Second Generation Silver Plated High Current Beryllium Copper Springs and 95+CRI SST20!

My springs and SST-20’s came in today. Thanks BlueSwordM. I’m in on the next batch as well.

These springs are so easy to solder that I’m worried I haven’t got them soldered securely enough. I removed the stock double springs from a Sofirn Q8 and put these springs in their place. It was really slow and difficult to remove the old springs. Maybe the springs or the board they were on was soaking up the heat? But when I put the Blue™ Springs on and touched the soldering iron tip to the bottom ring, the springs stuck quickly. Anybody have any idea if that’s normal or if I probably have cold joints?

It’s normal as far as I can tell. I mean think about it. It’s basically copper so it conducts heat like the copper traces. The solder melting is the love flowing from one copper to another

The reason I’m worried is that normally, you have to heat up the copper significantly before the solder will really stick to it. But maybe silver works differently?

@DavidEF, steel is super hard to solder to.

The opposite is true with copper, nickel, silver, and a thick layer of gold: it’s so easy to solder it’s not even funny.

There are 2 reasons for this, and a bonus one:

1. Steel has chromium, and forms a chromium layer that can penetrate a layer of thin gold, which is why something like gold plated steel springs solder poorly, even when gold plated.

2. Steel has poor thermal conductivity compared to nickel, and especially copper and silver. For this reason, the soldering iron can transfer the heat to the solderable area very quickly, making soldering a breeze.

Bonus reason: Nickel and silver don’t form oxides, and even silver tarnish isn’t an oxide that prevents soldering, meaning nickel and silver platings make the soldering even easier.
That’s the reason why soldering pure copper that is oxidized is so hard: copper oxide has very poor thermal conductivity.

I have had very poor results when soldering with pure copper. Tried to make some copper buttons but no luck getting solder to stick to the copper. Tried heating the copper also and it started to turn black. What are the tricks to soldering copper?

Thanks for the explanation. I guess it’s something I will have to (happily :wink: ) get accustomed to!

I’ve found with copper, you need to dump heat into it quickly, or else the copper itself will wick the heat away from the area to be soldered. Also, use plenty of flux. I find it helps too, if you melt a bit of solder onto the tip of your iron, then use the solder itself to transfer heat to the copper, rather than the soldering iron tip. That way, when the copper is ready, the solder will be there, ready to flow.

@HONDARIDER:

1. Stick a bit of HCL, or hydrochloric acid/muriatic acid on it. That will destroy the copper oxides, but not the copper underneath.
2. Sand the copper buttons using 200-400 grit sandpaper, then use fine steel wool. Not will it make it very shiny, but also get rid of the remaining copper oxide.
3. Use flux.
4. Use a flat tip soldering iron.
5. Melt a bit of solder on your soldering iron.

Thanks guys. Had some sucess getting solder on the buttons. Now to try and transfer that to a driver is my next task. Really wasn’t that hard. Might have been a lack of patience. :person_facepalming:

Eh, the driver is the easy part, assuming it’s not totally crowded or something. Pre-coat the pad with a bit of solder, add a drop of flux, place the copper button on top with the soldered side down and heat it up. Since both the driver pad and the copper button will have already been soldered, all you have to do is get them to melt together with a little heat. You should be able to just hold your soldering iron tip to the top of the copper button and let the heat pass through.

Think I figured out my initial issue. The table I work on is aluminum. The button was just laying on the bare table. I think I was having some heat sink issues the first time I tried it. Clamped the button with an alligator clamp and it worked perfect. That’s my guess since it was pretty easy this time. Might keep a small wooden plank around for stuff like this.

I’m glad it worked out for you. :person_with_crown: :+1:

I would be interested in some of the generation 3 springs. If the pricing is similar to the generation 2 items I'd take 10 large and 10 small.

Excellent. The prices should be slightly lower if I use a nickle-copper(50um)-nickel plating.

I’m thinking about using a nickel-copper(55um)-silver plating, which would be a bit more expensive though.

So guys, I have some bad news, but they aren’t my fault for once.

I didn’t tell you guys and gals, but along with the springs+LEDs, I sold a light to a member on BLF living in Canada.

I shipped it on Wednesday April 3rd, the same date as the springs.

However, there was an error on the part of the employee in which she mixed the return address with the shipping address…

Everything was resolved after 2 days, so nothing bad here…

As you can guess, everything went fine… or so I thought.

UNTIL I RECEIVED EVERY DAMN PACKAGE I LAST SHIPPED BACK YESTERDAY. :rage:

I wasn’t too happy about this, as this included a message from Canada Post being sorry about what happened, and that I can just ship the packages back when I come to the post office.

The problem being that because of Easter, I can’t really ship the packages until next week.

So, I’m really sorry guys. I wasted a bunch of your time waiting for the springs+LEDs, and my time as well. Will probably file a complaint for Canada Post.

Sorry if I’m pissed, but I had to vent it off.

WHY DOES THIS HAVE TO HAPPEN TO ME OF ALL PEOPLE?

Ask for compensation or faster delivery?

Side note: I bought a new 20mm boost driver from MTN and it came with a small becu spring soldered on

I’ve called them yesterday, and they’ll be giving me a refund along with shipping the packages back.

Also, nice! Didn’t think Richard would put the springs on the driver.

Also, since when have they been shipping 20mm boost drivers?!

On a more positive note, I’ll be able to reship the springs+LEDs this Tuesday after Easter.

Also, here are the revised specs for the springs. They use the same usual BeCu C17530 wire.

Large spring:

Spring upper diameter: 6,00mm
Spring base diameter: 9mm
Spring thickness: 1,0mm
Spring height: 13,00mm
Total number of coils: 5
Plating: Copper(60um)+Silver

Small spring:

Spring upper diameter: 4,25mm
Spring base diameter: 5,5mm
Spring thickness: 0,8mm
Spring height: 10,50mm
Total number of coils: 5
Plating: Copper(50um)+ Silver electroplating

Also, would you guys like a lower performing budget spring?

I would certainly like a budget copper-alloy spring, but the lower performance must only be in the resistance being a bit higher (no problem for my purposes) and perhaps a less nice coating. I would not like to give in on the mechanical properties, I would even like to get that improved and close to steel springs.