An Unorthodox Way to Solder a wire to an MCPCB ~ ~ Low Profile Attachment (HD2010)

In this case, there was no centering to be done. The pill was exactly the size of a 20mm MCPCB. If this isn’t the case, you just put themal adhesive on the star, screw down the reflector until it’s centered and wait for it to dry. Then remove the reflector, and drill your holes.

brilliant idea. Now if I can just remember it next time I need it.

sweet. that’s sorta what I figured. I’m way too impatient when modding…. letting the adhesive dry before coming back to a project is hard. especially after already waiting for LEDs to dedome in gas.

That’s why I soldered the Noctigon to the pill. This project was an experiment that I decided to do one morning and wouldn’t have anymore time for another week.

I've been preaching to everyone that micro shears are the best bang for your buck/ must-have tool of the century .This is exactly where I use them .. after soldering I just take a nice smooth bite out of the solder blob to make a nice flat landing pad for the reflector to sit down on. Using a file just seems like another way to accidently slip and take out the emitter.

Wait - what are micro shears? Got a link? Smile This sounds useful. I got a couple pairs of small cutters, not sure if it's the same thing?

Yeah probably the same thing ..

Xcelite 170D

http://www.amazon.com/Xcelite-170M-General-Shearcutter-Diagonal/dp/B0002BBZIS

Micro shears - side cutters - flush cutters.
You’ll find them under all those names. The ones at FastTech are pretty good. Relic praised them, so I got a pair. He said he used them for everything, even cutting sinkpads…I tried…don’t do that.

Ahhh - ok, Yes I got a couple always handy - wire cutters and then some... Think I got the FT ones, and one other good pair.

While we were talking about this, I took a close inspection of my cutter and ordered a new one.

Yeah I make sure I don’t slip… Even with the beer :slight_smile:

Indeed! Worth bumping this ancient thread.

(see OP)

necro

in my eyes without a good solution to avoid shorts not an good idea

I remember those HD2010 days well. We were desperate for "flat bottom" solutions and this was one of them. I never used this technique myself - I did the pad extender method on some HD2010's and it worked well.

Although this method work, I highly discourage it because of the very large danger of shorting out the wire to the core of pcb, with the main danger being the thin layer of dielectric between copper and metal core. for thin-ness, i will recommend using copper foil as wire instead. you make your own using copper foil or copper tape, then create your own insulation using kapton tape. This is easy to solder, very thin, and high current capability.

FWIW, along my modding journeys I’ve run across this through board method of powering LEDs twice thus far -

(1) 47’s Atom series of lights

(2) and more recently in the Olight i3T (which wasn’t metal core)

Novatacs are similar too.

but its not a metal board

Lexel is correct, the PCB is not metal core. You can make metal core PCB with via but usually the core is pre-drilled with bigger hole and backfilled with dielectric, then redrilled and plated (one of many ways). Doing your own diy with metal PCB has huge risk of shorting at the core/copper boundary, and with powerful lithium cell inside flashlight, can be a very bad result very quickly.

True, I meant similar idea.
There is risk with metal core boards but if done carefully can be fine.