That’s disappointing to hear, I messaged them the other day and they told me they still have problems with IOSS, maybe try to find out if deutsch post can refund you ? Or if they have a way to declare already paid VAT.
Aisler in Germany is OK, more expensive for the small boards we usually make here (small drivers) since the cost is proportional to the area with Oshpark, but for larger boards it costs less (fixed fee + lower area cost). The cheapest option doesn’t have ENIG though, and the min size vias is larger, shipping is free and probably even faster within Germany.
I had same problem plus some more. I paid Vat in OSHpark checkout. Then Finnish customs wanted me to pay them again. After I paid and received them there wasn’t everything I ordered in the package. They had shipped my small order in three separate packages and I had to pay Vat again from all of those. First time I paid for the full amount of my order including Vat that I had already paid, second time I quessed what could be in the package and last time I paid what was left of my order. Luckily OSHpark refunded me the full amount, so not monetary loss for me. Wasn’t very good ordering experience.
Actually the VAT itself was not the main problem, I ordered a small board for a couple of dollars only. DHL charged a 6 EUR handling fee which bugged me most. I heard of Aisler, will give them a try with my next boards.
I wonder how customs and mail service know that VAT has been payed by the seller. I can’t see anything on the labels which would confirm this claim.
A glimpse into the future of what awaits once some of these rice grains arrive from Clemens. How did you get it so nicely cleaned up? Especially in between the emitters. By hand or did you use a ultrasonic cleaner or something similar?
Neutralfan will probably gives his method but if you want to know mine it’s minimal amount of flux and then multiple baths in boiling isopropyl alcohol.
Off course I wanted to know There’s a certain margin for rough handling with the standard sized emitters, but these E17As require a different approach. It’ll require adapting my usual way of reflowing emitters. Less margin for error, so all tips are welcome.
Unless I’m using solder-paste with stickyflux already mixed in (rare), I get no-flux solder, already got a bottle of organic flux (blue, looks like washer-fluid), and just use that. It fizzes, then boils off, with ZERO residue.
Wanna quickly go over it with IPA (iPrOH, not b00ze) to clean it off further, have at it, but it’s usually unnecessary.
Sometimes if there’s existing stickyflux and you’re reflowing things, then you might want to destickify things afterward.
The first round I put the board into an isopropyl alcohol bath, swooshed it around a lot which removed most of the flux, and then split a toothpick to pick out the solder blob and clean up between the LEDs. And did a final clean-up with a Q-tip.
BUT, if you look closely, there’s a very small chip in the corner of 2 LEDs. These LEDs are very fragile!
For the second round (after I realigned the 2 LEDs), I put them into an IPA bath again. But instead of using a toothpick or a Q-tip, I used a very thin sheet of plastic to slide between and all around the LEDs. Like the plastic sheet that you remove from the back of a sticker. That worked very well! Seemed like it was very gentle on the LEDs and didn’t cause any more chips.
Thanks for the info all. Learning new things along the way.
Also tried something else today. Reflowing with SnAgCu solder wire and flux. Did not go so good. Mcpcb on hotplate, apply solder, remove mcpcb, apply flux, put emitter on and back on hotplate. It did not slide nicely into place and I had to manually adjust it quite a bit. Not a recommendation. But as I said, learning as I go. Next up I plan on trying some lead based solder paste, but I need to find that in stock somewhere 1st. And pure indium is also on the list.
The E17As haven’t even shipped yet, so if they arrive in less than 2 months from now I’m happy. Will report back how it went.
Triple reflowed a FW21 Pro with SFT40’s, for a tighter hot spot than original. The original XHP50’s were so unhappy they went blue. literally (from domes being torn off .)
The extra thick MCPCB made the going a little more challenging than usual. Original LED spacer and reflector worked fine as is, so no tweaks were required.
Here’s a comparison with a FW3A w/clear lens and XP-L Hi.
About 1.5ft from wall, spot not as tight at it appears.
I did some performance tests for Emisar DT8 with 4000K SST20’s.
Stock with full Molicel P28A it draw 20A. With 20 awg spring bypasses current jumped to 25A. After switching 22 awg led wires to 20 awg ones I gained extra 0.5A.
So it seems that stock springs are bottleneck if you want full power from your hot rod.
I always compressed the spring fully when I did tests and I used Uni-t 210E clamp meter and 16 awg wire.
Thanks, I kinda liked them, but ended up sanding them out.
Looks like this right now, and I’m gonna do the original green tailcap soon so its full green again.
It probably took around an hour? With short breaks. I diddnt really pay attention actually.
Sanding the grooves out took probably less than 10min?
Unfortunately I had to do it all by hand with a file and sand paper.
Im thinking that new bare aluminum surface could be a decent spot for a sticker?
Or maybe put some text there with something like this?
Or take it somewhere for some engraving?
Or strip the whole cap and re-paint it something cool?
I could do glow in the dark, or sparkly candy apple red?
I dont know. Just ideas that occur to me.
There’s a certain margin for rough handling with the standard sized emitters, but these E17As require a different approach. It’ll require adapting my usual way of reflowing emitters. Less margin for error, so all tips are welcome.
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