mandtra

My Feedback: (29)

After soldering on extensions , all the servos are jumping around and will not center. RX is a 2.4 I thought soldering on leads is a common pratice ?

redfox435cat

I've heard of it, it is not a good idea. A blob of solder can act like a small capacitor which can alter the sqaure wave just enough to cause problems. So uunless your a pro at soldering your taking a risk. Also if you happen to make the leands just the right size it can act like an antenna radiating interferance into your radio. try hooking in another 6 inch lead to test for a resonance issue

Spend the money on prefab leads and tie the leads with rubber bands or zip ties. I concider myself a pretty good solderer and I won't make my own leads for radio gear. Battery leads and push rods and audio gear no problem.

Campgems

Iknow that soldering leads used to be common. but I wouldn't do it either. Soldering leaves a hard spot and it will break right at the end of the solder after time. If you do solder, space the joing at least 3/8" apart with a length of tiny shring tube on each joint, then a larger heat shring that spans all three wire joints and extends 3/8" or more off each end of solder joint heat shrink.

Also if you solder extra wire on, it should be the same wire as the servo wire. That is a very flexable wire with a high individual wire count in each of the three wires. Soldering on a different wire will cause a signal distortion. Solid wire should be avoided like the plague.

Don

dirtybird

My Feedback: (5)

I am not a fan of soldering leads BUT, the reasons quoted here simply have no merit. One blob of solder cannot make a capacitor. It takes two. Even if it were, it would be so small that it cannot effect the square servo pulse. One blob would have to be on the servo lead and the other on the ground lead. Again it would be so small that would have no effect. The leads also have capacitors inside of the receiver to prevent RF problems.
If you have problems it is simply that you did not do a good soldering job and do not have good contact at the joints

pc55bomber

Interesting views..
The best thing to secure extension leads is heat shrink over the plugs, will never come apart.
As for soldered wires breaking on servo's mustsay that its never happened to me,think about it, the servo and wiring just sits there does not move so how can it break.

I have been soldering all my servoextension's for years and never had a problem in small or giant scale aircraft, nitro, electric andgas powered.

Just finishing the wiring looms for a 5mtr span fully moulded Ventus and it has lots of soldered connections on the multiplex, graupner plugs (12 plugs in all with 6 connections on each plug, thats 48 soldered links, just in the wings)wings have 8 servo's.
This is normal practice in the glider scene.

Soldering extension leads has no effect on servo's , as for being a capacitor ???? most of my leads have 2 joins per lead with no ill effects.

Use quality servo wire and heat shrink the joints, for long leads use heavy duty twisted wire, simple really.

Soldering leads will not make your servo's jitter.


Cheers
Paul

Campgems

PC55bomber, my comment about the soldered splices were for mid run spices, not the connections to the plugs or boards. Although I much prefer a properly crimped connection rather than a soldered one.

If the wires "just lay there", why bother to use heat srink tubing on the plug to socket joint to keep it from seperating???

If the solder joints are properly supported by some method that prevents movement of the wires at the solder connection, they are proably superior to a crimp joint. However the servo plugs that we use do not have any sort of stress relief at the plugs so a crimp is less likely to fail than a solder joint at this point. If you look at the areas where wires exit a piece of equipment, servos and receivers are the only two that come to mind, the wire is supported in a strain relief at the exit of the case. Servo wires or antenna wires. Early 2.4 receivers didn't support their antenna wires and we lost or damaged some planes at our field that were traced back to the antenna wire breaking at the point of soldering to the reciver board on these eariler 2.4 recivers because there was no srain relief on them..

Any soldered wirewill fail just from vibration at the solder/wire demarcation line if any movement isallowed. Soldered splices in the lines to the servos if supported byheat shrinktubing so there is no movement at the solder/wire junction, will preform well. If there isnot that support, thejoint will soon fail.Gliders with the lack of a source of vibration will not be as likely to fail as a large single cylinder engine plane.

Don

Flying Geezer

My Feedback: (14)

If you are not experienced at solderingm, you may have some cold solder joints. Another thing to watch out for is keep your antenna well away from your extensions.

nonstoprc

My Feedback: (90)

The jittering may not be caused by soldering, but contributed by the length of the extension and/or extension wire's thickness. It is highly desirable to use heavy gauge servo wires for extensions.

The soldered wire extensions are as good or better than other joining means. I have been doing it for all my extensions with good electronic solder and heat shrink tubes (three 1/16" pieces of 1/2" long for three servo wires, and a big piece for the three wires). Never have a solder joint problem.

pc55bomber

I feel that there are some misguided statements in the first few posts indicating that soldering servo leads is a no no.
In answering the original question, soldering servo extentions and servo leads will not cause jittering in a servo.

Some people prefer to use extension leads, some like to crimp there own and some like to solder.
Ihave been soldering plugs and leads for over 15 years and never had one fail or break in any aircraft including big gassers.

Do it properly and you will never have a problem.

Each to his own.

Cheers
Paul

A.T.

What wire gauge was used? Much depends upon length and voltage drop, refer to
"Servo - alterations, calculators, databases, repairs, convert to an ESC or winch & FAQ" at Alan's Hobby, Model & RC FAQ Web Links
Twisted wire leads were added to many of the Hitec servos in 2002 in an effort to prevent RF noise from long servo leads feeding back into the servo causing unnecessary servo "jitter". High power digital and analog servos need plenty of current to deliver massive power. Recognizing this, Hitec increased the size of the wires from 24 to 22 gauge to provide the power these servos need to perform at the highest level. Hitec items which may assist:
#54651 is a light weight 160 mm servo wire with plug for micro servos.
#54652 is a light weight 160 mm servo wire with Female "S" Connector.
above 2 items can be soldered together to make a lightweight extension lead of up to 315 mm, long lengths are not available.
#57417 is a standard weigth 50'(15.2m) length of 24 gauge servo lead.
#54804 is a heavy duty 50'(15.2m) length of 20 gauge servo lead.
Servo lead connector leads and fittings - differences
Regards
Alan T.

mandtra

My Feedback: (29)

The wire I used was standard Futuba servo wire I'm guessing it is 24 gauge wire.   The funny thing is that every servo I added wire to jitters only when the engine is running , but when I shut off the engine the jitters stopped and they lock right in .   Then I swapped out all the modified servos with the same model servos with regular extensions , and there was no jitter with or without the engine running.,  Engine is a gas engine with electronic ignition.   also the reciever is a SPEKTRUM 2.4 mhz

Flying Geezer

My Feedback: (14)

Sounds like your ignition noise is getting into your extensions. I would check to be sure I have a resistor spark plug. I recommend heavier wire, interlaced physical connections and solder connections that are well heated with no excess, if you are to continue with making custom extensions.