So this is what I learned: -get your tip wet, don't go in dry -quickly get in, quickly get out -touch it, and it's on. Noted. --call it bad names- -you want a tip size that isnt too big or too small. Too big and you'll just complain you can't get it all on there, too small and you leave everyone dissatisfied. -And make sure to get it to 850 degrees. *That's hot* Update: Instructions unclear, tip stuck in rotor.
*Flimsynder* - And important not to forget 'health and safety': ' - _be sure to wipe your tip clean, after you've pulled it out_ ' ! BTW - ' _Touch it it's on, touch it it's off_ !' I didn't get that bit!?
I just finished my first soldering, I had to solder my power cable that I had torn off, now the new cable is well placed on my circuit but when I power my drone with the battery, all the printed circuit becomes very hot. An idea ?
Solid vid. Couple of thoughts: the purpose of the wet sponge is not 'cleaning' the tip; that's what the scrunchy copper wire ball is for. The wet sponge is for reducing latent heat in the tip to avoid overheating components. If soldering pads, XT60 pins etc., don't use the sponge, because you want lots of heat. If soldering small components (capacitors for example), or soldering in an area of a PCB which has small components close to the soldering site, clean the tip with the copper ball, give it a good wipe with the sponge to cool the tip, then *promptly* re-wet and apply solder. I do use a flux pen ('rosin pen'). The flux removes oxidation from the parts being soldered and keeps them from re-oxidizing while cleaning/re-wetting the iron, all of which allows more rapid adherence and promotes flowing of the solder; this in turn means it isn't necessary to heat-saturate the parts to achieve a properly-fused joint. Proper use of rosin core solder requires that you add solder to both components before attempting a joint, which is fine in many cases, but often leads to an over-application of solder, and you either have to wait for the parts to cool (and start to re-oxidize...), or risk overheating the parts when you connect them. Last item: lead wont vaporize at less than 1700C; the smoke from soldering doesn't contain lead. I avoid breathing it on general principle, but there's no need to worry about "lead poisoning" from solder smoke. Washing your hands after handling solder is a good idea, however :)
I found the electronics engineer. The most important one is the bit where you don't want to heat-saturate the parts. Your flux will help with that if applied correctly. ESC and motors will hate this saturation method, even 1/8th scale offroad RC components fail easily with too much heat.
Few additions cause this is actually a good soldering tutorial! Steele doing it right! So with solder fumes, the fumes are actually the resin core melting, you definitely dont want to breathe that as you can actually develop asthma over time from it, but there is no lead directly in the smoke...but make SURE (like before you do anything else) that you wash your hands after handling leaded solder! It is absolutely essential. A wick is alright, the problem is it seems to oxidize pretty quick and does a poor job...the best 25 bucks I've spent in a long time is on the Engineer SS-02 solder sucker, seriously I can redo pin headers with this thing...get it! A fume extractor is a pretty decent investment as well. Other than that, practice! Get some practice kits that are cheap, its very concering to me the poor soldering skills of so many people, that is a massive liability as people trust their kwads way too much and soldering joints can and do fail under heavy vibration load. Also the reason that pads lift is because of poor quality substrate of the pcb and poor quality adhesive...thats another reason to buy quality products, so you know they are (hopefully) using quality pcbs with properly adhered copper. You can still lift small pads so caution is always necessary(they are tiny little islands of copper, after all, they heat up and melt the adhesive), but in general it will be much stronger!
Epic write up and pointers man. I am gonna have to look into that solder suckers. I have a fume extractor but I need to put a more powerful motor on it. That shit is weak :(
@@MrSteeleFPV Thanks my dude! I know you got that EE degree which probably helps, but your solder skills are actually awesome, so thanks for taking the time to make a good detailed video! Lol I actually designed and 3d printed my fume extractor, I know you hate 3d printed shit, but I put that 35mm delta fan in there...shit pretty much hovers! Also btw open invitation to come climb at vertical endeavors in MN if you ever make it up here!
Adding to this excellent advice, silicone mats are soo much better than carpet for soldering esp. As they often have many slots and embedded magnets for holding tiny drone screws!
@@MrSteeleFPV I can definitely vouch for the Engineer SS-02. Contrary to most solder pumps, it doesn't have a teflon nozzle, but a silicone one that conforms a bit better to whatever you push it onto and gives it a ton more suction than a regular solder pump. Best solder pump I ever got.
When I started in May 2020 I watched so many videos about soldering and I wanted to come back to this video and let you know: this video changed everything for me and I thank you💯
I know I'm a year late in da game lol but since I'm new to fpv and can't solder for tish this is the BEST solder tutorial I have seen on all of YT !!!!! and I'm not just saying that because the jedi of fpv is doing it lol I'm scared to death of soldering I'm not gonna lie it looks so hard and I'm scared I'm going to end up with a T-1000!!!! Seriously though this vid makes me want to solder something just to try.....knock on wood 4× I hope I don't break my quad now lol great stuff man👍
Good video Steele. This is a necessary skill that can be quite expensive to learn by trial and error. You provided some timely tips that will reduce the learning curve for new guys. I appreciate the time you took to prepare this video.
For those who have trouble tinning wires, dip the wire in flux, add solder to the iron, then touch the flux-covered wire end to the solder blob on the iron and it will pull the solder right in. Any time you have issues with getting a joint hot enough, use flux. It’s your friend.
One of the qualities of MrSteele I love is his OCD and cleanliness. I greatly appreciate the tips he shared here to keep things tidy, secure, and minimal. As a beginner, learning how to solder is great, but there's also a style and touch to it that is important to this hobby. Thanks Mr Steele!
Awesome guide i genuinely learnt some stuff here! been binge watching your videos for a couple of days now in between flights & I'm improving each flight thanks to the stuff I'm learning which boosts my confidence and takes me one step closer to life depression free. Thank you for inspiring me.
Thank you for this! Sincere, my new hire involves soldering skills. I'll be looking into your vids to enhance not only my skill set, but also to broaden my tool belt! Again, thank you, Sir!
WOW thank you so very much for your awesome and informative tutorial. I learned so much from it and although I have soldered many things in the past they have never been perfect joints. But thanks to you I now have more confidence in soldering and how I can create nice clean joints. So thank you so very much once again!
Thanks for the video. One thing I saw you doing that I see very few other "experts" doing is constantly cleaning your tip. I see some "experts" working with very dirty tips. I used to use water but I thought I heard some people say that you should not do that. I use copper wool to clean my tip. One thing I noticed you doing that you did not mention is lifting up the iron when coming out of the puddle. This causes capillary action and will lift up the puddle and create a dome effect. I think that if you stir a little slower and left slower you get a smoother and shinier dome.
Awesome. I haven't known many people that has soldered as long or longer than myself. I did a lot of repairs for friends and their parents from Jr. High until the present. So you know what a big deal everyone makes because you understand something they don't. It kinda dwindles into either as you approach your 40's 😏👍.
Nice tips. I’ve watched tons of soldering vids, I am learning soldering by working on micros and tiny whoops since I live in the city…but I learned some new things from this. No flux given.
This video could not come in better time for me. I fly FPV for almost a year now, but I'll build my first quad this week and I only had little practice with soldering. So thank you very much!
Tell Dad, thanks for passing it down to the next generation; well made video!!...I began planning my first race drone build today and "bam!"...you released an incredible soldering video...thanks for sharing!!!🕺🏾
I use lighter fluid for cleaning excess flux on boards, works just as well as isopropyl alcohol and also evaporates leaving no residue and is often more easily available from convenience stores etc. Head magnifier with a light is a must for when I'm soldering, things are getting so tiny these days, especially trying to solder the boards in micro quads & whoops. I use one which can take two lenses at once, so I can flip one up for variable magnification.
Best solder slinger I ever done seened! I think the wiggle wiggle is the key I have been missing in my soldering. Thanks Mr. Steve! P.S. Your natural hair looks fire, people are ridiculous!
forgot that heat shrink on xt 60. lol been there!! i know it was just for demo though so youre good. great tutorial bro i see this helping lots of people judging by a lot of build pics i see on facebook i silently sit back and cringe at. never stop rippin my dude!
A fume extractor works great to draw that smoke away from your work area. Also, a wad of sticky tack works awesome to hold stuff in place while soldering. Great video! Oh and flux helps solder stick to surfaces like magic.
That 28 mins and 37 seconds to please Albert went super fast I was glued to the screen haha great video on showing how it's done, I'm starting to build me first 5 inch this week so cramming as much helpful. Info as possible 😂😂
Im new to this.. mayb some are too.. some other tip's I got are get bluetac ( like molding clay ) to hold the wires or other stuff you want to solder on. Use a small desk fan to get a breeze away from inhaling the fumes.
You did better than most with this video. Personally, I stay away from rosin core and use no wash flux with regular leaded solder. Flux helps clean the joint and transfers heat to the pad. If you twist the wires before soldering, you transfer skin oils to the wire and you want that removed. Easy cleanup with no wash flux. And stay away from the new Weller irons. I just had a $150 unit fail after only 9 months at work.
This helps. My joints tend to suck because the people who taught me have me SUPER paranoid about not staying on the pad long. Looks like you're lingering on the pad a decent amount of time, whereas I barely touch it. Getting a new ESC tomorrow I will experiment with it. First time doing XT60 pads, kind of nervous. Definitely don't want to mess up the 4in1 before I get it in the air.
Ground plane can be such a pain because so much metal acts as a heat sink. But they are more forgiving. It is the power and signal traces that will always be less forgiving of too much heat being applied to the pad. DYS F4 AIO boards had some super weak esc signal pads that were easy to lift. Wetting the tip increases surface area which makes it easier to quickly transfer heat to the piece to be soldered and can reduce the time needed to get a piece tinned.
I think Gordon Ramsey would refer to this as a master class. Old engineer, seen a bunch of your videos (including the "How to get in to FPV" series which I followed to the T). thank you.
You werent particularly quick on those xt60s, so the pdb heats up alot, also because of that temperature which I still think is too high. I have had bad experiences with soldering prototype pcbs at high temperatures (the board material melts quickly).
Thanks for the tutorial. As a side note, I built a cheap but effective USB PC fan to pull the fumes away from the work area. Cheap insurance to avoid breathing the fumes as much as possible.
Been soldering since the 80s when I got my first RC10. Back in the day I bought a RadioShack 100w trigger style soldering gun. That beast lasted me 30 plus years. Hold the trigger for 5 seconds and solder melts, hold the trigger 5 more seconds and you can tin a 12guage power lead in the blink of an eye. Hold it down for more than 20 seconds and that bastard starts glowing red hot. I can tag a power lead to damn near any ground plane in no time without the part bleeding heat away. But a year ago the tip was finally going bad, I replaced the tip with some off brand junk and the damn beloved 30+ year old soldering gun started to eat itself. Lucky for me I was able to buy a new old stock duplicate gun and I hope it lasts me another 30 years. It makes quick work, and that is key to avoid heat soaking parts, of damn near anything. My latest kick is building Lithium Ion packs and my solder gun makes tagging 12 guage wire to the cells about as quick as spot welding. The 100w gun is not useful for fine detail work so I have a second Soldering gun of lower wattage with a fine tip for all the pins. As for solder, I have a 60/40 rosin core reel from Radio Shack that I bought 8 years ago that I am only just now to the half way point of using it up. The stuff works so damn well I will be sad when I am out of it. When Radio Shack eas going out of business I went by mine looking to buy up all they had on close out. Sadly somebody already beat me.
11yo? Finally a worthy opponent! I got hold of it at like 14yo, could earlier but had no one to show me how to do it properly and at that time there were no good yt tutorials (not sure if yt was a thing in my country yet at that time). I've seen a lot of people do the mistake of keeping the iron on the solder join for like 5x the max time they should. Regarding solder type i would advise against leaded type, lead is not good for you, you can get stuff soldered with lead free solder if you have half decent iron and thick tip, also it's important to buy quality solder, don't buy any of this random kester etc branded stuff it's awful to solder with regardless of it being leaded or not. You want to buy multicore(loctite) it's like $50-$100 per 500g spool, yes expensive but it is what it is, there might be other good brands but you will be trying your luck $50+ at a time, so might as well just buy the multicore, for average hobbyist it will last 5-10 years.
Love this soldering iron, I use it as well and have been for some time. Would be awesome if you made a video on tuning! Thanks as always for the super informative videos.
If there is least one thing I learned this video. ( 5 things) wetting the tip was the most usefull I'm starting out and building the Ali Express practice boards Bluetooth speakers and other things I can give as gifts and hone skills. Iron I ended up with is the Weller 1010NA as the pinecil I bought was little more then waste of money.
Hi Mr. Steele! Thanks for the tutorial! Quick question: in regards to the iron, is that still your go-to iron using in 2023, or would you recommend anything newer now?
Correct me if I'm wrong but the fumes DON'T have any lead in them whatsoever as leads got a boiling point of 1700 degrees and the fumes are just the Rosin... Now you still shouldn't necessarily breath those in as some people are allergic to it but if you are not and you are only soldering occasionally it won't do any harm UNLESS the solders got an acidic core and not a Rosin core, those fumes will fuck you up fairly effectively... Also, normally closed metal tweezers (dunno how to properly call them) are way easier to handle than needlenose pliers as you don't need to apply constant pressure to hold the wire Great video - still learned quite a bit even though I thought I had soldering down quite well 👍
Averell Dalton AFAIK the precautions against inhaling lead are still helpful, and the flux in any solder can cause respiratory issues if you don’t ventilate properly. First time I soldered, I was coughing for a while after. The issues are likely acute, but I refuse to be the person to discover that a chronic problem can develop. Also, using your knowledge of the world, when has inhaling anything besides water vapor (unflavored) been safe?
Don't worry about fumes... just make sure that your not blowing air on your work... trying to use a fan to blow air across your work piece makes the joint cool too quickly resulting in brittle joints.. Very important in something that's subject to high vibrations like drones..
Ahhh. that makes sense. I was told not to leave solder on the end of the tip when you are done and to thoroughly clean before storing because the acid in the flux core would eat away at the tip of the soldering iron causing it not to work as effectively.
Paximo2000 that’s very wrong. The metal should not be exposed to the air for long periods of time after taking its first solder, and especially not when it’s hot. You want to leave solder on when not in use, just make sure you apply it with enough time for the chemicals to burn off once you’re done.
Thank You Steele !! Just a point of equipment-- Hako is wonderful Made in China-- if can not afford Hako the Chinese brand YIHUA is manufactured in same factory to very close to Hako Specifications for one half the cost or lower. I have lived and worked in China as tech in manufacturing from USA. And I was-- Married to a wonderful Chinese Lady but had different ideas of our future. I f one can not afford Hako starting out YIHUA is very good alternative. I use $30 YIHUA for 3 yrs now and wonderful. Next Idea I tell truth- you need to keep your solder iron tip clean but having solder onit so no oxidation. Again for people just learning to solder You do not need to buy a sponge or brass fiber cleaner for your soldering tip. The best I have found and use today as my main way to keep the solder iron tip clean and freeof excess solder is what every one has -- An old sock, the one with the hole in it !! Wet the old sock through then wring out the water so no puddles in your work table but still very wet. Use the wet sock as a wiping place or if have much excess solder wrap around the soldering iron tip and pull through. If you get burning sock it is not wet enuff. This is how I do for many years of electronics. Everyone has an old sock and hopefully water !!! My main go to always. Just my ideas I know that work also from when I was learning and some things you learn are really good that you figure out on your own : ) Gods Bless U Mr Steel and to all that watch and wish to learn. Do not find excuses for not to do. Find ways you can do to at least try !!!! YEA BB !!!
I'm sure you'll be going over it but *good solder* is so important. I bought my first spool of solder in an actual RC hobbyshop and it was really expensive but always easy to work with and yielding good results. Now the spool is empty and I ordered new supply from Amazon and *man* is it horrible. Just horrible - and that now after almost two years with a lot more experience getting lot worse results, so, yeah... ;)
Agree, also I think solder goes off. I did electronics as a kid and was good at soldering. Now I got into fpv with my old gear and solder and my soldering was horrible! I bought new solder - back to to shiny😀
Thanks Mr. Steele, great video!! Quick question, I'm not great at soldering, only learned how about 5yrs ago when I got into hobby, but I've gotten much better over the years. One thing that still hangs me up, and it only happens once in a while, and that is not being able to get solder to stick/hold to a pad, and it's almost always a ground pad. I've tried, sort of, what you did 9:40 mark, and that doesn't work. My iron isn't top of the line, but it's decent, about $50-$60, and I'm of the same philosophy when it comes to temp, so my iron is usually near maxed at 450c, and I use regular hobby grade 60/40 solder from hardware store. I've even tried (very lightly) scuffing the pad a bit with fine sandpaper, and dabbing it with a flux pen, and still nothin. Any ideas, or something I'm doing wrong? I do keep a damp sponge near by, but i only use it about every 3-4 solders, guess I should use it every time like you said?
Question: If solder balls up on the iron's tip, does that mean the iron is too hot or too cold (I'm assuming too cold)? If the solder "sticks" and gets dragged out as you pull the iron away, is that also too cold?
It has a lot to do with materials. Even with the right types of solder a cheap brand can be dirty. I buy hakko tips to use on knockoff irons because a lot of the Chinese tips oxidize like crazy. The biggest improvements to my soldering happened when I was able to shop online instead of using whatever junk was in the hobby shop or radio shack.
3:23 That was a quick save. I was literally moving the mouse towards the back button like "this guy has no idea what he's on about, I'm gonna watch something better"
I think there will be a resounding "YES!" from anyone who's ever used lead-free solder. I once bought a reel of lead-free solder 15 years ago, tried using it once, immediately went back to leaded solder. It's not nice to work with as it doesn't flow as easily as leaded, you need more heat. Here's something interesting in this topic - If you ever have to replace a camera or something on a pre-made quad, and notice when the joint cools the solder surface goes from shiny to matte in an instant, that's because there was lead-free solder already there and you added leaded solder.
Lead free is much harder to work with. I have to use it at work. It requires more heat and you have to hold your parts in place longer. It takes longer to cool.
Steele: "ok first I wet the tip...now I wiggle the bottom and move fast enough so I can come in sideways..."
My girlfriend: "What are you watching??"
Hahha
Snap i didn't think of it like that 😃👊
Steele: " The hardest part about this is in and out"
Don't forget to go in and out as quickly as possible 17:56
dont forget too clean the tip between each connection
I’m pretty lucky to win a weller soldering station at a giveaway at my school. Nobody knew what it was so I got it
That is pretty awesome Kevin.
That is freaking dope!!!
Lucky!
i have a 30 year old one
Heck at my school I was lucky to enter a giveaway for a pack of pencils
So this is what I learned:
-get your tip wet, don't go in dry
-quickly get in, quickly get out
-touch it, and it's on. Noted.
--call it bad names-
-you want a tip size that isnt too big or too small. Too big and you'll just complain you can't get it all on there, too small and you leave everyone dissatisfied.
-And make sure to get it to 850 degrees. *That's hot*
Update: Instructions unclear, tip stuck in rotor.
*Flimsynder* - And important not to forget 'health and safety':
' - _be sure to wipe your tip clean, after you've pulled it out_ ' !
BTW - ' _Touch it it's on, touch it it's off_ !' I didn't get that bit!?
dont be to rough when the tip is in contact.
I just finished my first soldering, I had to solder my power cable that I had torn off, now the new cable is well placed on my circuit but when I power my drone with the battery, all the printed circuit becomes very hot. An idea ?
If tip does not penetrate, wiggle it a bit.
Solid vid. Couple of thoughts: the purpose of the wet sponge is not 'cleaning' the tip; that's what the scrunchy copper wire ball is for. The wet sponge is for reducing latent heat in the tip to avoid overheating components. If soldering pads, XT60 pins etc., don't use the sponge, because you want lots of heat. If soldering small components (capacitors for example), or soldering in an area of a PCB which has small components close to the soldering site, clean the tip with the copper ball, give it a good wipe with the sponge to cool the tip, then *promptly* re-wet and apply solder. I do use a flux pen ('rosin pen'). The flux removes oxidation from the parts being soldered and keeps them from re-oxidizing while cleaning/re-wetting the iron, all of which allows more rapid adherence and promotes flowing of the solder; this in turn means it isn't necessary to heat-saturate the parts to achieve a properly-fused joint. Proper use of rosin core solder requires that you add solder to both components before attempting a joint, which is fine in many cases, but often leads to an over-application of solder, and you either have to wait for the parts to cool (and start to re-oxidize...), or risk overheating the parts when you connect them. Last item: lead wont vaporize at less than 1700C; the smoke from soldering doesn't contain lead. I avoid breathing it on general principle, but there's no need to worry about "lead poisoning" from solder smoke. Washing your hands after handling solder is a good idea, however :)
Accurate info. Good to see some intelligent comments!
I found the electronics engineer.
The most important one is the bit where you don't want to heat-saturate the parts. Your flux will help with that if applied correctly.
ESC and motors will hate this saturation method, even 1/8th scale offroad RC components fail easily with too much heat.
Great info. Thank you 👍
@kapstaad - Damn good comment, thanks!
10:11 foxy run FNAF 1
Few additions cause this is actually a good soldering tutorial! Steele doing it right! So with solder fumes, the fumes are actually the resin core melting, you definitely dont want to breathe that as you can actually develop asthma over time from it, but there is no lead directly in the smoke...but make SURE (like before you do anything else) that you wash your hands after handling leaded solder! It is absolutely essential. A wick is alright, the problem is it seems to oxidize pretty quick and does a poor job...the best 25 bucks I've spent in a long time is on the Engineer SS-02 solder sucker, seriously I can redo pin headers with this thing...get it! A fume extractor is a pretty decent investment as well.
Other than that, practice! Get some practice kits that are cheap, its very concering to me the poor soldering skills of so many people, that is a massive liability as people trust their kwads way too much and soldering joints can and do fail under heavy vibration load. Also the reason that pads lift is because of poor quality substrate of the pcb and poor quality adhesive...thats another reason to buy quality products, so you know they are (hopefully) using quality pcbs with properly adhered copper. You can still lift small pads so caution is always necessary(they are tiny little islands of copper, after all, they heat up and melt the adhesive), but in general it will be much stronger!
Epic write up and pointers man.
I am gonna have to look into that solder suckers. I have a fume extractor but I need to put a more powerful motor on it. That shit is weak :(
@@MrSteeleFPV Thanks my dude! I know you got that EE degree which probably helps, but your solder skills are actually awesome, so thanks for taking the time to make a good detailed video! Lol I actually designed and 3d printed my fume extractor, I know you hate 3d printed shit, but I put that 35mm delta fan in there...shit pretty much hovers! Also btw open invitation to come climb at vertical endeavors in MN if you ever make it up here!
Adding to this excellent advice, silicone mats are soo much better than carpet for soldering esp. As they often have many slots and embedded magnets for holding tiny drone screws!
@@MrSteeleFPV I can definitely vouch for the Engineer SS-02. Contrary to most solder pumps, it doesn't have a teflon nozzle, but a silicone one that conforms a bit better to whatever you push it onto and gives it a ton more suction than a regular solder pump. Best solder pump I ever got.
When I started in May 2020 I watched so many videos about soldering and I wanted to come back to this video and let you know: this video changed everything for me and I thank you💯
I know I'm a year late in da game lol but since I'm new to fpv and can't solder for tish this is the BEST solder tutorial I have seen on all of YT !!!!! and I'm not just saying that because the jedi of fpv is doing it lol I'm scared to death of soldering I'm not gonna lie it looks so hard and I'm scared I'm going to end up with a T-1000!!!! Seriously though this vid makes me want to solder something just to try.....knock on wood 4× I hope I don't break my quad now lol great stuff man👍
Good video Steele. This is a necessary skill that can be quite expensive to learn by trial and error. You provided some timely tips that will reduce the learning curve for new guys. I appreciate the time you took to prepare this video.
For me, you explained it the best compared to others. Not that others are bad.
For those who have trouble tinning wires, dip the wire in flux, add solder to the iron, then touch the flux-covered wire end to the solder blob on the iron and it will pull the solder right in. Any time you have issues with getting a joint hot enough, use flux. It’s your friend.
One of the qualities of MrSteele I love is his OCD and cleanliness. I greatly appreciate the tips he shared here to keep things tidy, secure, and minimal.
As a beginner, learning how to solder is great, but there's also a style and touch to it that is important to this hobby.
Thanks Mr Steele!
Awesome guide i genuinely learnt some stuff here! been binge watching your videos for a couple of days now in between flights & I'm improving each flight thanks to the stuff I'm learning which boosts my confidence and takes me one step closer to life depression free.
Thank you for inspiring me.
🙌. Fpv got me through some of the darkest times in my life man. Perseverance is key :). Keep enjoying the hobby 🙏🏼
VERY Good tutorial! I would like to mention that blue tack really helps in securing components to place when you solder. It's cheap and really handy.
Thank you for this! Sincere, my new hire involves soldering skills. I'll be looking into your vids to enhance not only my skill set, but also to broaden my tool belt! Again, thank you, Sir!
One tool that completely changed how I solder is a nice set of _reverse action tweezers._ Those things are amazing!
This is the best guide on soldering i have ever seen, and i am a youtube vet.
So you're another pro, i guess.
I thought I knew it all, but after your video I can kindly say I was enlightened. Thanks for making and sharing this !
WOW thank you so very much for your awesome and informative tutorial. I learned so much from it and although I have soldered many things in the past they have never been perfect joints. But thanks to you I now have more confidence in soldering and how I can create nice clean joints.
So thank you so very much once again!
Thank you sir for the helpfulness of this video. Your fpv videos are one of the biggest reasons I'm into this awesome hobby.
Ive been soldering for a bit and I still learned some stuff. One of the best skills someone can learn.
I didn't realize solder creep up the wire making it stiff. I learned something too as well!
Thanks for the video. One thing I saw you doing that I see very few other "experts" doing is constantly cleaning your tip. I see some "experts" working with very dirty tips. I used to use water but I thought I heard some people say that you should not do that. I use copper wool to clean my tip. One thing I noticed you doing that you did not mention is lifting up the iron when coming out of the puddle. This causes capillary action and will lift up the puddle and create a dome effect. I think that if you stir a little slower and left slower you get a smoother and shinier dome.
Awesome. I haven't known many people that has soldered as long or longer than myself.
I did a lot of repairs for friends and their parents from Jr. High until the present.
So you know what a big deal everyone makes because you understand something they don't.
It kinda dwindles into either as you approach your 40's 😏👍.
Nice tips. I’ve watched tons of soldering vids, I am learning soldering by working on micros and tiny whoops since I live in the city…but I learned some new things from this. No flux given.
watching Steele soldering for 30min? oh yes! 🙌
This video could not come in better time for me. I fly FPV for almost a year now, but I'll build my first quad this week and I only had little practice with soldering. So thank you very much!
Tell Dad, thanks for passing it down to the next generation; well made video!!...I began planning my first race drone build today and "bam!"...you released an incredible soldering video...thanks for sharing!!!🕺🏾
I've been using the solder wick completely wrong. Thanks
Ther sheer amount of people i have helped by sending them this video, all wanted to thank you mr steele
One of the most informative soldering tips videos I have seen. Thanks
I use lighter fluid for cleaning excess flux on boards, works just as well as isopropyl alcohol and also evaporates leaving no residue and is often more easily available from convenience stores etc.
Head magnifier with a light is a must for when I'm soldering, things are getting so tiny these days, especially trying to solder the boards in micro quads & whoops. I use one which can take two lenses at once, so I can flip one up for variable magnification.
Best solder slinger I ever done seened! I think the wiggle wiggle is the key I have been missing in my soldering. Thanks Mr. Steve! P.S. Your natural hair looks fire, people are ridiculous!
🙌🥖🤷♂️😹
forgot that heat shrink on xt 60. lol been there!! i know it was just for demo though so youre good. great tutorial bro i see this helping lots of people judging by a lot of build pics i see on facebook i silently sit back and cringe at. never stop rippin my dude!
It's even better to learn Quad soldering tips and tricks from a pro like Steele!
A fume extractor works great to draw that smoke away from your work area. Also, a wad of sticky tack works awesome to hold stuff in place while soldering. Great video!
Oh and flux helps solder stick to surfaces like magic.
Thanks so much for this. On another video, the thinking was all the fumes is from the flux, the solder never gets hot enough to make lead vapor.
Thanks i have just practiced your technique and already i have improved. i thought i was pretty good but now much better.
That 28 mins and 37 seconds to please Albert went super fast I was glued to the screen haha great video on showing how it's done, I'm starting to build me first 5 inch this week so cramming as much helpful. Info as possible 😂😂
30 mins. 28:37 mins to be exact.
Yep hit a 4 by accident lol
Better?
a chisel sharpening stone is best to solder on . it gets rid of the heat better . great flying
This was a really great tutorial and advice video using your technique. Lots of perfect angle shots of your work too, made it easy to understand.
Im new to this.. mayb some are too.. some other tip's I got are get bluetac ( like molding clay ) to hold the wires or other stuff you want to solder on.
Use a small desk fan to get a breeze away from inhaling the fumes.
Epic as always bro.i teach young kids who are introuble alot fpv and get them to watch your videos lol.
👍 nice one dude I’ve been soldering for years but it’s alway a good idea to watch someone else. The only way we learn new tips and tricks 🤓
Dude, finally a decent video on how to solder an XT60 wire.
Finally I can solder like Mr.Steeeve now 🔥
You did better than most with this video. Personally, I stay away from rosin core and use no wash flux with regular leaded solder. Flux helps clean the joint and transfers heat to the pad. If you twist the wires before soldering, you transfer skin oils to the wire and you want that removed. Easy cleanup with no wash flux. And stay away from the new Weller irons. I just had a $150 unit fail after only 9 months at work.
Helping hands and a hakko soldering iron tip cleaner also make things a lot smoother
This helps. My joints tend to suck because the people who taught me have me SUPER paranoid about not staying on the pad long. Looks like you're lingering on the pad a decent amount of time, whereas I barely touch it. Getting a new ESC tomorrow I will experiment with it. First time doing XT60 pads, kind of nervous. Definitely don't want to mess up the 4in1 before I get it in the air.
Ground plane can be such a pain because so much metal acts as a heat sink. But they are more forgiving. It is the power and signal traces that will always be less forgiving of too much heat being applied to the pad. DYS F4 AIO boards had some super weak esc signal pads that were easy to lift.
Wetting the tip increases surface area which makes it easier to quickly transfer heat to the piece to be soldered and can reduce the time needed to get a piece tinned.
3:00 TS100 can go up to 450 C as well, using Ralim firmware which is pretty good and a must have for TS100. Ralim firmware + 6S battery, TS100 shines.
Great hands-on instruction vid, just what I wanted. Thanks!
I think Gordon Ramsey would refer to this as a master class. Old engineer, seen a bunch of your videos (including the "How to get in to FPV" series which I followed to the T). thank you.
Thanx - Finally did my first successful soldered joint ;)
You werent particularly quick on those xt60s, so the pdb heats up alot, also because of that temperature which I still think is too high. I have had bad experiences with soldering prototype pcbs at high temperatures (the board material melts quickly).
Cool vid dude. Surprised you are that young. Figured you were in your 40's like me from the gray you got going on. Rock on.
Yeah man 29. Going on 30 in a week or so I’ve had grey since I was 16
Thanks for the tutorial. As a side note, I built a cheap but effective USB PC fan to pull the fumes away from the work area. Cheap insurance to avoid breathing the fumes as much as possible.
This was great - I consider myself to be fairly experienced (but not an expert) at soldering and I learned a few really good tips, thanks!
Been soldering since the 80s when I got my first RC10. Back in the day I bought a RadioShack 100w trigger style soldering gun. That beast lasted me 30 plus years. Hold the trigger for 5 seconds and solder melts, hold the trigger 5 more seconds and you can tin a 12guage power lead in the blink of an eye. Hold it down for more than 20 seconds and that bastard starts glowing red hot.
I can tag a power lead to damn near any ground plane in no time without the part bleeding heat away.
But a year ago the tip was finally going bad, I replaced the tip with some off brand junk and the damn beloved 30+ year old soldering gun started to eat itself. Lucky for me I was able to buy a new old stock duplicate gun and I hope it lasts me another 30 years.
It makes quick work, and that is key to avoid heat soaking parts, of damn near anything. My latest kick is building Lithium Ion packs and my solder gun makes tagging 12 guage wire to the cells about as quick as spot welding.
The 100w gun is not useful for fine detail work so I have a second Soldering gun of lower wattage with a fine tip for all the pins.
As for solder, I have a 60/40 rosin core reel from Radio Shack that I bought 8 years ago that I am only just now to the half way point of using it up. The stuff works so damn well I will be sad when I am out of it. When Radio Shack eas going out of business I went by mine looking to buy up all they had on close out. Sadly somebody already beat me.
A BIG thanks, for clearing up some of the points that I have struggled with.
You are a soldering master, king of fpv
11yo? Finally a worthy opponent!
I got hold of it at like 14yo, could earlier but had no one to show me how to do it properly and at that time there were no good yt tutorials (not sure if yt was a thing in my country yet at that time).
I've seen a lot of people do the mistake of keeping the iron on the solder join for like 5x the max time they should.
Regarding solder type i would advise against leaded type, lead is not good for you, you can get stuff soldered with lead free solder if you have half decent iron and thick tip, also it's important to buy quality solder, don't buy any of this random kester etc branded stuff it's awful to solder with regardless of it being leaded or not.
You want to buy multicore(loctite) it's like $50-$100 per 500g spool, yes expensive but it is what it is, there might be other good brands but you will be trying your luck $50+ at a time, so might as well just buy the multicore, for average hobbyist it will last 5-10 years.
Mr Streele the best!
Video quality is on the up and up!
Love this soldering iron, I use it as well and have been for some time. Would be awesome if you made a video on tuning! Thanks as always for the super informative videos.
Super chilled "tutorial".
Thank you for the awesome video! :)
Bardwells videos legit give me more anxiety. You explain things WAY better, more effectively, and you dont sound like nails on a chalkboard
You have the best soldering station! I have it too, very solid!
like you say bonus tip: when you solder the xt60 put BEFORE the heat shrink on the wires for the connector ;)
this is amazing bro! I wish you had this video in 2018 when I first found your channel and got started in FPV!
If there is least one thing I learned this video. ( 5 things) wetting the tip was the most usefull I'm starting out and building the Ali Express practice boards Bluetooth speakers and other things I can give as gifts and hone skills.
Iron I ended up with is the Weller 1010NA as the pinecil I bought was little more then waste of money.
Man you make this look easy..
Hahahahaha, the best "how to" video I've seen ;)
Thanks for all your dedication Steele...
:)
You could do with an ipa dispenser. I use one by stickler. Really handy and doesn't waste much.
That ETHIX build mat though. But for real needs to happen!
Hi Mr. Steele! Thanks for the tutorial! Quick question: in regards to the iron, is that still your go-to iron using in 2023, or would you recommend anything newer now?
Could have needed this two months earlier - now my quad already looks like Frankensteins quad with its rediculouis solderpoints. Good video!
Correct me if I'm wrong but the fumes DON'T have any lead in them whatsoever as leads got a boiling point of 1700 degrees and the fumes are just the Rosin... Now you still shouldn't necessarily breath those in as some people are allergic to it but if you are not and you are only soldering occasionally it won't do any harm UNLESS the solders got an acidic core and not a Rosin core, those fumes will fuck you up fairly effectively...
Also, normally closed metal tweezers (dunno how to properly call them) are way easier to handle than needlenose pliers as you don't need to apply constant pressure to hold the wire
Great video - still learned quite a bit even though I thought I had soldering down quite well 👍
I'm pretty sure the smoke is the resin burning off. I always thought that if you got too much smoke that iron was too hot, but I'm not the expert
Averell Dalton AFAIK the precautions against inhaling lead are still helpful, and the flux in any solder can cause respiratory issues if you don’t ventilate properly. First time I soldered, I was coughing for a while after. The issues are likely acute, but I refuse to be the person to discover that a chronic problem can develop.
Also, using your knowledge of the world, when has inhaling anything besides water vapor (unflavored) been safe?
Don't worry about fumes... just make sure that your not blowing air on your work...
trying to use a fan to blow air across your work piece makes the joint cool too quickly resulting in brittle joints..
Very important in something that's subject to high vibrations like drones..
Ahhh. that makes sense. I was told not to leave solder on the end of the tip when you are done and to thoroughly clean before storing because the acid in the flux core would eat away at the tip of the soldering iron causing it not to work as effectively.
Paximo2000 that’s very wrong. The metal should not be exposed to the air for long periods of time after taking its first solder, and especially not when it’s hot. You want to leave solder on when not in use, just make sure you apply it with enough time for the chemicals to burn off once you’re done.
Thanks 4 the soldering secrets!! & I do keep my tip moist!!🤓🤙
“Wet The Tip Steel!!! 😂 But in all serious thanks a lot I appreciate all the information couldn’t have got in the air without your videos
That Ethnix build mat there looking legit 👌
Wish I had watched this before I had started attacking my FC! :D appreciate you taking the time to share your experience
Thank You Steele !! Just a point of equipment-- Hako is wonderful Made in China-- if can not afford Hako the Chinese brand YIHUA is manufactured in same factory to very close to Hako Specifications for one half the cost or lower. I have lived and worked in China as tech in manufacturing from USA. And I was-- Married to a wonderful Chinese Lady but had different ideas of our future. I f one can not afford Hako starting out YIHUA is very good alternative. I use $30 YIHUA for 3 yrs now and wonderful. Next Idea I tell truth- you need to keep your solder iron tip clean but having solder onit so no oxidation. Again for people just learning to solder You do not need to buy a sponge or brass fiber cleaner for your soldering tip. The best I have found and use today as my main way to keep the solder iron tip clean and freeof excess solder is what every one has -- An old sock, the one with the hole in it !! Wet the old sock through then wring out the water so no puddles in your work table but still very wet. Use the wet sock as a wiping place or if have much excess solder wrap around the soldering iron tip and pull through. If you get burning sock it is not wet enuff. This is how I do for many years of electronics. Everyone has an old sock and hopefully water !!! My main go to always. Just my ideas I know that work also from when I was learning and some things you learn are really good that you figure out on your own : ) Gods Bless U Mr Steel and to all that watch and wish to learn. Do not find excuses for not to do. Find ways you can do to at least try !!!! YEA BB !!!
Great vid. Thanks!!! Been in the market for a new soldering machine. So bought this one. Thanks for the tips.
Very helpful and to the point, thanks steele 🤜
Most informative Sir, Most informative indeed!
Thanks for the video mate, brilliant, thanks for teaching me 👍 bless you
Happy Birthday Steele!
Idk why but he is so relaxing to whatch while building😋
A good solder is important for an FPV soldier ;-)
People really did learn something today lol. Good tutorial!
@@L..E01 Yea, you learned how to damage what you paid for - before first use. Amazing!
@@mqrichfpv2748what?
I always file my CAP-wires all around before I wet them. I think this helps to make them receptive to solder at all..
Great video just what I was looking for to the point,and helps me out awhole lot with my project,thanks
It's very useful! Thanks for sharing! 😄👍👏👏💯
I'm sure you'll be going over it but *good solder* is so important.
I bought my first spool of solder in an actual RC hobbyshop and it was really expensive but always easy to work with and yielding good results.
Now the spool is empty and I ordered new supply from Amazon and *man* is it horrible. Just horrible - and that now after almost two years with a lot more experience getting lot worse results, so, yeah... ;)
Agree, also I think solder goes off. I did electronics as a kid and was good at soldering. Now I got into fpv with my old gear and solder and my soldering was horrible! I bought new solder - back to to shiny😀
Thanks Mr. Steele, great video!! Quick question, I'm not great at soldering, only learned how about 5yrs ago when I got into hobby, but I've gotten much better over the years. One thing that still hangs me up, and it only happens once in a while, and that is not being able to get solder to stick/hold to a pad, and it's almost always a ground pad. I've tried, sort of, what you did 9:40 mark, and that doesn't work. My iron isn't top of the line, but it's decent, about $50-$60, and I'm of the same philosophy when it comes to temp, so my iron is usually near maxed at 450c, and I use regular hobby grade 60/40 solder from hardware store. I've even tried (very lightly) scuffing the pad a bit with fine sandpaper, and dabbing it with a flux pen, and still nothin. Any ideas, or something I'm doing wrong? I do keep a damp sponge near by, but i only use it about every 3-4 solders, guess I should use it every time like you said?
Question: If solder balls up on the iron's tip, does that mean the iron is too hot or too cold (I'm assuming too cold)? If the solder "sticks" and gets dragged out as you pull the iron away, is that also too cold?
Yes
I started my drone project. Fun stuff.
Thanks steele for show casing how easy soldering can be if you know how things can be done
It has a lot to do with materials. Even with the right types of solder a cheap brand can be dirty. I buy hakko tips to use on knockoff irons because a lot of the Chinese tips oxidize like crazy. The biggest improvements to my soldering happened when I was able to shop online instead of using whatever junk was in the hobby shop or radio shack.
3:23 That was a quick save. I was literally moving the mouse towards the back button like "this guy has no idea what he's on about, I'm gonna watch something better"
Is it needed to have lead solder? Does the difference between leadfree and leaded matter?
Did you watch the video ?
Lol 😂. Yes it’s needed
Do not use lead free!
I think there will be a resounding "YES!" from anyone who's ever used lead-free solder.
I once bought a reel of lead-free solder 15 years ago, tried using it once, immediately went back to leaded solder.
It's not nice to work with as it doesn't flow as easily as leaded, you need more heat.
Here's something interesting in this topic - If you ever have to replace a camera or something on a pre-made quad, and notice when the joint cools the solder surface goes from shiny to matte in an instant, that's because there was lead-free solder already there and you added leaded solder.
@@MrSteeleFPV guess that this vid just came on time, was about to build my first quad with lead free. Thank you!
Lead free is much harder to work with. I have to use it at work. It requires more heat and you have to hold your parts in place longer. It takes longer to cool.
Great tips, dude! Thanks a lot! 😊