Re:Show HN: I Designed and Built an eBike
by notjulianjaynes on Wednesday February 23, 2022 @06:29PM
(#30448159)
By chance I just soldered some 10 awg wire to an xt90 connector earlier today, using a Pinecil no less. It was super annoying to get right. Few cold joints before I got it. The problem was with the stiffness of the wire I used. It made it difficult to keep in the exact right position until the solder cooled down. Would have been easier with thinner or higher quality wire though.
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Re:Show HN: I Designed and Built an eBike
by stavros on Wednesday February 23, 2022 @06:35PM
(#30448209)
Hmm, were you pressing the button to get the 400C boost? With that, first you tin the wire VERY WELL, then you put some solder in the nook of the connector (fill it about half), and then you push the wire into the nook with the iron. That will melt the solder on the wire and then the connector, and it should give you a nice even connection without any over- or underflow.
Once the wire goes in, you remove the iron, hold the wire there for a second or two until the solder solidifies, and you're done. I used 12 AWG but it should be pretty close.
EDIT: I just did it again, make sure you hold both the wire and the XT90 firmly with helping hands or something similar.
Re:Show HN: I Designed and Built an eBike
by m4x on Wednesday February 23, 2022 @08:33PM
(#30449233)
Soldering heavy gauge wire is more about having thermal mass in the iron tip than high temperature. That is part of why you can buy different tips - selecting the tip with the right thermal mass will allow you to quickly get the workpiece up to temp without overheating anything nearby.
You can hack it by just turning the temperature way up, but there are a number of drawbacks to doing so. It's better to use the right tip.