Can soldering your emitter change the tint color??

Can soldering you emitter to the power cable change the tint of the beam?....My soldering skill is not something that I'm proud off /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif. If I spent too much time soldering the emitter would I kill it?... The emitter supposed to be a Lux3 TWOL...shouldn't have any green tint. But the green tint is really noticeable.

I've taken out a new emitter of the same binned. This time I didn't solder it in, just enough to make contact with the cables. Once the reflector put in place the colour of the tint is about the same (green tint). If non soldering produce the same green tint, I guess soldering don't make any diffence in tint colour. Can DB917 make the emitter to have green tint or I've got a really bad batch of TWOL?

Can somebody out there confirm this please.

Oh lastly...any hint for a novice like me to make soldering a little bit easier?? cos the solder don't stick to whatever it is I'm soldering...it always turn out as a bubble shape and I have to work it out so it can stick. This is why it took me quite a while to solder stuff....

Any input will be much appreciated /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

I think the most important thing to remember when soldering is to ALWAYS make sure your contacts are clean and ALWAYS use soldering flux. It's a corrosive paste that will ensure a perfect solder almost everytime, if you use paste you will not need to use very much heat at all in order to make a very nice bond. I'm no pro, but when i'm soldering an emitter i put some flux on both contacts and then melt some solder onto the tip of my iron so that it is slightly dripping, then just touch it to your contact and it should instantly bond to both parts. By doing this you don't have to leave the iron on the emitter for more then a second. Hope this helps. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbsup.gif

Re: Can soldering your emitter change the tint col

I use pretty much the exact same technique as DaMeatMan, it works very well. Always use flux of some kind, it makes soldering 10 times easier.

Re: Can soldering your emitter change the tint col

Could be the amount of current you are putting through it. Usually, underdriven Luxes have greenish tints that turn white when the amps are cranked up.

Re: Can soldering your emitter change the tint col

DaMeatMan, Robban ... thanks for the soldering tips, I'll go to my local electronic shop and look for this flux /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbsup.gif

MTFD17 ... I use L4 body with the McLux PR-T (DB917 and what supposed to be LuxIII TWOL). That should provide enough juice to run the McLux head right???…
If I somehow killed the DB board that means the LuxIII TWOL is direct driven with a 6V batteries…no??

Re: Can soldering your emitter change the tint col

BajaiMan - if you are indeed driving it at 917mA and the unsoldered one is the same color as the soldered, and you are using "bare" emitters (no Star backing plate to check for reference of the actual Bin Code), then it is possible you may not have WOs to begin with...lotta if's in this scenario though.

Re: Can soldering your emitter change the tint col

Thanks for the reply MrBulk….is there anyway that I can tell if its actually a TWOL instead of a *V1* or a *V0* ?? I checked for any sign from the emitter but I couldn't really find where it says TWOL…
If its actually come from a TWOL binned what other factor that it could give a green tint apart from under driven?…

Re: Can soldering your emitter change the tint col

NO no no your solder flux should NEVER be a corrosive acid solder flux! Save that for soldering pipes! Read the labels.

All electronics should be soldered with a non-corrosive solder flux. Many (most?) wire solders made for electronics do NOT need an external flux. The wire solder has an internal core made of a rosin flux.

Kester and others make a good flux core solders, it should be 60/40 sixty percent tin/forty percent lead or 37/63 or something in that range or even have a couple percent silver and still have a low melt point.

GregR

Re: Can soldering your emitter change the tint col

I've just checked my solder wire…it doesn't have any flux in them (I can't see any hole in the middle of cross section of the wire)… no wonder it won't stick. I've just bought myself a Lead free soldering wire and this one got a flux in them already. Just bought a flux pen too just incase. I'll give it a try later on tonite….thanks for the tips guys… /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbsup.gif

Still I need more input in general whether soldering can/might kill the emitter because of the high temp of the solder when the iron tip touch the emitter power connection bits.

Re: Can soldering your emitter change the tint col

rosin flux is not the same as acid core solder.
rosin flux is great for bigger connections

Re: Can soldering your emitter change the tint col

I use apply liquid flux with a small brush; works wonders! Using flux really did the trick for me. See this thread for more tips and some external links. Googling for "soldering tips" worked for me. G'luck.

Re: Can soldering your emitter change the tint col

I have been soldering for 24 years.
a friend of mine gave me a weller wtcps.
It is great It is 60 watt and the tips control the temp.
just like the old ones at work.
I should have bought one for at home years ago.

Re: Can soldering your emitter change the tint col

dont hold the iron onto the luxeon for longer than 5 seconds or it may burn up