I’m going to try this regardless – just because… …but has anyone tried popping the WS2812B’s off the strip using a heat gun? Would it survive?
Just thinking about trying to make a couple of test “bulbs” by removing the LED from the strip, soldering it to some sort of 4-pin plug, and then being able to insert it into a matching female plug. If one ever fails, pop it out and put in a replacement.
To turn it into a BIG project, you’d have to assume a few things.
Assumption 1) You can remove the LEDs en masse via heat gun. (If no one has done it, I’ll let you know what happens when I get around to it)
Assumption 2) You can figure out a way to mass produce the “bulbs” with soldering jigs and some kind of weatherproof cover (silicone? hot glue? vacuum forming?)
Assumption 3) You have more time than money to invest in a project.
Assumption 4) You already invested some of that time into infrastructure (wires in the attic) for a previous project that didn’t work. (Just sayin’)
Why go through all of that trouble when you can buy them like this, for cheap: http://r.ebay.com/oNDs6Q - just snap one off and solder whatever connector you want on the bottom.
+1 for pre-manufactured boards with the LED modules on them. Digital LEDs are extremely heat sensitive, and using a heat gun to pull them off of a strip will result in a large number of them failing. Making a custom diffuser bulb sounds like fun!
The plastic packages used in surface mount components are a swine for wicking moisture out of the atmosphere. You may find that heating them enough to desolder will destroy them because of that moisture being turned to steam.
In a fab, components that have had long exposure to the atmosphere are “baked” in a low oven for long periods of time before soldering for this very reason.
Ergo. Your millage may vary. But physics is working against you.
I have had the opportunity to remove dead pixels from a strip and replace them with good ones. While possible, I had more failures than success. Ultimately I prevailed, but it’s not something I would want to do very often. These were custom made (rigid) strips so I had to do the hand replacing. I couldn’t just go out and buy another one … particularly since I’m the one who made them.
If I were to do that today, with the same strips, I’ll be baking them first, to get the moisture out, before I attempt to desolder them.
…but has anyone tried popping the WS2812B’s off the strip using a heat gun? Would it survive?