Hi, I make the DelTang radio gear and I noticed some questions about soldering. My products are intentionally small and perhaps they need to grow over time to make them easier to use. The largest connections are normally for motor/battery. These usually have considerable volumes of copper or components attached so soak up heat.
I use a simple non-temperature controlled 25W Antex iron with about a 2.5mm 3/32" angled tip. Up to 40W should be fine; smaller wattage will be harder as it has less heat reserve. Ideally we want to apply robust heat for a short duration.
I ensure the iron is fully up to temperature. This is probably a few minutes after it melts solder. I wipe the tip on a damp sponge or paper towel so it's clean and shiny and then immediately tin it with solder. I find lead easier to use than lead-free. Both need to be intended for electrical work with internal flux, not solder intended for plumbing. I apply the tip to the pad on the receiver and feed solder in at the same time. I may float the tip arround to get the solder to flow over the whole pad. You need to make contact with the gold pads to transfer heat but not use force on them.
I tin the end of the wire and solder it on. In other words you are bringing three things together (wire/pad/iron) that are all clean and solder soaked. The solder on the pad and wire usually melts quite quickly but you do need to make sure that both blend nicely.
Tips sometimes become damaged and the hard coating wears off. You can file the tip to a fresh angle when cold. But if bare copper is exposed it is essential to tin the tip with solder as soon as it comes up to temperature. If you don't do this the copper oxidises and then usually does not accept solder until it is cooled and cleaned again. This principle applies to all sizes of soldering irons/tips. It is a very common problem with large tips and high power irons such as 75W and more. You can only solder well if the tip is nicely tinned.
Rx65 is currently my largest receiver. It has a 4 layer PCB which means double the amount of copper than most boards. So this receiver soaks up heat more than others and requires a fully heated tip and more time on the pad to get solder to flow nicely. Another principle of effective soldering is that the work surface needs to be hot enough to melt the solder. But we start by melting the solder with the iron to improve heat transfer to the pad, and then expect the pad to melt the solder as you feed it in.
I hope this helps with the technique.
Regards, David.
I use a simple non-temperature controlled 25W Antex iron with about a 2.5mm 3/32" angled tip. Up to 40W should be fine; smaller wattage will be harder as it has less heat reserve. Ideally we want to apply robust heat for a short duration.
I ensure the iron is fully up to temperature. This is probably a few minutes after it melts solder. I wipe the tip on a damp sponge or paper towel so it's clean and shiny and then immediately tin it with solder. I find lead easier to use than lead-free. Both need to be intended for electrical work with internal flux, not solder intended for plumbing. I apply the tip to the pad on the receiver and feed solder in at the same time. I may float the tip arround to get the solder to flow over the whole pad. You need to make contact with the gold pads to transfer heat but not use force on them.
I tin the end of the wire and solder it on. In other words you are bringing three things together (wire/pad/iron) that are all clean and solder soaked. The solder on the pad and wire usually melts quite quickly but you do need to make sure that both blend nicely.
Tips sometimes become damaged and the hard coating wears off. You can file the tip to a fresh angle when cold. But if bare copper is exposed it is essential to tin the tip with solder as soon as it comes up to temperature. If you don't do this the copper oxidises and then usually does not accept solder until it is cooled and cleaned again. This principle applies to all sizes of soldering irons/tips. It is a very common problem with large tips and high power irons such as 75W and more. You can only solder well if the tip is nicely tinned.
Rx65 is currently my largest receiver. It has a 4 layer PCB which means double the amount of copper than most boards. So this receiver soaks up heat more than others and requires a fully heated tip and more time on the pad to get solder to flow nicely. Another principle of effective soldering is that the work surface needs to be hot enough to melt the solder. But we start by melting the solder with the iron to improve heat transfer to the pad, and then expect the pad to melt the solder as you feed it in.
I hope this helps with the technique.
Regards, David.
