Phuong,

Weller is probably the best known brand, and you certainly can't go wrong purchasing one (up until 6 or 7 years ago when I moved away from home, I used my father's Weller that he used back in college...still going strong). There's also a decent selection of tips.

If all of your work is small guage stuff, a low wattage iron like Radio Shack will suffice. A higher wattage iron isn't the same as high temp...a high wattage allows the iron to "recover" its dialed-in temp more quickly, such as when the tip cools down from heating a thick diameter wire or metal piece. Without a good wattage, the metal will act as a better heat sink/radiator than the tip's heating element can heat it up, so you'll never create anything other than a cold solder joint (i.e., bad!)

For most work I use a Weller WES50 (now replaced by the WES51, I believe), good to 850°F and 50 Watts. Cost was around $100. Expect to pay this kind of price for a decent iron. Remember, you're getting away from Radio Shack's cheap (not inexpensive, cheap) $10 irons. That iron series is also ESD safe (and items like blue and white LEDs don't take kindly to electro-static discharge).

Another thing that makes all of the difference is the solder. Radio Shack stuff is OK, but it fouls the tip almost instantly, which reduces heating temps. I suggest something by Kester, a 63/37 (tin/lead) mix is perfect as it has the lowest melting temp (which helps prevent heating of small components, like LEDs). It also goes almost directly from solid to liquid. Typical Radio Shack stuff is 60/40, has a higher melting point, and has a fairly large range of temps at which it's between the solid/liquid phase, kind of gooey, if you will.

Also, don't forget to scrape away the insulation on wire-wrap wire if that's what you intend to use. A good iron will be able to melt the insulation directly, but expect the enamel to foul the tip pretty quickly.

 

I think I will set it up as 5$ off for every item you perchase over 1item. if you purchase 2; 10$ off. 3 15$ off. should keep things fair to all those that have bought already.

perhaps with an additional amount off for the full package; which will probably(hopefully) include interior dome lights; trunk lights; 4 turn signals; and maybe even back up and brake lights, along with parking and plate lights.

I just redid the site also; changed the prices to the current $5 off prices; along with more pictures and information. Shipping will also ring up correctly.

it should make ordering a bit easier.

Ill be adding the Reflectors 2.0 on the site tomarrow.

 

^^^^

sweet....this is what i have been waiting for.....a whole package...looking fwd to ALL the new bulbs....keep us updated....

 

definitely keep us update bro
if u can email me if u can at xyz_777@hotmail.com when its done..very interested..cant wait!!

 

Cool! Thanks MacGyver for the info! I have looked at the Weller kind, and I'ved used one before. I notice a big difference when using it. Yes! You are right about the RadioShack solder. They're crap to me, and sometimes it takes forever to get the solder to stick on anything without using flux.

Ares... I snapped off one of the terminals when I worked on my friend's gauge cluster, so I took apart the white LED. That yellow stuff feels like a gelatin and it's sticky. It feels like snot. ahahah! I tried to remove as much as I could... and then shot it with a 9V battery.

Man... that thing is ridiculously bright! That's something we hope to get in the following years. The thing lit up blue... but there was a bit of the yellow gel in there that gave it a nice baby blue color. SOoo nice, and then it died. :-/

Anyhow, in the daytime... my White Luxeon stars have a slight purplish hue to it under my dome light. Wierd, huH?

 

I am rather curious to get a 5watt star, red or amber. and light that baby up at 1000mA. should be pretty awesome. Im sure itll be about 400degress in about 3seconds. but screw that.

 

Hehe... I would be curious as well, but I think it's best to shoot it with 1000mA pulses.

To keep things reliable, we'd need a driver for it.

Someday... that's if I'll ever modify my headlights (doubt it).

Here's the mod I did for my friend's car:

 

just cause math is fun and Im bored.

the white 1watt puts out 25lumens at 350mA.
I run them at ~100mA. now macgyver can correct me; but lumileds has a lumens vs current graph and shows them to be at 35%output at 100mA. that follows what he said though I think.

so 8.75lumens, roughly...

and the V portable at 700mA is 120lumens.
so almost 14x as bright?

that does sound like fun; but all kidding aside; that would require eye protection.

I got some sunglasses

their only like 30 or 40$ a pop. itll be fun.

either of you 2 know a good place to pick up a driver that will pulse 700mA? Ive seen the drivers; they seem more or less just for regulating current to eliminate spikes. not even that big of a concern unless your running it at its limit IMO.

 

Aiya! It's not cheap... I did a quick search and came up with $51 PowerPuck 700mA driver for a single 5W Luxeon or quad 1W Luxons.

Like I said... someday.

 

Sheesh, that's the expensive way to go. Use a 555 timer chip (<$1) for a simple squarewave, say 10kHz at 50% duty cycle. Use the pulse on a FET's gate. You'll get a nice light for <$2 in parts (not including the Luxeon) with a large percentage of its total brightness.

 

Ill look into that; perhaps my local electronic supply will have them on hand to grab.

sounds like youve played with them; might I ask for what use? and how they were? as bright as their specs would lead you to beleive? sounds like they should light up a room like a spotlight. not too far behind a damn light bulb.

 

nice bulbs

 

I've played with all kinds of stuff The 555 and FET is a simple way of pulsing LEDs, and you won't find much more in a $50 driver.

Just remember, LEDs are square law devices, so you have to quadruple the current to get a doubling in brightness. Up to a point, it's difficult to see a difference in brightness even with large changes in current.

 

I don't know anything about electronics.....err

Ares- any idea when you'll have the turn signal bulbs ready for sale?

 

tomarrow its always tomarrow; then something comes up that doesnt work, gotta rework it. try again.

I have new LEDs on order to produce the finished product whenever I finish the design... maybe this weekend; maybe next weekend, maybe next month

lets hope its sooner than later.

 

Ehhh I wanted to wait to get all the lights together but I want to see these in. Sent my order. Once I get them, I'll take some more pics and give my impressions.

 

Can someone post up pictures of the blues on thier car please......

 

only 3 sets of blues have shipped so far. afropuff, seanrulz, and a 3rd whom Im not sure is on the forum. they just recieved them yesterday. seanrulz has them in though I think, give him a shot for photos.

more orders will be shipping tomarrow; those waiting, the LED orders are shipping to me as fast as they can once a week. I still have not gotten the incoming parts to outpace the orders; so there is a slight delay in shipping, sorry for the wait.

 

If you wish, you shall receive

Sorry for the dumb pics tho. I still don't know how to use this damn Olympus C-50. Will try to get some better pix soon.
BTW, how does the LED sidemarker I also got from ares look?

 

Don't have a tripod so taking a night pic with flash off was PITA. None of the pix I took were fully useful. Anyway, here is the shot with flash on.