My two cats chewed the antenna in half on two of my receivers. Can they be easily repaired, and what's the going rate for such a repair? Or would I be better off just getting two new receivers?

It's an easy fix if you have good soldering skills. Strip both ends and solder them together (properly, no blobs) and cover with a piece of heat shrink tubing. Of course, make sure you perform a thorough range check before flying again.

Watch your cats, little devils.

Yep, if you can solder the just solder the two pieces back together. If your skills are iffy then hopefully you can find somebody that can handle a soldering iron. The only thing you have to careful of is keeping the length to the antenna wire. It should be approximately 36"-39". If they chewed out any of the lenth you can solder in a splice.

Ken

My soldering skills are poor. What do you think a LHS would charge?

The price of a new RX because they'll try their best to sell you a new one...

1) Measure
2) strip couple mm of the rx wire where it needs to be soldered.
3) tin both end of the wires (make sure the iron is hot, hold it down on the wire where you striped it. apply the solder to the wire, not the iron. the wire will just suck in the solder).
4) after tinning both sides, lay them on top of each other and apply the iron tip. The solder on the wires should melt and voila, you just re-soldered your wire.
5) measure and heat shrink
6) RANGE CHECK!!!

You can do it.

Don't forget to cover it with heat-shrink tubing. Radio Shack has some. Get a length that is about twice the diameter of the wire, slide it on over, and hit it with your heat gun. It will shrink right down to the proper size and it will be good and tight.

Remember, don't just twist the wires together, they have to be soldered. You can twist the wires together then hit heat the wire with a soldering iron, then touch it with the solder. It will flow into the twisted wires and set up perfectly. This does not require a lot of skill to do. You can practice on some spare wire to make sure you got it right then do it on your antenna wire.

And, as Ken said, make sure it's the right length. Longer or shorter will not work well. That will reduce your range. And, as mentioned, range check before flying.

CGr.

Thanks for the soldering lessons guys- this forum rocks!

My hobby room is now a NO CAT ZONE!!!...........claws and monokote don't mix[X(]

Rufcut

Yes, just practice on some spare wire. Get some good (Kester is a good brand) 60/40 SnPb (tin lead) solder. Solder is actually a tube with flux in the center. First clean the wire. Then neatly twist the wires together to get a good mechanical bond. The key to soldering is to apply solder to the work (wire) and NOT the iron itself. Make sure you have a clean tip on the iron and add a little solder to the tip to aid in heat transfer. Heat up the work for a second and touch the solder on the copper wire. The solder should wick in. Wick just enough in to where you can see the shiny solder on the outside of the joint. Remember, more (blobs) is not necessarially better. Remove the iron and keep the joint still for a few seconds while the solder cools. Your joint should be shiny with no pits or discoloration (besides flux). If you move the joint while it's cooling you get what is called a cold joint. If this happens simply reheat the joint this is called reflowing. Basically this is a brittle joint that may break and won't conduct as well. Slip a piece of heat shrink tubing over the joint and hit it with your heat gun. Voila!

If you've any intent at all to stay in the Hobby/sport then now is the perfect time and job (piece of cake) to start learning. Over the years you could potentially do this one little simple solder job ltteraly hundreds of times for your self and others. Invest in an iron and some basic solder types start learning.

I am not talking circuit board work but plenty of other things from simple ripped antennas to soldered landing gear or soldered on wheel retainers, pushrod end fittings. How would you like to never agine experiance a lost wheel in flight despite how many flats you ground in the axle or thread lockers you tried?

Basic soldering is a modelers skill you won't regret making the effort to learn. Here are my indespensible soldering tools and I don,t do circuit board work.

John

I want to second what John says about soldering. It's an absolutely essential skill if you're going to pursue R/C airplanes as a hobby. And the best way to learn how is to practice, practice, practice. Stuff's going to get screwed up, it happens, but (usually) you can heat the pieces, and try to re-solder them. Unless you melt dean's plugs, but that's another part of the learning curve...

And remember, it's a hobby, we do it because it's FUN.

A

I never can get the solder to melt no matter how long I let the iron heat up, what am I doing wrong ???

Gary,
Are you using flux??? That is what usually makes all the difference when you are trying to get solder to flow. The flux cleans the metal off and makes it ready to accept the solder. Put a bit of flux on the joint and then when you touch the soldering iron the flux will melt and flow into the joint, now touch your solder to the work and it should melt and flow with ease.

Ken

Make sure that if you get a flux core solder that its rosin core. Acid core is for a different set of conditions.

CW

Core type is important and dependant upon what you are soldering and yes do use flux as mentioned also.

For electirical such as extending and spliceing servo leads, spliceing antennas use only rosin core solder. Using acid core will cause electrical failure at some point.

For piano wire such as solder on pushrod ends or wire landing gear with wrapped connections and cabine struts it is very difficult to use rosin core solder if not impossible for bigger wires. Use only acid core in these application.

Acid core solder is not normally avialible in the thin solder gages so using acid core requires some thing with a bigger tip and heat is required centainly more than say a little 25 amp pencil iron intended only for small wiring.


John

Yes, I did forget to mention the type of flux. Thanks for catching that.

Ken

Here are some examples of soldered/washer axles and showing the process using a sacrificial paper washer so plastic wheels do not burn.

always clean your parts with sand paper then use flux as was said here.it takes pratice,dont get your metal too hot,solder always goes to the heat remember that and you should learn fast.

If you don't want to solder them back together i suggest you just solder on a completely new anatana

If you happen to be using jr this will cost you 3$ for both rx's

http://www.horizonhobby.com/Products...ProdID=JRPA170

I use Futaba

You do not need to buy package lenths of wire. You can use any good quality 24 to 26 AWG stranded wire. For dual conversion full range Futaba Rx's the antennas are 39 inchs long.

If you have several inchs of wire outside the Rx case and this is a first solder job then stay.away from the circuit board, Splicing an antenna is fine but soldering on a board is a different matter and not the place to start learning.

To splice an antenna. Strip only about an eight inch and tin flow with solder each end sparately. Do not attempt to twist the wires together. Support one end with some sort of clamp I use an old wood furnture clamp so that it does not become a heat sink. Now with one hand hold the opposite end next to the other being supported in the clamp and touch the iron to the bare ends you will see the tin solder flowing together then just remove the iron and let cool a few seconds. Slip on you shrick wrap heat to shrink with lighter and you are done.

John

Ken,
so I need to get the flux from some where eles? I thought that the solder had the flux on it.
Does it come in a can or bottle ?

If you are soldering wires then you need 'Rosin Core' solder (do not substitute anything else)and you need soldering paste flux freqently in little tins and avalible anywhere.

If you have purchased straight 60/40 solder then you are not going be able to get a good electrical joint.

If you are soldering axles, piano wire landing gear or pushrods you need 'Acid Core' solder and you also need the paste flux Agine straight 60/40 solder as used in plumbing is not going to work.

Ok, thanks John.

Hi
hope the repair is going well. Flux can be found at Lowes or any similar type store probably even wal mart. I like the very thin Radio Shack rosin core solder for a quick melt/wick.

The next thing you will need is a plane with a bombay compartment...slightly larger than a CAT[>:]