Can lightsheet be safely soldered?

doug · Post by **doug** » Tue Sep 11, 2007 3:34 pm

Hey everyone,

I'm kinda spinning off my previous thread about where to find lightsheet but I think this is a sufficiently different subject.

I need to know if you can safely solder lead wires to light sheet tabs? It all looks pretty flimsy to me but the place I got the sheet from sent me alligator clips to hook up the lead wires with and they are not going to fit into my Stargate model.

Is there a way to cold solder wires? Is there a conductive adhesive I could use?

Any and all help would be greatly appreciated as always.

Thanks,

Doug

en'til Zog · Post by **en'til Zog** » Tue Sep 11, 2007 4:00 pm

You can buy electrically conductive adhesive for repairing circuit boards - ALL, JAMECO, or certainly DIGIKEY should have it. I am not sure how structurally solid that joint would be if there's any tension on the joint. Maybe use the adhesive, then firmly tape the wires to the back of the EL sheet so they don't pull loose.

Also there is soldering paste (fine grains of solder in a paste of flux) to hold things in place until you gently apply heat and solder the joint.

Suggestion? If you're using heat to solder, put the edge of a sheet of aluminum (not foil) down on the tab from the EL sheet to absorb excess heat travelling down the tab.

Anyone else?

doug · Post by **doug** » Tue Sep 11, 2007 8:10 pm

Zog,

Most excellent insight, thank you!

Doug

Sparky · Post by **Sparky** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 1:36 am

I don't think you can solder to it, the material won't accept the solder. Also heat will cause it to peel away from the conductor (EL wire). It was very hard to trim the EL wire I got and re attach to the center phosphor covered conductor.

DLMatthys · Post by **DLMatthys** » Sun Sep 30, 2007 10:02 am

Doug,

From that place where you bought your LE Lamp for your Stargate model:
http://electroluminescence-inc.com/ELsheets.htm

I never did see on all of thier products on how to hook wires up to it.

One thing I had to do when I had a sheet of EL Lamp made by Panisonic that had no metal connectors I was able to salvage the extra pins left over form previous EL projects that where like "stapled" or "crimped" onto EL lamps made by LightSheet and Miller Engineering. I carfully pryed them off...straightined them out and punched them onto the seperate EL material tabs extending around the raw Panisonic sheet.

The Panisonic EL sheet edge looked looked simular like this...
http://electroluminescence-inc.com/imag ... ectors.jpg

The Miller Eng sheet I used with pins salvaged from discarded EL cuttings...
http://www.microstru.com/images/Expkit-.JPG

en'til Zog · Post by **en'til Zog** » Sun Sep 30, 2007 7:11 pm

AH! I see now. I hadn’t thought of using crimp on pins.

Sorry, all the EL sheet I've used in the past had solderable tabs sticking out of the sheet so I was thinking "Yeah, if you're careful you can solder to those little metallic tabs".

The conductive paste or PCB trace repair solutions should work here, I think. There is even a "circuit trace repair pen" with ink loaded with silver that can be used to draw working printed circuits.

Thanks, DL, for the info!

DLMatthys · Post by **DLMatthys** » Fri Oct 05, 2007 4:49 pm

Just to be on the safe side on the replaced crimp pins I heat sink the little buggers with a needle nose or hemostat clamp. Safe to soldure to the pins then direct to the EL wires.