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Need help with flexwatt???

hi all, i tried soldering and it requires a lot of patience...i practiced on a piece of 3" and it took me 3 or 4 tries to get it..i found that if i put solder on the metal strip first and then put the wire on top and put more solder on top of the wire and melt it all together, i was able to get a good connection...although when i plugged it in, it didnt seem to heat the whole heat pad..i gonna go the store and buy some screws and eyeholes like i was gonna do in the first place... thanks for all the help...
 
Yea I gave sodering a try last nite too on some 11 inch. Didnt really get a good connection and it looked uglier than all hell. But I also expirienced only half of the pad getting hot. I gotta play with it more. Im gonna give the solder/wire/solder a try. thx guys!
 
If anyone wants to practice, an old circuit board is really fun. When I was in robotic engineering in school, we would always bring stuff in and take all the diodes and resistors out. I loved it and it gives you good practice on the melting points of solder and where to hit is with the iron to get it to melt right.
 
The tricky part is that solder does not want to connect to a cool object. You can only get the flex strip so hot before you have problems.

Try priming it. Get some solder melted onto the soldering iron, and wipe it over the flex contact strip, do the same with the wire. Put the iron on top of the wire to molten the solder, then press it into the primed stripe. As soon as the strip becomes molten, remove the iron.

Practicing on a circuit board actually sounds like a good idea, except it's quite a bit more resilient then the flex watt is.
 
crotalusadamanteus said:
The tricky part is that solder does not want to connect to a cool object. You can only get the flex strip so hot before you have problems.

Try priming it. Get some solder melted onto the soldering iron, and wipe it over the flex contact strip, do the same with the wire. Put the iron on top of the wire to molten the solder, then press it into the primed stripe. As soon as the strip becomes molten, remove the iron.

Practicing on a circuit board actually sounds like a good idea, except it's quite a bit more resilient then the flex watt is.
Click to expand...

Yep, circuit boards can take a beating LOL. I've never personally soldered flexwatt but I can see it as being a PIA. Has anyone tried brushing some flux on the heat tape first? It should pull the solder right onto the exposed metal :shrug01:
 
I gave up on the whole soldering thing. Im just gonna cave and get those stupid wire connectors. Maybe one day when I have lots and lots of flexwatt to practice on ill get it down. But of course im really no good at soldering in the first place. thx for the help guys
 
I am not at all good at soldering yet I was able to solder the wire to the flex. I didn't try and heat up the flex by itself. What I did, was scraped the plastic off the metal, then used my soldering gun to make sure all plastic was off metal. Then I melted some solder into the wire itself, then placed on the flex, applied heat and some more solder and was good to go. I could yank on the wire and it not come off. All flex is hooked up and tested for a min of 48 hrs before installed. All that covers the wire is electrical tape. Hope this helps if you change your mind, those clips are just as a pain in the :censored:.
 
freebyrd said:
hi all, i tried soldering and it requires a lot of patience...i practiced on a piece of 3" and it took me 3 or 4 tries to get it..i found that if i put solder on the metal strip first and then put the wire on top and put more solder on top of the wire and melt it all together, i was able to get a good connection...although when i plugged it in, it didnt seem to heat the whole heat pad..i gonna go the store and buy some screws and eyeholes like i was gonna do in the first place... thanks for all the help...
Click to expand...

As a side note, when testing flex in the open air, it won't get very hot, especially if attached to a thermostat. You must place a book or something in the middle to lay it flat. You won't always feel heat on the whole thing. I made this mistake when I first started soldering. I wasted about 3 ft of 11'' flex because I didn't think it was working.
 
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