5W Lux soon toast?

Ok, so I have modded a 5D Mag (originally was a 6d until the batts corroded and destroyed the light) with a 5W Lux and a hotlips heatsink. I was changing it from the 6D to 5D when this happened. I suppose I jingled the wire connecting to the negative end too much and broke the hole negative end of the LED off. Follow me? So I no longer have a negative end. All I can see is a small slice of where the negative end goes into the LED itself. It doesnt stick out at all. I think, with a steady hand, it could be resoldered on but, my hand is not at all steady enough for that. I am afraid I would rattle the iron onto the LED and break it. Any thoughts of wisdom for such a problem? Thanks,
Cameron

I made the same mistake once; I just soldered on whatever small contact surface was left and it seems to work perfectly...
As for soldering, try to melt some solder on wire end, put it on the surface and melt it quickly...

Is the polarity identifying tab still there? If it is, just solder to that.

If nothing's left, you can sand/file away a little of the black plastic shoulder, exposing more metal to solder onto.

Ahhh, thanks Mr Bulk. I will try that and see what happens...
Cameron

You can solder to the remainder of the tab - it just takes a very steady hand, some planning ahead, and patience.

i did exactly the same thing on my megasonic... bummer that it was the negative side.. same as me.. way more dificult..

what i did was solder a fairly fine wire (like 20ga) sideways onto that little cathode indicator tab.. and i had a new source to solder onto.

-awr

Sweet, I got it back on, now though, I am making the connection through the light buib rather than the switch for the time being. The positive end is the butt of the bulb right? And the negative wire goes anywhere else on the Lightbulb? I originally did this but cant remember that far back. I am 99% sure that its the way I said but I dont want to blow a $30 LED. THanks!
Cameron

[ QUOTE ]
bobisculous said:
Sweet, I got it back on, now though, I am making the connection through the light buib rather than the switch for the time being. The positive end is the butt of the bulb right? And the negative wire goes anywhere else on the Lightbulb? I originally did this but cant remember that far back. I am 99% sure that its the way I said but I dont want to blow a $30 LED. THanks!
Cameron

[/ QUOTE ]

I believe Luxeons have built in protection against reverse polarity to some extent, so if it lights up it's right. Unless your pushing a ton of power to it, then it could fry (I believe more than the luxeon can handle is required to fry it) might want to check to be sure, look on the lumileds sepc sheets.

Woo! Got is back up and running! I am so happy! Works great but the beam seems to be green. Maybe I am just used to the really white/kinda blue beams from my Arcs and other various lights and havent seen a true white beam in a while. But it looks great! Thanks for the suggestions and help. To think, I thought the LED was toast and was about to pop it off and throw it away! Thanks!
Cameron

Well, I suppose I spoke too soon. It has stopped working. I have checked all connections and they all look good. When I turn it on now, about 75% of the LED lights up, but its extremely dim, like glowing. I was playing with it when I saw it flicker, I turned it off for a second, then it never turned back on. Did it blow?
Cameron

Sounds like you fried your precious V3U. Anyone else think of something that might have happened to it that doesn't involve a broken LED?

That was a cruel teaser. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon15.gif
Just when you thought you had saved it. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif

I know man, I am so incredibly bummed. I was so excited that it was working and looking great! This would have been my first real self fixed mod. I had never really soldered anything big before without help. So I was pretty happy when it turned on, then when it shut off, my head went down. Hopefully someone has some suggestions to offer before I scrap the LED and have to buy a new one.
Cameron

What made it fry?
Did you use AA to sink it?
How is it driven?

Not at all sure what made it fry. I did have AL between the heatsink (Hotlips) and the light housing. I have grinded away the HA from the tip of the light to help there as well. Artic Silver stick compound to stick the LED down. Would a fried LED have any different looks to it? Such as black mark somewheres? It has 5D Cells driving it, no resistance.
Cameron

( /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/bumpit.gif ) So no one has anymore suggestions as to what happen to me LED?

Summary: I put a 5W Lux into a 5D Mag, on a Hotlips. LED is epoxied down with Arctic Silver adhesive compound. AL foil tightened up the fit of the hotlips. Direct Drive to the LED off of 5 D Cells. I turn it on, works great for an hour or so. While on, it flickers, I turn it off for an instant to look at it, a second later, I turn it back on, it doenst turn on. All that happens is about 75% of the LED die lights up, but is hardly glowing. I dont know what a "fried" LED looks like, but mine looks 100% normal. No discoloration of any sort. Any last suggestions from anyone?
Thanks,
Cameron

Voltage U bin is 6.87V - 7.35V, and there is tolerance on the voltage bin I hear... Maybe you had one on the low end and pushed it too hard.

I feel for your loss. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif
Did you try new batteries?
Is the Artic Silver you're talking about the 2 part epoxy or just the paste?
How hot did it get?
As far as I know, a fried lux looks pretty normal physically; some of them might have a bubble inside the dome but that's about it. I only have fried one lux so far and it doesn't have any marks on it.

Ok, I just thought I would post the pictures of my 5W Luxeon. Still no success in getting it to work. I believe it is fried. I just thought I would post some pictures to make sure yall thought so as well. Doesnt perhaps look like its just shorting does it? Thanks,




Sorry for the blurryness on the second one. I am still trying to figure out my new Digital Camera, specially using a magnifying glass infront of the lens...

Cameron