Sympathy for Castle - RC-Monster Forums

OldGuyBL · **Sympathy for Castle -** 11.26.2011, 01:17 PM

I would like to see the Castle Repair department post pictures of the worst solder jobs they have seen.
I have been traveling all over the US this holiday week and every flying field and driving track I have been at has had a huge number of terrible solder jobs on ESC's and battery packs. Don't get me wrong, I'm not the best in the world at soldering, but what I saw made me shiver. These days, electronics carry a lot of current. Bad soldering can cause more than component failure, fires and injury can result.
I can only imagine the steaming piles that the Castle Repair shop must see daily. So, please Castle, show us some of the nightmares people send in!

BrianG · 11.26.2011, 02:35 PM

I can imagine! Some people have the policy where any solder job is good enough as long as it works. I've seen several solder jobs where it was apparent the user thought that simply dropping molten solder on a joint was the right way. They never heard of tinning, flux, heating the materials and letting the solder flow into the joint, or cleaning their blackened/oxidized iron.

11.27.2011, 02:08 AM

I have seen a few come through our shop. I seen one lipo that had the wires extended. First the guy twisted some wire on to the ends and then put what could be best described as a drop of solder on there. When I questioned him about it he told me the solder is only there to make sure the wires don't separate and just the wires touching is enough to make a good contact.

Also seen a guy come back with a receiver that looked like it was attacked by a butane torch. What this poor fool did was he needed to extend his aileron servo wires which he did but in the process he didn't protect the three wires from each other properly. He used very thin wall shrink wrap on each wire and then heat shrunk the another bigger piece of shrink tubing over the top of them. So all three solder joints were pushing hard against each other and eventually it caused a short. It was obvious to see where th short occurred as the wire going to the servo was fine and the rest of it after the join that was going to the receiver was nicely toasted. All this happened in a 1/4 scale plane during mid flight. Don't have to tell you what happened to the plane. Anyway this fool tried to have a go at my boss and demanded that he pay for the repairs to the plane and new receiver. Laughter was the only response he got. One would think that guys who spend so much money on a RC plane would have a better idea what they are doing.

magman · 11.27.2011, 10:04 AM

Unfortunately I used to be one of the guys you all are referring to. I am by no means an expert, but, it has been a long time since one of my solder joint failed so I must be doing something right. Not to mention, practice makes perfect :)

lincpimp · 11.27.2011, 11:56 AM

I did alot of lipo repairs a few years back, and routinely saw some very bad soldering. You would have laughed at most of the deans insallations. Plus I have always bought used parts, and some of the motor and esc wiring could be best described as a joke.

It would be cool to see some pics from the CC repair dept, that is for sure!

TexasSP · 11.28.2011, 10:57 AM

It takes time to get soldering right. Most people from what I have seen just use the wrong stuff. From crappy irons to cheapo butane torch jobs that don't heat evenly or completely.

The best thing I did for my soldering was when I picked up a hakko station. Like everything, having the right tools is the biggest part.

Of course tinning, heating the work and not the solder, as well as keeping the tip clean goes a long way. I have also seen people use the wrong solder quite a bit which can be detrimental as well.