New AM Shrink Tube Solder

[jajabinx124]

I agree that learning how to solder and heat-shrink by hand is a good skill to have, but this can make life easier in some cases. (like during situations where you need to make a quick swap, etc.) I like it.

[Billfred]

We also released two things:

1) This how-to video so you can see the process for yourself.

2) This rather satisfying GIF of the solder melting in:

[Sperkowsky]

When I saw these I immediately put them on our shopping list. Our electrical team is more than capable of soldering. The lead even does chip repair in his free time, but having these look like they could be a life safer for fast repairs at competitions.

[Ernst]

I won't pass too much judgement on these until I try them or see other people try them, but I'm skeptical. I don't understand what advantages these would have over a butt connector. If anything, I would think crimping on a butt connector would be even quicker and offer a better physical and electrical connection, all for less money.

Edit: Huh, I guess I've just never heard of these and they're available elsewhere under a few different names, including in different sizes. Some market them as waterproof and for marine or automotive applications. Neat.

[GeeTwo]

Originally Posted by Ernst

I won't pass too much judgement on these until I try them or see other people try them, but I'm skeptical. I don't understand what advantages these would have over a butt connector. If anything, I would think crimping on a butt connector would be even quicker and offer a better physical and electrical connection, all for less money.

+several

Whenever I buy a generic package of automotive crimps, the butt splices always seem to live on past everything else. Why do we really need these at all, unless we have runs longer than a spool of wire?

In any case, most of our robotics soldering involves a PC board and/or a component, and is not wire-to-wire. The relatively small number of wire-to-wire solder joints I have been part of over the years have involved things where appearance more important than substance (e.g. Christmas Door Decorations, and an illuminated 8+8+carry adder for one of Gixxy's high school projects), and most of those have been solder joints of 3 wires, not just 2. On a robot, crimping or a 3 position lever nut or a Power Pole was regularly a better solution than solder.

[mman1506]

Anything that reduces the chance teams will show up with screw terminals or wire nuts for all their connections is a good thing in my books.

[electroken]

We've used them for making PWM Y-cables many times and they have served us well. The finished splices are stronger than the wire at either end. We have never tried them on wire larger than 22 AWG.

They do require a lot of heat to melt the solder cylinder within, much more than most wire insulation can tolerate, so some care is needed to avoid damaging the wire insulation.

[ahartnet]

Originally Posted by electroken

They do require a lot of heat to melt the solder cylinder within, much more than most wire insulation can tolerate, so some care is needed to avoid damaging the wire insulation.

I've used them at my day job (NASA). They definitely do require more heat than many other things that require a heat gun.

My use cases have been when we need to solder a wire to a braided shield (surrounding the wires). I do not know if that is the main purpose of them or not, but soldering a wire to a shield can be either tricky or difficult to provide a strong mechanical connection.

I agree with the other sentiments expressed here - if it is able to help those teams that may not have someone to teach them how to solder - great! Do I think this is particularly helpful in FRC (as opposed to butt splices, levernuts, andersons, or soldering) - eh I won't be pushing to move to these instead, but I won't deem it a poor decision by those that do.

This is what I see:
-Advantage over levernuts: cheaper
-Advantage over butt splices: stronger connection and more obvious that it's completed (crimping done by inexperienced people are likely to either crimp the wrong place, or not crimp hard enough). It is obvious (and like bilfred said - satisfying - to see the solder melt
-Advantage over Andersons: cheaper (probably, I haven't confirmed), more permanent, and same crimp issues noted before
-advantage over soldering: probably quicker, requires less experience

-disadvantage over levernuts: takes longer, requires more tools than a wire stripper (or sharp edge), requires electrical power (or battery powered heat gun)
-disadvantage over butt splices: more expensive, requires electrical power (or battery powered heat gun)
-disadvantage over andersons: can't disconnect
-disadvantage over soldering: more expensive, requires a decent check of wire on both ends (i.e. - there are some situations you can only solder to connect wires)

[Chris is me]

I'm glad this exists. It is an easy and mess-free way to create a strong electrical connection that anyone can visually verify is robustly held in place. I / my team might not use it, but there are a lot of situations where I would rather a team use these than try and crimp a connector with the improper tools / technique.

[bobbysq]

Originally Posted by ahartnet

This is what I see:
-Advantage over levernuts: cheaper

They actually appear to have similar unit rates using Amazon prices for the levernuts and for the heat shrink solder. These get you a better deal than AM's price.

[RoboChair]

What the heck are they using in their solder alloy? Full melt at 300F?

[Nate Laverdure]

Originally Posted by RoboChair

What the heck are they using in their solder alloy? Full melt at 300F?

Maybe In97/Ag3 or Sn50/Pb32/Cd18

Are they RoHS compliant?

[RoboChair]

Originally Posted by Nate Laverdure

Maybe In97/Ag3 or Sn50/Pb32/Cd18

Are they RoHS compliant?

There is no way there is profit margin in using that amount of Indium, that stuff is like $0.50 per gram, in bulk. I spent $150 for a half a pound of the stuff, but I will say I do like the taste and consistency. Always entertaining to see someone's reaction to chewing on a piece of metal.

[Mr V]

Originally Posted by ahartnet

I've used them at my day job (NASA). They definitely do require more heat than many other things that require a heat gun.

My use cases have been when we need to solder a wire to a braided shield (surrounding the wires). I do not know if that is the main purpose of them or not, but soldering a wire to a shield can be either tricky or difficult to provide a strong mechanical connection.

I agree with the other sentiments expressed here - if it is able to help those teams that may not have someone to teach them how to solder - great! Do I think this is particularly helpful in FRC (as opposed to butt splices, levernuts, andersons, or soldering) - eh I won't be pushing to move to these instead, but I won't deem it a poor decision by those that do.

This is what I see:
-Advantage over levernuts: cheaper
-Advantage over butt splices: stronger connection and more obvious that it's completed (crimping done by inexperienced people are likely to either crimp the wrong place, or not crimp hard enough). It is obvious (and like bilfred said - satisfying - to see the solder melt
-Advantage over Andersons: cheaper (probably, I haven't confirmed), more permanent, and same crimp issues noted before
-advantage over soldering: probably quicker, requires less experience

-disadvantage over levernuts: takes longer, requires more tools than a wire stripper (or sharp edge), requires electrical power (or battery powered heat gun)
-disadvantage over butt splices: more expensive, requires electrical power (or battery powered heat gun)
-disadvantage over andersons: can't disconnect
-disadvantage over soldering: more expensive, requires a decent check of wire on both ends (i.e. - there are some situations you can only solder to connect wires)

You can get these type of connectors to work properly with just a lighter or candle. Of course there is a risk with using an open flame and not something you could do in the pits, however there are some butane torch units that don't have an open flame that are intended to be used in a heat gun type of application.

[Chris is me]

One advantage of this method is that before the solder melts, you glue the wires into place. Sometimes in the heat of a quick moment (emergency repair in the pits etc) it's hard to hold two wire ends steady / champ wires down while soldering. This could be done safely by a very nervous person!