Mounting the motors and speed controllers – Part 2

In this section we’ll be mounting the motors and soldering the ESCs to the power distribution board.




First, we need to mount the motors on to the motor mounting plates. There’s 4 holes but you can choose to use only 2 screws. The screws are from the NTM accessory pack.


Next, we’re going to mount the motor shaft with the 3 hex screws that also came with the accessory pack.


After that, we can mount the motors to the frame. Use 4 hex screws from the bag that came with the frame.


When you’re done, all the motors should be mounted on the frame with the wires facing inward. Now it’s time to solder the ESCs together. This step is the most annoying!



Get out your ESCs and power distribution board. Place them on the frame as if you were going to mount them, then cut the wires to match up with the correct circuit on the board.


There’s 2 circuits on this board. the red ring represents the circuit that all red wires should be soldered to and the black ring represents the circuit that all black wires should be soldered to.



For soldering, I’m using 60-40 Rosin Core Solder.



Before soldering, we need to put some solder on all the connections we’re going to use.


after that, we can start tinning the wire. If you didn’t already know, tinning is where you coat the wire in solder so that it bonds better with the solder on the board. Side note: it’s a lot easier if you dip the wire in flux before you tin the wire.


Now we can start soldering the ESCs to the board. Hold the the soldering iron on the connection until it’s hot enough to melt the solder. Then place the wire on the connection and hold the soldering iron on the wire until all the solder is melted.


Make sure your connection is strong by pulling in different directions on the wire. If you hear any type of popping or cracking, that means you have what’s called a “cold solder joint”. If this is the case, then you should re-solder the connections.