Soldering LED light strips

Donald

Donald

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It's been awhile since I soldered the parts to a Heathkit TV I built when around high school age.

So while there are solder-less connectors I get more flexibility if I solder the power wire to each light strip.

20 gauge wire.

I am not sure I have or can find my old soldering pencil.

So a new one is in order. Under $100.

I see some soldering stations with adjustable wattage and some with adjustable temp.

I need 20 to 40 watts and 360F to 370F to melt alloy solder. Per instructions for the LED light strip.

What temp would the ones be that just mention wattage? Why wouldn't they all be around 360F to 370F if designed to electronics soldering? Only the ones with adjustable temp seem to list temperature.

Suggestions?
 
The wattage ones just get however hot fluctuates wildly while soldering.

the temp regulated ones will be the temp you set it to.

you want something 50w or higher so it reheats quickly while using it and temp adjustable so it doesnt overheat.

I'm not a pro but these are decent.


cheaper but ok.
www.amazon.cwww.amazon.com/FASTTOBUY-Soldering-Station-194°F-896°F-Temperature/dp/B082HP4513om/FASTTOBUY-Soldering-Station-194°F-896°F-Temperature/dp/B082HP4513
 
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For your application and occassional use, a 40 watt pencil with a three prong plug will work fine.Go for a Weller or Ungar. If you get into soldering heavy gauge wire and colder outdoor use, I would also invest in a Weller soldering gun.
 
I use my router speed controller to tame my 40 watt Weller, for the small delicate stuff.
Pretty Much use the RSC daily on various implements..angle grinder, belt sander, shopVac.
 
I found this 30W soldering pencil in my drawer probably 30+ years old.

These LED light strips have 3M adhesive on the bottom. So these LED light strips are not that heavy duty. A lot on plastic. Don't want to melt melt things because of an old soldering pencil.

Maybe a temperature controlled solder pencil would be better?
 

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Better, yes.

Don’t fear a hot iron. More damage is done with a too-cool iron. Fast heating of the joint actually limits how much heat winds up in the area around it. Right size tip helps too, use the fine tip for small work, but as the work gets bigger, use a bigger tip, it cools less and gets the joint hot fast.
 
Donald said:
I found this 30W soldering pencil in my drawer probably 30+ years old.

These LED light strips have 3M adhesive on the bottom. So these LED light strips are not that heavy duty. A lot on plastic. Don't want to melt melt things because of an old soldering pencil.

Maybe a temperature controlled solder pencil would be better?
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Soldering practices and skill have more to do with a good job than the solder station. Just make sure the tip is in good shape and kept clean. Your newly found soldering pencil will work fine for your project. You will know right away if the solder flows into the joint nicely. You don't need temperature control for your project or a fancy solder station. . Save your money.
 
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Donald said:
I have soldered a lot building electronics from kits in high school and college. Not so much in several decades.
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I still enjoy it, but it is getting harder, my eyes are no what they used to be, and I’m right on the verge of needing… shudder… a scope to see what is down there. I still do a bit of thro-hole but TBH they’re too hard to rework IMO, SMT is the way to go, unless if it’s single sided. Am planning to scare up some soldering classes at work at some point, not looking to get IPC certified but just good enough to do minor rework.

I kinda like building a ”good” kit. One with good docs and a well laid out PCB. Professional snobbery I know but I enjoy the good ones and thumb my nose at the rest. :) Well not really, it’s a boatload of work to do well, and even one that isn’t “great” was still a lot of effort, often by a single person.

These days, I’m not sure what is out there for kits, if one isn’t into QRP radio (one aspect of ham radio); one could do robots and/or Arduino, but both are largely working with modules and writing code. Which isn’t surprising, what used to be a stack of boards is now inside of one chip, so by extension, you can now buy a board that has… a stack of chips and functionality one used to only dream of.
 
My favorite story was the Heathkit color TV I built in high school was my parents. They paid for it. After many years they gave it to me. I used it for a few years while living at a condo. At some point I got a better TV and wheeled the TV and large stack of yellow Heathkit manuals and it's cart out next to the condo dumpster. The next day the TV and manuals were still there but someone took the cart.
 
Donald said:
My favorite story was the Heathkit color TV I built in high school was my parents. They paid for it. After many years they gave it to me. I used it for a few years while living at a condo. At some point I got a better TV and wheeled the TV and large stack of yellow Heathkit manuals and it's cart out next to the condo dumpster. The next day the TV and manuals were still there but someone took the cart.
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Helluva lot of soldering on that thing. You would be an expert when you finished. (y):cool:

Did it work without extensive adjustments?
 
Lubener said:
Soldering practices and skill have more to do with a good job than the solder station. Just make sure the tip is in good shape and kept clean. Your newly found soldering pencil will work fine for your project. You will know right away if the solder flows into the joint nicely. You don't need temperature control for your project or a fancy solder station. . Save your money.
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I bought the soldering station along with some .8 mm solder and the orange thingy to hold the LED light strip. Solder is 63/37 and melts at 361F.

What temp do I set the soldering station to? 600F?

The soldering station cost what one hour of an electrician time would be if I had them do this. And it would take many hours.

How good was my first soldering job in many decades?
 

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I'm not trained to any standard, but I'd say "good enough". Not good enough I'd pay for, but on par with what I'd do at home.

I usually use 700F. I haven't tried any higher, seems to get the trick done for me. What size tip did you use?

Did you pre-tin the wires? I'm thinking not, based on the black wire, just doesn't look like it was tinned at first.
1679171941618.jpg
 
supton said:
I'm not trained to any standard, but I'd say "good enough". Not good enough I'd pay for, but on par with what I'd do at home.

I usually use 700F. I haven't tried any higher, seems to get the trick done for me. What size tip did you use?

Did you pre-tin the wires? I'm thinking not, based on the black wire, just doesn't look like it was tinned at first.
View attachment 145630
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I tinned them but probably not well as I was fooling with different soldering temp.

I am thinking the black wire solder blob looks very close to the actual LED! Wonder if a problem?
 
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