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A project log for FR-4 Lightpipe Experiment #1

Oreo construction PCB lightpipe for cool badge art

jeremy-ruhlandJeremy Ruhland 08/13/2019 at 05:270 Comments

Assembly of the board was straightforward. LEDs fit easily into their holes as long as they were aligned normal to the surface. Friction was sufficient to hold them in place before soldering, even if the board was lifted.

Care had to be taken while soldering to ensure the solder successfully made contact with the component leads and did not simply dome over it. Diagnosis can be performed with a multimeter in diode mode. Connection to ground pours was difficult despite thermals but it worked well once the copper heated a bit. I cannot recommend using additional flux for these components as the off-gassing causes the cavity to pressurize while the final solder cap is cooling and it will pop like a bubble.

Installation of the oreo LEDs. This was a test fit, the final position had the LED rotated a little to point more directly toward the center of the board.
This tape turned out to be unnecessary, the LEDs are held in just fine by friction.

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