Soldering / desoldering Cree XR-E

[kramer5150]

I'm very new to CPF mods, but I have been playing around with XR-E emitters and have had some degree of success with emitter transplants. Its tricky getting the solder to re-flow, but I think I have the basic idea.

I am not sure if this has been discussed in detail before, so please please critique my procedure... any tips would be greatly appreciated!! and note also the comments I have added.

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

 

[Holepuncher]

Led's roasting on an open fire. Jack frost nipping at your .............

Actually that was great. I'm going to have to try it. Whats a few $8 led's.

I only have a gas stove so I was thinking maybe place an aluminum plate 3/8" or so thick on the burner. Then I got to thinking that may improve your setup. If you monitored the temperature of the plate during the process and found the optimum temperature you would get more repeatable results and not burn the PCB. Just putting it directly on the element you are getting an erratic and non repeatable temperature. With the plate on there, temperature variations would be slower and with a thermometer you could probably control the temperature to with in 10deg or so.

 

[Tekno_Cowboy]

I used an old cast iron frying pan to replace the emitter on a cheap ultrafire light.
Other than the pan, the method was pretty much the same.

 

[kramer5150]

LOL... great tip thanks!!

I wonder how effective an oven thermometer would be?.. those long ones you poke into meat and food?

 

[nanotech17]

you should place the emitter on water or wet towel to avoid the dome from bubble up due to heat as soon it separated from the pcb.that's what i did.

 

[kramer5150]

you should place the emitter on water or wet towel to avoid the dome from bubble up due to heat as soon it separated from the pcb.that's what i did.

Noted thanks. I thought about water cooling but was worried the thermal cooling shock, and rapid temperature change would damage the LED... good to know thats not the case at all.:thumbsup:

 

[Holepuncher]

LOL... great tip thanks!!

I wonder how effective an oven thermometer would be?.. those long ones you poke into meat and food?

Those wont go high enough in temperature. There are a lot of low cost digital multimeters these days that come with a temperature probe.

 

[Holepuncher]

I used an old cast iron frying pan to replace the emitter on a cheap ultrafire light.
Other than the pan, the method was pretty much the same.

That sounds good. Fried LED's. Did you use Olive Oil, Pam or Crisco? Battered alkalines on the side is one of my favorites. :laughing:

 

[rantanplan]

I´m using the hot plate of my (electric) stove ... it works fine. Had to transplant a MC-E recently, it works fine with them too .

I would suggest you use two pliers / tweezers. One fixes the pcb on the hot plate (and lifts it up when done), one placing/removing the emitter. So you can reduce the time of "heat exposure" to the emitter, if you have a steady hand .

A tip for transplantation of MC-Es ... use the hotplate only for soldering of the central (heat) pad. The emitter contacts can be soldered on more easily later (with a fine tip). I tried to do all solder pads at once and it was a mess ... good thing is that pcbs are quite cheap

 

[Black Rose]

Educational and entertaining :thumbsup:

I see you have the same wire strippers I have.

 

[elumen8]

I saw it with my own two eyes and still dont believe it. Kramer5150, when you first told me about this method, I thought you were crazy. I'm going to try doing the same mod on the lightweight Husky 3w also. If I run into any problems...you'll be hearing from me LOL

-JB

 

[unterhausen]

sparkfun uses a separate hot plate/electric frying pan for their surface mount circuit boards. Seems to work for them.

 

[bretti_kivi]

this is also one of the really usable ways to solder a rebel..
or the toaster oven mod