Connecting strips

[Porsche]

Hi guys, can I have a few ideas of how others connect strips together. see attached.

I seem to be a bit hit and miss connecting these. maybe I need a smaller solder tip and connect small wires between. Sometimes I just burn them out and its a solder nightmare.
Or do I just need to practice on my solder skills, maybe a smaller tips maybe be the trick?

Love to hear how other do it.

Cheers

 

[mborg10]

All of the above and you can get a variable temp soldering iron too. Or you can just get Ray wu to solder plugs on. Maybe practice on something a little less expensive like cut some wire with only a little cooper poking out.

I thought I could solder before but now I realize I was crap, still am, but getting better.

 

[logandc99]

Certainly having a decent soldering iron, nice fine tip and variable temp has helped me immensely. But there was one thing that really helped, and this may not apply to you, but I reaslied a lot of my crap soldering was due to poor vision of what I was doing and it wasn't until I used my wife's reading glasses that

a) i found out how bad my eyes now are for near vision (only ever used glasess for distance)
and
b) how using some magnifying glasses makes everything look so huge and suddenly you see nice big gaps between the solder points which makes it so much easier to not accidently spread solder from your 12v to your data points etc.

 

[David_AVD]

I now have this mental image of logandc99.

 

[logandc99]

I now have this mental image of logandc99.

Who gave you my photo!

 

[Habbosrus]

I plan to get a new, variable temp soldering iron in the new year (if the finance minister approves). I have been using a cheap 25w iron from ebay. I was given another soldering iron which was 40w. That was way too hot for joining strip and went back to the 25w. I found adding solder to each pad first and then simply running the solder between the 2 pads worked for me. The pads are only fine and don't require much heat at all. As Michael suggested, practice on some less expensive things. My soldering prowess is much the same as his, pretty crappy, but getting better.

 

[buzzdude]

Same here, a little solder on each pad and join with a little more. A very quick tap of the hot iron. No longer than second worked well. The tip of iron needed to be quite small. My 40w iron seemed to keep losing its fine tip, (wearing down) I so I used the bench grinder to get the point back. I got better the more I did.

 

[fasteddy]

Its all in the preparation

If it is solid silicone then you must make sure the solder pads are clean

apply a small amount of solder to the solder tip first then apply to the solder pad on the strip and add a slight bit more solder until you get good coverage of solder on the pad. Do this for each pad for both strips

Then use a cheap $10 component holder that allows you to hold the two pieces perfectly together and then apply the solder between the 2 pads. It takes some practice to get the right flow, but the better you prepare the easier this part is.

Just make sure you put the clear heat shrink on first before soldering and when soldered add a small dab of neutral cure non corrosive silicone and then shrink the heat shrink. you are then left with a clean and water tight repair

 

[Porsche]

Thanks heaps guys. some great tips. Off to the shops to get a decent soldering iron and a set of binoculars. hahaha.

and practice, practice.

Cheers

 

[livetoride]

What size roughly is a rgb strip for the clear heat shrink purpose? I cant find any of my measuring devices :/