Hello everyone,
I have skillet reflow soldered leds to star boards a couple times but they have always been 3w chines style leds. I am now looking to use a little higher quality leds such as the luxeon rebel.
My method for attaching the china leds has worked but is a little different from any other methods i have read about as i dont use solder paste. In my method I pre tin the pads on the star boards with rosin core wire solder and a soldering iron. The amount has to be just right forming a smooth flat pillow look and then i add just a little extra flux/rosin afterwards. Then balance/set the led over the pre tinned pads and set it on the skillet over a hot plate. Then slowly turn up the heat watching it with a laser temp gun to be sure i dont crank it up to fast (generally pre heat for 1.5 minutes till it reaches about 140*C). I then crank the heat up so that the solder melts and sucks the led down (this generally takes about 15-20 seconds and happens around 180*C).
So my question is, does anyone see any reason why this method wouldnt work with smaller surface mount style leds such as a luxeon rebel? I feel the most difficult part would be pre soldering the star boards with just the right touch of rosin core wire solder. If done properly i would think it should still work. I dont have any solder paste, it seems expensive, has a shelf life, messy, and to many kinds to know what to buy. What are your guys thoughts? Thanks
I have skillet reflow soldered leds to star boards a couple times but they have always been 3w chines style leds. I am now looking to use a little higher quality leds such as the luxeon rebel.
My method for attaching the china leds has worked but is a little different from any other methods i have read about as i dont use solder paste. In my method I pre tin the pads on the star boards with rosin core wire solder and a soldering iron. The amount has to be just right forming a smooth flat pillow look and then i add just a little extra flux/rosin afterwards. Then balance/set the led over the pre tinned pads and set it on the skillet over a hot plate. Then slowly turn up the heat watching it with a laser temp gun to be sure i dont crank it up to fast (generally pre heat for 1.5 minutes till it reaches about 140*C). I then crank the heat up so that the solder melts and sucks the led down (this generally takes about 15-20 seconds and happens around 180*C).
So my question is, does anyone see any reason why this method wouldnt work with smaller surface mount style leds such as a luxeon rebel? I feel the most difficult part would be pre soldering the star boards with just the right touch of rosin core wire solder. If done properly i would think it should still work. I dont have any solder paste, it seems expensive, has a shelf life, messy, and to many kinds to know what to buy. What are your guys thoughts? Thanks