air 65 not starting up properly

[warped trench]

so i resoldered the power connector and most of the motors to my air 65 and now when i plug it in, the power up sound is super quiet and there's no LED light. it also wont warm up or go into wifi mode

could ppl help me troubleshoot? im not really sure waht to do

when i turn it on the camera is still on though

oh nvm

now it's making all sorts of weird beeps

like the start up sound is playing repeatedly

@pallid prawn help, im scared lol

before i put on the frame the camera was working

i will say, my solder job was not good lol

[twilit tendon]

Send pictures of all the soldering

[pallid prawn]

how about you

unplug it

the second anything weird happens

[warped trench]

yes, im aware my soldering job is hot garbage lol

[warped trench]

are those clear enough

[warped trench]

... yea

the more you know

[sand flower]

please say that the motor wires are isolated from each other

[warped trench]

ya they are

used multimeter to check

[warped trench]

but like how should i troubleshoot thsi?

or am i just screweed?

[sand flower]

does usb work?

[warped trench]

lol

so you may have noticed but i no longer have usb lol

[warped trench]

that is all that remains

[sand flower]

huh

intresting

well what i would do is look for any short or solder that shouldnt be there, then unsolder everything then try the board again

[warped trench]

ok even weirder problem, im not checking the resistance between the motor wires and it's saying it's 0 ohms between every single one

is it possible they're shorted through the middle layer of the board?

it's only between each set of 3 motor wires

im SUPER confused about what's going on

[warped trench]

do u have any thoughts on this?

like it really doesn't look like the solder blobs for each motor are shorting

[warped trench]

any thoughts on why this would happen?

[pallid prawn]

I mean your soldering is atrocious

and there's little bits of solder on all sorts of components that shouldn't have any on them

plus wire strands going everywhere

[warped trench]

so like what should i do lol

like do i try to desolder everything?

[pallid prawn]

there is nothing that can be said without a whole clean up with at least isopropyl

[warped trench]

i thought that wasn't necessary w/ no-clean?

[pallid prawn]

no-clean only means that you don't have to clean it

because it isn't corrosive

normal flux is corrosive

[warped trench]

so even though im using no-clean i should still clean it?

[warped trench]

and do we think the board is fucked or salvageable?

[pallid prawn]

yes of course

everything

[warped trench]

ok cool, any parts i should avoid

[pallid prawn]

nope

just use good quality isopropyl

at least 91%

if you can 99%

[warped trench]

ok sounds good

[warped trench]

any thoughts on why all the motor wires are shorting

oh wait im stupid

is it the flux

[pallid prawn]

no

[warped trench]

since i used a flux pen

oh ok

isn't flux conductive

[pallid prawn]

the non-no-clean stuff can be

[warped trench]

oh ok

[warped trench]

so any thoughts on why they're shorting? i feel like some of the groups aren't THAT bad and clearly aren't connected

[warped trench]

like this, ik the joints are shit, but they're clearly not touching but are somehow shorting?

[pallid prawn]

i wouldn't say clearly

and I can't remember if conductivity is normal on motor pads

and some other solder joints have strands going everywhere

or residue solder on top of chips

[warped trench]

i mean there's a black line of pcb between them

[warped trench]

oh wait that's something i should figure out

[warped trench]

ok turns out it's normal

also what's the purpose of cleaning it?

at least according to this

https://www.reddit.com/r/fpv/comments/1dssca8/continuity_in_motor_wires_connected_to_the_esc/

[twilit tendon]

@warped trench with no usb port this is rough. Typically i would pull all the wires off, clean every pad, and then restart after making sure bf and elrs worked properly

[warped trench]

i mean can i do it somehow w/ wifi

[twilit tendon]

There should be some but a dead short or none at all is bad iirc

[warped trench]

im just confused since it worked fine until i screwed it into the frame

[twilit tendon]

A wire may have been close to shorting and shorted when you moved it

[warped trench]

ok wait i think i might have found it

brb w/ results in a min

[warped trench]

also if two motor wires shorted would the aio have fried?

[twilit tendon]

Its more likely a mosfet would have toasted which would break an esc

[warped trench]

i mean you can see my soldering skills, that's the same for me since i def can't repair that

[twilit tendon]

Yep

Pull everything off and see if you can get the elrs wifi connection at least

If you cant, then its toast

[warped trench]

I FIXED IT

TIME TO ORDER A SOLDER PRACTICE BOARD

[warped trench]

ok any advice on how to get better at soldering to avoid this happening again?

i've watched a bunch of tutorials, am using a good, clean iron w/ good solder and flux

[pallid prawn]

Flat tip of appropriate size, something to magnify, good solder, proper low heat

[warped trench]

low heat?

i've been soldering at 750F lol

is that too high?

[pallid prawn]

I don't know a single person that knows fahrenheit when it comes to soldering

everyone uses celcius

so I wouldn't be able to tell you

lol

[warped trench]

~425C

[pallid prawn]

you want to solder at the lowest temp you can get away with

the better your soldering iron tip the easier

i tend to start out at 320-350

go up if it takes too long

[warped trench]

ok sorry to keep asking questions, but i've now got 3/4 of the motors spining and it's connected to betaflight

this is the picture of the joints, and it looks like they're not shorted. i cleaned them w/ alchohol and it's still not working. do u think the fet is fried?

[warped trench]

@sand flower wait do u think i bridged the pads on the FET?

should i just desolder all the motor wires and try to clean it up?

i think the motor is making the startup sound (though it's a lil hard to tell)

[sand flower]

osd?

[warped trench]

oh is there an OSD element that tells you that? i also have betaflight working and can do that

[warped trench]

but like yes, i have osd elements

[sand flower]

do you have video in your goggles?

[warped trench]

yes

[warped trench]

how is that related though?

also interestingly when i try to turn up the motor that's not working there is still a spike in amerage

@pallid prawn sorry to keep asking such dumb questions but do u have any thoughts on why this would be happening

/how i should go around troubleshooting this

[sand flower]

the osd can give you error msg, hoping it will say whats wrong

[warped trench]

ooh

[warped trench]

if i'm having other osd warnings would it cover that up/

like a RSSI dbm since it's not paired

[warped trench]

?

could my minimum startup power be too low on esc settings?

[vast sonnet]

Could you show a video of the issue?

[twilit tendon]

I use 350 for everything except 375 or 400 on xt60s

You'll get more gunk on your tip at higher temps

Good solder doesnt need the higher temps

[warped trench]

i mean i literally just try to spin up the motors in betaflight and the front right one doesnt move at all

[twilit tendon]

Take a knife between the solder joints to ensure that they are truly not shorted

A thin blade will clear out any stray solder or strands of wire

If that doesn't work, swap two motors

[warped trench]

already tried that but i'll try swapping the motors in the morning

[warped trench]

if swapping the motors doesn't work im assuming it means that the FET is fried?

[twilit tendon]

If the problem stays with the esc, yes probably

If it stays with the motor, uhhh i guess the motor is fried

Possible but i always see and smell it when that happens