Soldering Wire To Cree

[dom]

Hi
I'm sure alot of us have had solder sticking to the dome ring on the Cree emitter when putting wire on there.

I was going to,and still might, make up some teflon caps to use.

In the meantime here is an easy solution -especially if your hands are shaking
and you've borrowed your Grandpa's old iron and lost your glasses

Grab some teflon or plumbers tape -the really flimsy stuff -as that wraps around the dome ring easier.
Fold it in half lengthways and give it a couple wraps around the ring.

One mummified Cree

Solder away with confidence

Cheers
Dom

 

[nanotech17]

:thanks:

 

[LukeA]

Looks good.

Wouldn't aluminum foil work too?

 

[dom]

Hi Luke

I just tried some foil then.
You might get it on with a bit of patience.

Using the tape it hooks under the ring as you wrap it around.

Cheers
Dom

 

[rizky_p]

i am using kapton.

 

[dom]

Thanks rizky_p
How do you make it stay on there?
I don't think i've seen kapton tape before -though i know it's used for high temp isolation and such.

Cheers
Dom

 

[koala]

The teflon tape is a good idea, very thin and easily available. Not messy to work with, easy to apply. IMHO better than Kapton tape.

Hi Dom,
A 6.5mm heatshrink will also work if you press it down while heating it. It's a tight fit but it will slide in with some pressure.

If you need some kapton tape, send a SASE to me I'll post you some.

If you choose to go the DX route, make sure you buy the Koptan (yes spelt that way) 300C tape. I stick it to a plastic card then tried burning it with my soldering iron, the plastic card under the tape melted but the tape remains okay. But I am not sure how well these clone tapes last.

Apple computer engineers(or whoever the ODM) like to use Kapton in their portable devices and so do other notebook manufacturers. Kapton is also used to make flexible circuit boards, commonly found in cdrom and hard drives, where the read head moves back and fro.

PM me if you want to try some.
Vince.

Thanks rizky_p
How do you make it stay on there?
I don't think i've seen kapton tape before -though i know it's used for high temp isolation and such.

Cheers
Dom

 

[rizky_p]

Thanks rizky_p
How do you make it stay on there?
I don't think i've seen kapton tape before -though i know it's used for high temp isolation and such.

Cheers
Dom

It sticks to the Cree metal rings easily. I havent use teflon tape, could be better.

 

[cmacclel]

If you accidently touch the ring with solder it will come right off when it cools unless you actually heating the ring up to the point where solder would melt on it and actually stick.

I have soldered hundreds of cree's and every once in a while this would happen. After the solder cools I grab my exacto knife and it comes right off.

The xr-e domes are SUPER SENSITIVE! I personally do not even want to breath on them let alone put tape on them

Mac

 

[dom]

Hmm -so rizky_p has some sticky kapton -sounds good as well.

Koala has shrinkwrap and some good ol' koptan -more good ideas.

And Mac has nothing to bring to the party except mega experience.:thumbsup:
I have only had the solder stick on bad once -and that was enough for me.

It flowed under the dome and wasn't coming out in a hurry -though i did eventually get it out.

Thanks for the offer Vince -if i ever think of a use for the "koptan" ,i'll take you up on your offer -that DX stuff does look pretty good.

Edit: When the tape wraps around -it only puts pressure on the ring and sits loose where the dome is -so there's no pressure on it.

Cheers
Dom