roguesw
Enlightened
Just thought i would share, had too much time on my hands waiting for my WXOT to arrive from Photonphanatic.
I wanted to upgrade my Pr-T head from the original VX1T ( a bit too green for me, and the Lux V had bubbles in it, my own fault, i overheated the led when trying to remove it from the star )
So i have been waiting for over a year for a good LuxV bin to come along and now begins the process of removing the LuxV
First, buy/borrow a desoldering pump tool, it is so much easier and faster than trying to heat the solder and lifting it with a toothpick. This was how i overheated the LuxV at the beginning when removing it from a star.
The LuxV was bonded to the Pr-T using artic alumina epoxy, but i think i will switch over to just using thermal grease for the new build, it will make removing the Lux so much easier and it the following wont happen.
First i unsoldered the Luxeon leads. Then once that was clear, i tried to pry off the luxeon, the resulting happened
As you can see, it didnt want to come off without a fight. So, i had to take a a pair of pliers to it and pull it off. The result is first, the dome came off ( i expected this as the dome is only attached with silicone )
Next the black casing came off slowly, and left the bare base still attached to the Pr-T
Here are some close up pictures of the 3 components that make up a Luxeon LED
Ah, doesnt it make you shed a tear? I know i did when i saw this.
Anyways, moving along, next there was still the dried epoxy that has to be cleaned from the Pr-T bulkhead and also the polishing stage. The picture below shows the finished result. I scraped away the dried epoxy, then sanded the bulkhead. Make sure that you dont leave any aluminium powder, I wiped the area meticulously and used a vacuum cleaner (suction pump ) to clean the interior
As you can see, it was relatively painless. Now reapply some solder to the anode and cathode and its ready to receive a new LuxeonV
Some lessons learned, epoxy is good but pain in the behind when it comes time to upgrade. Also a desolder tool with a smaller tip would have been easier to use.
Cheers
I wanted to upgrade my Pr-T head from the original VX1T ( a bit too green for me, and the Lux V had bubbles in it, my own fault, i overheated the led when trying to remove it from the star )
So i have been waiting for over a year for a good LuxV bin to come along and now begins the process of removing the LuxV
First, buy/borrow a desoldering pump tool, it is so much easier and faster than trying to heat the solder and lifting it with a toothpick. This was how i overheated the LuxV at the beginning when removing it from a star.
The LuxV was bonded to the Pr-T using artic alumina epoxy, but i think i will switch over to just using thermal grease for the new build, it will make removing the Lux so much easier and it the following wont happen.
First i unsoldered the Luxeon leads. Then once that was clear, i tried to pry off the luxeon, the resulting happened
As you can see, it didnt want to come off without a fight. So, i had to take a a pair of pliers to it and pull it off. The result is first, the dome came off ( i expected this as the dome is only attached with silicone )
Next the black casing came off slowly, and left the bare base still attached to the Pr-T
Here are some close up pictures of the 3 components that make up a Luxeon LED
Ah, doesnt it make you shed a tear? I know i did when i saw this.
Anyways, moving along, next there was still the dried epoxy that has to be cleaned from the Pr-T bulkhead and also the polishing stage. The picture below shows the finished result. I scraped away the dried epoxy, then sanded the bulkhead. Make sure that you dont leave any aluminium powder, I wiped the area meticulously and used a vacuum cleaner (suction pump ) to clean the interior
As you can see, it was relatively painless. Now reapply some solder to the anode and cathode and its ready to receive a new LuxeonV
Some lessons learned, epoxy is good but pain in the behind when it comes time to upgrade. Also a desolder tool with a smaller tip would have been easier to use.
Cheers
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