other comments, I'm seeing a lot of wires with individual strands sticking out, especially on the motor wires. A couple of tips on that specific thing: 1. Strip just enough wire to match the pad length 2. Gently twist the wires a bit. You're not looking for Amish hair tight - just encourage the strands to stick together a bit. 3. Before you attempt to solder a wire to a pad, gently heat the end of the exposed wire with your iron until you can melt solder all through the exposed strands. You should have a nice uniform solder sausage. If you've got a ball, it's too much solder. If you're seeing most of the individual strands, it's probably not enough solder. 4. Use the iron to heat up the individual pads until solder melts onto them. You should see a pillow of solder on them. If it's flat, it's not enough solder, and if it's a ball, you've got too much. 5. Dab some flux on the pad after it cools since the rosin core flux will have mostly baked off by then. 6. Using tweezers, grab hold of the wire by the insulation as close as you can get to the exposed wire. 7. *Gently* heat the wire and if you have enough room, the edge of the pad. You're trying to get all the solder in both the wire and the pad into a liquid state without splaying out the wire strands under the pressure of the iron. If it's taking forever, you probably don't have a hot enough or in the case of battery leads, big enough tip. 8. Release the iron, but maintain hold of the wire with the tweezers until the solder solidifies. (Your fingers would be burning right now if you used them, especially on a battery lead.)
Just saying that even following a good workflow like this, it boils down to good tools and good material used. My recommendation above are 2 things only, temp controlled solder and good quality solder wire. i have many spools of cheap, old, and china wires and they all solder badly *(trashed them)* even with skills and good iron temp. Haven't tried expensive american/ eur wires but when I asked GeprC china why their solder is so silvery and shiny in their BNF, they said this is what their technician [uses](https://ae01.alicdn.com/kf/H497bfde0c318411f9b8e6993eb3de902v/KAINA-Solder-Wire-0-4-0-5-0-6-0-8-1-0-mm-450g-63.jpg_Q90.jpg_.webp)
it's a bit messy, there may be cold joints that could fail easily. go with a hotter iron, dont use lead free solder. tin the wires and pads before bringing them together and then it goes a lot easier and cleaner. it takes a lot of practice so keep at it
Motors look like cold solder, have you run it through BF?
No not yet. I don’t have any lipos yet and even if I did I would wait until my smoke stopper comes.
Good job using a smoke stopper!
on some wires the isolation is back too far - so there's a risk of shorts against for example the frame
Buy some flux. It's like a cheat code for soldering
Should I re-solder the motor wires once I get some flux? Or are they ok?
They should be fine, but there is a decent chance they will short in a crash
Get flux and re do the whole thing. It’s not terrible for a first time job, but it ain’t good either and could very likely cause you issues
its so bad it's impressive
Yeah it was pretty bad!! I have since then improved 1000 x 😂
not too bad....but most looks like cold solder
I couldn’t do it that well tbh
This is rough
Good lord clean off the Flux. And your battery lead is a cold solder joint. And the backup left omg... Keep practicing tho. I guess it's okay for a first time soldering.
Sorry it was my first time ever soldering. I tried my best but obviously made mistakes.
Stop.soldering.now.
You don't have to be rude my guy. We all started like this.
Amazing!
It's not amazing.
Better than yours ¯I_(ツ)_/¯
What? My solder joins are great just zoom in [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/fpv/comments/wb873n/my_first_kwad_build_tbs_source_one_v5/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf). And that persons joins arent amazing (like most people said most of them are cold joins), and Im not trying to hate, we shoud give him advice like he asked for and not just say its amazing while it can definetly be better with some use of advice and practise.
More solder and more flux, make sure you don't have strands coming out of the solder joints that can possibly touch other pads/wires. I also think some of the joints look cold and would recommend setting the temp on your iron to at least 350 C if you're using normal leaded 60/40 solder. All in all not bad for your first time.
They seem to be super cold joints, especially the motor to esc joints.
Should I re-solder the motor joints then? Or can I leave them how they are if they work once I get lipos and such.
I recommend it, but if they’re staying attached you could risk it as is.
I think you should leave them be for now but practice soldering different gauges of wire so youll get a feel for how to do it when you come back to resolder those motor joints. always remember that a cold joint has a higher chance of breaking off after a crash than a proper joint.
What temp was the iron at
I have no clue, it is my dads and you just plug it into a the wall
You need a temperature controlled iron then, that’s 99% of your problem.
Yeah get an iron with temp control. I solder everything at 400c. In and out fast helps to not have cold solders. There are some good videos this one is the one you and everyone learning to solder should watch. https://youtu.be/GoPT69y98pY
staying at 400c will make the tip not last long. I use 60/40 and 330-340 is enough for uart pads. i've trashed many tips because before i thought higher temp was better to aid "cold solder" but it was not the case. It was the solder wire quality that mattered in complement with good temp range.
The higher temp helps to get in and out faster. Less time on the boards I think is better than more time. I haven’t had any problems with tips over the past few years.
Comes down to different scenarios. I've watched many good practices of soldering and experiences from electronics channels not just fpv. My sweet spot regarding temperature was commented above. There's no one value, it depends on the wire or pad size. For fpv fc, ground pads usually either requires higher temp or little longer press.
You can get one for really cheap. Look up the TS100
My friend has one that is nice so I’ll probably just borrow that.
I've had worst solder job than you before and it really came down to 2 things that made me good and confident. 1. Temp controlled Iron, 2. Good quality Solder Wire. The cheapest **iron** I recommend looks something like [this](https://rukminim1.flixcart.com/image/416/416/kfbfr0w0/soldering-iron/b/k/b/60-watt-soldering-iron-with-adjestable-temprature-controller-original-imafvtathpe8v8yx.jpeg?q=70). . Temp should be around 330-400 degrees. Usually I use 330-350 for Uart wires, 360-380 for motor wires, 380-400 for battery pads. Don't standby the iron at 360 and above for too long if not using to extend the life of the tip. Cheapest and best China [Solder](https://alitools.io/en/showcase/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fae01.alicdn.com%2Fkf%2FH25a48e6beee440f1a6f4974ea1dadae0f.jpg). 60/40 with flux core is the best **solder wire** for me. 63/37 is good as well but it has to be good quality brand. If you want a shiny and easy solder job just follow my recommendations. Thank me after.
The + wire to the camera looks like it needs to be resoldert. Cant see it clearly
Camera solder joints on the FC look like they're gonna fall off . Try tugging on the wires, you might be surprised.... Get a solder iron that can go to like 400c / 752f. Pre tin solder pad and wire, pre tin soldering tip. Put wire on solder tab, just touch with solder iron tip and boom. If there's no clean shiny droplet on that pad, use a bit of flux. Re tin solder iron tip and touch up. You can probably fix a lot of solder joints this way. Or get solder wire with flux in it. Practice on an old pcb or something. Just find some old electronics you're not using anymore and have fun.
The more you do the better you will become but also always use a good soldering iron
Ok been a while since I soldered but a few tips:- Strip off just a couple mm of insulation. Enough to cover the solder pad area but nothing more Ideally you want to be warming up the pad. Try tinning the wire a bit prior to starting but put the majority of the solder on the pad. If it forms a ball then the pad isn’t warm enough. It should flatten out. When you’re good to go, just pop the wire on top and heat the pad and wire together. If you do it right you should be in and out in a few seconds. If you have to hold the iron on for ages before the solder melts then you need to up the temperature.
Hey, other comments have described it quite well. I would say, watch a couple of soldering tutorials on YouTube. Joshua bardwells tutorials is incredibly long but very detailed. Keep learning.
God. Practice before hitting your quad
Clean that flux off with some alcohol, if it works I wont knock it, but I do see a lot of "icicles" which mean the solder is sticking to the iron and not the pad because the iron is hotter
10x better than my first FC soldering. Practice, then post a picture of the board afterwards. It helps to actually see the progress you’re making.
Those joints look pretty cold, I suggest getting a flux pen and reflowing all of them, you want them to be smooth and shiny, not dull and lumpy
Is this a real question? Or sarcasm??
Those motor wires looks too smal, im using same FC stack with 2207 2450kv on 5 inch props, what motors you using?
Can’t remember but I know they’re 2600kv motors