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Soldering E-bay cells (again)
By Psycogeek, Section Mechanical Posted on Thu May 12, 2005 at 12:30:13 AM MST
Can you "BURN" the connection "pad" ?

Arggg, i am finally finishing up my pannel, and i have a 200W soldering iron, because that stupid little radioshack one that gets to maby 40W doesnt cut it.
i have one question, a couple of the pannels just refuse to have the solder flow to the pad thing, and in the process i have been very mean to them, to try and get the solder to flow.
a few pads ACT like they melted, is it possible to actually melt that pad stuff, or is it just covered with to much flux?
some of them it just jumps right on, some cause me problems, and i am not sure if i have overheated them now :-(
is that stuff real metal, or some kinda alloy garbage?

Soldering E-bay cells (again) | 8 comments (8 topical)

Re: Soldering E-bay cells (again) (3.00 / 0) (#1)
by veewee77 on Wed May 11, 2005 at 07:02:57 PM MST

Those 'pads' are actually aluminum, covered (tinned) with solder. You basically have one shot at getting the solder to 'stick'.

Search this board for soldering aluminum and you will see others who have done it successfuly.

I have soldered those but you have to be quick with a well-tinned iron (and a 40W will do just fine if you keep it tinned) and allow it to heat fully before attempting to solder with it.

200W iron is way too much for those. . . .

Doug

Re: Soldering E-bay cells (again) (3.00 / 0) (#2)
by Psycogeek on Wed May 11, 2005 at 07:20:34 PM MST

""You basically have one shot"

argggg , i thought something was going wrong, that splains it.
i will proceed to "Tin" them first, like others did.
i read the e-bay soldering thread, and didnt see any help for this issue there.
soldering aluminim sound impossible, i have never accomplished it.
i will search and see what they say.

[ Parent ]

Re: Soldering E-bay cells (again) (3.00 / 0) (#3)
by Volvo farmer on Wed May 11, 2005 at 08:19:20 PM MST

Yeah, I've done it on one cell, out of maybe 320. I've got a really nice Weller soldering station though. Sometimes, if I have a lot of flux on there, the solder won't stick until I get it a little hotter. A soldering station seems like a big investment but they are SO much nicer than a normal pencil iron for this, or any kind of soldering. There's a WCTPC on Ebay right now for $41 shipped and no bids with 24 hrs left. If you solder circuit boards or anything that needs a degree of precision, even three or four times a year, a tool like this makes things so much easier. It's like the difference between a sharp an a dull saw. Both will cut wood but one is easy and one is a big effort.

Definitely tin the pads first. I've found it the fastest way to assemble these.

Ifred says he can solder to aluminum if he sprays wd40 on it. I have no such experience.

Volvo Farmer

Re: Soldering E-bay cells (again) (3.00 / 0) (#4)
by pyrocasto on Wed May 11, 2005 at 08:58:37 PM MST

Also, silver bearing solder works much better than resin-core. You dont have the worries of resin, since it goes on perfect every time(at least for me).

Re: Soldering E-bay cells (again) (3.00 / 0) (#5)
by Psycogeek on Wed May 11, 2005 at 09:11:56 PM MST

part of the problems i was causing to myself were the surface that i had them upside-down on.
i was using a piece of old acrylic, and the heat was conducting off of them quickly.
i put a piece of paper between the acrylic (insulation) and started tinning, and now its going 400% faster.
Thanks.

Re: Soldering (3.00 / 0) (#6)
by DanG on Thu May 12, 2005 at 12:16:16 PM MST

200 watt iron is meant for serious work, like bonding sheet metals. You are working way too hot! I have a 40w pencil that works - the silicon and back-plate coating will really soak the heat up so use insulation under the cell, corragated cardboard or thin loose fiberglass fabric. Also make sure you have enough solder on tip to transfer heat rapidly. I've tried a 100w solder pistol type to tin the pads but found it will damage the pad from overtemp if you linger too long.

Also found the back-plate white pads can be poisioned from black/burned overheated rosin flux - the factory has them set to take solder w/o active fluxing in automated assembly, remember they designed the process for minimum time, effort and waste.

Isopropyl alcohol will strip the rosin flux residue off w/ a little bit of rubbing, and then usually you can get the bad pad to accept solder at the edges once the center is slagged. Keep soldering iron tip clean using a wet sponge or wet towel. Try using plain mineral oil to exclude air passively instead of relying on active chemical fluxes, commercially a layer of oil floating on molten solder "wave" tables is a common method to reduce the need for flux.

If the 40w pencil type isn't doing the work fast enough try making a holder for it that keeps the tip up higher then the handle (45+ angle) so heat loss into handle is minimized. Keeping tip down may prevent a burn or two and seem handier to use but shortens the life and increases each solder joint time by lowering the tip temperature. I've seen cheaper irons fail rapidly since the UL overtemp fuse can open from heat chasing back up handle.

Re: Soldering E-bay cells (again) (3.00 / 0) (#7)
by Psycogeek on Thu May 12, 2005 at 12:57:04 PM MST

i had to go back to the 40 for the last few.
its way to slow :-(
but its crusty old, and has done hundreds of hours of ON-time.

even after doing about 30000 solder joint in my life, i cant solder for crud :-)

by the time i had cleaned up the overfluxed, overheated pads, the cell had dissolved.
this group i got from cusden, were like 80% destroyed by the postal service.
what was not puzzel pieces was cracked and chipped.

they are all finally soldered now, i patched a few places, with an overpriced silver contact making pen thing.

Re: Soldering E-bay cells (again) (3.00 / 0) (#8)
by picmacmillan on Thu May 12, 2005 at 04:15:34 PM MST

when this happened to me, i gently scraped the spot with an exacto knife and when it was clean, it soldered up well..pickster
http://www.frecklefarmloghomes.com

Soldering E-bay cells (again) | 8 comments (8 topical)

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