144/m LED strips, soldering issues

1

Hi all,

Hoping someone here can give me some tips or pointers for soldering the pesky 144/m WS2812s. I keep killing them! Even having trouble just tinning the tips prior to joining them, solder doesn’t want to stick :frowning:

I’ve got a pretty decent soldering iron with digital temperature control, a number of tips, and I’m using 0.71 rosin core solder.

Anyone grappled with soldering these before?

Cheers,
Shaun.

2

Hi Shaun,

I’ve soldered those strips many times and it’s never easy! This is a good guide:

https://www.ecolocityled.com/category/led_tutorials_rgb_solder

To tin the pads, you need to:
Tin your iron slightly, heat the pad, touch your solder to the heated pad.

If you just put solder on the iron tip it will not leave the iron to stick to the strip. You need to melt the solder directly onto the strip pad. All this needs to be done quickly or the strip will become damaged by the heat. Your iron should be about 330 degrees.

Let me know if that helps!

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Thanks for the link Stephen. I’ll have a another crack!

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