[TriEmbed] APA102 unsoldering

[Adam Haile]

Never used it myself but Dan Ternes swears by ChipQuik:
https://www.amazon.com/ChipQuik-SMD1-Leaded-Temperature-Removal/dp/B0019UZP7I
He's used it to do a lot of rework, including on some LED panels.

On Wed, Jun 22, 2016 at 8:43 AM, Alex Davis via TriEmbed <
triembed at triembed.org> wrote:

> Anyone have any success with unsoldering APA102 LEDs without ruining
> them? It seems they are made of really shitty thermoplastic which melts
> at about the melting point of the solder. I had one go bad in my 44x8
> matrix, and I got it off by using a broad tip to reflow one side at a
> time while lifting with tweezers. I'd say the package has the thermal
> resistance of the sort of plastic cheap header strips are made of. It
> was a ruined plastic blob by time I got it off.
>
> As to the repair, I am thinking I will just cut an LED off a spare strip
> and solder it down on top of the blank spot. It won't look as nice but
> it seems like it will have the highest change of success and of not
> ruining the mounting strip.
>
> BTW these APA102 have in and out for both data and clock, and in my case
> an LED stopped outputting anything on data out, causing the whole rest
> of the strip to die. Thankfully it was just one unit, but it gives me
> pause to consider building anything large and expensive out of these
> things. My setup was working fine before I peeled off the backing tape
> and glued it on to the enclosure.
>
> Alex
>
> --
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