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Blog BYOB Party #10 - Re-flow Soldering for Custom Neopixel displays
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  • Author Author: Robert Peter Oakes
  • Date Created: 2 Jan 2015 8:44 AM Date Created
  • Views 1436 views
  • Likes 3 likes
  • Comments 6 comments
  • iot_holidaylights
  • tutorials
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  • reflow_oven
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BYOB Party #10 - Re-flow Soldering for Custom Neopixel displays

Robert Peter Oakes
Robert Peter Oakes
2 Jan 2015

Back to primary BLOG BYOB Party #1, "Bring you own Bulbs" - The Internet of Holiday Lights

 

 

This is a quick blog to share my experience with trying to solder some WS2812 6pin LED chips onto my custom boards

 

I have about 14 strips to solder up and each strip contains 10 LED modules, the last time I tried to solder these, I had more fail than ended up on the board so I was determined to find a better way

 

So what I have is this

 

TEFAL Convection toaster oven I picked up new but on a big time sale at the local hardware store

image

Tubes of Solder paste

imageimage

bunch of WS2812 LEDs to solder that are a PITB to solder by hand

image

NO Stencil for for the soldering image

 

bunch of boards waiting for the LEDS

image

 

So I have been meaning to give the Oven a try after I had converted the controller to something designed for re-flow, alas time was against me so I decided to see how easy it is without all the fancy controls

 

Well as it turned out and as you will see in the video, it was actually quite easy (Well the re-flow part anyway), the application of the solder paste was a pain without a solder mask and my first attempts with a small flat screwdriver ended up with loads of bridges I had to clean up with solder wick

 

Second attempy was using an old needle from an INK refill system I had long abandoned but happened to fit nicely onto the end of the syringe containing the solder, it took some strength to squeeze it out of he tube with it did allow much finer control of the application, more practice is needed though to get proficient at it.

 

At the end of the day, the effort was worth it and I now have six boards competed with seven more to do and only had a few bridges on the second attempt which was 5 strips at once

 

I have one faulty LED where the red led is not working, once im done with the remaining board, if i have spare LEDs i will replace it, till then it will have to stay

 

this is the heat profile I used, simply the timer on my camera and an Agilent DMM with a thermocouple, very easy and simple to repeat

image

 

 

here is the video

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and thats all there is too it, now to get the next party goer kitted out for the pending bash

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  • ipv1
    ipv1 over 10 years ago

    Another thing added to my to-do list... "Make a DIY reflow oven".

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  • clem57
    clem57 over 10 years ago

    I now see why better to get these pre soldered! Thanks for the lesson.

     

    Clem

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  • Robert Peter Oakes
    Robert Peter Oakes over 10 years ago in reply to DAB

    I hear ya, I make extensive use of Magnifiers and Macro Lenses to see what im doing image

     

    Were not spring chickens any more image

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  • DAB
    DAB over 10 years ago

    Nice Post Peter.

     

    I have to confess, my eyesight is not good enough for me to play with these SMT devices.

     

    Luckily I still have a fair cache of older technology, though the markings are a little fuzzy without my trusty magnifier. image

     

    DAB

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  • Robert Peter Oakes
    Robert Peter Oakes over 10 years ago in reply to shabaz

    yup, I tried once before and it was a disaster, those LED chips are very fragile and in tolerant to heat, an iron is out of the question to solder them, hot air soldering station is OK but the re-flow worked out to be easiest and the most reliable, now just got to practice applying the paste image

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