Going nuts with my Tri Cree

[Tolo]

Hello,

Like the title says, I'm going nuts with my tri cree. I've been trying to solder my wires on it, but, they won't stick. I've tried so much that I think I fried my LED.

Any pointers in what I'm doing wrong?

Thank you,

Eric

[Whosle]

They are tricky. The heatsink works well.

Try using leaded solder. A good pre-tinned solder tip a bit hotter than usual. Also try pre-heating and tinning the wire tip.

I don't have seperate flux, I only use the finest rosin core I can find.

I hope you didn't burn it out by heat alone. They aren't cheap.

[Tolo]

Thanks, I kept my soldering iron at 475F.

I will try and get some leaded solder. I don't know the type that I have honestly.

[Forgetful Jedi Knight]

Hopefully, you don't already have it attached to the heatsink.

[Silver Serpent]

That would be my first guess. If you've already attached it to the heatsink, it'll be nearly impossible to solder wires onto the LED pads.

I run my iron at around 550F when I'm doing most of my work.

[Tolo]

That would be my first guess. If you've already attached it to the heatsink, it'll be nearly impossible to solder wires onto the LED pads.

I run my iron at around 550F when I'm doing most of my work.

Oh wow, I was scared going hotter than 450F. I though I was "ballsy" at 475F.

And it's not attached to the heat sink. It's in a plastic covered clamp.

[Silver Serpent]

Nah. Back when the LEDEngin LEDs were all the rage, I'd bump mine up over 600 to solder those. Those LED stars had a great heatsink built in, and it was nearly impossible to solder them without a really hot iron.

It's a bit counterintuitive, but a hotter iron is LESS likely to burn your components. Since the iron is hotter, you spend less time with it touching your components. There's actually less heat damage that way.

[Tolo]

Managed to get everything soldered.

Came to try it, was proud of myself, I have about 10x 18650 being a former "vaper" and they were all charged. But, all my batteries are flat top, they don't make contact. Wont have batteries before Monday...Now I'm sad lol

[GregTheForce]

I just recieved the parts for my saber today and started with the led... So I soldered the pads and after 5 tries they would finally hold. But I am scared to short circuit the leds because some of the neg wires are near to touching the copper part of the sinkpad. I made them a little longer to get more to stick on the pads, but well... I can't get it right. Btw the wires don't touch it yet and the solder makes them quite stiff to stay away from that, but of course, after duelling it might move...