Thermal glue instead of solder?

[gcbryan]

I think I know the answer to this question but I'll ask it anyway...

Is there any glue that can do the same job as solder? For those who aren't patient enough or who don't have the fine motor skills to solder small parts is it possible to modify a light (change emitter and driver) without soldering and using only glue?

If not why not?

Thanks.

 

[Th232]

There are electrically conductive epoxies, but they're still much more resistive than solder the last time I checked. Higher resistance means greater power losses. They're also a lot more expensive.

Also, I think you'd need to be more patient with glue, solder joins solidify in a few seconds, I expect a glue would take much longer to dry/cure. You'd still need a very small blob of glue, so I don't see how fine motor skills would change between using glue or solder?

 

[Stephen Wallace]

And with regards to thermal glue specifically, it is actually a very good insulator - it conducts heat, but not electricity.

 

[kuksul08]

Learn to solder

I foudn it very frustrating at first. Make sure you're using rosin flux core eutectic solder and a look up guides online. Totally worth it.

 

[JacobJones]

After a bit of practise soldering is easy, one of my first attempts at soldering involved melting a luxeon and accidently rearanging the components on a driver. But if everything is prepared properly and you are carefull to keep the soldering iron away from the components except for the very tip it shouldn't be too hard.

For attaching an led to the heatsink you can use thermal adhesive instead of reflow soldering, that's what I do.

 

[HotWire]

Get a good quality soldering iron and some old wire and circuit boards. Once you practice you'll find it easy--maybe even fun. Soldering is a good life-skill to have.

 

[kuksul08]

reflow soldering is actually quite easy - something you can do at home using solder paste