Solder idea

[Fonduman]

I've heard from a few places that holding the soldering iron in contact with your diode pin/s for more than a second or two will almost certainly kill it. Doesnt seem to leave alot of time to make a solder joint. I was wondering if it might be possible to put a bit of heat compound above where you are soldering, to help conduct heat away from the diode.

 

[lasersbee]

I've heard from a few places that holding the soldering iron in contact with your diode pin/s for more than a second or two will almost certainly kill it. Doesnt seem to leave alot of time to make a solder joint. I was wondering if it might be possible to put a bit of heat compound above where you are soldering, to help conduct heat away from the diode.

What the he!! is Heat Compound.... :thinking: a Link or Pic would help..

Since the mass of the wire...LD pins and solder are so small
you can easily solder a wire to the LD's pins in less that a second..
Just prepare your solder joint in advance..

Jerry

 

[blrock]

I always solder the diode pins while the diode is in a heatsink. This will help get rid of some of the heat.

 

[Fonduman]

sorry guess its just called different things in different places lol
Thermal grease - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[lasersbee]

You can't use thermal grease on a solder joint..
The grease will contaminate the Solder and your solder
joint will become useless...:cryyy:

If you read about Thermal grease you will understand that
it is merely a transfer agent... By putting Thermal grease on
the LD pin...
Where is the Grease supposed to transfer the heat to...:thinking:

You can't boil water with out a container between the heat
source and the water to transfer the heat...


Jerry

 

[daguin]

Soldering diode pins takes a fraction of a second

Pre-tin BOTH the pins and the wire or solder pads

Use a small bit of flux on BOTH the pins and the wires/pads BOTH for the pre-tin and the final solder joint

I don't care if you use rosin core solder. USE THE FLUX!

Use a set of "extra hands" to align the pin with the wire/pad.

Make sure that they are side-by-side, touching, and secure

Get a small bit of solder on the tip of your soldering iron

"Touch" the melted solder on your iron to the pin to wire/pad joint

The solder will all flow together in a fraction of a second.

I recommend that you also use some shrink tubing to protect and reinforce the joint



You DO NOT "heat the joint" as with other solder jobs
You DO NOT place the solder source anywhere near the solder job

Only the melted solder on the tip of your iron should approach the pin to wire/pad joint

Get yourself an old PCB and some scrap wire (etc.). Practice the above procedure until you can get a good solder in a fraction of a second.

ONLY then should you move on to your first (cheap) diodes to practice with

Peace,
dave

 

[oic0]

The thermal grease would have to have something to transfer in to otherwise I dont think it will add much heat holding capacity. Maype holding the pin with a set of flat nose pliars possibly with thermal grease on em?

 

[CrazyMonkey]

Heatsink clip tool:
Soldering Heat Sink Clip Tool - RadioShack.com

I would do as daguin says though

Be quick, and do it when its mounted in its heatsink.

 

[Fonduman]

ah ok, i had viewed some soldering tutorial videos telling me to heat the joint, its a good thing i didnt go ahead and do that lol

 

[psi seeker 34]

I just clip an alligator clip onto the pins so that the heat is transferred to the clip before it ever reaches the diode. I expect that if the pins are too short a standard heat sink will work better. I've found it's far easier to tell how hot the diode's getting if you're touching it while soldering so long as you're careful to solder very quickly so you don't get burned and drop the diode or the iron. It also helps speed your soldering tremendously if you let the iron get really hot and then have a drop of solder stick to the tip so you don't have to wait for the solder to melt.

 

[daguin]

I just clip an alligator clip onto the pins so that the heat is transferred to the clip before it ever reaches the diode. I expect that if the pins are too short a standard heat sink will work better. I've found it's far easier to tell how hot the diode's getting if you're touching it while soldering so long as you're careful to solder very quickly so you don't get burned and drop the diode or the iron. It also helps speed your soldering tremendously if you let the iron get really hot and then have a drop of solder stick to the tip so you don't have to wait for the solder to melt.

It doesn't matter how "steady" your hand "appears", human muscles "tremor" to keep pressure balanced. Use the "extra hands" and the technique described above. Your module should never even begin to heat up enough for you to "feel" it.

Peace,
dave

 

[jbtm]

I place mine in the AIXIZ module, put my iron to 250F, and solder...I can usually stay on it prity long without any issues while monitoring temp.

 

[FireMyLaser]

Key is to use a very hot iron, that allows you to solder quicker. Using an alligator clip or whatever to 'heatsink' while soldering is very counter productive...

 

[laser_freak]

If you have a dead diode, practice on that a couple times first.

 

[jupiter8]

Dave, thanks for that tutorial, I've been lucky me thinks. I didn't know it was such a sensitive exercise... more care will be taken from this point forward. Cheers.

 

[jbtm]

Key is to use a very hot iron, that allows you to solder quicker. Using an alligator clip or whatever to 'heatsink' while soldering is very counter productive...

Depends on your personal feel. For me it works a lot easier to use colder 250F than my irons max temp (750F (?)) but when it comes to soldering surface mount SMD mosfets, where the whole back gets soldered to a copper pad, then the 750F works the best...

Like I said, depends on your irons wattage and your personal feel