Milad's 72in LED build

DiverDude · #1 12-03-2010, 01:00 AM

Using a flux-core solder should be fine unless the LEDs are old and/or been improperly stored -in which case the copper pads may be oxidized.

Most soldering difficulties come from improper technique. It's important to remember that you are joining TWO metal surfaces with a 3rd metal (solder) and therefore BOTH surfaces must be hot enough to melt solder. A decent soldering iron is also good to have. A reasonable iron will cost a good $50 at Active. Good brands include Hakko and Weller.

-And try not to breathe the fumes from the solder; NOT good for you.

Bloodasp · #2 12-03-2010, 05:59 AM

I agree that a lot has to do with improer soldering techniques. I have yet to see solder meant for electronics without a flux core, even the lead free ones I have used always contain them, from the sound of what he said though that he had to scratch the component to get some soldering to happen he definitely needs it.
And also boring a hole through the track of an smd mounted component is not a good idea as they are normally too small that drilling a hole through them would likely cause it to peel off.

martinmcnally · #3 12-03-2010, 11:28 PM

So I just checked out my solder and its Rosin core! ah ha! Maybe I need to try this again with flux core?

I wonder if I fried the driver in the process

$

martinmcnally · #4 12-03-2010, 11:31 PM

Oh no wait, Rosin is flux haha so back to squire one.

makana · #5 12-04-2010, 12:09 AM

pure solder doesn't work well, the resin core is a cleaning agent that helps remove impurities and allow the solder to stick. If you are having to scratch at the metal to get it to stick then it isn't clean. You could try cleaning it with alcohol or scuffing it up with a scotch brite. You need to get the metal hot enough for the solder to bond without overheating it. When the temperature is right if you dab the solder on it will travel along the metal. If you are soldering to surface mount copper pads on a circuit board be carefull. If it is clean it shouldn't take much to heat it up. Too much and it will lift the trace from the board.

mseepman · #6 12-04-2010, 06:25 PM

Looking forward to seeing this...I am planning an LED build myself for my 290G peninsula once I finally get the damn house built.

I was planning on doing a blend of CW and RB crees but after researching for countless hours, it appears to me that there is a real need for some Neutral Whites and even a few standard blues in the mix to give you the coloration that we are used to with MH and or T5.

Where are you getting your heatsinks? Where are the big meanwells coming from? Are you planning to balance the forward voltage on your parallel setups or are you just going to keep the voltage low enough to handle an issue if it arrises?

I plan to do about 200 LED's and that would mean a lot of the small ELN meanwells which is a problem. My issue is that all the threads over on RC seem to put the fear of GOD into people who plan to go parallel on their LED setups rather than serial.

Looking forward to hearing how you plan to do all this.

Milad · #7 12-04-2010, 07:09 PM

from my first post you will see im going 2 drivers only for all 144 leds.
one for CW and one for RB so i can dim them seperatley

im actually doing a diagram right now to handle any issues with the parallel design, it should be fail safe. I should have it up within next couple hours.

Drivers are coming from cdiweb.com
Heatsinks are coming from heatsinkusa.com
Extra odds and ends are coming for digikey.ca

ill be posting links to each of the parts too for others reading.