16mm Sinkpad Help!

[marcl]

@moderator007

Just my opinion. I would test the led with a 9v alkaline battery with one of these. The 9v can’t supply enough current to hurt the led. Its internal resistance is to high. There are two little pads on the led base that you can touch the wires to for the led test. If it doesn’t light decently bright, then its probably shot. If it does light up well, then its a bad connection from the reflow.
You might have to remove a small amount of silicone off those pads to get a connection.
.

I have had two reflows that I have done seem perfectly fine. Then once the light was operated for a good length of time went dim with flickering. In low mode it seemed fine but when switched to high it dimmed and flickered. I was sure something must have went bad with the driver. Until I tested the led at the base of the led with the 9v alkaline. My conclusion was that the reflow process had made the connection but not a good one. So I figured when the light got hot enough the poor connection broke and would not flow enough current for high modes. But in low mode there was just enough solder contact that the small amount of current flow worked fine. I reflowed the led again and applied a small amount of downward pressure with a carbon fiber arrow tube that I had laying around. Has worked fine ever since. Just my two cents.

This sounds like what is happening to me.

Just to answer everyone. I did use solder paste and a little extra solder but not a lot.

I am going to go and re-flow it now and see what happens. Thanks for all of your help.

Marc.

[marcl]

OK, a quick update. It turns out the Sinkpad has been made poorly. The screening/coating was slightly deformed and had raised up a little so more solder and and reflow worked.

One other problem I have noticed is the + is very close to the edge of the Sinkpad. This causes a problem when installing it into a P60. Because the Sinkpad is already larger than the star it replaced the positive wire kept shorting on the pill.

Overall i’m not that impressed with them and looking at the design I think the Noctigon’s that intl-outdoors have, look better. Less filing and arsing around I would imagine.

I am talking about the 16mm Sinkpads by the way. I have a 20mm which looks a lot better to use.

Marc.

[NightCrawl]

If a 16mm shorts out against the pill you need to check your soldering skills. ;)

The solder tabs have been moved to the edge because the wires would get in the way of most reflectors..

[marcl]

@NightCrawl

If a 16mm shorts out against the pill you need to check your soldering skills.

The solder tabs have been moved to the edge because the wires would get in the way of most reflectors…

My soldering skills are good. Used to be my job, but on my Sinkpad the solder tabs are almost on the edge of the star. Maybe a tenth of a millimetre. That’s very close even for the best of us.

Marc.

[Ouchyfoot]

Probably best to use them in a pill that will take a 20mm sinkpad. That will give you som wiggle room.

[comfychair]

Get some thin teflon sheet and slip it between Sinkpad & pill, if it's really that much of a problem. But, it really shouldn't be a problem. You think the pad location on the 16mm boards is compromised? Check out what you're left with when you cut a 20mm Sinkpad down to 16mm (16mm left, cut-down 20mm right):

And both those are with 22AWG silicone wire.

It's not uncommon at all to have to trim off stray solder with a sharp knife/x-acto/whatever, even when you've got the right amount of solder and it's well-fluxed and what would be, in any other application, a perfect solder joint.

:)

[Tom_E]

Worked fine for me in a P60 pill:

[marcl]

@comfychair

Get some thin teflon sheet and slip it between Sinkpad & pill, if it’s really that much of a problem. But, it really shouldn’t be a problem. You think the pad location on the 16mm boards is compromised? Check out what you’re left with when you cut a 20mm Sinkpad down to 16mm (16mm left, cut-down 20mm right):

And both those are with 22AWG silicone wire.

It’s not uncommon at all to have to trim off stray solder with a sharp knife/x-acto/whatever, even when you’ve got the right amount of solder and it’s well-fluxed and what would be, in any other application, a perfect solder joint.

My 16mm Sinkpad is as tight as yours in the pic. In fact it had to be filed down a little. I’m not saying they are rubbish, just saying the noctigon look better designed.

Marc.

[Firelight2]

@marcl

My 16mm Sinkpad is as tight as yours in the pic. In fact it had to be filed down a little. I’m not saying they are rubbish, just saying the noctigon look better designed.

Marc.

My sinkpads arrived last week. Very nice. Are the noctigons better? From the pics and reviews it looks like it. The noctigons aren’t trying to also be 10mm boards, and I think as a result have bigger bond pads. The noctigons also have flat bases without the little indentation below the emitter. It remains to be seen whether the noctigons will need any filing before they fit (my sinkpads needed a little filing and finishing of the edges to fit into a 16mm pill).

On the other hand the Sinkpads are out now while my order of noctigons probably won’t arrive for a few weeks.

Both Sinkpads and Noctigons are probably a vast improvement over conventional thin aluminum boards.

[marcl]

@Firelight2

@marcl

My 16mm Sinkpad is as tight as yours in the pic. In fact it had to be filed down a little. I’m not saying they are rubbish, just saying the noctigon look better designed.

Marc.

My sinkpads arrived last week. Very nice. Are the noctigons better? From the pics and reviews it looks like it. The noctigons aren’t trying to also be 10mm boards, and I think as a result have bigger bond pads. The noctigons also have flat bases without the little indentation below the emitter. It remains to be seen whether the noctigons will need any filing before they fit (my sinkpads needed a little filing and finishing of the edges to fit into a 16mm pill).

On the other hand the Sinkpads are out now while my order of noctigons probably won’t arrive for a few weeks.

Both Sinkpads and Noctigons are probably a vast improvement over conventional thin aluminum boards.

Agree with all of the above. like I said I was only commenting on the Sinkpad as I used it. Not saying they are bad just thought the Noctigons look like they could be more user friendly. I think it didn’t help that the screening on mine was slightly faulty causing problems seating the LED.

Marc.