Tools & Supplies for FPV 

60/40 is 60% lead and 40% tin.... 63/37 Kester solder is the best solder for our purposes by a long shot. The worst thing someone new to soldering can do is buy low quality cheaper/China solder... A crappy iron and high quality solder would be MUCH better then a top end soldering iron and crappy solder.... I love my TS100 and i love my old Unger pro soldering station (Unger made the best soldering irons period but sadly they aren't around anymore. I've had mine for 20 years) If your gonna be in to quads a TS100 is well worth the fairly small investment as it's portable and can be used at the field with just a normal 4s flight pack, heats up super fast and has very accurate temp control the tips are of very good quality as well... So take my word and buy you a 4oz spool of Kester 63/37 rosin core solder (i buy 1 pound spools, 4oz spools will be about 12 dollars and a 1 pound spool about 23 to 25 dollars) as it flows better and quicker even with less heat then 60/40 but 60/40 is fine to. Buy you a TS100 and there's no need for a bench iron/station because the TS100 will do everything you need it to and does it extremely well. A tip cleaner is a must as he said, a moist sponge and a wire mesh cleaner like he showed will make sure you always have a perfect tip that's bight and the solder will stick to it and transmit heat really fast and make you always have night bright and shiny joints. The next thing is buy a little tin of Tip tinner and retin your tip about every 30 minutes of time the irons on and you will always have a like new tip... When you first use a tip you need to break it in and how i do that is to take some solder wire and wrap it around the plated area of the tip and then turn the iron and as it comes up to temp the solder will melt and prevent the tip from oxidation happening before the tip gets solder on it and after that wait about a minute and then clean the solder off and use the tip tinner and you will have a perfect tip and then about every 30 minutes of time the irons on use the tip tinner again. High quality iron tips aren't cheap and the TS100 tips are about 15 to 17 bucks each if you use the tip tinner every 30 or so mins of use those tips will last 3 to 4x as long as tips that never get retinned. The tip tinner comes in a little round metal tin and it's kinda like a tightly packed powder, you simply clean the tip of the iron while it's hot with a few passes on a slightly damp sponge and/or a few presses in to your wire tip cleaner and simply dip it in the tip tinner for a few seconds and bingo the tip will come out super shiny and bright and solder with absolute perfection like a year old tip after a quick retin will solder as good or better then a brand new high quality tip. I design prototype boards for guidance systems for air to air and surface to air missles and spend 35 to 50 hours a week with a soldering iron in my hands so i know that end very well... If you follow the advice i just gave you will make flawless solder joints each and every time. Yes i fly RC... 3d Helis, large 3d gassers and race quads.. I also hold a jet Turbine waiver ... For a prop wrench IMHO the best thing is a 5 dollar 8mm ratcheting wrench you can get them at home depot for 5 to 6 bucks for a husky brand one and they are fantastic for a prop wrench and make prop changes very quick. A high quality Zip tie set with different sizes is a must and i can't stress high quality zip ties enough... The dollar stores ones are a waste of time even putting them on... Buy electrician grade zip ties and you will be glad you did. The next thing that will make life much easier is a roll of thin film VHB double sided tape and get it .25 inch wide... And a spool of VHB foam double sided tape and again .25 inch wide. A kit of 4 to 1 ratio shrink wrap meaning that if it was a 1 inch wide piece it will be able to shrink down to .25 inch... Cheap shrink wrap will be about 2 to 1 meaning a 1 inch piece would shrink down to .5 inch... The high ratio high quality shrink wraps will not start to tear or corners of PCBs punch through once shrunk and beings it can shrink down so much you don't have to be as worried with if you slide a piece over something that's a little big will it shrink down around it like you want it to. A high quality set of spring steel hex drivers will be your best friend in 1.5mm, 2mm and 2.5mm along with a high quality set of side cutters. Do not skimp on the hex wrenches and side cutters... Spring steel hex tips will keep nice sharp edges and not round off like Ti coated steel tips (i use Hudy hex wrenches, they are costly but a one time investment and will not strip out screws) and a high quality set of side cutters will be 10 to 15 bucks and make your life much much easier and have soooooooo many uses. Something else he said is a heat gun... Imho get a SMD rework hot air blower... It's far more useful then use a normal heat gun... And adjustable temp and fan speed SMD rework hot air gun is imho almost as important as the soldering iron and has many many uses.

Hobby knife. Super useful for stripping wire. Multumeter. Keep the magic smoke inside the components by checking for continuity. Painter's tape for masking spaces where solder splatter would ruin your day like motors and ESCs.

That's brass wool, thanks vortex this series is great

I love the Rotor Riot driver set.

Helping hands are almost necessary for me. Or a small vice or a bit of putty to keep things put while I solder. Also, a bit of advice for Vortex: when you talk, do it with a bit more enthusiasm like Tommy. It makes the video much more interesting to watch.

Other tools and things: Flux, transparent heat shrink (great for receivers or anything that that has buttons or LEDs you need to see, regular heat shrink, zip ties, E6000 glue, and fun tack.

I finally updated to kestor solder few years back and a 100w iron I fixed. Since then ...smooth sailing

Blue tack. To hold stuff down its amazing

8mm and 5/16" are almost the exact same size. That's why that 5/16" harbor freight nut driver works so well! Thx for the info!!

Assortment of nylon standoffs and screws. Metal screws 2 and 3 mm. Transparent heatshrink tube.

Great series, wish you made it 3 years ago!

ja-boy needs to upload some flight footage. One of my favorite pilots. Thanks

i ordered a TS100 a few days ago.. should come today :D

Great video 👍👍

Nice set up playa

This is not popping up in my feed. Thats why views are so low. Holy crap

I recomment a hand magnifying glass. Inspect your solder-points with it for tiny shortcuts. The labelings are also very tiny on the controllers .... And you should have a smoke-stopper!

Did you mention shrinkable tubing and zip ties? I use the stuff by the ton ... And what´s about cutter knifes and/or a scalpel? A third hand or some putty for keeping everything in place when soldering ... maybe some magnifying glasses to see small solder joints :)

Sharing the Love!

The solder tip cleaners are made of brass because its a soft metal and wont scratch the tip.

(pcb octopus holder and fume extractor 9 in 1) and a magnifying glass that can be screwed onto pne arm of the 9in 1 thing

A multimeter can be useful. And a smoke stopper :)

THAT INTRO!!!!!!!!!! WHAT

Nice T-Shirt :-)

Really nice tool to have is a ( i don’t know the correct name) a solder sucker it suck away hot solder if you over shoot it

I have an old soldering Iron man daher hast it when He was a Child it is a 20w Iron but IT IS Well built. Fromm Weller and its great. Now i have ts100 top . Sorry for the autocorrection it is german

HELPING HANDS!

got the new ts80...ill never go back!

Smoke stopper or short saver.

What do you think is better between the ts100 and the ts80. They are very similar imo.

Life got so much easier once I bought a legit soldering iron.

Helping hands..

i would reccomend a 3d printer

Jeff you are missing out on an electric screwdriver and motor wrench for your 8mm prop nuts

buy a SMOKE STOPPER

"I don't really remember"... "I don't know what material this is". Really? You present well. Please be better prepared before recording. It'll help new pilots.

vortex sounds kinda bored lol

Where I come from we use a simple moist sponge to clean the soldering iron tip. No fancy metal scraping stuff. Works perfect (always shiny) and is also equiped with every soldering station here, so its not just a lifehack. Example: www.pollin.de/images/600x600x90/I840223.4-Loetstation-ATTEN-ST-100-100-W.jpg

you forget the FUME EXTRACTOR. fumes are hazardous

Flux....