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  • Author Author: ntewinkel
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Soldering a tiny LED using a Digital Microscope

ntewinkel

In an earlier blog post, I mentioned my new tech toy: a relatively affordable little 7" digital microscope I bought on Amazon.

 

A few people were curious as to how effective my new little digital "Koolertron" microscope would be for soldering.

As some people in the past have mentioned, digital microscopes can have a bit of lag which can make doing anything like soldering impossible or at least terribly annoying.

I've actually found it to be quite nice to use. Now, I'm no expert, so others with quicker reflexes might feel lag that I don't notice image

 

So I took some video of my very shaky attempt at soldering a tiny smd. I think it's 0402 ? it's smaller than the 0603 ones that were marked. In any case, at one point I obviously thought it was a good idea to buy some impossibly tiny smd LEDs for some future impossibly tiny projects. Life lessons abound.

 

Here are a few more learning opportunities that I will share right now, as I made several mistakes in this soldering project that made things very difficult:

1. solder flux. sigh. don't forget the flux, even on those little parts. especially on those little parts

2. find a way to secure the little parts, or else they will just stick to the solder on the iron.

 

That explains the burnt look on the finished LED image

 

In any case, I eventually saw the folly of my ways and life got easier. I'll spare you the very frustrating parts, and just share a few short videos so you can kind of see it in action.

 

The result worked out well enough, though it wasn't pretty image

image

 

I use magnet wire with smd LEDs for use in art type projects, as the wire is much thinner than regular type wire, and the lacquer coating keeps it from shorting out.

I find it easiest to just burn off some of the lacquer at the spots you need to solder or connect to battery.

 

Bit of an intro/overview first:

 

Here is my messy attempt. it's cool to see how much messier things are when they are enlarged with the microscope image

I think this might have been try number 5 or so, after the forgotten flux and the silly attempt at loose soldering.

 

And finally, showing the LED actually working - success!!

 

Cheers,

-Nico

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