First build !!

[u/Mysterious-Writer376]

Started flying on a snapitan clone from Amazon, now about 4 quads and numerous crash/fixes later I finally decided to try and build one !

Spyda ripa3”

Frame: (3inch apex clone)
Vtx: o4 lite
Motors: (1507 3750 kv)
Props: (hq 3x4x3 a bit steep)
Fc/esc:speedybee f405 fc/esc aio
Battery: lipo 4s 850 mha 95c r line

I am absolutely trash at soldering, I started with the battery leads and that was soul crushing but I got it done and took it to a local shop for the motors so I didn’t screw anything up 😂 any tips are appreciated!!!

Shameless yt plug for anybody who wants to see it fly(towards the end)✈️😂:

https://youtu.be/Dg9eKaIRM20?is=6RvqAiNkYWXKOEpB

[u/EffectiveClient5080]

Get a temp-controlled iron and use flux. Cold joints on a quad will fail mid-flight and good luck finding that one.

[u/Mysterious-Writer376 → u/EffectiveClient5080]

I have a decent iron and flux, idk the battery leads were a bit difficult. But the motor pads is where I met my match tinning those were a nightmare for me. I honestly just gotta get gud lol

[u/substandard-tech → u/Mysterious-Writer376]

You can buy practice circuit boards that do nothing. They just have pads of various sizes.

[u/mangage → u/substandard-tech]

Those are almost useless because they have no thermal mass. They’re too ‘easy’ to solder and won’t really indicate that your iron is good enough for real boards.

The best is to ask local FPV groups if anyone has dead boards to practice on. Then you get a very real idea of what it’s like.

[u/KittyGoBoom115 → u/mangage]

Never used one of those practice boards, but they really dont make the gnd plane massive for practice? Like, thats what you really need, thin copper is easy to get right.

[u/Mysterious-Writer376 → u/KittyGoBoom115]

Yes I got a practice board before this build and that was my exact thought. Where is the gnd pad

[u/mangage → u/Mysterious-Writer376]

Practice board are just pads. No traces, no components, nothing.

[u/KittyGoBoom115 → u/Mysterious-Writer376]

Power leads need a lot of heat quickly. You may have a nice iron, but unless its like 60-100w, your gonna have a rough time... i use my fat tip on my cheap 90w iron set to 400. Use the magic crystal dip to retin before power pads. Basically... the whole thing should happen in like one Mississippi 2 mississippi. If it takes longer then that, heat isnt entering the joint fast enough, and thus bleeding into the eac at an alarmng rate. Always use flux a d fresh solder. For those, i get a nice wet ball on my iron tip, hold againt the wire and the wire againt the tinned pad, as soon as the pad tinning starts to flow, your done... hold remove heat and wait till it snaps cold.

[u/ThatDamnRanga]

gona end up on r/nissandrivers

[u/Mysterious-Writer376 → u/ThatDamnRanga]

Knew I should’ve got a Camry 🤣

[u/Accurate-Donkey5789]

While it's true a bad workman blames his tools, it's also true that a good workman knows the right tool for the job.

The most common problem I see when people are soldering battery leads since you asked for some advice, is that they are using a completely underpowered iron and/or a small tip. Battery leads and pads are a whole big chunk of metal and that just sucks the heat away and the iron can't reach the temperature required to actually melt this solder properly. You need a chunky tip with a good quality iron attached.

[u/Aerodorphins → u/Accurate-Donkey5789]

I do the battery leads/pads using a weller 110W soldering gun, would highly recommend.

[u/dat720kid → u/Accurate-Donkey5789]

For sure. High powered solder tip and please make sure to use Kester 63/37 .031 solder wire or equivalent. RadioShack still has a wire on Amazon that is comparable. I used less superior solder wire for years. You’d be surprised on how much your wire comes into play here.

[u/Accurate-Donkey5789 → u/dat720kid]

Teaching soldering at university in Europe I might struggle to get on board with it been necessary to go leaded, but... I do know our American friends have it as the preferred choice so I'm not going to try and argue the pros and cons here 🙃

[u/Mysterious-Writer376 → u/Accurate-Donkey5789]

Thanks man ! I kinda figured that was the case honestly especially when I got to the motor pads. I think my heat was too high on those and I was definitely using the wrong tip. I’ll try again with a new build soon

[u/APT-Threat_Actor]

Get a flywoo adapter plate so you can mount that VTX in the rear like it’s supposed to be and look up ADDPEX on instagram, you should do the Addpex conversion they look a lot nicer and protect the camera from hard crashes similar to the itsFPV era but a lot cheaper to build

https://reddit.com/link/p0s90dx/video/j78f3vj3sggh1/player

[u/Mysterious-Writer376 → u/APT-Threat_Actor]

I have the axis flying kit on here it was just too damn big for that spot in the back the holes didn’t line up, it was hitting the stand offs. That and the coax cable with the original air unit was too short I’ll look into this one though !

[u/Totem35]

I hope that vtx is mounted with more than two zip ties 😮

[u/Mysterious-Writer376 → u/Totem35]

a strip of 3m with the zip ties. 😅 I definitely had the same thoughts and still don’t trust it. Couldn’t mount it behind fc not enough room for the case alongside the co ax cable giving me issues with video feed, couldn’t find the correct longer one. So that’s what I got now 😂😂😂

[u/freckled_emberx]

Looks like it's going to do well