***** Updated CREE XR-E R2 Below *****
Back in the late '90s I bought a CMG Infinity and the Reactor it was this color green :green:. The reactor got torn apart to see why it flickered. Turned out to be engineered wrong, worst twisty ever!
I recently saw McGizmo's Mule thread and got inspired to make an all flood keychain light out of my old beaten up Infinity. I'm very impressed and hope you all are too. Heres some shots I put in links because the images are large.
PIC LINK of CMG CREE open thats a glow o-ring from pfmedic
I apologize for not taking pics along the way but heres what I did:
1. I got the crimped edge off the head with pliers, PITA!
2. Once the crimp is off you can see the CMG board I then did the boil in bag trick for 5 Minutes.
3. With the head srcewed in I applied lots of pressure to the LED with the back of a sharpie marker. Anything will work if you don't want to use the pill again.
4. I then tried to remove the plastic covering the LED. WTF it won't come off. Yeah I didnt know it was epoxy and wrecked the converter in the process. So no easy swap of LED. Save the little o-ring around the LED.
5. Go to Sandwiche Shoppe and get a MadMax WO Lite. And ArcticSilver Alumina Epoxy. And a Cree XR-E.
6. Get 2-3 day delivery so you don't have to wait a week.
7. See a therapist about INSTANT GRATIFICATION. :laughing: :laughing: :laughing:
8. Drill out the opening in the head to accomadate the ?6mm? of the XR-E. Now make a bore ?8mm? for the ring-around-the-XR-E. Now I got out the dremel and a milling bit to make a rectangular hole for the board of the XR-E to fit in. I did this all by eye and the hole for the board is deeper than it needs to be.
9. With Arcticsilver Alumina Epoxy I isolated the top + and - contacts next to the LED. Enough epoxy but not too much and stick on the O-ring saved from the original LED for water reststance. At 4.5 minutes I put the led in place to epoxy it in the CMG head and held under thumb pressure. This way I think its isolated and epoxied in, but you could thin coat the leads and then epoxy it in the head to insure isolation. Clean up any epoxy that leaks out the LED hole quick.
PIC LINK
10. So to get heat off the back of the LED I cut a strip of flat copper to only the width of the solder pad and touching each side inside the head. I tinned the back of the LED (its now epoxied in the head) with a ball of solder and put the copper on top. Then with a flat solder tip to get lots o' heat on fast I pressed down on the copper till little solder came out the side. NOT ENOUGH TO BRIDGE TO THE - OR +!
11. Now make up two leads and color code them to the + & - of the LED, solder them on. Connect to the Madmax and establish a ground to the head. I had to sand the edge of the converter to sit in the edge of head and clean up the burrs from decrimping. Spinning a open needle nose pliers around the rim did it for me. All you need to do now is fill with AAEpoxy and it will glue the MadMax down no need for recrimping.
PIC LINK
12. As you can see in the pic above I soldered a + contact blob on the MadMax and filed it flat.
Tonight it snowed and I thought hey lets go out and shoot some lights. Bad idea snow reflects lots of light in the city, wish I still lived in rural MA sometimes. I'll take some forest shots when I visit Mom. For now alley shots will have to do. In the shoot out are:
The CMG USG on the wall
The P1D-CE "Kooter" (3.6v) on the wall
The CMG CREE (1.5v) on the wall
The CMG CREE (3.6v) on the wall
Again sorry for the wiggly beamshots I wanted to keep it all on manual without flash. I need a tripod with a light clamp and camera screw, sounds like another mod.
Shots are taken by my CanonA75 at 1" F5.0 iso100 not that I know what any of that relates too, gotta read the manual. So let me know what you think of my first full mod.
Back in the late '90s I bought a CMG Infinity and the Reactor it was this color green :green:. The reactor got torn apart to see why it flickered. Turned out to be engineered wrong, worst twisty ever!
I recently saw McGizmo's Mule thread and got inspired to make an all flood keychain light out of my old beaten up Infinity. I'm very impressed and hope you all are too. Heres some shots I put in links because the images are large.
PIC LINK of CMG CREE open thats a glow o-ring from pfmedic
I apologize for not taking pics along the way but heres what I did:
1. I got the crimped edge off the head with pliers, PITA!
2. Once the crimp is off you can see the CMG board I then did the boil in bag trick for 5 Minutes.
3. With the head srcewed in I applied lots of pressure to the LED with the back of a sharpie marker. Anything will work if you don't want to use the pill again.
4. I then tried to remove the plastic covering the LED. WTF it won't come off. Yeah I didnt know it was epoxy and wrecked the converter in the process. So no easy swap of LED. Save the little o-ring around the LED.
5. Go to Sandwiche Shoppe and get a MadMax WO Lite. And ArcticSilver Alumina Epoxy. And a Cree XR-E.
6. Get 2-3 day delivery so you don't have to wait a week.
7. See a therapist about INSTANT GRATIFICATION. :laughing: :laughing: :laughing:
8. Drill out the opening in the head to accomadate the ?6mm? of the XR-E. Now make a bore ?8mm? for the ring-around-the-XR-E. Now I got out the dremel and a milling bit to make a rectangular hole for the board of the XR-E to fit in. I did this all by eye and the hole for the board is deeper than it needs to be.
9. With Arcticsilver Alumina Epoxy I isolated the top + and - contacts next to the LED. Enough epoxy but not too much and stick on the O-ring saved from the original LED for water reststance. At 4.5 minutes I put the led in place to epoxy it in the CMG head and held under thumb pressure. This way I think its isolated and epoxied in, but you could thin coat the leads and then epoxy it in the head to insure isolation. Clean up any epoxy that leaks out the LED hole quick.
PIC LINK
10. So to get heat off the back of the LED I cut a strip of flat copper to only the width of the solder pad and touching each side inside the head. I tinned the back of the LED (its now epoxied in the head) with a ball of solder and put the copper on top. Then with a flat solder tip to get lots o' heat on fast I pressed down on the copper till little solder came out the side. NOT ENOUGH TO BRIDGE TO THE - OR +!
11. Now make up two leads and color code them to the + & - of the LED, solder them on. Connect to the Madmax and establish a ground to the head. I had to sand the edge of the converter to sit in the edge of head and clean up the burrs from decrimping. Spinning a open needle nose pliers around the rim did it for me. All you need to do now is fill with AAEpoxy and it will glue the MadMax down no need for recrimping.
PIC LINK
12. As you can see in the pic above I soldered a + contact blob on the MadMax and filed it flat.
Tonight it snowed and I thought hey lets go out and shoot some lights. Bad idea snow reflects lots of light in the city, wish I still lived in rural MA sometimes. I'll take some forest shots when I visit Mom. For now alley shots will have to do. In the shoot out are:
- CMG Infinity US Government (Stock)
- P1D-CE "Kooter" (3.6v)
- CMG Infinity CREE (1.5v & 3.6v)
The CMG USG on the wall
The P1D-CE "Kooter" (3.6v) on the wall
The CMG CREE (1.5v) on the wall
The CMG CREE (3.6v) on the wall
Again sorry for the wiggly beamshots I wanted to keep it all on manual without flash. I need a tripod with a light clamp and camera screw, sounds like another mod.
Shots are taken by my CanonA75 at 1" F5.0 iso100 not that I know what any of that relates too, gotta read the manual. So let me know what you think of my first full mod.
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