Soldering 4MM Plugs
 

Hello,

Just picked up some Trakpower packs and I'm about to solder up the leads and I just figured I'd ask you guys what the hot setup is for soldering this type of lead (those 4mm Team Orion twisted gold plugs)?

Thanks

DM

These are what I used with great results:
http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...&I=LXJPY4&P=ML

I guess what I'm asking is what is the soldering technique used on these...with the deans it was very easy...tin the wire, tin the solder tab, join, add more solder, shrink wrap. With these, I can't seem to make it work if I tin the plug...it fills with solder and I can't seem to get my wire deep enough for a good fit...what did you do?

Thanks,

DM

I use the orion plugs with no problems..

I fill the plug with sauter, tin the wire, put flux on the plug, flux the wire and once the sauter in the plug starts melting i push in the wire, i hold the sauter on there for around 5 seconds so it gets hot enough and i wait till it hardens.

flux really is the key to a good solder joint. I gets the solder flowing and takes the crap out of the joint.

At what temp are you soldering? You should be able to touch the iron to the outside of the connector and get the solder flowing/melted by touching the solder to the connector. If your iron isn't getting the connector hot enough to do this within a few seconds, your iron isn't getting hot enough. Either that or it's having trouble holding its temp when you touch it to the connector.

It sounds like you aren't getting the connector hot enough to melt the solder that is inside the little socket (where the wire would sit). Once all the solder is in liquid form, the wire should slide right in.

Another thing you could try is to ( with a dremel ) cut a "V" slot in the plug - tin the wire - tin the plug and then while heating up the plug - slide the wire into the plug - the heat from a good soldering iron should be no problem - thats the way Monster Mike and I have done these plugs in the past - good luck...

Make sure that you are using a large enough tip too. I use a 5mm 700* chisel tip when I solder the 6mm plugs. If you are using a conical tip, that come standard on many irons, it may not be transferring enough heat, even though the temp is hot enough.

Yep, I agree.

The other thing is to make sure that once the wire is inserted into the hot solder in the connector, hold the iron on it long enough to wick the solder onto the wire.

Rosin Core Solder is what you want to use. Most flux is acidic (and better used for soldering copper water pipe).

And acid-core is VERY bad for PCBs!

I seem to have a different technique than most of you guys. Instead of tinning everything first, I first slip the wire into the plug. Then I clamp the plug in my vice, and touch the iron to the exposed wire/end of plug. I put some solder on to allow better heat transfer, and as each strand heats up, I add more and more solder. In the end, I get strong joints that have yet to fail me (and I've done 30+ 4mm connectors).

I do it this way because I couldn't imagine slipping 12ga. wire into a 4mm plug with solder on it already.

I've done it both ways. I like the insert wire first (a little flux on it helps) then solder. Makes it a bit easier with large wire if the fit is pretty tight. A good hot iron with chisel tip is nice. How many watts is your iron?

I keep forgetting that there is soldering stuff out there for something other than electronics. When you get your soldering supplies, don't get them at the hardware store. Most of that stuff is geared toward soldering copper pipe. For most fine soldering, I use a flux pen that I got from either circuitspecialists or digikey, I don't remember which. I also like to use silver solder. It works very well and is strong.

I made some up last night. I do actually have a pretty good iron...one with the dial base and all. I usually use 700-750 degrees. My biggest problem was no way could I get all of the deans 12 gauge wire in there. I had to strip off some of the wire to get it to fit with NO solder on it. In the end I used MetalMan's method. I flux'ed the heck out of the wire and connector then I inserted it into the connector leaving a small amount of wire exposed on top, then I applied heat and solder, it made a very nice joint, solder flowed into the connector and I couldn't pull it apart. I then put two layers of shrink and called it a day. I do feel like maybe using 14 guage wire may be a better move as no stripping would be needed. I may make some new one's up with the 14 ga stuff later.

Thanks guys.