this is driving me insane. third ESC i've ruined this way. i solder the motor wires on, looks fine, then when i go to do the second or third motor the heat from the iron is apparently conducting through the board enough that one of the earlier pads just lifts clean off. im using a ts100 with a chisel tip, temp is around 380c which i thought was reasonable

i do tin the wires and the pads first before joining them so i dont think its a dwell time issue but maybe it is? ive watched probably a dozen soldering videos and i feel like im doing everything right but clearly something is off. using 63/37 rosin core solder. these are the ESC phase pads btw not the power pads

anyone dealt with this, is it a board quality thing or am i actually cooking the board somehow

380 is on the higher end for phase pads on a lot of these budget ESCs, the pad adhesion from some manufacturers is genuinely terrible and sustained heat is what kills them. try bumping up to like 400-420 and moving faster instead, counterintuitive but a quick high temp hit is way less damaging to the pad bond than sitting at 380 for 3 seconds. also are you letting the board cool completely between each motor connection? if the board is still warm from the previous joint the cumulative heat builds up and that's probably whats releasing the pads

also check if youre using flux, if youre relying solely on the flux in the rosin core solder it might not be enough especially if the pads oxidized at all between sessions. a tiny dab of liquid flux before each joint makes a big difference in how fast the solder flows and reduces dwell time

had the exact same problem with a Tekko32 a while back, lifted two phase pads in one session and nearly threw the whole thing out. for me it turned out my tip was oxidized and i wasnt realizing it so i was compensating by pressing harder and dwelling longer. once i cleaned and re-tinned the tip properly the solder flowed way faster and i stopped losing pads. might not be your issue but worth checking before you blame the board