extracting diode from heatsink

what methods do you guys use? i always end up killing mine. last time i just left it the heatsink and glued it into the aixiz module lol

It depends on the drive from which you harvest your diode.
Diodes from pioneer drives have a circular shaped heatsink. All you have to do is get a pair of cutters and cut one side of the heatsink, this usually loosens it up and you can get the diode out.
The easiest one is the Sony Nec Optiarc drive from newegg. The diode is simply glued in a heatsink, all you have to do is to scrape the glue off the surface of the diode and it usually just falls right out.
The worst drive I know off is a lite-on drive....you go ahead and guess why they're so terrible. : ;D

lol the 1st one i tried was a lite-on... how about BR drives? are they different?

Hmm, I do recall seeing someone post a diagram for getting a BR diode out of a Xbox HD DVD drive. But I can't remember where it is. As for PS3 diodes I don't recall anybody posting on how to get them out. There has to be info on extracting both kinds of diodes but either I never saw it or I just forgot about it. ;D

The PS3 diodes almost jump out of their sleds at you if you aren't careful The biggest pain there is the little bit of PCB that is soldered on end of the diode - keep in mind to keep heat as far away from the diode as possible for the longest life span Lite touches, and a good heatsink will save your diode whilst removing the PCB stuffs from it

I use a piece of wooden dowel the exact size of the can of the laser, as recommended by Dr. Lava, to push them out. Works flawlessly.

http://www.laser-man.co.uk/2006/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=79&Itemid=6

use a saw

once a cut has been made put a flat headed screw driver in and twist

Most of the ones I've seen are just glued in. I try to scrape the glue away and just use a small flat headed screw driver to work under the edge of the diode and it usually just pops out.

I use different techniques. For example, I had these two heatsinks:


The right one was easy. (open can diode) I mounted one corner of the heatsink in a vise and took the strongest pliers I have and then start BENDING the heatsink at different points. This will crack the glue and when you bend it away from the legs, it creates a sort of funnel effect so it slips out easily.

The left was not this easy, and I had to carefully saw away metal at a depth of to the base ring of the diode (extremely watching out for metal dust)



I have also applied yet another technique. For LD's which are pressed (not glued) in place, put a very big blob of solder between the legs and a 1mm thick copper wire. Mount the heatsink in the vise and start pulling real hard.

Zom-B said:

I have also applied yet another technique. For LD's which are pressed (not glued) in place, put a very big blob of solder between the legs and a 1mm thick copper wire. Mount the heatsink in the vise and start pulling real hard.

Click to expand...

Is that a joke? You risk pulling the legs off the diode. Especially for open cans since those have even weaker legs than closed can diodes.

I actually did perform this only on DELDs because I wanted to recycle the heatsink instead of the diode. The diode legs survived though