By the way, FYI for the masses: if you’re completely insane like me and decide to build your own (rigid) light strips with tightly packed LEDs on one side and separate drivers on the other side of the PCB, or even anything where you have LEDs on one side, and other components on the other side … reflow the LEDs first, then use a hot air workstation to do the ICs.
I made the mistake in thinking that it would be easier to reflow the ICS then hot air the LEDs: big mistake. Consider needing to hold the hot air at the LED’s terminals to get the solder to flow, the plastic mold starts to melt. ICs on the other hand can tolerate the same temperature for a much longer time frame.
I would spend hours trying to fix LEDs that didn’t attach properly or that are beyond repair because of the constant heat/reheat cycle to get them to attach properly. I reversed the process yesterday, reflowed the LEDs, then hot aired the ICs: ZERO problems. Let’s just say head will fill in with hair again …