how do you remove a led from a circut board w/o killing it?

LiebeVision · Post by **LiebeVision** » Sat Mar 05, 2011 2:24 am

Yeah, just curious.. as I'm planning on replacing the leds in my dalek kit.... for some reason they're green. Dunno why, but the "ear lights" are green leds... going to replace them with white, and I'm debating cliping them and then soldering the new ones to the "stub" that I cliped off.

Mind you I have all the experience of a 8 year old. I've only soldered 6 times in my life

robiwon · Post by **robiwon** » Sat Mar 05, 2011 8:24 am

It can be done. Do you have a picture of the board? Just make sure you take the batteries out first. Clip the leads, leaving a bit of a stub you can grab with tweezers or needle nose pliers. Then heat the solder at the board where the lead passes thru it. Holding the stub with pliers it should come out very easy. The hole left will probably fill up with solder after the stub comes out. Use a pinvise and a micro drill bit to drill thru the soldered over hole. Insert your new LED and heat it up again to secure the new one in place.

DLMatthys · Post by **DLMatthys** » Thu Mar 10, 2011 2:54 pm

When salvageing and Re-purposing parts from appliance circuits I can get more agressive with a propane torch and a set of pliers.

Wear eye protection and gloves now!

Ziz · Post by **Ziz** » Thu Mar 10, 2011 3:08 pm

Go to Radio Shack and look for desoldering braid. You touch it to the connection along with the soldering iron and the braid "sucks up" the solder leaving you with a nice clean board. If there's any residual solder still holding the LED lead in place, just touch the iron to the lead for a second to soften the remaining solder just enough for you to pull on the LED to get it out.

LiebeVision · Post by **LiebeVision** » Thu Mar 10, 2011 3:48 pm

Thanks guys, got them switched out great!