okay so ive been flying whoops and 3inch toothpicks for about a year now and finally decided to step up to a proper 5inch freestyle build. picked up a Taxa 5 frame because a guy at my local field swears by it and honestly it feels really solid, no complaints there. but now im staring at this pile of components i ordered and realizing i have no idea if my ESC is going to play nice with everything.

im running a 45amp 4in1 from a brand i wont name (its a budget one) and a F7 stack i got on sale. motors are 2306 2450kv which might be a bit hot for what i want to do but whatever. my question is basically about the ESC current rating ? do i actually need to go higher or is 45amp per corner enough for a 5inch with 6S? ive seen people say you should derate by like 30% but ive also seen builds with similar specs running 35amp no problem. getting kind of mixed messages and dont want to let out the magic smoke on my first maiden.

also separate question ? anyone have opinions on whether its worth pre-tinning the motor pads before attaching the ESC wires or just go straight to soldering? my iron is a TS100 and ive been happy with it but the tip is getting a bit worn

45amp on 6S with 2306s is probably fine for freestyle, you're not racing gates or anything. the derating thing is more relevant if you're doing long sustained full throttle runs, which on a freestyle quad you're usually not. bursts are what matters and 45amp handles those. that said if its a no-name ESC the actual rating might be optimistic so just keep an eye on temps after your first few packs.

on the soldering question ? yes pre-tin everything, always. get the pads nice and shiny before you even think about attaching wires, makes the final joint so much cleaner and you spend less time with the iron on the board which matters more than people think. and yeah if your tip looks crusty get a new one, a bad tip will make you hate soldering even if you know what youre doing.

i went through almost this exact same thing with my first 5inch lol. ended up going with a 50amp unit after getting nervous and honestly probably didnt need to but peace of mind counts for something i guess. the Taxa 5 is a good choice btw, mine took a few solid crashes and the arm flex is way less than i expected.