[SHELVED] any way to hand solder this

Does anyone know if this IRLED can be soldered by hand i.e. with an iron, in some way?

I'm assuming that the joint is thermally important so I can't just solder wires onto it and treat it as through hole - is that correct?

Thanks

For prototyping? I would solder small pre-tinned wires on just as you suggest.

Thanks for your reply. Yes for prototyping. My thoughts were that even then it might not last five minutes if it's relying on the pads for heat dissipation. I know it's only a couple of quid and I can always just try it. Shame though if I blow it and then find someone knows a better tried and tested way.

I've had no success hand-soldering LEDs in that kind of package. I tried once, but all I did was ruin a bunch of LEDs.

I gave up and bought ones that came pre-soldered to heat-dissipating PCB (the aluminum backed kind).

Now that I have a reflow oven, I expect I could solder them on with that - but even so, if you want to blast them, you may be hard pressed to get enough heat dissipation.

I use high power LEDs in the bead package (that round white one with real leads), but you can't get all the best LEDs in that package.

if you run it at full power without a heat sink, you ARE going to blow it.

however, if you are intent upon murdering the emitter, use a low temp solder paste to limit the required heat/time.

If you want to be a little more merciful, you could etch a board with the suggested pad layout and attach your wire leads to that. it won't solve the entire operating heat problem, but it will help. could be even better to attach the pad base to a scrap piece of heatsink.

I hate to see innocent components suffer untimely deaths through neglignce, most of the time.....

It's not that I intended to hammer it. I expected it to get pretty darn hot even at say 75% power but then I don't actually know till I try it as I've never used them before. That said it looks like it's probably impractical.

Hand solder it to some heavy-gauge copper wire (1mm or so) and it will heatsink just fine into that.

// Per.

Zapro:
Hand solder it to some heavy-gauge copper wire (1mm or so) and it will heatsink just fine into that.

// Per.

Even on a 3W led?

That led is a monster - 1A at 3.x volts!

sometimes it's possible to solder SMD components with a normal soldering iron .
If heat is an issue use solders that have higher lead , or stick a heatsink with thermal paste silicon thingy , or give it less current . or all .

Aluminium cored PCB is normally used for that kind of package, which needs hot air or
reflow oven really since the entire board needs to come up to temperature during soldering.

Alternatively some bits of copper strip / sheet could be used.

Normally such high power LEDs are available on hexagonal aluminium PCB breakouts too.

yaafm:
Does anyone know if this IRLED can be soldered by hand i.e. with an iron, in some way?

I'm assuming that the joint is thermally important so I can't just solder wires onto it and treat it as through hole - is that correct?

Thanks

That's a 1 watt (radiant power output) infrared diode. What are you going to do with it other than blind yourself?

Thanks for the suggestions but as I said, I've now decided hand soldering is unlikely to be practical so I've shelved the idea for now. I'll probably switch to an array of through hole LEDs instead.

@Krupski - As you've asked so politely and without so much as a hint of condescension bless you, I was going to investigate whether it was suitable for flood for IR photography. :wink:

You could try soldering strips of copper foil to the back of the LED. Then stick it down with some thermal adhesive and solder to the extending strips. You can get a small amount of foil by peeling it off of an old PCB.

You can get an aluminum core pcb on eBay for them, and probably get the led pre soldered to one(I've found it harder to find leds in that package without the pcb base). That's what I'd do, since for your purpose, it sounds like you don't need it on a custom board or anything

Thanks

Can you link to one please? I found a few on ebay (uk) but they all have the wrong shaped pads AFAICT.
(This is still shelved for the moment but just for interest)