This is a pretty good video on how to solder these connectors, but one thing that I'd like to add, is that generally when you are soldering, you want to heat up the connection / surface to be soldered (up to or just above the solders melting point), and allow the heated surface to melt the solder. By heating the solder and applying it to the non heated surface you will create a cold solder joint. I know this video will work for most people because these connectors are a pain in the butt to solder (due to the thickness of the copper) and most people are just trying to get this done w/o melting the connector. I recently had my deans to banana connectors (from Amazon) snap clean after repetitively jumping my RC, and it was easy to tell it was because of a cold solder joint. I was lucky my lipo's didn't short out. Anyhow, its almost impossible to solder these the right way w/o getting a very small amount of melting to the connector. But for anyone who has a hot air station, I heated mine up to 350 degrees, applied the hot air directly to the deans connector and touched the solder (Kester brand) to the connector which made it melt. The key is to make sure that the air from the hot air station is directed away from the connector. Although you'll still get a very small amount of melting to the inside of the connector, the connection will be solid. You could then tin your wire and solder the connector. This might be much harder to do, but if you're using a soldering iron, you should hold the iron on underside of the copper, and apply solder to the top, which will make it melt when the copper reaches the solders melting point. If that doesn't work for you, then proceed as the video suggest. Just make sure to properly insulate your wires in case of a break off.
The ‘heat the joint’ method is one of those ‘if you only learn one thing’ bits of advice. But if you look at what you are actually trying to achieve (bringing the joint, solder & flux together at the right temp), there are more ways to approach soldering. Wave soldering wouldn’t exist, for example. Most people only have small irons that are intended for circuit boards and general electronic work. For larger joints, you need an iron with a fat tip, and more horsepower than most hobbyist setups. When heating large joints with a small iron, you get heat soak, and melting of plastics etc. A larger iron lets you ‘sting’ the joint so the immediate area gets up to temp faster than the heat can travel along the terminal/conductor to melt the connector. The alternative method of having a blob of solder on the iron tip, and heating until the precise point where the solder flows is a perfectly good method as long as you understand what your intended result is. Using extra flux on the joint works for me too. Ideally I will flux, then tin large terminal before blob soldering them as I get better results that way. But a bit of extra flux painted on a large terminal before charging straight in helps too. Note, this is electrical soldering rosin flux, not plumbing flux. More often though, I use a Portasol Super Pro butane iron (other irons are available) for large joints and audio connectors. This let me keep my regular iron set up for microelectronics, and gives me a heavy duty iron for when I need it most. Being ‘cordless’ makes it convenient to pull out when needed, and I don’t need to let my regular iron cool so I can change to a chisel tip. Plus it is a handy thing to have in general for auto stuff etc, where precise temperature doesn’t matter as much, and you can’t drag your car to the bench. But any big nasty plug in iron will do too, for not much extra.
Thank you for your videos, I will be using the knowledge in airsoft. All my guns came with tamiya connectors but those sometimes heat up (high amp during motor start, lots of starts in semi auto) so people switch them to Deans, and that's what I will be doing too.
Thanks for this awesome video. I just soldered up my two deans on my rc car to match my batteries, and your video helped immensely. My soldering might not be anywhere near as good, but I think I got it right! It powered up when I plugged the batteries in so that's a win for me
Very nice, I am impressed, the soldering seems like it is from a factory, i am not kidding. My basic problem is how to hold steady the connector. I will buy this heavy thing that I don't remember the name. Man, such a nice work you done here.
Thanks for the info, i always forgot one step or another when soldering joys of a head injury its not an excuse just a pain forgetting things you have learned.....damn neural pathways
Thanks for sharing all of these soldering videos. I've gotten back into RC and these were great for all of the new connecters I'm familiarizing myself with.
Now I can Center Dean's to my ICS M4. Airsoft still uses Tamia plugs but some more expensive guns have Deans connectors. Basically to get the best rate of fire on full-auto I need to make this change because well it does have a mosfet so i can safely run 11.1 it does not have deans.
There are links to good dean's style connectors on my dean's page on my website, which there is a link to in the video description. I did also add the link to them in the video description.
Can you do a video how to solder a JST connector on the ends of a deans plug after ESC wires are ALREADY soldered on the deans? Trying to figure out how to solder both on the ends of the ends with the limited space, and how to put dual shrink tubes. Thanks!
I would desolder the deans plug on the ESC, put new heat shrink over the ESC wires along with additional JST pigtail wires, solder the small JST wire to the larger (I assume) ESC wire, resolder the combined ESC & JST wire back on the plug, slide the new heatshrink over the solder tabs, and shrink it.
@@Rchelicopterfun Thanks so much for explaining this John. I'm not the best at soldering. Any way you could do a short video showing this procedure? It would help me a lot.
Thanks for the videos! I’m trying to make all my RC plugs common. My sons mini T 2.0 battery has EC2 connectors and I’d like to swap them for Deans. The wires on his battery are just pretty thin. Does that matter, or should I just make a charge wire with an EC2 connector?
No problem going with a larger plug (higher current rating), provided you have the room to use it. Another really good smaller plug that is equivalent (current handling capacity) to the EC2 is the XT30 so you may want to look into them if you don't have enough room for the larger Deans.
@@Rchelicopterfun I received the deans today, so I will give them a try. Also, the wife bought me a soldering setup similar to yours. Thanks for the help! Will be watching some of your videos to get these done👍🏼
Im looking for a great battery to run in my airsoft gun. What brand do you recommend? Lipo or Lithium ion? What charger would you recommend? Thank you!!
I don't know a thing about airsoft and what packs are used (LiPo or LiIon)? Here is my best LiPo recommendation page on my site, but it's for RC applications: www.rchelicopterfun.com/best-lipo.html Same goes for charger recommendations: www.rchelicopterfun.com/rc-battery-chargers.html
Lead free solder is difficult to work with and usually gives poor results without years of practice and good equipment. Always use a good quality 60/40 or or 63/37 rosin core leaded solder for best results including but not limited to: ease of use, reliability, strong mechanical & electrical bond and much less risk of cold/brittle joints.
But how did u get the solder to stick to the positive tab on the Dean's connector,?? Mine just drips right off and wont stick. Ended up sanding the connector first to get it to stick
Sounds like oxidation contamination on the solder tab. Not enough flux perhaps or low quality flux/solder? Not enough heat to activate the flux to clean off the oxidation might be another possibility.
Hi there is it ok to use these deans on two 4s batteries 2 way connection the batteries came as deans, but I've install max6 esc ain't tried yet thoe? Will it b ok X maxx 8s cheers
@shaunsmad rcs - connector choice is current dependent. I can't tell you if these will work without knowing the maximum current load you will be pulling through them. Deans can handle up to about 50 Amps so as long as your application is not pulling more current than that - yes they will work. This article on my site about choosing the correct RC connector may also be of interest: www.rchelicopterfun.com/rc-battery-connector.html
@darrenantoine7333 - Good question. Solder paste (flux) is generally not required when you are using a good quality rosin core solder such as the Kester rosin core solder I'm using in the video. One reason I stressed the importance of quality solder. The flux is contained within the center core of the solder so it's automatically applied as you apply the solder to the component or whatever you're soldering. If you are not using a good quality rosin core solder however, or solder that doesn't contain flux or you apply too much heat too long and boil off the built in rosin flux, then you must use extra solder paste/flux. I cover this flux topic in more detail in the flux section of my soldering for beginners page on my website if you need more information on the what, when and how to use flux: www.rchelicopterfun.com/rc-soldering.html
Should of watched this before actually soldering for the first time 😐 now my solder is all weird and the and when I plug in my lipo the esc turns on and the motor won’t ever run but everything else works fine
I have always had a lot of difficulty soldering Deans connectors. I cannot get solder to adhere to them no matter what solder, gun, iron, flux I use. I try and try and can never get it to grab on. I always end up melting them where they are unusable.
@@Rchelicopterfun Yes. Solder just runs off them no matter what I do. Numerous times I have tried and tried just to end up melting the plastic. Flux, scraping has no influence on it. I have also used different irons..40 watt, 80 watt
@@Rchelicopterfun 4 different brands. All rosin core. My Dean plugs have 2 different metals. I do not know if this is normal or not. One side is brass or copper and the other steel...I think. The steel side is the side that will not hold solder. I even used a 80 watt iron but all it did was melt the plastic. Yesterday I ordered a set of plugs off Amazon and will give them a try.
Why do Americans say "sarder" instead of "soLder"? Do they not spell it with an "L"? Or is it because they can't say nuclear (nukelar) or athlete (athalete) either?
I'm Canadian. Interesting (not really) why you selectively left out all the English words with a silent "L" such as salmon, calf, half, walk, palm, etc. However, to answer your question why only British English retains the "L" in the pronunciation, (presuming you actually want to learn something and are not just another trolling dumb ass), simply look up the etymology of the word solder and you'll find out exactly why the L is silent for the rest of us. Summation: 1. Latin origin "solidaire" had the L and was pronounced. 2. French adaptation lost the L as many other evolving Latin to French to Anglo words have in the past; in this case the Anglo-French "soudure". 3. British English re-Latinized with the L, rest of us didn't. As one English scholar wrote: solder without the "L" was "The only pronunciation I have ever heard, except from the half-educated to whom spelling is a final court of appeal ..."
Not enough heat (need at least an 80W iron or gun for most of this larger stuff), wrong shaped tip that doesn't transfer enough heat (wedge tips are best for RC connector jobs I find) poor quality solder, not enough or poor quality flux? Many reasons, and yes technique is also one. All covered on my RC Soldering For Beginners page on my site: www.rchelicopterfun.com/rc-soldering.html
Want to learn more about the hobby of RC helicopters? Please visit my website:
www.rchelicopterfun.com
Thanks for that, I melted the connected before I saw your video! Now I get a perfect soldering joint every time.
This is a pretty good video on how to solder these connectors, but one thing that I'd like to add, is that generally when you are soldering, you want to heat up the connection / surface to be soldered (up to or just above the solders melting point), and allow the heated surface to melt the solder. By heating the solder and applying it to the non heated surface you will create a cold solder joint.
I know this video will work for most people because these connectors are a pain in the butt to solder (due to the thickness of the copper) and most people are just trying to get this done w/o melting the connector. I recently had my deans to banana connectors (from Amazon) snap clean after repetitively jumping my RC, and it was easy to tell it was because of a cold solder joint. I was lucky my lipo's didn't short out.
Anyhow, its almost impossible to solder these the right way w/o getting a very small amount of melting to the connector. But for anyone who has a hot air station, I heated mine up to 350 degrees, applied the hot air directly to the deans connector and touched the solder (Kester brand) to the connector which made it melt. The key is to make sure that the air from the hot air station is directed away from the connector. Although you'll still get a very small amount of melting to the inside of the connector, the connection will be solid. You could then tin your wire and solder the connector.
This might be much harder to do, but if you're using a soldering iron, you should hold the iron on underside of the copper, and apply solder to the top, which will make it melt when the copper reaches the solders melting point. If that doesn't work for you, then proceed as the video suggest. Just make sure to properly insulate your wires in case of a break off.
The ‘heat the joint’ method is one of those ‘if you only learn one thing’ bits of advice. But if you look at what you are actually trying to achieve (bringing the joint, solder & flux together at the right temp), there are more ways to approach soldering. Wave soldering wouldn’t exist, for example.
Most people only have small irons that are intended for circuit boards and general electronic work. For larger joints, you need an iron with a fat tip, and more horsepower than most hobbyist setups.
When heating large joints with a small iron, you get heat soak, and melting of plastics etc. A larger iron lets you ‘sting’ the joint so the immediate area gets up to temp faster than the heat can travel along the terminal/conductor to melt the connector.
The alternative method of having a blob of solder on the iron tip, and heating until the precise point where the solder flows is a perfectly good method as long as you understand what your intended result is.
Using extra flux on the joint works for me too. Ideally I will flux, then tin large terminal before blob soldering them as I get better results that way. But a bit of extra flux painted on a large terminal before charging straight in helps too. Note, this is electrical soldering rosin flux, not plumbing flux.
More often though, I use a Portasol Super Pro butane iron (other irons are available) for large joints and audio connectors. This let me keep my regular iron set up for microelectronics, and gives me a heavy duty iron for when I need it most. Being ‘cordless’ makes it convenient to pull out when needed, and I don’t need to let my regular iron cool so I can change to a chisel tip. Plus it is a handy thing to have in general for auto stuff etc, where precise temperature doesn’t matter as much, and you can’t drag your car to the bench. But any big nasty plug in iron will do too, for not much extra.
Thank you for your videos, I will be using the knowledge in airsoft. All my guns came with tamiya connectors but those sometimes heat up (high amp during motor start, lots of starts in semi auto) so people switch them to Deans, and that's what I will be doing too.
Thanks for this awesome video. I just soldered up my two deans on my rc car to match my batteries, and your video helped immensely. My soldering might not be anywhere near as good, but I think I got it right! It powered up when I plugged the batteries in so that's a win for me
Glad it helped
Very nice, I am impressed, the soldering seems like it is from a factory, i am not kidding. My basic problem is how to hold steady the connector. I will buy this heavy thing that I don't remember the name. Man, such a nice work you done here.
Thanks for the info, i always forgot one step or another when soldering joys of a head injury its not an excuse just a pain forgetting things you have learned.....damn neural pathways
Man did I mess this up last night.
Why o why didn't I think to watch the RC Gurus videos 😅
Thanks for sharing all of these soldering videos. I've gotten back into RC and these were great for all of the new connecters I'm familiarizing myself with.
Glad to help
Greatly appreciated this and your other videos. Very informative and easy to follow instructions.
Thanks for watching 👍
Now I can Center Dean's to my ICS M4. Airsoft still uses Tamia plugs but some more expensive guns have Deans connectors. Basically to get the best rate of fire on full-auto I need to make this change because well it does have a mosfet so i can safely run 11.1 it does not have deans.
Good clear video. I solder a lot but I also like watching videos for more tips. Ever use salammoniac for cleaning solder gun tips?
Hey! I have a question what’s the difference between dean and dean large ? Thx
Thank you. Super helpful video
Glad it was helpful
Thank you for the guide
Thanks! This is a very useful video.
Thank you for this video!
Super helpful thanks.
Where do you get quality universal deans connectors? A link would be super helpful!! Thank you!
There are links to good dean's style connectors on my dean's page on my website, which there is a link to in the video description. I did also add the link to them in the video description.
Excellent video, thanks very much!
Great!! Thanks for your advice!!!
My pleasure.
Thanks for this helpful video 😊
My pleasure
Great video, thank you for making it 🍻
My pleasure.
Can you do a video how to solder a JST connector on the ends of a deans plug after ESC wires are ALREADY soldered on the deans? Trying to figure out how to solder both on the ends of the ends with the limited space, and how to put dual shrink tubes. Thanks!
I would desolder the deans plug on the ESC, put new heat shrink over the ESC wires along with additional JST pigtail wires, solder the small JST wire to the larger (I assume) ESC wire, resolder the combined ESC & JST wire back on the plug, slide the new heatshrink over the solder tabs, and shrink it.
@@Rchelicopterfun Thanks so much for explaining this John. I'm not the best at soldering. Any way you could do a short video showing this procedure? It would help me a lot.
Thanks for that . I bought me a max10 esc and i wonderd how i can conect them ...
Glad I could help
Thanks for the videos! I’m trying to make all my RC plugs common. My sons mini T 2.0 battery has EC2 connectors and I’d like to swap them for Deans. The wires on his battery are just pretty thin. Does that matter, or should I just make a charge wire with an EC2 connector?
No problem going with a larger plug (higher current rating), provided you have the room to use it. Another really good smaller plug that is equivalent (current handling capacity) to the EC2 is the XT30 so you may want to look into them if you don't have enough room for the larger Deans.
@@Rchelicopterfun I received the deans today, so I will give them a try. Also, the wife bought me a soldering setup similar to yours. Thanks for the help! Will be watching some of your videos to get these done👍🏼
You make it look great and so easy I can't solder at all its about to make me quit the hobby
Everything gets better with practice. I watched about 10 different videos before I soldered anything.
saved my life
I need one of them
Im looking for a great battery to run in my airsoft gun. What brand do you recommend? Lipo or Lithium ion? What charger would you recommend? Thank you!!
I don't know a thing about airsoft and what packs are used (LiPo or LiIon)? Here is my best LiPo recommendation page on my site, but it's for RC applications: www.rchelicopterfun.com/best-lipo.html
Same goes for charger recommendations: www.rchelicopterfun.com/rc-battery-chargers.html
Will lead free very fine electrical rosin core solder affect performance? Its lead free 96% tin 4% silver
Lead free solder is difficult to work with and usually gives poor results without years of practice and good equipment. Always use a good quality 60/40 or or 63/37 rosin core leaded solder for best results including but not limited to: ease of use, reliability, strong mechanical & electrical bond and much less risk of cold/brittle joints.
But how did u get the solder to stick to the positive tab on the Dean's connector,?? Mine just drips right off and wont stick. Ended up sanding the connector first to get it to stick
Sounds like oxidation contamination on the solder tab. Not enough flux perhaps or low quality flux/solder? Not enough heat to activate the flux to clean off the oxidation might be another possibility.
i actually do airsoft guns..but this is so cool..thanks for uploading
Glad you liked it
Thanks!!!
You bet
Hi there is it ok to use these deans on two 4s batteries 2 way connection the batteries came as deans, but I've install max6 esc ain't tried yet thoe? Will it b ok X maxx 8s cheers
@shaunsmad rcs - connector choice is current dependent. I can't tell you if these will work without knowing the maximum current load you will be pulling through them. Deans can handle up to about 50 Amps so as long as your application is not pulling more current than that - yes they will work. This article on my site about choosing the correct RC connector may also be of interest: www.rchelicopterfun.com/rc-battery-connector.html
BEA-YOOTIFUL!
What about paste not needed? I thought the paste was a must
@darrenantoine7333 - Good question. Solder paste (flux) is generally not required when you are using a good quality rosin core solder such as the Kester rosin core solder I'm using in the video. One reason I stressed the importance of quality solder.
The flux is contained within the center core of the solder so it's automatically applied as you apply the solder to the component or whatever you're soldering.
If you are not using a good quality rosin core solder however, or solder that doesn't contain flux or you apply too much heat too long and boil off the built in rosin flux, then you must use extra solder paste/flux. I cover this flux topic in more detail in the flux section of my soldering for beginners page on my website if you need more information on the what, when and how to use flux: www.rchelicopterfun.com/rc-soldering.html
Just because I kept forgetting he set soldering temperatures to 350°C or 662 F
Pro.
ok keyoo
Wieder kein roter Schrumpfschlauch vorhanden?
Dang no dislikes and over 200 likes. Nice!
Now you've jinxed it - lol 😀
Help it just keeps balling up
Should of watched this before actually soldering for the first time 😐 now my solder is all weird and the and when I plug in my lipo the esc turns on and the motor won’t ever run but everything else works fine
I cant do this, im only broking all
I have always had a lot of difficulty soldering Deans connectors. I cannot get solder to adhere to them no matter what solder, gun, iron, flux I use. I try and try and can never get it to grab on. I always end up melting them where they are unusable.
Are you pre-tinning the tabs first? A good tinning job is the key to a strong bond :-)
@@Rchelicopterfun Yes. Solder just runs off them no matter what I do. Numerous times I have tried and tried just to end up melting the plastic. Flux, scraping has no influence on it. I have also used different irons..40 watt, 80 watt
@@osbornephoto1955 What type of solder are you using?
@@Rchelicopterfun 4 different brands. All rosin core. My Dean plugs have 2 different metals. I do not know if this is normal or not. One side is brass or copper and the other steel...I think. The steel side is the side that will not hold solder. I even used a 80 watt iron but all it did was melt the plastic. Yesterday I ordered a set of plugs off Amazon and will give them a try.
@@Rchelicopterfun BTW: These are the original Deans plugs from a Hobby shop...not some aftermarket ones
Never showed how to do the wire part 😭
Why do Americans say "sarder" instead of "soLder"? Do they not spell it with an "L"? Or is it because they can't say nuclear (nukelar) or athlete (athalete) either?
I'm Canadian.
Interesting (not really) why you selectively left out all the English words with a silent "L" such as salmon, calf, half, walk, palm, etc. However, to answer your question why only British English retains the "L" in the pronunciation, (presuming you actually want to learn something and are not just another trolling dumb ass), simply look up the etymology of the word solder and you'll find out exactly why the L is silent for the rest of us.
Summation:
1. Latin origin "solidaire" had the L and was pronounced.
2. French adaptation lost the L as many other evolving Latin to French to Anglo words have in the past; in this case the Anglo-French "soudure".
3. British English re-Latinized with the L, rest of us didn't.
As one English scholar wrote: solder without the "L" was "The only pronunciation I have ever heard, except from the half-educated to whom spelling is a final court of appeal ..."
I'm a United States Citizen and I pronounce it saw-der.
Apparently I'm a fucking idiot because my solder absolutely will NOT stick to the deans tab when trying to tin it
Not enough heat (need at least an 80W iron or gun for most of this larger stuff), wrong shaped tip that doesn't transfer enough heat (wedge tips are best for RC connector jobs I find) poor quality solder, not enough or poor quality flux? Many reasons, and yes technique is also one. All covered on my RC Soldering For Beginners page on my site: www.rchelicopterfun.com/rc-soldering.html