Soldering lighting parts

[jkiker]

Hi all,

I've had the basic LED's and resistors for a project in hand for a while. I'm new to lighting, and it's time to solder the bits up and install them. Both the LED's and the resistors have long straight wires on them, so the question is, can I safely shorten them, by up to half? I'm thinking of using some miniature copper jaws as heat sinks, since I know the bits will not take a lot of heat.

Also, when soldering how does that work with the slender wire? Wrap part of the resistor's lead wire around the LED wire before soldering, or just lay the two wires over each other in line, so they touch for a short distance and solder away?

All recommendations and information will be much appreciated!

Thanks, Jim

[Grumpy Popeye]

Hi Jkiker,

you can snip the leads on both the LEDs and the resistors pretty much as short as you want, good call on using the mini copper jaws as a heat sink to draw the excess away from the diode

as for your second question, I generally wrap the wire around the resistor/ LED leads, or wrap the resistor lead around the LED lead depending.

Even if I do wire wrap, I follow up with soldering.

Hope this helps

[brt]

There are lots of good you tube videos that you can check out.

[jkiker]

Hey GP,

Thank you for the quick responses; just what I was looking for!

Cheers, Jim

[MillenniumFalsehood]

Just a quick tip: solder the wire before snipping, then after snipping re-heat the joint. Soldering before you snip allows the leads themselves to act as heat sinks, and re-heating the joint will re-flow the solder so as to get rid of any micro fractures that might have been caused by the snipping.

[jkiker]

Hi MF,

Thanks for the input. Just so I am clear, your recommendation is to apply some solder to the LED and resistor leads before cutting them shorter, join them together mechanically, then re-heat the joint area to solder them together. And the same would apply to solder the resistor and LED Lead to the power wires. Correct?

Thanks in advance, Jim

P.S. It's been a while since I reviewed my instructions for the resistor; which end of the resistor needs to point to the LED?

Thanks and cheers, Jim

[brt]

A resistor can be connected by either end.

[jkiker]

I thought I remembered that but the confirmation is much appreciated!

Cheers, Jim

[MillenniumFalsehood]

Hi MF,

Thanks for the input. Just so I am clear, your recommendation is to apply some solder to the LED and resistor leads before cutting them shorter, join them together mechanically, then re-heat the joint area to solder them together. And the same would apply to solder the resistor and LED Lead to the power wires. Correct?

Thanks in advance, Jim

P.S. It's been a while since I reviewed my instructions for the resistor; which end of the resistor needs to point to the LED?

Thanks and cheers, Jim

Nah, that is called "tinning" the lead, and while that is really useful when soldering a wire to a soldering pad (usually a copper surface on a circuit board), it will make it harder to solder the wire to an LED because it makes the wire much stiffer, keeping you from bending it easily around the lead.

You need to instead wrap the wire around the LED's lead first, then solder it, then snip it, and finally re-heat the solder to prevent microfractures.

Also, while it's true that resistors are not polarized, I personally like to have them all pointing in the same direction anyway so that it's easier to tell what their ratings are at a glance. This is handy when you're soldering many resistors that are all the same value, because it ensures that you notice if you accidentally grab a resistor that's the wrong value.

[jkiker]

MF,

Thanks for the additional information. I have heard about tinning but I knew just enough to cause trouble. All is clear now, so thank you again for the instruction.

Cheers, Jim