Critique my spring bypass

Practice makes per… experience :wink:

Looking better contactcr!

Thanks. Can you clarify if this is how you held your wire and iron when doing the base? Or did you come in with the wire from the top maybe? Pre-tinned or no?

I usually come in from the top.
Maybe i’ll have some pics tomorrow.

I had the wire in the spring, melted the solder holding the spring, and placed the wire into the melted solder. I did not pre-tin the wire, but had some flux on it. Like what Jerommel said above, try to be quick with this so the solder does not wick up the wire and cause it to be stiff and more susceptible to break.

wait so you only used the solder already on the pad from the spring? you didn’t add any extra?

if there is enough tin and you have flux on the wire there is no disadvantage

I use self made flux very easy to make
simple rosin flux solved in alcohol

first make the rosin flux to a very fine pouwder
then get ethanol boiling hot about 1 volume part rosin to 2 parts alcohol
then stir it until all rosin is dissolved
if you put too much in it not all will dissolve

you can thin it with more alcohol like you want it

fill in a soft small bottle with a not sharp needle,

it is handy to get less thick needles for the pure stuff and thick one for the one you mixed with much alcohol

That is correct, there was already enough solder there for the bypass. But it would’ve been easy to add some more if needed. The key is to melt the solder at the spring first before you try to attach the bypass wire.

Geez no wonder mine is such a mess. I think I have a pretty good grasp now. I’ll have to practice on my S2+ or M1 host next before attempting my Q8. I see the Q8 bypass pictures people have done but not sure why they ran the wire where they do, does it just go to the hole or does it go through it?

the Q8 is easy you have a hole in the middle of the spring pad

How long should it take for the soldering iron to heat up? I have a 60 watt iron. Is that powerful enough? The model is Aoyue 469. Sometimes my solder looks dirty, not totally silver.

This is very similar to how I do mine. It was a bit trial and error with the first few until I got it down. I ended up doing about 20 lights one night.

Anyway, my process:

1. Cut a portion of silicon wire and strip about 2mm of coating off each end.
2. Tin one end of the wire, once it cools down a bit put a small amount of flux on the tinned end.
3. Put the fluxed, tinned end into the spring through the top and down into the small gap at the bottom of the spring (the gap at the very bottom, where the cut off end of the spring bends around and almost touches itself, but not quite).
Soldering here allows the spring to compress normally and not at an angle which attaching the bypass directly to the spring can sometimes cause.
4. Solder the bypass into that gap.
5. Bend the wire while compressing the spring to make sure the bypass isn’t too long and isn’t getting in the way.
6. Bend the loose end of the bypass over the top of the spring (the end that is cut), flux it and solder. Try to keep the solder smooth and covering the wire so it doesn’t end up scratching the battery.

an unregulated iron usually gets way to hot 400-450°C are not uncommon, this burns the lead very fast

I usually solder springs with 290°C, 80W station and medium 45° angled tip

never mix up new and old solder of different kind like lead with non leaded one, the mix always gets that not shiny surface

leaded solder is easier to get shiny surface and I recommend this only for hand soldering, the lead free is not good

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With a hot iron you can work much faster.
I prefer a hot iron personally.

I wonder why hardly anybody is also bypassing the PCB once you are at it.
Cable will be on the outside of the spring though.

I wonder if that’s necessary.
The problem lies in the spring primarily.

Not when you drill at a steep angle. :wink:

The full current runs through the vias so with a direct cable connection there should be some more improvement in resistance. Plus I find it much easier to solder the cable to the switch than to the spring/board.

Bypassing the spring gives a clearly proven performance gain, bypassing the PCB gets you into believing territory. There are many believers on BLF :slight_smile:

No religious topics please. Unless we all believe in the same. :stuck_out_tongue:

The believers. Have they found some enlightenment and wisdom in the pursuit of this belief? :wink: