Removing a Glued in Star

[old4570]

So , just how do you remove a glued in Star - LED assembly from the heatsink .

Id like not to destroy the one im trying to remove .

Thank you .
:wave:

 

[Sgt. LED]

Heat and leverage generally.

What's the light? Can you post pics, that would help us.

 

[old4570]

Romisen RL-B7



Some sort of white goop , its not hard , but impervious to heat .
I tried heat . Its now in the freezer .

 

[old4570]

Im giving up , Im going to have to destroy the LED and the heatsink to get it out = Pointless .

 

[csshih]

you can't wedge a screwdriver between the star and the heatsink?

 

[Sgt. LED]

Unsolder the wires.

That high temp silicone is awful. If you pry whlie it's frozen it might help. Start working at the edge of the star above the red wire, it looks like there is less goop there so you might have a chance.

The ones like this that I've run into usually meant the death of the LED but the sink always cleans up nice. I once used a bunch of Acetone to soften it but the next time I tried that it did nothing.

 

[old4570]

RIP LED ! :sick2:

Yep , death to the LED . Now I need to see if it can be fixed , or its spare parts time .

Looks like the controller board was killed as well , spare parts now .

 

[f22shift]

an angled pic would work or a small flathead screwdriver with a little wiggle action. are you sure you want to keep the emitter?

 

[manoloco]

like Sgt. said, unsolder the wires, but make sure you dont leave solder residue holding the star to the wires, use a desoldering wick.

if the star is glued, then heat the head with a blow dryer, until the head is too hot to touch, then put something that makes lever and lift. with little to medium force it should come out. dont force too hard.

there should be some residue of the thermal adhesive there, that conducts heat and electrically isolates the star, if you are to change the star you should repeat this process (reapply the thermal adhesive, thus isolating the star bottom, but making it conduct heat)

 

[manoloco]

RIP LED ! :sick2:

Yep , death to the LED . Now I need to see if it can be fixed , or its spare parts time .

dont kill it; give it away, or use it for something else, even if you dont do any of the previously mentioned, it will be useful for you to learn to do this procedure efficiently and succesfully, if you plan on upgrading your lights in the future or mod other stuff.

 

[old4570]

Its dead ! The controller board developed a short and killed it !

Ive ordered a new LED + Controller boards .

The P4 Emitter has gone into the MXDL .

+ the star was seriously stuck , I had to use a hammer and nail to remove it , it was stuck HARD .

Not having a good day !

Got the SAIK in the mail , and after 5 minutes of use , taking Lux readings , the controller board died , for 5 full minutes I was very impressed . :shakehead

 

[manoloco]

Its dead ! The controller board developed a short and killed it !

Ive ordered a new LED + Controller boards .

The P4 Emitter has gone into the MXDL .

+ the star was seriously stuck , I had to use a hammer and nail to remove it , it was stuck HARD .

Not having a good day !

Got the SAIK in the mail , and after 5 minutes of use , taking Lux readings , the controller board died , for 5 full minutes I was very impressed . :shakehead

its ok, this happens when learning, i recommend dont use the hammer and nail technique again, just heat the head to a higher temp, and start leveraging it with a flat piece of metal, i have used lockpick torsion wrenches with success in worst case scenarios (when the boards just refuse to come out, the angle helps and the size is perfect to use in flashlights.

its upsetting but that feeling will pass and you will have more experience

be carefull when testing boards if you are using loose wires try to at least use adhesive tape to temporarily hold things together, having them loose makes it a lot more probable for a short to happen.

SSC P4 (not cree P4 but SEOUL) U2 bin in a star might be a better option, seeing that you just removed a luxeon; i dont know that particular flashlight, what kind of reflector/optics does it have?, do you have pics of the head assembly?

 

[kramer5150]

I tried it once myself... NO DICE.
Not sure what exactly the Chinese use to adhere their heatsinks but that stuff is IMPERVIOUS to heat. I have found that the solder connecting the emitter will flow at a much lower temp than the adhesive.

To further complicate modding... often times there just isn't enough room to pry a knife edge between the emitter slug and light pill surface.

Maybe I am in the minority but I find it easier to remove the emitter from the star heatsink and just re-flow the new XR-E back onto that original star. but thats assuming you can get the light pill out of the host and remove the DC-DC board from the pill.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHyRLQexJpA