Solder Questions

[Lights]

OK I am a complete newbie to these FE boats. I have been racing nitro boats for over ten years. I also fly electric planes so I am not completely new to the electric part or boats. I probably made a mistake by using Deans connectors to keep things simple between my plane stuff and my FE boat. But today I melted the solder off of my esc and battery plugs. My setup was a VS1 tunnel hull with AQ UL1 motor, 120 amp HK esc, 4 cell 5000mh Gens ace 40c battery and a X440/3 prop. This was pretty much the first time out with this boat. My question is what connectors and what type of solder should I use? I hear people say do not use electrical solder use silver solder. What type of silver solder? I think there is more that one type isn't there? Next what type of flux if any do I use?

Thank you vary much,
Mark

[Basstronics]

So you plan for 120A on the esc but use plugs capable of 50A?

Upgrade to 5.5 bullets (from OSE) and the solder to use is plumbing silver solder. The stuff is lead free, pretty stiff and has a higher melting point.

[Lights]

No, I do not plan on ever pulling 120 amps with a P spec setup. Are club lets us use any esc for P spec as long as we use the approved motors and 4s battery with a max capasity of 5000ma. The 120amp esc from HK is just cheaper than the over priced 60 amp AQ esc.

Thank you for your advise. I will switch to the 5.5mm bullets and use siler solder. What about flux? Is it not needed?

[monojeff]

I use 5.5 bullets on all my Pspec setups.
Never had any issues with solder joint failures.
I use rosin core 60/40 it works for me no problem.

I have seen to many deans come apart like this for these setups.
I garuntee your pulling more amps then you think.
5.5s or larger if you want is the way to go.

[wade7575]

I use Oatey #5 Flux on everything I Solder and yes you should use it,also any kind of Electronic Flux will work they are all pretty good.

Make sure it is not Plumber's Flux or it will end up costing you in the end,Plumber's Flux has Sulfuric Acid in it and Eletronic Flux does not,I learned this the hard way many year's ago when I first started Soldering,over night after using my Iron great Big Pit's would form in my Soldering Iron's Tip and I got the wrong stuff because it just said Flux on it and not what it was used for and it will even eat threw small wire's such as Servo Wire's over time.

Also get a good Iron like a Weller 60 or 80 Watt if you plan on Soldering 5.5 and Bigger Bullet plug's go with the 80 Watt for sure and get a 40 Watt for smaller stuff like Servo wire's and other smaller job's.

No, I do not plan on ever pulling 120 amps with a P spec setup. Are club lets us use any esc for P spec as long as we use the approved motors and 4s battery with a max capasity of 5000ma. The 120amp esc from HK is just cheaper than the over priced 60 amp AQ esc.

Thank you for your advise. I will switch to the 5.5mm bullets and use siler solder. What about flux? Is it not needed?

[BHChieftain]

Yeah-- be sure whatever solder you use is resin core and not acid core (a lot of plumbing solder is acid core).

I use 60/40 resin core electrical solder (from radio shack) for all of my boats.

Chief