Project Mini T Evo-X

[marauder]

Marauder, Radio Shack has a really nice soldering iron thats only about $45 bucks. It's a "race station" style solderin iron, all digital. It goes up to about 880 degrees. If you get some x-acto "X-tra hands", the deans will be very easy to solder. I was having trouble with them, so I traded the guy at the LHS a Venom 5000 mah battery to solder all of my batteries and ESC's for me. He showed an easy way to do it, and I've been doing really good with them ever since. If you want, I could take some pictures to show you how I use the third hand tool to solder them, because its very easy to do.

Hey Charlie, that would be great. I appreciate that. I used to have a good iron but it went missing a few years ago, someone must have 'borrowed' it and never returned it. I understand the process to solder, but my problem is that my iron really is terrible. I did a quick search online and I believe I found the iron you're talking about. I will probably pick that up today, I'm sure it will make a big difference, I believe my irons now are junk anyway.

 

[Mattyfats420]

i just went to go solder on my deans plugs and my cordless solder just broke. hate when that happens

 

[Cupooterluvr]

Soldering is pretty easy. I use my dad's big press (clamp) to hold the wires while I hold the tool in the right hand and solder/plug in the left. Make sure you tin the wires first as it makes it SO much easier to solder them on.

 

[CharliesTheMan]

Yeap, I tin the wires and the connector. Then I place them in the clamps so that there is slight pressure pushing them together, and I get a lil more solder on my iron and place it on the connection. The solder on the wire, the connector, and the soldering iron will instantly melt and bond together, forming an excellent connection. You want the solder to be one smooth mirror like ball mound of solder. You don't want any creases in the solder, this means that it didn't bond together correctly as it should. I solder my stuff at 800 degrees. That allows the solder to melt and the connection to get hot very fast without transferring the hear. If you use an iron that's a lot cooler than that, you will have to hold the iron to the metal for a longer period of time, thus causing the rest of the metal to heat the wires, connection, ESC, batteries, etc... which can cause major damage and parts fatalities

 

[Cupooterluvr]

Also make sure the tip is clean. Brush it with a steel-bristled brush for a few minutes until it is mirror shiny, and it will solder much better.

 

[marauder]

Actually Charlie, this video should be sufficient.

[ame]http://youtube.com/watch?v=CT18mxfGRjo[/ame]

And yes, my iron was not getting near hot enough to do this no wonder I was having so much trouble. I mean, it's been a while since I've soldered but dang, I'm not as bad as my equipment was making me out to be. The iron I have is literally more than 20 years old I believe...

I'm heading to radio shack after work, probably to hobbytown as well, so I should have some goodies this evening. Just thought I'd share that info that I found on my lunch break. Sorry for the temporary unintended thread-hijack Matt.

 

[Mattyfats420]

I got myself one of those butane solder guns and man that this is awsome!

 

[Mattyfats420]

i have everything i need to get going on this project except a $3 servo saver for the hitec micro servo i got. how much does that suck! it was backordered for a while but they called me yesterday and said that were shipping it first class mail. so it should be here by saterday i hope. than ill post the REAL finished product!

 

[marauder]

Doh! I got some goodies last night and the new iron made quick work of my new deans connectors. I couldn't believe how nice it was to have an iron worth a darn.

I also got a set of Proline Road Rage tires ($8.99/set! - Supposed to be $12.00 but they were in the back of the rack and they said they had updated their pricing so they honored their price.) which got my $3.99 set of Losi Slider deep dish rims to mount them on basically free. I wanted the proline wabash, but they had 1 set so I settled. The deep dish chrome doesn't look bad, but I wanted white. Not a big deal, I can always buy more. Picked up another 1100mah pack for now, but they had my lipo that I needed there but I did not like their chargers so I am going to hold off for now. Grabbed another spur gear for my mini-t in case I buggered my other one too bad. I want an AC/DC charger that will handle lipos with a balancer preferably built into the unit.

I've still got to order a body for my RC18b to paint. I'm hoping in July I will be on lipo/spektrum/brushless on both my mini-t and rc18.

I will probably post updates in my thread tonight so keep a look out for that.

 

[CharliesTheMan]

marauder, you need to get a Hyperion charger. I've got one and it's SOOOOOO nice, it's probably the only brand that I will ever buy from now on.

This is the one I got. It charges and balances at the same time. All you do is tell it what battery you are charging, and it takes care of the rest. It takes all of the guesswork out of LiPos, and the guesswork is usually where people get in trouble. If you charge a LiPo like you're supposed to, it's not any more dangerous than a nimh. In fact, my LiPos dont even get warm to the touch when I charge them.
http://www.maxamps.com/EOS0606i-AC-DC.htm

 

[marauder]

Charlie, you da man! Thanks for the link, will probably order that tonight!

 

[Mattyfats420]

yeah i have the proline road rages on my mini t too with the proline rims, and than i have my off road wheels. i thought it was a good idea when i saw the mini road rages. my local hobby town had a deal if you bought 2 sets of tires and 2 sets of rims they gave you 5 bucks off. plus i had a cupon. so i was good. they work really well on the street for me. I'm sure ill have to buy some new ones once i get the brushless up and going lol

I'm going to finish all my ultra dean connectors today so I'm ready to be brushless =]

 

[marauder]

I have the Losi Street tires on my Mini-T and even intentionally being hard on them they don't wear that fast. As long as you don't do powerslides, donuts, or hard braking your tires should last a while. The beauty is that an entire set of quality wheels and tires will only set you back $25-35 max. I love 1/18th scale.

I put a fresh set of deans on my new 1100mah pack and new on my ESC as well, and they are almost too tight to disconnect. They are easy to wire up after seeing the rubber-band trick on the pliers. I did realize I am rusty when it comes to my soldering, especially at these temps. Oh well, I don't mind soldering all day if I had to.

 

[CharliesTheMan]

The deans plugs are tight at first, but as you use them they will become easier. I've got on set that I've only plugged and unplugged 5 to 10 times, and they're already getting a lot easier to deal with.

When you order the charger, you can order a DVD from maxamps.com for free. It's called the LiPo instructional DVD or something like that. It's not the best tutprial out there or anything, but it does give some good information about using the charger and operating LiPo batteries, and it's free, so its worth the price. Just go to accsessories or somthing like that, find the DVD, and add it to the cart.