soldering

[shaas0927]

Im having trouble soldering the wires to the led so im looking for advice on this what im doing is placing the wire on the silver pads on the led putting the solder wire to the wire and then applying the iron the solder heats up melts into a ball then does nothing

I know this is in here some where however when I do a seach Im not finding it I have already read several threads so I feel Ive done my assigned reading and as Outside influences seem to keep intruding (work marriage you know life) I dont have the time to read each and every single post in here
and since Ive already spent the money on this stuff Im gonna call this a customer service issue.
Yes Im very aggrevaited right now
so I would appreciate some help

[xwingband]

Keep iron there at the pad. After it melts it should "flow" onto the pad. It's hard to explain... a good joint to the LED looks like the solder comes from the pad and on the wire.

If it's not flowing then perhaps your iron isn't hot enough.

[shaas0927]

so are you saying that the pads are solder or do i need to use the solder wire also what could cause the iron to not be hot enough

[Ryma Mara]

What ya want to do is kinda sanwhich it, take the wire and sanwhich it inbetween the pad and the solderwire and fuze them togeather. but remember, don tkeep the iron on the wire to long or it will heat up and could cause problems down the road.

good luck

[xwingband]

If you meant that the solder is balling up and not going onto the pad then like I said either the iron isn't hot enough or you need to hold it there longer to let if flow onto the pad.

If your iron isn't hot enough the symptom would be it probably looks crusty and/or it takes longer than a second to heat up the solder.

If it's not that... just hold the iron there longer. The pad does have a bit of solder on it. You want the solder you are adding to flow onto the pad. It shouldn't really take longer than a few seconds though.

[TimeRender]

I just got my LEDs in the mail the other day and had a similar problem. I was using a coldheat soldering iron and just couldn't get things hot enough to really bond the solder with the contacts. If you're using a coldheat iron and having the same problem, I suggest switching to a different iron. I borrowed a craftsman gun and managed to finish all of my LEDs in just a few minutes.

[Lord Maul]

cold heat solder pretty much stinks

it doesn't really flow at all and is not as strong as regular solder

[TimeRender]

Well I wasn't using coldheat brand solder, in fact I didn't even know they made any. But the iron definitely stinks. That may have been Shaas's problem.

[Lord Maul]

i use the soldering iron tim sells, it works great for my needs

[shaas0927]

the iron im using is a hot iron and the tip is pretty bad all black and crusted ive tried filling it off and sometimes it seems to help but its getting progressively worse do you have any tips