Smokin'... Soldering on the battery connector

Well, I am finally starting the initial construction on the Quad.  While I don't plan to do too much until the ESCs finally arrive in a week or so, I did want to start the process.

One of the extra items I ordered for my Quad is a power distribution board.   This board replaces one of the boards provided with the Hobby King SK450 Quad Frame.  Having the power distribution board allows me to make all my solder connections for the power to the ESCs to the board, rather than having to kudge up some kind of spyder of wires.  Each of the four ESCs have a positive (red) and negative (black) power lead.  Each of these leads need to ultimately be connected to the LiPo battery.  To connect the four positive wires from the ESCs and the positive wire from the battery connector would normally require a messy soldering job which results in two big wads of wires, soldered together.  The power distribution boards makes connecting the power leads, easy, neat and structually strong.

Rather than making my own videos, I have been using the wonderful videos from eluminerRC on Youtube.  He has created a fantastic series of videos that exactly match the Quad I am building.
There are a couple of things he is doing differently than I am.  He rewired his ESCs with connectors on both ends - I won't be doing that.  He also is using black wires for all his power and motor connections - I won't be doing that either, since that makes it very easy to accidently reverse the polarity of one of the power connections - which could be dangerous.
I am also using different battery connectors - he is using a Deans connector, I am using a 4mm banana connector.

Here are a few pictures of my finished product:

You might notice in the first photo, my new soldering station.  I have been using the same cheapie Radio Shack soldering iron for the last 35 years.  I figured it was time for an upgrade.  So I found a great deal on Amazon.Com for a Weller WES51 analog soldering station.  It has a temperature controlled tip and heats up in under a minute from a cold start.

As soon as the ESC's arrive and have been tested, I will be soldering their power leads on to the reverse side of the power distribution board.  Once that is completed, I will be able to assemble the entire Quad, which hopefully will go together very quickly.

I still need to figure out some kind of a protective cover for my KK2 board...   Hmmm maybe the case bulk blank CD's come in will work.  They are made of tough, but pliable plastic and are semi transparent and have a easy to use locking mechanism.  I will be looking into that.