Quick Help Needed!
 

I am very close to completion on my Mountain Models Magpie. I'm dying to fly it today, but I am confused by some technical issue. I'm trying to connect the motor and battery to the ESC. I have to hook up these Dean's Ultra Plugs to get everything connected. I was hoping someone could be very specific with instructions to do this...I am brand new to flying. The intructions say: 1. Use a HOT soldering iron, with a 1/8" tip. 2. Put one piece of tubing onto each wire. 3. Do NOT plug together during soldering. 4. Strip wire 3/16" and pre-tin. 5. Pre-tin connector pins. 6. Solder as shown. 7. Slide tubing over solder joint and heat-shrink. I'd greatly appreciate any help...I don't even know what pre-tin means! Thanks!

RE: Quick Help Needed!
 

threejacks-

(this is for soldering back of ESC to battery plug)
1- Use a soldering iron putting out no more than 40 watts, as it will probably burn up your wire.
2- The tubing is the heat shrink tubing that you must put on first, and when you finish your soldering, slide it down over the freshly cooled solder, and heat the tube to wrap tight on the solder, keeping the new solder from touching anything else.
3- Make sure you have stripped the wire so that you have enough to solder with (a quarter of an inch should be enough), twisting it to a shape so that will fit to the pins.
4- Make sure the the pin you are soldering the wire to is hot enough to keep the wire melted to it. solder the wire to the outside of each pin, as this is probably the easiest. It will be a delicate process, so if you know anyone who has experience w/ this, maybe they should do this part.
5- After you have soldered the wire coming from the back of the ESC to the plug, slide the heat shrink tube (mentioned in 2) down and heat to shrink around wire.

(This is for soldering the three wires (Red, white, and black if Castle 25 speed controller) to back of motor)

1- Strip wires sufficient enough to be soldered.
2- Slide heat shrink tube over wires before soldering
3- Slide wore into plug on back of motor, and solder though holes in brass plug.
4- Slide heat shrink down and heat to shrink over solder

any more questions post again,
Good luck

RE: Quick Help Needed!
 

If you're learning how to solder, Dean's connectors are definitely NOT the place to do it.

Like flying, soldering is a skill that's only perfected through practice. Go to Radio Shack, get yourself a good pencil-type soldering iron, a roll of their 60/40 rosin core solder (the thinner stuff), and some wire to practice on. I like the 20/40 Watt iron they have with the base and the sponge tray.

The sponge is used to clean the burned crap off the tip of the iron before every heating operation. The sponge should be damp, not sopping wet. A dirty iron tip will not transfer the heat. It should be shiny silver, the color of solder.

That leads to tinning. Tinning is the process of putting a thin layer of solder on something. The iron's tip should be tinned; just touch the end of the solder to the iron after it's heated up. It'll melt and flow over the iron tip. Wipe it on the sponge to remove the excess and smooth out the coating of solder.

Practice connecting wires with solder before you go for the dean's connectors.

RE: Quick Help Needed!
 

To tin the wire before soldering it to something you heat the stripped wire with a hot iron and melt a little solder into the wire. Do the same thing to the connector pins, heat it up and melt a little solder onto it. When you have two tinned surfaces you can just heat them up until they melt together. Thats why you dont want to plug connectors together when you solder them, they will get soldered together.