Soldering.. pleas help. I give up.

I just ordered 4 of the high power LED's and I am now attemping to wire them in series, but soldering them is freaking impossible.. and on top of that I am about to freakin break something due to the frustration I am experiencing while attempting to get the contact points soldered.

I am now willing to send my lights to someone on this forum who I can have a few peopele say they trust. And see if they can do the soldering job for me. May be I can throw a couple of bucks your way or just pay the shipping and handling or something. can someone pleeeeeeeeeeeasaaaaasse help me????

I'd suggest taking it to a TV repair shop ... They should be able to solder them up for you , and no shipping ect

^^Yeah.
or radioshack or something.

Maybe if you share a little more info on your setup and how you are attempting to do this one of us here who can solder could give you some tips and pointers to make it easier.

good ideas guys.. and for you corvettecrazy,, I am using a wireless battery operated soldering iron. I have watched the videos on how to solder and have looked up tips and stuff. but I just cant seem to make anything work. now, before I wasnt using flux but now i went and bought a small tube of the stuff after reading some how to's.. the tube is a benzomatic water soluble flux tube. So what I am doing is...

I'm putting flux on the end of the positive wire that is slightly stripped at the end and then I am taking the soldering iron and heating it up. once hot I am placing underneith the wire and placeing the solder on top (letting the solder "FLOW" onto the wre). then if you have seen the high power 1 watt led's there realy is no heating it from the bottom
http://www.oznium.com/1w-led so what I am doing, which is where I'm sure my mistake is.. is i'm placing the soldered wire onto the contact point, heating up the soldering gun and attempting to put a small drop onto both the wire and the contact point from the top by letting it drip or rubbing it on..

Ive tried with flux on the contact, and with out flux on the contact point and nothing seems to work. sooooo.. any tips????

What I do is make sure that whatever wire is going to touch the spot has some solder already on it...then put a dab of it on the connection point...hold the tip of the soldering gun/iron to the connection point and wait until that point looks like the solder on there starts to melt....then place the wire with solder on that joint and make sure to hold the wire in place...I use pliers to do this and make sure to hold it there long enough that when you pull the soldering iron away that everything gets cool and then you should have a pretty good soldered connection...hope this helps you...

I use solid core wire instead of multi-strand wire. It seems to solder easier to small contact points. Radio shack has thin (18-22 gauge) solid core wire. The solder needs some time to cool, so don't let the parts move before.

You scare me with that whole 'battery operated gun' business . Please, please tell me you're not using our friend the Cold Heat soldering iron, of much infomercial fame . If so, please destroy immediately and proceed to your nearest electronics store to purchase a real soldering iron .

Second equipment note is to make sure you have a fine tip . A very fine tip . Trying to solder wires onto little LED pads with a huge honkin' soldering tip is just frustration waiting to happen .

Third, get a basic kitchen sponge (just the sponge, not the scrubber part), get it wet/moist and have it with you while you solder . Any time your tip accumulates any blackened or gunky solder, wipe it clean on the sponge, turning as you wipe . Make sure to wear eye protection, if you press too hard on the sponge while you're wiping it you can sometimes flick a tiny bit of solder .

After you've wiped the tip clean of all the old solder, re-tin the tip by touching a bit of solder to it . Not a huge gobby drop, just a touch . Applying this little bit of solder first makes a big difference when you press the soldering tip to the wire or LED that you want to solder . The heat flows directly through that bit of solder and into the wire . Without that little bit of solder connecting the tip to what you're soldering its more difficult and takes longer to heat up your wire/LED .

If you find that its difficult to apply a small amount of solder or to tin the tip with just a bit, consider buying a thinner gauge solder . Also, don't bother with lead-free solder . Just wash your hands thoroughly when you're done soldering . When I first started soldering small bits I bought a spool of 23 gauge solder (0.025" diam) and it made everything much much easier . I like 60/40 solder, which is to say 60% tin, 40% lead .

jdusty's method above is a good one which I second . Heat your iron up, clean the tip, tin it by applying the smallest bit of solder to the tip, then the tip down on the soldering pad on the LED . This should heat the soldering pad to the point where you can poke the pad with a bit of solder and a little drop of solder will flow onto the pad, then remove the soldering iron .
Clean the tip, re-tin the tip, then apply it to the end of your wire, touch the end of the wire with a bit of solder when the wire is hot and a tiny amount should flow (sort of wick itself up onto) the wire . Clean and re-tin the soldering tip . Then put the LED down somewhere stable and, with your iron in one hand and your wire in the other hand, touch the iron down to the pad on the LED until the solder that you put on the pad re-liquifies, then push the tip of your wire into that little pool of solder . Keep it there for just a moment and you'll see the heat beginning to spread to the wire and the solder you've already applied to the wire should appear to fully 'join' with the solder on the pad . Then just hold the wire in place and remove the soldering tip ... and you should have a soldered wire . If you leave a huge pointy mountain of solder when you pull the iron off, you're using too much .

I would also like to add the proper way to "store" the iron when down. After you have finished soldering, take a bunch of solder and apply it to the tip. Then turn the iron off and allow it to cool w/ the solder blob on the tip.

You do this so the oxidation occurs on the solder and NOT on the tip of the iron.

I made a quick video of me soldering the same thing as you are trying to do...

I tinned both wires, not shown in video but I put extra solder on the solder pads on the LED waffer, then I held the tinned wire on the solder on the waffer with the iron until it all flowed. Hold the wire there and remove the iron letting it cool enough for the solder to harden. Then do the other one.



Picture of it done. Not the neatest soldering by any means but it will hold and do what you are looking to do.

And for those who have experience soldering, yes I have soldered and unsoldered a lot of wires to the chip, which is why the board looks like it has been through soldering hell....it has.

Nice job Corv ! Score for the helpful Oz community .

Lots of great info. guys. I would just like to add that I really like this stuff.


I use it all the time and it really keeps your iron nice,plus makes soldering much easier.
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2062721

has anyone here tried the Oz soldering iron / gun would this be good enough to get this job done????

also, I found a glue that can be used to glue and conducts electric flow.. anything negative to say about useing that stuff???

I don't see why the iron wouldn't work. It's prolly very low power but for basic LED stuff I'm sure it'll work good.

Adhesive technology is really moving right now. I'm sure the conductive adhesive will work but I still use (and will continue to use) solder.

Thanks everyone for the help with this situation.. cant wait to get my lights installed and continue my project.. this road block drove me insane but i'm sure Ill get passed it with this help..

ordering Oz soldering iron now.