iFlyRotors

I dont want to get political here. The hobby is to escape from real world.

clearly 99.9% of surgeons, dentists, nurses etc are fools for wearing those blue and N95 masks, and you have outsmarted them all. Hoorah.

Masks are meant to stop droplets. Obviously nowhere near 100% effective. Nobody claimed they offer perfect protection - this is silly straw man argument.

Maybe a better example. You have cookies on hot metal pan in oven. Cant find gloves. Use rag or cloth that offers some or poor protection, or bare hands. Maybe you have thick skin and go fast.. and maybe avoid burns.. do you push your luck?

Antimask people are these getting hot pan out of oven with bare hands people.

Hi Roman,

Yes, you are correct. 

Sorry for the rant. 

My apologies. Sorry.

Wear a mask.

[prior post edited, text removed]

Hi SkyPig,

All of the joints appear to have a decent connection that will work.
The ones with the shorter stripped ends look the best.  The solder
work does not look that bad and will work.

I wonder about the solder. Sometimes the cheap solder doesn't
seem to have a mix of quality materials. A friend of mine who
has excellent solder skills, bought some cheap, junk, solder once
and had pretty much that same issues that you are having. First,
the solder didn't seem to melt right. Plus, it wasn't shiny. He tossed
that solder and went back to quality solder and all is well again.

Over the years, I have used many different brands, however, I find
that Kester solder is some of the best that I have used. So, you 
might try different solder. Also, I would suggest the 63/37 mix as 
it melts at 183 C which is a little lower than 60/40 (188-190 C).

As others have mentioned, strip a shorter length of wire. You just
need enough to fit the pad. Also, I put the wire at 90 degrees to 
the board on those open, half circle, pads and 
use the following technic: 

With the board up on its edge, I tin the pad and sort of fill it up.
Next, tin the wire. Place the wire on top of the solder in the hole.
Place the iron on top of the wire. You don't need much pressure.
As soon as the solder melts, the wire will sink into it. Remove the
iron, let it cool a bit before letting it go.

If you have over stripped the wire, just set the wire in the pad so
that the insulation is up against the pad with the excess hanging 
out the other side. Heat the wire, let it sink in, remove the heat.
When the joint is cool, cut off the excess wire with side cutters.  

I think there is an over importance on mirror shiny joints that glint like diamonds in the sun. Some of the most horrific soldering I've seen has been done by the "fpv experts" on YT that earn a living off of this stuff. I doubt any of their builds suffered due to poor soldering. Of course avoid cold solder joints, particularly with heavy xt60 joints. A joint that massive will take some time to cool and don't try to blow it cool.

Bridging is what I'd be worried about, magnification will help most with that. You can hype flux and 60/40 or 63/37 solder all day long, if these aren't quality or they've gone stale then it doesn't matter. Quality fresh flux like Amtech is like magic when you're swapping an SMD component. I never use flux on soldering wires like a drone build, but by all means if that helps you then slather it on there.

Same as the soldering iron, if your tip has gone bad or the heating element isn't properly seated into the tip you're gonna have a bad time. I gave my buddy my old Hakko 936 iron, the model before the 888 and he said he was struggling on practice soldering, even with the large flat head screwdriver chisel tip. When I was over there I tried to remove a motor for him that he was replacing. Sure enough I couldn't do anything with it without spending all day with tip on the pad, which of course isn't good. Bring him over to my place and let him run the Hakko 951 and he swapped out all 4 motors like he's been soldering for years.

+1 on good solder. Kester is great.

I’ve thrown a away a couple 1 pound rolls of absolute crap no name solder I bought because I’m cheap- stuff was worthless.

I tend to use 0.8mm diameter solder most of the time, but I’ve got some much thinner stuff that I use for super fine work.

I’ve been soldering for over 2/3rds of my life and I still screw it up sometimes. Monday evening I was trying to solder motor wires onto some small led race wires- couldn’t figure out why I was struggling so damn much with it. Finally walked away before I damaged something. I woke up this morning and realized what the problem was. These race wires have tiny pads so I was using my usual fine tip lower wattage iron that I usually use for small pads- but this is racewire, which means big thick strips of copper trace. I should have been using my higher wattage larger tipped iron. (I’ve got multiple soldering irons as well as multiple soldering irons for my soldering stations- I don’t like to have to wait for the tip to cool when I need something bigger or smaller). Anyhow, pretty sure it’ll be a breeze tonight.

My point there is that sometimes you need to take a break and come back with a fresh brain and fresh eyes.

I agree with you. Sometimes, you just need to take a break, walk away, and start fresh.

Like you, I have soldered most of my life (decades really) and all sorts of stuff.

I don't have the soldering iron issue as I only have one with a medium size pencil (conical)
tip and Kester .5mm (hair thin) solder. Oh yeah, I taped the adjustment wheel at 425 C degrees. 
So, all of those decisions are already made for me. I solder everything with that rig. Literally !!

I just re-wired our box type cargo trailer (12 Volt automotive wiring). Most of the time I 
just use the crimp connectors which is typical, however, I needed to make some "butt" splices
between 16 gauge and 20 gauge wire and the connectors just weren't working. So...
That's right I soldered them. Now this splice is BIG. I probably should have looked for larger
solder, but...nah. What chisel tip? I don't own one. So, I just used my standard rig, put a
bunch of MG Chemicals FLUX on the splice, laid my pencil tip "flatways" along the side,
used my thin solder, used a solder bridge up the side of the tip then over the top of the
wire. This took maybe 3 seconds (not sure, I wasn't counting). I had those puppies soldered
up in no time. This was quite the extreme from soldering those super TINY pads on the
JHEMCU FC that I just solder up. Yep, same gear, same tip, same temp, everything. 

I guess I am just used to this rig. I believe that you get a "feel" for it when things are
the same especially the temp. You don't have to wait and wonder. It happens fast all of
the time. Quick in, Quick out. If it doesn't, then something is wrong. STOP. Take a break !

Yup. Shitty solder. I bought some the Kester 67/33 Limited Chernobyl edition Shiny Set . Such a difference - my joints are brighter than Joey Deacon watching Lawnmower Man.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/t9zN1sE7My7NUQfW9

The rest of this build is still pretty much an exploration in “why do I do this to myself? I don’t like tools, I’m not good at hardware, I’m
In marketing FFS!”

You lot have been been awesome. Lemony - you Sir, are have been SO generous with your time ?

On a non related topic, anyone have 14 officers show up to your house yesterday morning with a search warrant? My life just took a very weird turn ?

You’re getting the hang of it! Congratulations! Watch out for any stray strands of wires coming off of your joints that could potentially short something near it. A magnifying glass or eye loupe is great for this- it’s also a good idea to use it to look over the rest of your board for any stray solder balls that may have fallen and are now potentially shorting something out.

Regarding the police- don’t say anything without a lawyer present. Also, hire a good lawyer if you don’t have one. I don’t know your situation, but regardless, this is good advice. They’re not looking for something that might prove you’re innocent of whatever it is they think you did- they’re looking for anything that will prove the narrative that you’re guilty. So, once again, lawyer. Even if you didn’t do anything wrong- if they were able to get probable cause for a search warrant, then they sure as hell think you did do something wrong.

Anytime I get a tan I get profiled. I don’t break the law. That doesn’t stop them from assuming that I did. Don’t resist, follow all commands, don’t say anything without a lawyer present. If you’re in the US, tell them that you retain your 4th amendment rights and do not consent to any search of your person, vehicle, or property. As I said, I don’t break the law- that doesn’t mean I’m not allowed to exercise my rights. Not doing anything wrong and not being guilty of anything doesn’t mean you have to allow them to search- except with a valid search warrant, then yeah, you have to allow them to search whatever their search warrant allows them to search and search for. But that doesn’t mean you have to talk to them without a lawyer present.

Wasn’t expecting to ever have to give legal advice on an fpv forum that wasn’t related to FAA or FCC rules and regulations, but… I’ve had a lot of life experience, and I’m happy to share it.

(15-May-2022, 03:52 AM)Lemonyleprosy Wrote: Wasn’t expecting to ever have to give legal advice on an fpv forum that wasn’t related to FAA or FCC rules and regulations, but… I’ve had a lot of life experience, and I’m happy to share it.

One day soon I’ll give everyone the full story. TBH it’s all f******* mental. Someone nicks a GoPro and some AirPods and I get some gypsy Swot experience? Pro tip: don’t ask every cop if he’s really got a gun and why he needs so many bullets - they don’t f****** like it!

Hard to tell from your photos, but if those three things I circled in red are stray wire bits, trim them off before you apply power.

Just remember that things that you’re attaching generally shouldn’t touch other different things that you’re attaching- and try to give the things you’re attaching as much clearance as possible from other things.

Sometimes you’re going to screw up and accidentally bridge a wire or pad with the one next to it. If it’s just a solder bridge and not a stray wire strand, smother it in flux and then touch your soldering iron to it for a couple seconds- most of the time that will make the solder move to its respective pads.

It’s built and passed the smoke check. More to come!

As for the solder joints not being shiny - you guys nailed it again - shitty solder. I got the Kester and all was right in the world!

https://photos.app.goo.gl/jRUhMEMvHo2dtQw29

Congratulations! Looking good.

Thanks!

I’ll respond more when I get my computer returned by the law!!

Hi SkyPig,

That is a really clean build.  Very Nice Looking quad. GOOD JOB  

On the mattery of "why do we build". Well, there are many reasons,
but the one cited the most by FPV pilots is so that we can fix the quad
when it breaks...and it WILL break...at least it will break if you are in to
heavy ACRO stunts, bando killing, and other high speed maneuvers where
there are things to hit.

There are two primary reasons that I build:

1) Because I can't buy what I want. If I could, then I would. Mostly.
    In the beginning, I bought BNF (already built) quads. Then I wanted
    something that just didn't exist. So, build it. This way, I get exactly
    what I want. Reference my Surveillance-1 and Rescue Quad builds.

2) I like building things, so for me, it is a lot of fun. I have built and repaired
    tons of stuff over the years. Now, I am building a house for our son. So
    for me, building just adds another dimension that I enjoy. Yeah, I even
    fabricate some of my own parts. Of course, since I built it, I can fix it.


Regarding the cops, once again, I agree with Lemonyleprosy. Hang in there, man.