Hello All, 

I'm new to FPV drones as well as to the forum, but I'm hoping you all might be able to lend me some confirmation on whether I'll need to replace my ESC before I get deeper in here. I'm already a bit over my head, mostly in regard to soldering, having greatly underestimated the difficulty.

Additional to mistakenly touching my iron against the capacitor and having fried the provided one (luckily bought some extras), I also had accidentally touched against a small black box on the ESC along the motor connection pads. I won't pretend I know what any of these tiny little things are yet, but wonder if the board is already toast now?

If anyone could lend some advice/assurance, it'd be much appreciated. 

Here is a link to the photo:
https://imgur.com/a/lrgZl4u

Amazon Product Page for ESC:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09P1D38VF/ref=emc_b_5_i

Welcome to intoFPV!

That is a mosfet. Touching your iron to it shouldn’t have damaged it, as long as you didn’t leave it on it for an extended period of time.

No judgement here, but I do need to tell you:

You should not have your boards powered up when you have things disassembled in that manner- you’re just asking for that stack screw to short something out on the underside of your flight controller.

I would not consider your motor wiring to be safe, if something isn’t shorting out, it very easily will- and if it does, that *will* kill your esc.

Have a read through this thread on how to solder:
https://intofpv.com/t-how-to-solder-prin...pid=138393

Have a look through this thread to see what your soldering should NOT look like:
https://intofpv.com/t-how-not-to-solder

And remember that flux is your friend, as is a good clean soldering iron tip and quality solder.

Soldering practices boards are only a couple bucks and are *great* to learn on, and much cheaper than destroying an esc or fc:
https://pyrodrone.com/products/pyrodrone...tice-board

(26-Feb-2023, 10:13 PM)Lemonyleprosy Wrote: That is a mosfet. Touching your iron to it shouldn’t have damaged it.

No judgement here, but I do need to tell you:

You should not have your boards powered up when you have things disassembled in that manner- you’re just asking for that stack screw to short something out on the underside of your flight controller.

I would not consider your motor wiring to be safe, if something isn’t shorting out, it very easily will- and if it does, that *will* kill your esc.

Have a read through this thread on how to solder:
https://intofpv.com/t-how-to-solder-prin...pid=138393

Have a look through this thread to see what your soldering should NOT look like:
https://intofpv.com/t-how-not-to-solder

And remember that flux is your friend, as is a good clean soldering iron tip and quality solder.

Hey Lemonlyleprosy, 

No sweat, I feel the same way about the solder points. I'm glad to hear that at least the Mosfet piece shouldn't be damaged. I ordered a new iron and some steel tips instead of brass, going to try and clean up and redo them once I receive that tomorrow. I'll check out those threads and see if I can't get this cleaner next time around.

Consider picking up one of those practice soldering boards and practice soldering wires onto it- it’s a good exercise.

Doesn’t have to be the one I linked to in my post above, any will work.

It looks like you need to turn the temperature up on your iron.

(26-Feb-2023, 10:24 PM)Lemonyleprosy Wrote: Consider picking up one of those practice soldering boards and practice soldering wires onto it- it’s a good exercise.

Doesn’t have to be the one I linked to in my post above, any will work.

It looks like you need to turn the temperature up on your iron.

I might just do that. I had seen those and was considering grabbing some, but really had my mind set to try and get at least the motors turning this weekend. Thanks again!

Well, I think I figured out why it was so hard to solder. I didn't read the soldering iron package closely enough and bought a wood-burning kit by mistake. That likely explains why all the tips were melting and mixing with the solder, making this a nightmare. *facepalm*

If you don’t want to read through pages and pages of the two threads above, check out Oscar’s article on how to solder here instead, it lays everything out nicely:

https://oscarliang.com/soldering-guide/

(26-Feb-2023, 10:39 PM)LoganFPV Wrote: Well, I think I figured out why it was so hard to solder. I didn't read the soldering iron package closely enough and bought a wood-burning kit by mistake. That likely explains why all the tips were melting and mixing with the solder, making this a nightmare. *facepalm*

Rofl, I’m still not judging, but that did make me laugh. You have no idea how many times I’ve done something similar when doing a thing for the first time.

When I moved here 7 years ago, it was my first time experiencing snow. I had to buy a snow shovel to clear my driveway. I watched some YouTube videos to learn the right method, and went outside to try it- I couldn’t understand why the snow was sticking to my snow shovel, or how the hell I was supposed to lift and fling the massive amount of snow it was picking up.

Yeah, turns out that I bought a “grain shovel”. Didn’t even know those where a thing.

(26-Feb-2023, 10:45 PM)Lemonyleprosy Wrote: Rofl, I’m still not judging, but that did make me laugh. You have no idea how many times I’ve done something similar when doing a thing for the first time.

When I moved here 7 years ago, it was my first time experiencing snow. I had to buy a snow shovel to clear my driveway. I watched some YouTube videos to learn the right method, and went outside to try it- I couldn’t understand why the snow was sticking to my snow shovel, or how the hell I was supposed to lift and fling the massive amount of snow it was picking up.

Yeah, turns out that I bought a “grain shovel”. Didn’t even know those where a thing.

Lmao, I probably would have made the same mistake, lol. I couldn't help but laugh at myself once I had realized the mistake. I spent so many hours trying to solder it carefully, I felt like I was making a bomb!

My new iron should be here today, hoping I can get the board cleaned up and a lot tidier looking.

So something to try. Get some pieces of cardboard and make a hole in them. Line the hole up with what you are soldering and tape it down (or similar). Then tin the pad through the hole, while trying to keep the solder from crossing beyond the hole. Then tin your wire. Then solder the two together. Afterwards, rip the cardboard and remove. Make a new hole and do the next pad and so forth. In time you won't need the cardboard, but initially it gives you a better chance of only getting solder where you want it and if the iron hits the cardboard, at worst it will burn it, which is better than cooking a component.

As for the soldering iron, your choices are the cheap Chinese irons (get one that heats to 400C) or the Sequre irons that most hobbyists seem to use. Tip wise, you want the one that looks like a hook and has a small tip. In fact having a couple with really small tips can be useful on some FC's. I have a CrazybeeF3 board and the pads are probably 1-2mm wide.

Hi Logan,

You don't need an expensive soldering iron, just one that gets hot. I use a $ 15 USD AC powered
iron that I bought on Amazon years ago. I taped the temp adjustment at 425 C degrees so it would
not move. Works fine and I use it for EVERYTHING. Oh yeah, I use a medium sized conical (pencil)
tip on everything as well. It just always seems to work and gets the job done.

On through hole pads, if you are going to solder a header pin or wire through the hole, then
you do NOT need to pre-tin that pad just use plenty of Flux.

You might consider taking a look at all of the links that Lemony has listed even though it might
take a few minutes to go through; each one has some things the others do not so it might just
be worth the effort. Just a thought. 

(01-Mar-2023, 01:14 AM)iFly4rotors Wrote: Hi Logan,

You don't need an expensive soldering iron, just one that gets hot. I use a $ 15 USD AC powered
iron that I bought on Amazon years ago. I taped the temp adjustment at 425 C degrees so it would
not move. Works fine and I use it for EVERYTHING. Oh yeah, I use a medium sized conical (pencil)
tip on everything as well. It just always seems to work and gets the job done.

On through hole pads, if you are going to solder a header pin or wire through the hole, then
you do NOT need to pre-tin that pad just use plenty of Flux.

You might consider taking a look at all of the links that Lemony has listed even though it might
take a few minutes to go through; each one has some things the others do not so it might just
be worth the effort. Just a thought. 

(Thanks! Yes, I have indeed gone through the links he's shared, and then some. I've gotten a decent soldering iron, conical tips, flux, and even some solder wick to try and clean up the mess from before. I believe I should be much more prepared this time, especially in regard to my tools, lol.

(28-Feb-2023, 08:49 PM)Pathfinder075 Wrote: So something to try.  Get some pieces of cardboard and make a hole in them.  Line the hole up with what you are soldering and tape it down (or similar).  Then tin the pad through the hole, while trying to keep the solder from crossing beyond the hole.  Then tin your wire.  Then solder the two together.  Afterwards, rip the cardboard and remove.  Make a new hole and do the next pad and so forth.  In time you won't need the cardboard, but initially it gives you a better chance of only getting solder where you want it and if the iron hits the cardboard, at worst it will burn it, which is better than cooking a component.

As for the soldering iron, your choices are the cheap Chinese irons (get one that heats to 400C) or the Sequre irons that most hobbyists seem to use.  Tip wise, you want the one that looks like a hook and has a small tip.  In fact having a couple with really small tips can be useful on some FC's.  I have a CrazybeeF3 board and the pads are probably 1-2mm wide.

Yeah, I think I had the concept mixed up (was trying to hold flux on the tip and apply with tip), as well as the wrong tools (I had a wood burner by mistake). I've gone over all the resources shared, as well as plenty on youtube myself. I think I'm much more prepared now.

Flux evaporates quickly. Where you are trying to solder, apply liberally, then do the soldering. The second you start the soldering the flux will evaporate out rapidly.

I use Kester 951 No-Clean Flux.

(01-Mar-2023, 08:28 PM)Pathfinder075 Wrote: Flux evaporates quickly.  Where you are trying to solder, apply liberally, then do the soldering.  The second you start the soldering the flux will evaporate out rapidly.  

I use Kester 951 No-Clean Flux.

I ended up grabbing this combo:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B098X43NQ6?psc...ct_details