Desolder/de-epoxy an emitter from star?

[zeeexsixare]

How do I remove the emitter from a star? The SSC P4 looks to be anchored pretty well to the star, and in using the oven to dislodge my Lux3 from my MMagLED, I bubbled up the dome. How can I get the SSC off its star? Desolder the legs, then break the emitter off the star? Or grind it off? Use the oven again but at a lower temp?

 

[chris_m]

The first question has to be why? I successfully removed an LED from a star by putting it in my oven, but the LED was already broken, and I was simply doing it to get the star.

 

[Nitroz]

If the Seoul LED is attached to the star like a Luxeon, you can desolder the legs and then bend the star until the LED pops off.

 

[ACMarina]

IT would be helpful to know why you're doing this in order to provide the best advice..

 

[WhiteHot]

So is the SSC glued to the star with adhesive or just soldered in place?

 

[IsaacHayes]

The SSC is soldered. use a hot plate to lift it off.

 

[WhiteHot]

Very cool. I didnt know that they soldered the slug.

 

[FlashCrazy]

The Seoul P4 stars from DealExtreme (and probably other Hong Kong and China resellers) do not have the slug soldered to the star. They just have a thin layer of heatsink compound at the slug. The area of the star underneath the slug is electrically isolated from the rest of the star. To remove the LED from one of these, I just insert the tip of a pick or scribe underneath one of the legs of the LED and apply slight pressure. Heat the soldered point, and the pressure of the pick causes the leg to lift up when the solder melts. Repeat for the other side. The specifications for the Seouls says that they can be resoldered just a couple of times...not sure how many times you can get away with it before it's harmed.

 

[IsaacHayes]

Hmm the older zled's were soldered and I believe the official stars from Seoul are still soldered (and have the bin code printed on the back).