Who else has had the EC3 lead in their Carbon Z Cub come un-soldered?

[CZ Flyer]

It's happened to me & my dad 3 times already. Happened to me yesterday leaving me with a decision to rebuild or replace the plane. WILL DEFINITELY swap to EC5 from here forward. That's a design flaw in this plane that's costing people airplanes. If I hadn't bought the plane 2nd hand & enjoyed it for a year already I'd contact Horizon. EC3 can't pull the amps.

[TiredIronGRB]

It's happened to me & my dad 3 times already. Happened to me yesterday leaving me with a decision to rebuild or replace the plane. WILL DEFINITELY swap to EC5 from here forward. That's a design flaw in this plane that's costing people airplanes. If I hadn't bought the plane 2nd hand & enjoyed it for a year already I'd contact Horizon. EC3 can't pull the amps.

First mod for sure, it's crazy that they used an EC3...I changed the ESC and eliminated the switch as well.

[CZ Flyer]

First mod for sure, it's crazy that they used an EC3...I changed the ESC and eliminated the switch as well.

Agreed! Did it For dad's already. He has XT60

[TiredIronGRB]

Agreed! Did it For dad's already. He has XT60

That's still small for 6S, I would use XT90 or EC5.

[OV10]

That's still small for 6S, I would use XT90 or EC5.

AGREED................however my personal choice is Anderson PowerPole.
It is a well established fact that "proper" crimps are more effective in power transfer than solder joints and crimp fasteners is a MIL-SPEC standard. ;)

[fhhuber]

Proper crimps without calibrated crimpers is the next bestt thing to impossible...
Too loose and the crimp will pull apart with no warning. Too tight and you will have cracked the wire which will make it break right at the crimp. There are plenty f cheap, uncalibrated crimpers where its up to the user to figure out how hard to squeeze for the crimp. The cheap ones are never calibrated. The average hobbyist isn't going to spend $50 to $250 per crimper (per wire size and type of crimp) for low grade to medium grade calibrated crimpers.
You can't see if you crimped too tight or too loose... you can tug test and the way too loose ones will have the wire pull out immediately, but that just says if you got close. A close, but not quite will feel OK, but have poor conductive properties at high current. (you can melt your plastic piece on the connector in flight)

Solder is universal and reasonably easy to get a decent result. Use adequate heat and some of the proper flux. If the joint is not bright after cleaning off the flux it wrong. You can SEE if its good. Bad joints from the factory are rare. (done by machine and QC inspect about 1 of 100, with the failures being when the machine runs out of solder and nobody noticed in time)

[Twowingtj]

All of the Carbon Z Cubs I've dealt with came with EC5 connectors on the ESC.

[OV10]

Proper crimps without calibrated crimpers is the next bestt thing to impossible...
Too loose and the crimp will pull apart with no warning. Too tight and you will have cracked the wire which will make it break right at the crimp. There are plenty f cheap, uncalibrated crimpers where its up to the user to figure out how hard to squeeze for the crimp. The cheap ones are never calibrated. The average hobbyist isn't going to spend $50 to $250 per crimper (per wire size and type of crimp) for low grade to medium grade calibrated crimpers.
You can't see if you crimped too tight or too loose... you can tug test and the way too loose ones will have the wire pull out immediately, but that just says if you got close. A close, but not quite will feel OK, but have poor conductive properties at high current. (you can melt your plastic piece on the connector in flight)

Solder is universal and reasonably easy to get a decent result. Use adequate heat and some of the proper flux. If the joint is not bright after cleaning off the flux it wrong. You can SEE if its good. Bad joints from the factory are rare. (done by machine and QC inspect about 1 of 100, with the failures being when the machine runs out of solder and nobody noticed in time)

Agree and disagree
Yes the crimpers can be expensive to the average hobbyist but if your in it for the long haul and are in the 6S and above power systems then it is an invaluable TOOL.
The Anderson crimpers are capable of three different gauge wires and are reasonably prices @ $40. I've literally used them for over 500 crimps and they have performed outstandingly.
The crimp is no where's next to impossible to achieve(actually very easy) and have never had a failure to date.
Saying that soldering is reasonably easy to get a decent result is a rather broad overstatement.
A good soldering station capable of the wattage needed for the heavier connectors is very easily 3-4 times more expensive than the above crimpers.
A good solder joint may look good but internal cold solder fractures can only be detected by xray.
In industry(especially on military grade circuits), soldering schools are the standard in teaching proper soldering techniques.
If the military still uses crimp connections on high power(volt/amp) devices that has a lot to say about the reliability versus solder connections.

My experience concerning this subject is solid..................managed employees in a DoD manufacturing facility that built all forms of hardware on many air and sea platforms.
ie.....IBM Federal Systems..........B1B, Space Shuttle, F15, Tomahawk, Wild Weasel, Harpoon, S-3A and so on;)

[fhhuber]

$18 Weller heavy duty soldering iron and $9 iron holder with aligator clip work holders... Wood cloths-pins are very useful too. (package of 50 for a couple of bucks and hey work fr clamping things while you are buildng/repairing too))

We aren't dealing with trained and well supervised workers. We are dealing with hobbyists.

Sure, you have good crimps when you bought the calibrated crimper and know how to use it.
Most on this forum won't have a clue how to use it or how to tell if they got the crimp right.

50 years of model building... Navy Nuclear Power trained. Certified electrical safety inspector.
I'm one f the guys who told you and your guys when they did it wrong.
Thanks for playing who has the better qualifications.

[OV10]

Just was getting real info out and wasn't playing anything......................:Straight-Face:
ps.....DCAS was the folks who told us when it was or wasn't correct.:Smug:

[rifleman_btx]

My buddy had an ec3 on the battery let go about 2 years ago. He lost his 1200mm T28 because of it. But no amount of solder or crimping will help him now as hes flying in the perfect field that looks over us now. Anyway, so you know, I've seen it happen first hand, and a factory solder isn't always gonna be a foolproof one either.

[fhhuber]

Maybe someone should tell BVM to stop soldering connections on their 5000 watt EDF units.

[RRHandy]

AGREED................however my personal choice is Anderson PowerPole.
It is a well established fact that "proper" crimps are more effective in power transfer than solder joints and crimp fasteners is a MIL-SPEC standard. ;)

If it's good enough for NASA to crimp all of the connections then I would got that way, I use APP even on my 6S 5300 battery with no problems with the connections getting hot.

Think about it this way, your wire is starting to get hot to the point that it's about to melt and you add vibration to the mix , desolders it self as to the crimp will stay until the wire melts and then some.

Just my .02 :Straight-Face:

[Gilatrout]

Only when I cooked off the esc after dipping its nose in the lake. The esc should be relocated if you fly it on floats