France
Asked — Edited

Secure Soldering With Hot Glue ?

Hi, I have modified the camera from the ezb kit by soldering wires on the camera board in order to power it by the ezb (like winstn6 did in this thread https://synthiam.com/Community/Questions/35, thanks to him). In my real" Wall-e", the camera will be inserted in the eye, but some wire will be unprotected, outside of it.

My question is: is it safe to hot glue the soldering and the wires on the camera to secure them? Thanks for your advices.


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#1  

I do that with many of my connections and have had NO problems at all

#2  

I don't like to put anything over solder joints or points. The cleaner the better in my book. I've had solder joints short together by contamination from stuff I couldn't even see. This is very important in all electronics and more so when working with micro chips. So with that said make sure you clean your new solder points with flux remover to get rid of all that "stuff" and do not put any goop over it all. You may be able to get away with it because the glue is nonconductive but do you really want to go there?

Can you anchor or hot glue the wires to a part of the board that has no traces or electronic parts? Can you hot glue the wires to a part of the camera that the board is anchored to?

#3  

Thanks to both of you for answering so quickly. So, from your answers, one can say that it is not unsafe to do it, but not really recommanded, right? Thus, I will first try to find another way to secure the wires, but without any satisfying solution, I think will take my chance (I think my soldering are not so good, anyway. I am learning, but I don't find that it is that easy:))

#4  

Depends who you talk to if it's "recommended" or not. :) I guess both ways are OK. But... If you decide to glue over the solder joints just make sure you clean them completely first. You wont get any short caused by the glue but it could "flow" contaminates into the circuit and seal in a problem.

Just have fun and enjoy!

United Kingdom
#5  

Hot glue and epoxy is used by big manufacturers to protect soldered joints etc. Personally I don't like it, solder it properly and cover any bare wire with heat shrink and it'll be fine.

Like Dave said, it depends who you ask, but the bottom line is it is safe to do it, if you want to.

#6  

At this point, knowing what is safe or not, or doable or not, is clearly the kind of information I need. But learning some good practices can't do any harm;) Thanks.

#7  

Interesting because I can see both points of view. It is very important to protect exposed wires with something as Bret does , but like Dave says cleanlyness is next to godlyness (robotlyness) when it comes to electrical circuits. :)