I'm trying to replace the XM-L driver on my previous project, each time I move to re-position the soldered wire on the driver board, it comes off, I'm a newbie in soldering... anyway I can reinforce the soldered wire with silicone caulk ? i' did a search on the forum , it shows none.... can anyone of our gurus advice me...many thanks and have a great day.... smilyize
silicone caulk to secure soldered wire on XM-L driver ...pls. advice
- Thread starter smilyize
- Start date
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Just solder it right the first time. There is no band-aid for a bad solder joint.
Steps to soldering:
1. Don't use a "cold heat" soldering iron
2. Use 60/40 or 63/37 rosin core solder (not lead free or silver solder)
3. Apply a little solder to the tip of the iron. This is called "tinning". If the tip doesn't tin, then it's junk and needs to be replaced.
4. Tin the wire in question, and if the wire is to be connected to a solder pad, tin that too. If the wire is going into a hole, then don't tin the hole.
5. Put the wire in position on top of what it needs to be soldered to.
6. Apply the iron to the wire and add a little solder
7. Remove the solder before the iron. When the iron is removed and the solder cools, the joint should be smooth and shiny. If not, try again.
8. More solder does not equal better. If you apply too much, use solder wick to remove the excess solder.
9. Practice practice practice.
Steps to soldering:
1. Don't use a "cold heat" soldering iron
2. Use 60/40 or 63/37 rosin core solder (not lead free or silver solder)
3. Apply a little solder to the tip of the iron. This is called "tinning". If the tip doesn't tin, then it's junk and needs to be replaced.
4. Tin the wire in question, and if the wire is to be connected to a solder pad, tin that too. If the wire is going into a hole, then don't tin the hole.
5. Put the wire in position on top of what it needs to be soldered to.
6. Apply the iron to the wire and add a little solder
7. Remove the solder before the iron. When the iron is removed and the solder cools, the joint should be smooth and shiny. If not, try again.
8. More solder does not equal better. If you apply too much, use solder wick to remove the excess solder.
9. Practice practice practice.
To add to the above post, when soldering the wire to the surface heat the wire and the surface together at the same time. Also flux paste makes a huge difference, use a small amount on your wire and surface before applying your solder.
LilKevin715
Enlightened
As others have mentioned practice is key...
For some situations a Helping Hands can be useful
, assuming your soldering skills are decent.
For some situations a Helping Hands can be useful
, assuming your soldering skills are decent.HarryN
Flashlight Enthusiast
I also have trouble soldering using wire, but have found a few very helpful things.
a) The solder joint is an electrical joint, not a mechanical joint. You need both to make things really sit still and be reliable. Depending on if there is room or not, sometimes there is a way to mechanically clamp down the wire (crimp) or epoxy part of it down. (insulatin, not the copper) Sometimes, there is a way to drill through the driver board near the joint so the wire is really held down, or even use a small screw.
b) There is nothing more annoying for me than trying to solder with wire, especially small areas. Save yourself some headaches and switch to solder paste. You just blob it on cold, and when things get hot, it just goes magically to the right place.
c) Pre-clean with pharmacy grade rubbing alcohol - great stuff, strong joints.
d) The EU wants people to use Pb free solder, but I can tell you from experience, Pb based solders tend to be a lot more forgiving as far as temperature range tolerance, etc.
a) The solder joint is an electrical joint, not a mechanical joint. You need both to make things really sit still and be reliable. Depending on if there is room or not, sometimes there is a way to mechanically clamp down the wire (crimp) or epoxy part of it down. (insulatin, not the copper) Sometimes, there is a way to drill through the driver board near the joint so the wire is really held down, or even use a small screw.
b) There is nothing more annoying for me than trying to solder with wire, especially small areas. Save yourself some headaches and switch to solder paste. You just blob it on cold, and when things get hot, it just goes magically to the right place.
c) Pre-clean with pharmacy grade rubbing alcohol - great stuff, strong joints.
d) The EU wants people to use Pb free solder, but I can tell you from experience, Pb based solders tend to be a lot more forgiving as far as temperature range tolerance, etc.
Soldering is a skill. I have had to resolder many badly soldered joints on electrical items coming from China. These have been soldered by 'professional' workers whoes job it is to solder all day, and they still get it wrong. This is not to bad mouth Chinese manufacturing, only that they seems to be making most of the inexpensive electrical items you can get.
I have found the best investment I ever made was in a 50W variable temperature solder station. The 15W or 25W soldering irons that take 20 minutes to get up to temperature are next to useless and make the whole process painful. What you need with soldering is quick heat transfer to get the contacts up to temperature and to melt the solder so it flows properly into the joint. Solding irons that struggle to provide enough heat make you apply them for far longer and struggle to make the joint good. These cheaper soldering irons also risk more damage to surrounding components as you have to keep it applied for a long time which also heats up the surrounding area as well as the joint. This becomes particularly obvious with larger gauge wiring which itself acts like a heat sink. You need more power, the larger the wire/component you are soldering. For some heavier gauge wiring I use a 100W solder gun. This heats up in about 3s from cold and has done all of the larger jobs I have needed to do.
So the right tool really does make a difference.
evilc66 has made some good points. To expand on one, the tinned tip of the iron helps provide a better heat transfer to the components, much better than a dry tip. If the tip does not tin, you can sometimes recover these by filing the surface to reveal fresh metal and quickly apply solder to this to tin it.
I also use pre-fluxed solder, where the flux is incorporated into the solder wire, exclusively for electrical soldering.
Use these all the time. Invaluable.
I would disagree with one point HarryN raised. There are many cases where solder joints are mechanical, such as connectors mounted to circuit boards (USB, power ect), so the strength of the joint is critical. A 'dry' solder joint can in fact make electrical contact and a device can work (though usually with intermittent problems), making sure it is a well prepared and properly solders joint where the solder has flowed all through the joint will make it electrically and mechanically reliable. Mechanically reliable is important for durability and shock resistance.
Good luck and never settle for a badly soldered joint.
I have found the best investment I ever made was in a 50W variable temperature solder station. The 15W or 25W soldering irons that take 20 minutes to get up to temperature are next to useless and make the whole process painful. What you need with soldering is quick heat transfer to get the contacts up to temperature and to melt the solder so it flows properly into the joint. Solding irons that struggle to provide enough heat make you apply them for far longer and struggle to make the joint good. These cheaper soldering irons also risk more damage to surrounding components as you have to keep it applied for a long time which also heats up the surrounding area as well as the joint. This becomes particularly obvious with larger gauge wiring which itself acts like a heat sink. You need more power, the larger the wire/component you are soldering. For some heavier gauge wiring I use a 100W solder gun. This heats up in about 3s from cold and has done all of the larger jobs I have needed to do.
So the right tool really does make a difference.
evilc66 has made some good points. To expand on one, the tinned tip of the iron helps provide a better heat transfer to the components, much better than a dry tip. If the tip does not tin, you can sometimes recover these by filing the surface to reveal fresh metal and quickly apply solder to this to tin it.
I also use pre-fluxed solder, where the flux is incorporated into the solder wire, exclusively for electrical soldering.
As others have mentioned practice is key...
For some situations a Helping Hands can be useful
Use these all the time. Invaluable.
I would disagree with one point HarryN raised. There are many cases where solder joints are mechanical, such as connectors mounted to circuit boards (USB, power ect), so the strength of the joint is critical. A 'dry' solder joint can in fact make electrical contact and a device can work (though usually with intermittent problems), making sure it is a well prepared and properly solders joint where the solder has flowed all through the joint will make it electrically and mechanically reliable. Mechanically reliable is important for durability and shock resistance.
Good luck and never settle for a badly soldered joint.
DIWdiver
Flashlight Enthusiast
Lots of good advice, but a couple of points I disagree with.
Most soldering iron tips should NEVER be filed or treated with anything abrasive. The reason is that the tip is a copper core with an iron coating. The copper is for good thermal conductivity, and the iron is to protect the copper from the solder. You see, copper dissolves in molten solder. If you remove the iron coating, or even puncture it, the copper will rapidly disappear!
If you are having trouble getting a good joint, it's probably because you can't get enough heat into the star, which is designed to suck heat away as rapidly as possible. You want as much of the tip in contact with the pad as possible. It's best to contact both the pad and the wire at the same time, with a tinned tip, to get the best heat transfer. Putting the tip on top of the wire will make it harder to heat the pad sufficiently.
And to address the OP's original question, yes and no. You shouldn't reinforce the finished solder joint, you should secure the wire near, but not on the joint. It's actually best if you do it before making the solder joint, to ensure there's no residual stress in the joint. And use something more rigid than silicone. At work we use Locktite 444 cyanoacrylate on small wires (usually 20-30 ga.) and a special epoxy on larger things. We also use a urethane adhesive that remains flexible, but much harder than any silicone I've seen. It's similar to AquaSeal or Goop. Unfortunately it takes hours to dry, and I can't remember what it's called.
I'd recommend you go to the local hardware store and ask for a thixotropic epoxy (one that won't run). You might try epoxy putty, but I'd guess it won't be sticky enough.
Most soldering iron tips should NEVER be filed or treated with anything abrasive. The reason is that the tip is a copper core with an iron coating. The copper is for good thermal conductivity, and the iron is to protect the copper from the solder. You see, copper dissolves in molten solder. If you remove the iron coating, or even puncture it, the copper will rapidly disappear!
If you are having trouble getting a good joint, it's probably because you can't get enough heat into the star, which is designed to suck heat away as rapidly as possible. You want as much of the tip in contact with the pad as possible. It's best to contact both the pad and the wire at the same time, with a tinned tip, to get the best heat transfer. Putting the tip on top of the wire will make it harder to heat the pad sufficiently.
And to address the OP's original question, yes and no. You shouldn't reinforce the finished solder joint, you should secure the wire near, but not on the joint. It's actually best if you do it before making the solder joint, to ensure there's no residual stress in the joint. And use something more rigid than silicone. At work we use Locktite 444 cyanoacrylate on small wires (usually 20-30 ga.) and a special epoxy on larger things. We also use a urethane adhesive that remains flexible, but much harder than any silicone I've seen. It's similar to AquaSeal or Goop. Unfortunately it takes hours to dry, and I can't remember what it's called.
I'd recommend you go to the local hardware store and ask for a thixotropic epoxy (one that won't run). You might try epoxy putty, but I'd guess it won't be sticky enough.
HarryN
Flashlight Enthusiast
Subwoofer, your explanation about "electrical joint" / "mechanical joint" was much better than mine.
What I should have said is that it is risky to assume that a free floating wire soldered to a surface mount copper pad is a good, strong, vibration tolerant mechanical joint, sufficent to prevent the wire (or pad) from tearing off perpendicular to the board. It can be done, but it requires some real care, skill, and tools, that a beginner might not have.
The advantage of mechanically tying down the wire is also that it will be less likely to move during the soldering process.
A good solder paste solves soooo many problem.
What I should have said is that it is risky to assume that a free floating wire soldered to a surface mount copper pad is a good, strong, vibration tolerant mechanical joint, sufficent to prevent the wire (or pad) from tearing off perpendicular to the board. It can be done, but it requires some real care, skill, and tools, that a beginner might not have.
The advantage of mechanically tying down the wire is also that it will be less likely to move during the soldering process.
A good solder paste solves soooo many problem.
bshanahan14rulz
Flashlight Enthusiast
Random bits snipped.
1. about cyanoacrylate, often will outgas. Avoid it around lenses, or ensure proper curing before introducing optical components into the fray.
2. story about copper in soldering iron tip. I had a cheapo radiohut pencil iron, and one day, a side of the tip just caved in. apparently, the coating had oxidized enough to let the solder contact the inner core of the tip. Also, somebody left it plugged in for a few hours on accident >.>
Hashime
Newly Enlightened
I am a fan of epoxy for potting.
If you want to increase the mechanical strength of the solder joint just blob some 5 minute stuff on there and you will be good to go.
If you want to increase the mechanical strength of the solder joint just blob some 5 minute stuff on there and you will be good to go.
DellSuperman
Flashlight Enthusiast
I use Fujik paste for my potting needs.
I feel that when applied properly, it does help increase the strength of the joint which will in turn increase the robustness of the devices.
So far, the only negative point i can say about potting is when you need to remove them. The process is a slow & painful. Haha..
- JonK
I feel that when applied properly, it does help increase the strength of the joint which will in turn increase the robustness of the devices.
So far, the only negative point i can say about potting is when you need to remove them. The process is a slow & painful. Haha..
- JonK
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