Quote:
Originally Posted by flores
Hmm.. thats also an idea.. do you have a picture to share how that looks?
And does that mean you are not using the conductive epoxy?
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That's right, no conductive epoxy.
First you need to tin the pcb copper and I did that with a big, plumber's iron with a great fat tip about 1/2' across. Some paste flux and plumber's solder too. You can run the solder along the board quite neatly if you're careful. Then I heated the first busbar on the wok burner on our gas cooktop - wife was NOT home! You could use a propane torch, but mine was empty. Get it hot enough to tin as well. Again, paste flux and the big iron to control the solder flow. Once its nicely tinned, place the pcb on something flat and heat proof and find yourself a heavy weight that's also heat proof. Put a couple of bolts through the pcb holes to locate the bus bar. Get the busbar good and hot and stick it onto the board using the bolts to align it. Stick the big weight on to hold it all flat, stops the board warping. The heat should be enough to melt the tinning on the board ie the busbar acts like a big soldering iron. Once its cooled enough for the solder to solidify, check that its all flat and the busbar is in really close contact. If you've done it right a little bit of solder will have squished out around the edges. Not too much or you will have to file it off.
You will see from the photos that I built mine with all the busbars out one end. Did this so it would fit in the available space.
Note: To show the area to be tinned on the pcb, I put the busbars in place and ran along the edges with a pencil. That helps to keep the solder where it needs to be.