Broken leads on emitter?

When removing the emitter from a Lux III star, I have noticed that the leads are very fragile - one snapped right off when I was flattening it back down to attach to the O-sink. I was wondering - is it the emitter done for? Can I solder to the smaller tabs protruding next to the leads? Any other tips - I did read through the tutorial on removing emitters from stars but still managed to run into this problem /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif.

yes you can very carefully solder wire across both tabs.

you need to desolder legs before bending star to release emitter. never pry emitter as plastic base will separate from metal center. destroying your emitter

place a toothpick under the lead, and apply the soldering iron to release the lead. If it doesn't come up all the way or there is still solder, take a flat razor blade, and put it under the now partially raised lead. Apply heat again and the razor will slip between the lead and the star. This keeps the solder from cooling and grabbing the lead again. Do the other side then bend the star and pop off the emitter.

This way you've only bent the leads a tiny bit and can press them back down now gently. Remember when un-soldering you don't have to raise the lead very far up. If there is still solder holding it, don't keep raising it, use the razor blade trick to slide between the lead and star..

Hi, Mateen.

Yes, you definitely can still solder wires onto the small 'tab' that are next to original legs. IsaacHayes have some very good pointers as how to avoid the same 'accidents' and I too had a humble writeup about 'Removing Luxeon led from a Luxeon star' in section 5 of Dummy Reference guide to Minimag mod

Good luck to your mod! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Yah, you can use the tab next to the lead. Or you can use a penknife to carefully slice off some of the black plastic part around the broken lead to expose some more lead.

I've had to do what reefphilic suggests. Not pretty /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon15.gif but works, just go slow

i've ripped of leads twice.. the first time was the most difficult.. ripped off the cathode side.. try to avoid that one.. i used a dremel and took away some of the plastic to get more available purchase on the metal.. the 'frame' is apparently electrically identical to the lead near it.. so.. for the anode side you can usually ignore the actual lead and solder right to the little frame lead with the hole in it.

when i remove an emitter from a star i saw through the leads with a dremel and emery wheel first.. no force at all and no de-soldering.. i rarely ever use the whole lead on an emitter so it saves me having to cut it off later anyhow


-awr

Thanks all for the info - very encouraging. What I had done before posting my problem was built up a rather large solder blob butting up against the plastic where the lead used to be. Wiring to that did the trick but looks kinda nasty - I think I'll undo it all and resolder it more cleanly straight to the tab.

Thanks again - this thread is going to my favorites!

OH.. i might add.. at least on one occasion... i wired a small piece of wire to that tab (like a 24ga or even 28ga wire).. about 1" long.. and made THAT my new lead.. takes the stress off the new lead.

-awr