CMG infinity repair?

Ive got a CMG infinity that has recently passed away. I can't find any info on where to send it to have it warranteed... woorked on, or otherwise loooked at by someone more savvy than me. Worse, Ive found several places that suggest that they are gone. Can anybody provide any useful info... this light is awful handy, and id like to have it back

CMG was purchased by Gerber.

Is it completely dead? Mine got to be somewhat flickery. Putting a small metal ring in the bottom of the tube helped with negative contact issues. Did the same with my Arc AAA.

Geoff

You can send it into Gerber but they will probably just replace it with their Infinity Ultra which isn't exactly the same light but performs the same.

You may be able to find a CPFer to do it but if you need the output of the repaired light to be similar to the output of the original be sure to make that clear up front or it will probably come back at least twice as bright.

Man, this the first time I've seen a report of a broken CMG Infinity.

PM sent.

My guess is it was torqued down too tight and pushed the contact off the battery. Other than that, don't know what could have gone wrong as it's built stronger than a brick shiitehouse.

Good point, check the crimp around the pc board edge, and the battery contact, and the board for trace cracks. Which version was it? There were several different infinity circuits. 1) original had + battery end pointing at the tail of the light, spring contact at the head; 2) later one had + battery contact at head; the + contact was a soft carbon material, and this used a transistor dc/dc circuit; 3) last version had a Zetex circuit and the + battery contact was copper colored PC board contact.

its a second gen with the soft carbon positive contact in the head. I thought it was a negaitve contact issue, and after cleaning, and a piece of solder wick in the rear the problem was solved..... for a week. Now when I twist on, I occasionally get a dim, dim flicker and thats it.

Have you tried using a wire and connecting the head directly to battery? This might eliminate the head as the problem area.

Geoff

I think that generation was vulnerable to pc trace cracks from flexing the board. I'm not sure how to get the board out of the light (requires undoing the crimp) to work on it but I know some CPF'ers have done this. There were also some issues with the crimp itself. Worse comes to worse if you really like Infinities, I still have a couple of them and could probably part with one.

paulr said:

I think that generation was vulnerable to pc trace cracks from flexing the board.

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Really? Hadn't seen that reported before. Unless the internals of the head weren't potted (and all the ones I've gutted have been potted), there isn't much chance for the board to flex. The potting compound is hard as a rock in ambient temperature and provides great waterproofing and crush protection.

The flickering coming and going makes me think it's gunk accumulation. abinok, let's go through the cleaning procedure once again, and if that doesn't work we'll hit the crimp (pun intended). PM incoming.

well.. bypassed the body by placing the inverted head and the positive on a new duracell together, and using a piece of 10gauge as a jumper... nothing.

Any other ideas guys?

I seem to recall someone bringing one back to life by whacking the edge of the threads where they crimp on the circuit board with the blade of a screwdriver. I think they did it in four places around the board. I remember the picture showing four dents. This supposedly fixed the crimp issue that paulr mentioned. I guess if it's dead you've little to lose. Bummer.

Geoff

Flying Turtle said:

I seem to recall someone bringing one back to life by whacking the edge of the threads where they crimp on the circuit board with the blade of a screwdriver. I think they did it in four places around the board. I remember the picture showing four dents. This supposedly fixed the crimp issue that paulr mentioned. I guess if it's dead you've little to lose. Bummer.

Geoff

Click to expand...

abinok, if you've tried the bypass and all the cleaning I suggested via PM, this would be the next step to try. If that doesn't fix your light, it'd be the first instance of a dead CMG Infinity I hear of. Time to call Gerber; they might replace that light for you or something.