RC Repair and Modification With Soldering

Soldering is a method of joining two metals together using a third metal, called solder. Soldering has many applications including assembling electronic components to circuit boards, jewelry making, making some copper pipe plumbing connections, and building or repairing radio controlled vehicles.

For radio controlled vehicle hobbyists soldering is mostly used in making repairs and modifications to electric RCs. Occasionally it might be needed with some nitro RC components. Knowing basic soldering techniques can save money. Instead of replacing a high dollar part, solder a loose wire yourself.

What Needs Soldering on an RC

The RC parts that most commonly might need some soldering are ESCs (electronic speed controllers), electric motor power leads, receivers, servos, and anyplace where wires are spliced together to make a solid connection. Soldering may be necessary when building RCs from kits.

Soldering is not usually a frequently needed repair with most RCs but it is a nice skill to have. Some of these components are relatively inexpensive and it can be much easier to simply replace the part rather than try to repair them. Or, you might find it simpler to purchase quick connect leads to connect some wires instead of soldering them.

Basic Soldering Process

In RC work, hand soldering requires a soldering iron and solder. Before doing any soldering, make sure the work area is safe and well-ventilated. Clear the area of any flammable materials, such as nitro fuel bottles and oil-covered rags. While the soldering iron is heating up, assemble the parts you're working with and get them in position for soldering. Be sure the wires or whatever parts you're joining are clean and grease-free. Even grease from your fingers can cause problems with the solder joint.

Using the hot soldering iron heat the two metal parts to be joined, at the same time. Apply a few millimeters of solder to the heated metal to form the solder joint. The heated metal parts will melt the solder metal to form the joint.

After the joint cools it should have a nice, shiny appearance. If it looks a little clouded it means that the solder didn't flow right and that the solder itself just formed a glob around the parts and that they are not really joined together. Reheat the solder enough to get it to flow and so that it bonds properly to the parts that are meant to be joined together.

Learn to Solder

If you have no experience with soldering, you may not want to try it the first time on sensitive RC components. Instead, you could experiment with old parts and pieces of scrap wire, or get a soldering starter kit with fun practice projects.

Soldering Starter Kit This soldering iron comes with an LED Blinker project for practicing your soldering skills.

Lead free Solder Starter Kit This kit has all the parts you need to practice soldering including some electronic parts.

Portasol Cordless Soldering Iron Kit This starter kit is for do-it-yourselfers and semi-professionals.

Graymark Solder Practice Kit A beginner's kit, it comes with an instruction book and printed circuit board for learning to solder electronic parts. This kit is designed for students and others with no experience who want to learn about electronic components and soldering. Includes a bonus project that teaches how to build a police siren with flashing LEDs.

Moon Walker II Owi Robot Kit (Soldering Required) Fine-tune your newfound soldering skills by building this cute little robot toy.