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.
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.
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.
@@FourthWayRanch 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
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 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
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.
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!
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.
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.
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!
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 was trained by the USAF to work on C5 and C141 Radar and Radio navigation systems. Soldering was a HUGE part of my job. YOU did it right buddy. This was one of the best tutorials I have ever seen. Thank you for your effort I appreciate what you did.
Enjoyed it Josh. You basically re-hashed all those other soldering TH-camS 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 :)
. 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.
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.
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.
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!
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
It’s a year late so not sure you’ll even see this but no doubt they’re are a few videos about soldering but for sure it’s always a great idea to give tutorials on your hobby in every aspect if your going to give tutorials… there isn’t enough people on TH-cam giving clear instructions like you anyhow…
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.
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!
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.
Such a perfect amazing explainer. First ever super thanks by me goes to you. I just had to. I can only imagine how many times that I will save from watching this.
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
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.
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! 😃🤔👍
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. 👍
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.
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.
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!!
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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...
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'd just like to add that over my 25 years as a tech , I had to solder thousands of connections and I always brushed connections with alcohol to clean off any residual flux. When I solder to flight controllers, with especially thin wires like receiver or GPS, I like to hot glue them (after soldering of course) to reduce any chance of vibration loosening them. Great video, nicely detailed.
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.
Its the safest suggestion in bardwell's case because imo the higher success rate is worth it especially for beginners who may break components even before getting to fly wc is pretty heartbreaking after throwing away a low of $$$.
@@jofab23 This is exactly my position. I have three drones needing repair and I haven't flown a single time yet. I'm over 60 with poor eyesight and twitchy fingers. These things just aren't designed with ease of assembly in mind. Meanwhile, I am determined that one of these will fly. One way or another. 😉
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
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.
Useful info, Ur angle of thinking is spot on and explains many pit falls that we all go thru. Ur right, I did learn something! I'm 75 yrs old & my eye sight and steady hand isn't as good as when I was a young man. I began working in an electronic repair shop in 1970 were transistors leads were soldered onto boards and stood tall. Today they are micro and have thousands of buddies! "Weller" irons on the work bench was common back then. My son introduced me to drones 3 yrs ago. Recently I trashed a Control Board so had to replace it. After soldering components to the CB I realized I had several wires that had strands of wire coming out from the solder joint. I attached a smoke stopper and found that there was a problem. My son offered to help me and found that several joints had stray stands of wire coming off the pads. Yikes, Ur video has helped me to understand what is going on with the heat & flow, thanks!
This video was a huge help. I am soldering everything! Within the FPV hobby and out. I’ve seen other soldering tutorials and yours is by far the best! Thank you!
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 )
Thanks a lot! This is a best soldering tutorial I've ever seen. Nobody I've seen explaines about "no smoke, no flux". And more important despite I saw many times how they apply solder to the pad instead of solder iron tip, nobody explaines what this about.
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'm a mechanic and I learned to solder over 20 years ago and I still really appreciated this video. Soldering on a PCB intimidates me a little bit. Especially when it's the really tiny solder pads on tiny woop FC's. I really appreciate how detailed your videos are.
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.
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!
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.
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!
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 !!!!
I know how to solder but came here from your build series to see how you handled it. This gives me even more hope for my drone build. I love instructions from people who can explain things properly. Yeah, correct, puddles on the iron to make a joint is wasting the solder, a joint should be the wire(tinned) stuck to a thin sheet(tinned) on the pad. Thank you.
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
“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!
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!
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.
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.
Mr. Bardwell i would like to say you have made my FPV hobbie so much fun and you taught me so much. I learn something new with every video that you have made. I am putting A 8 ducted motor drone together and i hoping to have it ready ASAP. Thank yuou once again I've learn something today
Thank you for this video, Joshua! I started building my own build for the first time yesterday, which I've soldered some things on my BnF's, but nothing much more than a new rx. I was struggling hard with the ESC and XT60 wires and could not figure out why. In your video, you called out the specific reason why - I was trying to melt the solder, expecting that to stick to the board. Cold pen, cold board, very little flux. After watching, I bumped up the heat, heated the board, fluxed, tinned and soldered the wire on. It now looks (almost) like a professional soldered it. Seriously, thank you so much!!
Thank you so much! I've been hacking at soldering my whole life, and I realized as I watched you make intentional mistakes, what I've been doing wrong all this time. Thank you. I wish I'd had You Tube when I was 20.
Nice video. I tend to only use solid core solder as I feel this ends up with a cleaner joint. Super clean tip with light solder on it. Lots of no clean flux and proper heat. Works every time.
Wow, great video. Back when I started doing repair work on electronics and installing mobile 2 way radios back in the 80's I wish I had a tutorial like this!! You hit on all of the key points I had to learn mostly by doing. Only bit I thought was missed was the importance of holding the parts of the joint still while the solder solidifies. You did it, but didn't point out what bad things happen if you don't hold it all steady. If you move the wire around while as the solder solidifies, the resulting joint has a dull look to it looks like a cold solder joint. Reheat, reflow the solder, add flux, and hold it steady and it should be good to go. I always tried to make a good mechanical connection before soldering, but that's impossible when soldering to these pads. Maybe a tutorial on desoldering would be helpful also for repairs and for when you get too much solder on there. I always had the best luck with solder wick, though a solder sucker worked too. I've learned so much from your channel...keep up the great work!!
Great video! Nothing beats a good quality soldering iron, I bought mine in 2001 a Velleman station and it still delivers great result even though it's been used a lot. One little tip though I learned from an alarm technician many years ago. Turn your diagonal cutter the other way around with the flat end facing the end of the wire, it will make it easier to pull and be more gentle to the strands. Think of when you are in the woods and are about to carve a stick for barbequing your marshmallows, then you will set the knife in an angle away from you when pushing not in an angle towards you when pushing away from you, it's the same with the angle on the cutter.
Josh. I’m getting ready for a 4 inch LR build and this video was extremely useful. With a little practice of your techniques I’m sure At least my soldering will be spot on. Bruce
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.
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.
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!
@Voorbaam Ach gqvl kqhlhlqkqas
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@voorbaamach4970 bro why 💀
@voorbaamach4970bro wtf 💀
This tutorial is probably one of the best FPV soldering tutorials I have ever seen.
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.
@@FourthWayRanch 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
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 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
❤
"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 🤣
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.
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.
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.
This continues to be the best tutorial for soldering on TH-cam. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts, JB
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.
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 was trained by the USAF to work on C5 and C141 Radar and Radio navigation systems. Soldering was a HUGE part of my job.
YOU did it right buddy. This was one of the best tutorials I have ever seen. Thank you for your effort I appreciate what you did.
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.
Enjoyed it Josh. You basically re-hashed all those other soldering TH-camS 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 :)
. 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.
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.
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
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.
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!
MuteFPV has been consistently creating high quality fpv-related content. He is a great assett to the fpv community!
Σε ευχαριστώ πολύ 😉
" 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. 😂
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
It’s a year late so not sure you’ll even see this but no doubt they’re are a few videos about soldering but for sure it’s always a great idea to give tutorials on your hobby in every aspect if your going to give tutorials… there isn’t enough people on TH-cam giving clear instructions like you anyhow…
Thank you for the kind words.
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
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!
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.
Such a perfect amazing explainer. First ever super thanks by me goes to you. I just had to. I can only imagine how many times that I will save from watching this.
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
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.
Thanks for a great job breaking down the art of soldering !
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! 😃🤔👍
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. 👍
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.
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.
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!!
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.
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!
Great video. I really appreciate you showing the wrong way to do something and then the right way. I learned a lot.
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.
Great Job! I use to teach soldering in the 1980’s when I was in the USAF.
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.
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.
So, I’ve been soldering for decades…and learned some great stuff. THANK YOU!
Me too!
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
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'd just like to add that over my 25 years as a tech , I had to solder thousands of connections and I always brushed connections with alcohol to clean off any residual flux. When I solder to flight controllers, with especially thin wires like receiver or GPS, I like to hot glue them (after soldering of course) to reduce any chance of vibration loosening them. Great video, nicely detailed.
U always gotta wet the tip 👍🏽
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.
I've been using my 10£ iron with no issue. Better equipment gives better and safer results I guess but you don't really NEED it.
Its the safest suggestion in bardwell's case because imo the higher success rate is worth it especially for beginners who may break components even before getting to fly wc is pretty heartbreaking after throwing away a low of $$$.
@@jofab23 This is exactly my position. I have three drones needing repair and I haven't flown a single time yet. I'm over 60 with poor eyesight and twitchy fingers. These things just aren't designed with ease of assembly in mind.
Meanwhile, I am determined that one of these will fly.
One way or another. 😉
cheaper irons means more complicated timings regulating heat, but as long as they get up to temp, its totally workable.
Never get tired of watching solder melt and cool. That practice board is pretty awesome!!
I can't believe you didn't recommend putting the custom firmware on the TS100, what kind of pleb uses the stock firmware? 0/10
/s
th-cam.com/video/8gDynvIUQzs/w-d-xo.html&ab_channel=JoshuaBardwell
Why?
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
Thanks for another great video Joshua. I’ve been soldering for 33 years and STILL “learned something today”.
I owe you so much, You have gotten me outta all kinds of binds, And non bind, Only in FPV!!! love it...
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.
Useful info, Ur angle of thinking is spot on and explains many pit falls that we all go thru. Ur right, I did learn something! I'm 75 yrs old & my eye sight and steady hand isn't as good as when I was a young man. I began working in an electronic repair shop in 1970 were transistors leads were soldered onto boards and stood tall. Today they are micro and have thousands of buddies! "Weller" irons on the work bench was common back then. My son introduced me to drones 3 yrs ago. Recently I trashed a Control Board so had to replace it. After soldering components to the CB I realized I had several wires that had strands of wire coming out from the solder joint. I attached a smoke stopper and found that there was a problem. My son offered to help me and found that several joints had stray stands of wire coming off the pads. Yikes, Ur video has helped me to understand what is going on with the heat & flow, thanks!
Mr. Bardwell never fail at teaching and I'm always learning thanks
This video was a huge help. I am soldering everything! Within the FPV hobby and out. I’ve seen other soldering tutorials and yours is by far the best! Thank you!
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 )
Def no loose joints! And and definitely tight twist!
Thanks a lot! This is a best soldering tutorial I've ever seen. Nobody I've seen explaines about "no smoke, no flux". And more important despite I saw many times how they apply solder to the pad instead of solder iron tip, nobody explaines what this about.
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'm a mechanic and I learned to solder over 20 years ago and I still really appreciated this video. Soldering on a PCB intimidates me a little bit. Especially when it's the really tiny solder pads on tiny woop FC's. I really appreciate how detailed your videos are.
I’ve seen a lot of soldering videos… but this is far the best!!
Thanks 🙏
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 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.
way better instruction then my technical college professor..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!
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.
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!
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 !!!!
I know how to solder but came here from your build series to see how you handled it.
This gives me even more hope for my drone build. I love instructions from people who can explain things properly.
Yeah, correct, puddles on the iron to make a joint is wasting the solder, a joint should be the wire(tinned) stuck to a thin sheet(tinned) on the pad.
Thank you.
I've been soldering for years (not often, but a couple projects a year) and still learned a ton from this video. thank you!!!
Been soldering for years and I still learned something from this video. Toughest solder for me, Ground pads for the main battery...UGH!
As an RC and FPV enthusiast, this was fantastic for helping me getting started with Soldering. Thank you!!!!
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
Best soldering tutorial I’ve seen,thanks JB👍
“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!
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!
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.
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!”
Great vid. Ive been soldering for years and I learned something today.
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.
Awesome man! I just got into the FPV world and you’ve helped me a lot! I appreciate you man.
Joshua has to be one of the most pleasant, calm and easy going fellas Ive seen.
Mr. Bardwell i would like to say you have made my FPV hobbie so much fun and you taught me so much. I learn something new with every video that you have made. I am putting A 8 ducted motor drone together and i hoping to have it ready ASAP. Thank yuou once again I've learn something today
Thank you for this video, Joshua! I started building my own build for the first time yesterday, which I've soldered some things on my BnF's, but nothing much more than a new rx. I was struggling hard with the ESC and XT60 wires and could not figure out why. In your video, you called out the specific reason why - I was trying to melt the solder, expecting that to stick to the board. Cold pen, cold board, very little flux. After watching, I bumped up the heat, heated the board, fluxed, tinned and soldered the wire on. It now looks (almost) like a professional soldered it. Seriously, thank you so much!!
Perfect way to spend my Sunday coffee. Thank you Joshua.
Thank you so much! I've been hacking at soldering my whole life, and I realized as I watched you make intentional mistakes, what I've been doing wrong all this time. Thank you. I wish I'd had You Tube when I was 20.
I've been soldering for over 20 years and still enjoyed this video
Nice video. I tend to only use solid core solder as I feel this ends up with a cleaner joint. Super clean tip with light solder on it. Lots of no clean flux and proper heat. Works every time.
I appreciate his great audio quality. Such a great resource too.
Wow, great video. Back when I started doing repair work on electronics and installing mobile 2 way radios back in the 80's I wish I had a tutorial like this!! You hit on all of the key points I had to learn mostly by doing.
Only bit I thought was missed was the importance of holding the parts of the joint still while the solder solidifies. You did it, but didn't point out what bad things happen if you don't hold it all steady. If you move the wire around while as the solder solidifies, the resulting joint has a dull look to it looks like a cold solder joint. Reheat, reflow the solder, add flux, and hold it steady and it should be good to go.
I always tried to make a good mechanical connection before soldering, but that's impossible when soldering to these pads.
Maybe a tutorial on desoldering would be helpful also for repairs and for when you get too much solder on there. I always had the best luck with solder wick, though a solder sucker worked too.
I've learned so much from your channel...keep up the great work!!
Great video! Nothing beats a good quality soldering iron, I bought mine in 2001 a Velleman station and it still delivers great result even though it's been used a lot. One little tip though I learned from an alarm technician many years ago. Turn your diagonal cutter the other way around with the flat end facing the end of the wire, it will make it easier to pull and be more gentle to the strands. Think of when you are in the woods and are about to carve a stick for barbequing your marshmallows, then you will set the knife in an angle away from you when pushing not in an angle towards you when pushing away from you, it's the same with the angle on the cutter.
Josh. I’m getting ready for a 4 inch LR build and this video was extremely useful. With a little practice of your techniques I’m sure At least my soldering will be spot on. Bruce
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`?
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.