I am trying to get the driver out, so the pill is in the freezer. If i dunk a part of the pill in hot water straight from the freezer, will it damage the led chip to heat up so quickly?
Nah, shouldn’t hurt it. The LED will change temperature more quickly by itself when it goes from off to fully driven. A water bath of part of the pill won’t be that much of a thermal shock.
PPtk
F* that backfired, the pill fell in the water, driver never came out and now its full of water that i can’t remove
What exactly is the problem anyway? I’ve never used anything more than a soldering iron to remove a driver from a pill.
its in so tight i can put my whole body weight on pulling it and it doesn’t budge
Use a hammer on one side to get an edge to pry up on. More force than static application of it.
I’ve bent 3 nails and 2 screwdrivers, still stuck
Can you take a picture of it? I can’t believe you’ve bent screwdrivers. Something is very strange…
PPtk
You’re just trying to get the actual PCB driver out, right? Not trying to pry out the brass retainer ring? Is it possible that the cavity behind the driver has been filled with epoxy or some other thermal compound?
its empty, i tried pushing the driver out from the back with a specially a designed tool. I don’t care about the brass ring
Hey Bort,
I have opened many heads that just were not designed with coming back apart in mind. Its hard to say exactly what to do without it in my hand, but 99% of the time what will work best is this.
Get something like a paper clip that will fit through the holes where the LED wires go to the driver at. Straighten it out, then cut it to be just lightly longer than it takes to reach the driver. Set the pill where the driver is not on a hard surface ( I usually spread the jaws of my vice and set it on the edges). Hit that pill with a torch for about 6 seconds all around to loosen the epoxy ( that water bath thing is not going to do nearly what that will) dont over do it just get it hot. Now stick that paper clip in there till it touches the edge of the driver and give it a good tap with a hammer. Just be careful not to whack your LED. This will get it out.
I think this is the only solution, i did want it out in one piece and intact so i could figure out why it failed but it looks like that is not in the cards.
It occurred to me just now how that board is probly installed. Most often the way a stubborn board is installed is they solder it to that brass ring from the top and then press the ring into the pill.
If you really want the board out in tact and you dont mind a little extra work it can be done. You would need to unsolder the LED wires first if you haven't already. I would then get the pill warm enough to loose the epoxy under the LED and take it off. Now you can get the whole pill hot enough with your torch to melt the solder. If you get it hot really fast so only the solder around that brass ring has time to heat up then tap the board out real quick it should come out relatively unharmed.
That picture shows that the driver is held in by a retaining ring… did you remove it? Notice the two notches near 10:00 and 3:00 on the inner ring… use needle nose pliers in those notches to unscrew the ring.
I told you how to get it apart in the other post I have taken at least a dozen of those exact drivers out
“You don’t want to boil that one the C-88 can be a real PIA to get out I usually end up wrecking them. Your best bet is a razer or x-acto knife cut away what you can see for solder. Than take a small nail in a vice grip and work it into the hole between the two 7135 chips at the 12 o’clock position and use the nail to pry it out once you have worked it in deep enough to get a good bite.”
You may need to change out the nail a couple times but you will get it if you are persistent.
Freezing and boiling solder does nothing to weaken it but applying heat with a soldering iron around the edge of the driver while working it with a the nail and vice grip will help