Swapping emitter or swapping stars?

I'm going to replace a LuxV star of unknown bin with a WX0S star, but the star that's in the light is fastened with a liberal amount of thermal adhesive....
I'm planning on doing it this weekend so I was hoping for a quick reply

The only ways I've seen of swapping emitters involves destroying the star and bending it, which doesn't seem possible here... I really want the old LuxV to survive because I plan to use it in a 2D mag or in a headlamp...

Is it difficult to unsolder and remove the emitter from the star without damaging it? I'm pretty handy with a soldering iron..

Will the thermal adhesive soften if I heat it somewhat (don't want to fry the LuxV) and allow me to swap out the star.

The light (a Quicksilver/Vari-Brite) seems very well heat-sinked so I thought switching emitters could have been a good idea..

Any help would be greatly appreciated

Sverre

Sverre
I have succesfully transplanted stars before but the question is : what adhesive is used in your light??? Try digging gently at the edges with a jewellers screwdriver to see if it is soft or hard- the hard (epoxy based ) ones I have tried have only been safe to rip off in some cases- I have no better idea except to comment that epoxy does soften with heat (to some extent). If it is soft I expect the star will come up after being desoldered.....

I have hear that people that change heatsinks on graphic cards that are stuck down with thermal paste, put the card in a few plastic bags, and then put it in the freezer, the cold is suppose to make it easier to remove.

I don`t now if this will help

good luck.

Thanks for the quick replies. I'll check when I get home from work.
Other suggestions are also very welcome

I've only attempted to remove a thermal epxoy luxeon once that wasn't bending a star to pop it off.

It was on an aluminum plate, and an emitter. I heated the plate up with a lighter (all I had), then stuck a flat razor blade and kept it as flat as possible, and it came off.

Be very carefull not to pry up on the plastic of the led as it will lift off and ruin your LED. You have to only apply pressure to the metal slug. The flat razor blade I used was only touching the slug. It actually didn't get under it but hit it from the side and it slide off the aluminum plate.

So Luxeon emitters are epoxied to 'stars' ? Did any of this epoxy left on the emitter? Did you have to clean it ?

In my case the epoxy stayed more or less completly on the star, but my emitter split in two and I'm assuming it's very much deceased

It would be easy to clean up either the emitter or star after removal so I don't think it should cause any trouble..

Sverre

Just about all of the epoxy that I've seen used in flashlights gets a lot softer with heat. If you can, preheat an oven (I use a toaster oven) to 170 degrees F and bake the light (or module) for about 15 minutes. Just be sure to preheat the oven. Oven usually spike the temp to broiling before settling on the set temp.

Once you get it heated, the star should peel right off with just a little effort. That is, unless you have some super duper thermal epoxy on your light.

My star was fastened with some (thermal?) silicone adhesive and I could not detect any softening after heating it.
I tried with some of the remains after tearing the star out in pieces and it was more or less the same rubbery consistency as when cool.
Tried heating it to very high temps after getting it out of the light....

The heating would probably have made removing the emitter from the star possible, but i didn't try that at the time...

How did you heat it?

Tried a heat gun on low when it was first in the light. Heating the whole front of the light while holding it with an oven mit

After it was out I tried higher temps until it started to blister and discolour....
I didn't feel any real softening at all, but this stuff was like firm rubber in consistency (sp?) at all temperatures as far as I could tell.

I'm pretty fresh at this so I'm not really sure how the best way to do this be.

Sverre