solderable enamel wire -- is it supposed to be this awful?

[Tom Lee]

I'm wiring up a big charlieplexed grid of LEDs, and was really excited to learn that some magnet/enamel wire can be soldered directly, rather than needing to have its insulating layer scraped off. But my first experiments with this have been pretty unsatisfying. It *sort of* works, but it's still more or less necessary to get in there with some sandpaper first.

But some of this might owe to my use of dodgy Chinese enamel wire from ebay. I might not even have bought the stuff with the right kind of coating. How painless should this be? Are there particular enamel types I should be on the lookout for? Any tips are much appreciated.

Tom

[Philip Stewart]

Okay, here's one I'm less experienced with, but ... I'm amazed someone's got directly solderable enamel wire, and I've had to sand and tin enamel wire any time I've used it.

What I wonder is, if there is an enamel wire that can be directly soldered, what clears the insulation? Heat? (If so, how much heat is needed to do it, and will it melt away and fail as an insulator later?)

I'm curious to see how it goes for you, either way (figuring wire that doesn't fall apart but requires sanding etc. still might not be so bad).

Phil

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[Russell Hubbard]

Solderable magnet wire that I've used is meant to be tinted via solder pot. The burnt insulation floats off.

Signature:
My fingerprints are on Mars.

[Malcolm Sperry]

Do not use anything called "polythermalize" - "double-armored polythermalize" or "urethane" coated. It's tough as hell, highly abrasion resistant (though to scrape off) and impervious to the hottest of soldering irons.

If all you're doing is LEDS (lo current) why not use "Kynar" coated wire such as what is used in wire-wrap circuit construction/mac

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[Tom Lee]

I'm not familiar with kynar wire -- is the insulation more reliably solderable?

[Malcolm Sperry]

If you're part of the DC group there must be people there who use it occasionally. it's very easy to bare the wire if you have the right tool. I got mine at radio shack, both the wire & tool. I don't remember if it melts with solder. Hold on. I'll get some and try it. write you in a few

[Malcolm Sperry]

I tried it. I used a flame from a lighter. It burned off but left a residue that doesn't look very solderable. The Kynar wire is tinned and very solderable. It'so cheap, rugged, available and would probably work if you could include stripping in your spec.

BTW: using wire wrap is much faster than soldering and almost as secure as it makes multi contacts once wrapped. Also,if you insist, it can afterwards be soldered/mac

[Tim Slagle]

When I was a student, wire-wrapping was the way to go for large projects, and you could buy tubes of pre-stripped wire of different lengths to save time stripping.  If you have to strip it yourself it takes way longer.  They also made great very precise strippers that were also used for fiber optics, the ones you see now in the handle of the wrap tool don't come close.  I also had an electric wrapping gun, the whole process took maybe 15 seconds per wire.  All that stuff got stolen after I moved to the Bay Area after grad school along with all my finished projects...sniff.

If you are wiring a grid of leaded LEDs, I have been known to strip like a foot of insulation from standard hookup wire, solder the bare wire on, then cut a piece of the insulation and then slide it on the end of the wire before making the next connection.  Sometime I use the insulation from a larger gauge of wire to make it easier to slip on.  Spools of tubular insulation (without the wire) are available but hard to find and surprisingly expensive.

--Tim

[David Whiteis]

I don't know how it compares, but when I worked at an electronics manufacturing company in Rockville called GTCO long ago, we kept a bic lighter next to our soldering iron. We would hold the wire under the flame for a moment, then sand off the ashes/remnants of the insulation, then solder the connection. Not sure what type of insulation it was though. We were making big wire grids that went into digitizer boards, some of them 5 feet by 4 feet, if you'd like to discuss further contact me.
David Whiteis

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[Tom Lee]

Thanks for all the helpful suggestions, folks! I might see if I can get a butane lighter in the mix without melting the LEDs, but in the short term it sounds like continuing to sand is my best bet for this matrix. But if I go ahead with my plans for an RGB version, I'll *definitely* pursue a different option. The slide-on insulation approach sounds particularly appealing, and eBay (as usual) has some decent deals:

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_trksid=p2050601.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.Xname+plate+engrave&_nkw=wire+insulation&_sacat=0&_from=R40