I took the LED strips class and ordered some for myself. They came with the waterproofing already part of the strip and not as a sleeve like @bpamplin had. Once I’ve cut them down what is the best way to remove the coating from the solder points, or should I send it back and try again with a different vendor? I thought maybe an exacto blade but have never worked with these before.
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Apparently I can’t read. I’ve never dealt with the waterproof variety. Sorry.
Me either lol. The kind Brady had were in a sleeve and being a noob I’m not sure how thin the contact points are if I just started scraping it away
I’d recommend cutting generously over the line (this losing one led dot) with some linesmen pliers, and then try melting / burning off the waterproofing with a hot end (cheap soldering iron. Tip or woodburning tip)
I’ve always sanded the conformal coatings off. It will be nice and shiny when the coating is gone.
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How confident can I be itll work without damaging the contacts? It’s a Prime purchase so I have free returns
@hon1nbo is the waterproofing plastic what you’re calling the conformal coating? (The back is just sticky strip)
I have always had good luck with a sharp razor knife.
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They are very forgiving. Try to wedge your finger nail in the from the end to lift it up and peal it back a little then just clip it with the small wire cutters with black metal and red/little black handle
I have used a sharp razor with success as well
Here is where I have ordered from. I noticed that they offer waterproof in silicon tube and waterproof in silicon coating. I don’t need waterproofing but I order the silicon tube version because it gives more protection when I use it in classes.
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Yeah, I misread what you said about it not being in a plastic sleeve to be that it was conformal coated, which is a different process (photo is a bit blurry too for me)
If it’s at least a couple 1/1000" old try and peel it too
Those aren’t LEDs, those are NeoPixels.
Use a Xacto knife, cut straight through the oval copper contacts along the White Line, using a stabbing motion (JK)…no wait; slice several times with medium pressure, until you cut through.
Now, use the Xacto to scrape the Urethane off the top of the Copper contacts, then just solder on your wires. Next, cover the contacts with about 3/4" of ShrinkFit tubing, and make sure it heat shrinks flat, and doesn’t curl-up the strip.