Hello,
I'm soldering 0402 leds with thin cables onto another small component. The cable has plastic covering it. Since the cable is so thin I'd like to know how people do these things.
Examples of what I'm doing.
Thank you
i remove isolation with finger nail
and solder thin wire to thick pads
or look at techniques for SMD
You can remove the insulation from the wires in any number of ways. The quick & dirty (literally) way is to touch the tip of the soldering iron to the insulation where you want it to 'cut' and melt it, then pull off the end. A fine wire stripper will also work, as will a utility knife and a gentle hand.
In the example you show I wouldn't solder to those narrow-pitched contacts but simply to the big ones that have the numbers next to them. Much easier.
If you absolutely must solder to the narrow-pitched row of contacts, use solid-core wire which naturally doesn't fray and cause shorts with adjacent pins. Tin the contacts a little, as well as the wire. Then put the tip of the iron on one end of the contact and place the wire in contact with the pad. The molten tin on the pad will melt the tin on the wire end. Take the soldering iron away and let the thing solidify.
If you have trouble soldering adjacent pads because they get all baked together, try applying a little solder mask paste to the contact you've already soldered and heat it up so it hardens out.
It's a bit of a chore but with a fine (1mm) tip on your soldering iron you'll get there. Keep some desoldering braid at hand, which is convenient to mop up wads of tin if you accidentally go overboard with it.
Good quality wire strippers
How to solder many very thin cables onto something.
Practice, practice, practice!
There also adjustable wire strippers that can be adjusted down to zero opening.
Wire wrap tool:
Cat 5-6 cabling: ~ 10 for $14.00
Always tin your wires.
Make wire solder connections on the other side of the PCB
If you solder to the rear of the connector / header. Do you then need to use such thin wire?
Hello! great! such awesome and informative responses. Thank you very much! I'll get to practicing with all theses methods.
I think this is very good idea for alining before soldering. I've been trying out methods for doing the following. @JohnRob, this is what it looks like on the other side:
I had forgotten to post a link to my project which is this one. That is why the cables are so small:
Thanks again 
You may save yourself a lot of time with addressable leds in 'christmas' configuration...
Did you consider fiber optic cable between display and addressable LEDs. (click the links)
An 8 x 8 square of addressable LEDs could give you 64 outputs.
Leo..
It is also worth looking at plugs and socket to achieve the connections
Does this mean like as a long addressable strip? I'll try one out. Any suggestion?
I have even less experience using fiber optics. I'll do some tests. They would have to be very thin and bright. Thank you!
Yes, however, I have very little space to put the cables on at the back so I thought I'd ask here first.
I like the soldering methods posted here, thank you!
