Celica Forums General Discussion General Soldering help

Stupid question: How do you "unsolder" LEDs?

lol dome light conversion gone awry, kristin? j/k j/k..hope it turns out all right.

anyway, to unsolder..just use the soldering gun tip withOUT the sauter to heat the solder back up. when its hot enough it'll melt more and you can remove whatever it was that you soldered in the first place

LOL, nah, just wanted to make sure I know what I'm doin before I do it LOL. I'm doing the LED's on the circuit board too.

Another stupid question, when I do get around to soldering the circuit board, do I use some special metal soldering stuff and where do I get it, same place I got the gun from?

Thanks!

kristin

radio shack will have all you need. Get some thinner solder, it will melt faster and won't cause a big mess. People use flux too. It helps the solder spread better, but with small LED's you prob. don't want that. Just be careful not to heat up any board too much, it can cause cracks within the circuit board you cant see, then you have stuff that doesn't work. Good luck!!

as psquared already said..all you need is a solder gone and some sauter, it should be in the same place as the guns..it looks basically like metal wire wrapped around a spool (like thread..just with metal instead)

If the LED has two points soldered on either side, it's easer to use 2 irons, If not use a bulb to suck the hot solder out of the connection. Then upon Install new solder is added to replace the old, that was sucked out.

http://www.action-electronics.com/weguns.htm

Don't use this ^^

Use this -> http://www.seas.upenn.edu/ese/rca/funstuff/soldering/soldering.html

Cool, thanks for all the info and the link to that site everyone! Hey Psquared, can't I use a heat sinc for the board if I'm worried about it heating up?

use an iron that has a very fine tip and is really hot. ive seen many connections ruin joints further down the circuit. i use a weller 40 watt iron and some solder braid to a absorb melted solder. just work quick.

hmmm so if I've never done this before...do you guys think it'd be best for me to do some smaller projects myself before attempting the LEDs on the circuit board? Circuit City said they would do it...

What are you doing, the radio? I did all 47 LEDs red in about 2 hours. You can do it! If you can get Circuit City to teach you that would be even better!

Nah, I have an aftermarket radio with the color scheme I'm going for on the interior as far as lights go I'm changing all the gauge display LEDs on the dash and also doing a LED dome light conversion...

Not sure if Circuit City will "teach" me LOL. I wanted to do it on my own, I have several guys in the family that can do it, but it's just something I wanted to work on on my own I don't like others touching my car..that way if I mess up, I'm only pissed off at myself LOL.

im a radio tech for the Marines ,all i do all day is solder, ok. soldering steps...the basics

things you need, soldering iron, solder, eye protection, a solder sucker, either a flat head screwdriver or a dental pick. ok first off heat your soldering iron up,put eye protection on, PUT SMALL AMOUT OF SOLDER ON SOLDERING IRON,( this helps the old solder on the circuit card heat up and melt).once the solder on the circuit card is melted, use the solder sucker to suck up all solder on the point your unsoldering.

repeat for the other side,remove old led. if your holes are covered at all you can use the dental pick to clear the way, its also useful to pry the unsoldered led point from the circuit card. Insert your new led. bend edges on circuit board, ok apply solder to iron. soldering iron on left side of point,hold a piecs fo solder on right side of point. touch both to circuit card point at same time till solder melts on point, there ya go.

Thanks for the great info bolducda! I'll let you all know how it goes

--Kristin

looking foward to seeing how it comes out for ya!

LOL yeah, me too