Soldering a Luxeon K2 to MCPCB help

[POH]

I'm working on attaching a K2 LED to a MCPCB for a new light and did not realize that these are to be done using flow soldering. I have no access to flow solder hdw so I'll take a shot at doing it by hand. Though if anyone has successfully done this I'd like your thoughts.


The MCPCB is small - does anyone see any issue if I first put solder on the contact points on the MCPCB (hand solder that is and not flow). Then place the led in place and while holding it with tweezers solder each of the 4 LED leads down by heating them with the solder iron and pressing down on the previously soldered contact point? I got this idea from looking at how they flow solder them as they place the paste down first.

Or is it better to just place the LED on the MCPCB and solder it in one shot?

As this LED has 4 tabs (2 anode and 2 cathode) does it matter it I end up soldering the 2 anodes together and the 2 cathodes together?

I would use no clean flux on the MCPCB and LED leads and preclean the MCPCB.

 

[unterhausen]

I've never done it, but since nobody answered you, I'll take a shot at it. The best way involves paste solder. Since you probably don't have that, I might try laying down some solder by hand, fluxing it, and then using an electric frying pan for a heat source. You might want to look on the sparkfun site about smd soldering.

 

[POH]

Thanks unterhausen. I took a stab at hand soldering the K2 LED to the MCPCB and it worked perfectly. I ended up doing both LEDs I had to seperate MCPCB's. The trick was to put the flux on the MCPCB then put the LED on the MCPCB.

Using the soldering iron I placed the tip on a connector to heat it up for 10 seconds or so and then applied a small amount of solder to the iron tip (not the lead of the LED) and the flux did the work of pulling it where it was needed.

 

[meatynugget]

Did you solder both tabs???