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Battery / cabling woes - any ideas?

I used to do this kind of stuff for a living (many moons ago) and soldering is definitely a skill you can improve with practice. A temperature controlled iron is well worth it but get a decent one with enough wattage to solder the things you're trying to work with - 30W ish should do the job well. You want something that can heat the joint surfaces quickly enough that you're not going to get a "cold" joint but not so hot that you just melt everything!

Lead free solder is fine as long as you use the right soldering tips and work at the right temperature. A solder sucker is worth it's weight in gold for those moments when you've been a bit cack handed and have to start again.

Pre-tin the cable and connector before you start and get a decent blob of properly flowed solder on the connector. Hold the two together then apply some more heat with maybe a small bit of extra solder and away you go.

 
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Also good to get is a set of thermal sinks for small parts that carry heat, you can get stainless and aluminium, they are like tweezers... with that, a set of insulated tweezers to help when soldering and one of these soldering iron tip cleaners is invaluable... Dip your tip in the rosin and then the cleaner and a nice clean tip....

View attachment 81672

 
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Rogerborg said:
That's what I use, or a rebranded equivalent.  Works for me, and had a decent variety of tips.  That's a decent price for that whole package, everything you need to get going, although a set of helping hands... helps.
Click to expand...
Yes, that should be good enough.

Temperature controlled irons are much better as you can bering the melt temperature up to the point that you are heating the solder, wetting the joints and then creating a solid joint.

Unregulated solder irons can cook off the flux too fast as part of the process of flux is to be heated to errode and clean the dirt and allow the solder joint to wet properly.

I used to use an unregulated iron and it was the source of many a dry joint or improper wetting, they are fine for large parts that are going to sink a lot of heat and where joints are not PCB based or on thin wires.

 
Rogerborg said:
That's what I use, or a rebranded equivalent.  Works for me, and had a decent variety of tips.  That's a decent price for that whole package, everything you need to get going, although a set of helping hands... helps.
Click to expand...


Excellent.  I'll order it.
I looked for some helping hands but mostly at the cheap end of the spectrum there are plenty of "it's rubbish" type of reviews, so didn't bother.  I bodged something with a small vice, and a lump of wood and some blu-tack when I was doing this previously.  Not great but better than stuff just loose on my desk :)

ImTriggerHappy said:
Best all round soldering iron you can get is one of these

https://www.tooled-up.com/weller-8100udk-expert-soldering-gun-kit/prod/12425/https://www.tooled-up.com/weller-8100udk-expert-soldering-gun-kit/prod/12425/

I never use my full soldering station anymore as these are so good.
Click to expand...


Yowzers, 6 secs 0-60!  Speedy!   
It's a bit pricey for me though, I think I'll stick with life in the bus lane :D

 
AirSniper said:
 Dip your tip in the rosin and then the cleaner and a nice clean tip....
Click to expand...




View attachment 81677

I'm not sticking my tip in there for anyone!
 

AirSniper said:
improper wetting
Click to expand...
View attachment 81678

Yub yub kersnip!

On a slightly more serious note, I got a new set of connector leads for my charger (to dodge my dodgy soldering on the original set).  As I used the Titan it a little on Sunday, I decided to top it up.  I expected a good few minutes of charging to do that, so when it took *seconds* I suspected the worst.
I got my battery monitor on it, and sent the readings off to Titan to confirm its charged and healthy.  They replied very quickly.  With S1 = 4.20v and S2 = 4.21v, I'm (allegedly) "fine and dandy".   Which means the two or three hundred bb's it powered on Sunday were merely scraping the icing off a big 3000mAH cake!

 
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Rogerborg said:
.... a set of helping hands... helps.
Click to expand...
Yes, great idea to have some.

I do advise you look in your local tool shop as I found out after buying one from China for £15.95 that the local tool shop sold exactly the same thing for £9.99, so instead of waiting 3 weeks for it, I could have picked one up locally instantly...

 
Just yesterday a pair of hands turned up.  Luckily not in a "what's in the box" sort of style ;)

I bought the cheapest ones on Amazon, which do happen to be 'Rolston' branded.  £9

They're errrr.... ummmm ... .... ... 'OK'-ish?

Very light weight but I'm not averse to using a little G clamp or big lump of blu-tack to immobilising it/them.  But the butterfly nuts to clamp the arms in place... only really work with a pair of pliers for leverage.  Not sure they'll stand up to much as they're a bit flimsy.   However I'll reserve judgement for when I do some more soldering.  At least they were dirt-cheap!

 
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