I busted the pill on my Ti MiNi AA

So, I have a Ti MiNi I wanted to swap to a NW pill(from the recent ltd. run).

I had just finished busting the loctite on my Quarks and was feeling pretty good about myself. The boil bag method wasn't really working for me so I resorted to leather and wrenches(damn scary:sweat. This alone should have raised a red flag.:shakehead

I boiled the head, stuck the tips of my "heavy duty" tweezers in the board and gave it a herculean twist. One of the tips folded, came out and gouged the board. When I tried to pull the other tip out the board came out with it.

I put the board back in and seated it.....dead.:fail:

Sooooo, what are my options? I would prefer not to massacre the board anymore, just in case its only a busted wire. Any other methods of softening loctite?

Any suggestions(or criticisms ) would be greatly appreciated!

Generally you have to boil it to loosen the threadlocker enough to make it come loose.

Possibly a stupid question, but why didn't you just sell it and get a new one with the pill you wanted? Titanium lights always sell quickly.

What do you see under the board?

fyrstormer said:

Generally you have to boil it to loosen the threadlocker enough to make it come loose.

Possibly a stupid question, but why didn't you just sell it and get a new one with the pill you wanted? Titanium lights always sell quickly.

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I did boil the head first.

They didn't make the Ti AA in NW.

Beamhead said:

What do you see under the board?

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The main wires are still connected so I can't pull it out enough to really see under the board.

EDIT: I had a second look and I could see that the red wire was disconnected from the board. I went ahead and wiggled the board until the black lead fatigued and broke. This should make it easier to remove the rest of the pill.

The wires are still connected but it no longer works?
David warned me not to attempt to take my mini's apart, glad I listened.
If there are 2 wires then the board shouldn't need ground, I always use the direct heat method to loosen loctite.
I honestly don't know what to tell you.
Good luck and keep us updated.

Edit: Saw your edit, can you get some pics and good luck.

I'll see what I can do tomorrow. Gotta get dinner on the table.

Dude, its aaaaalllll bad! I had teenager AND wife trouble this week. I just haven't had time to focus. :hairpull:

I really don't want to tell you guys about this, but I guess I deserve it.

I tried to boil the head again with no luck. Soooooo, I applied some direct heat......a little too much direct heat......

I did succeed in removing the pill(my needle nose pliers were still flexing pretty bad) but the plastic LED aligner melted and the LED separated from the mounting board.

Now anybody with half a brain would call it quits, right? Not me! If I was going to have one light destroyed it wasn't going to be my Ti light!

I preceded to boil the head of my NW Al head...............and the bag leaked.

When I took the head out I looked at the lens and it was like looking at a snow globe with a tiny air bubble moving around. The water wasn't coming out either. I couldn't remove the pill and I destroyed the board.....again.

I then took my dremel tool and made a cut lengthwise up the head and extracted the pill with LED intact.

So that's where we stand....one light destroyed, enough working parts(fingers crossed) to fix the other.

I'm heading to Maui on Friday so I don't know if I'll have time to attempt a resurrection before then............maybe its for the best.

In case you haven't figured it out yet........I DON"T recommend trying to take the pill out of the MiNis(you were wise to listen to David, Beamhead). I know its been done before but remember this cautionary tale.

Stay tuned, I'll report back with the results......for better or worse.

P.S. I did take a couple pics but can't get them off the SD card.:shakehead

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
I'm cringing just reading this. It's one of the worst feelings once you get on that slippery slope where you just make it worse and worse until you get to the point where you just saw the damn thing open. I've learned that the only way to avoid this is to stop, eat some simple sugars and then try again in 15 or so minutes. That's the only way I was able to save my nitecore when I swapped the emitter. But it looks like you've already gotten to the "saw the damn thing open" stage. oo:

OUCH! Maui aye? That should help you get over it, if you run into McGizmo belly bump him for me.

Buy an ITP A2 or Maratac AA light and sacrifice that one for its pill. It's the same thing as the MiNi, I'm pretty sure, minus the flashy/blinky modes and the higher price.

I just received a MiNi 123 head that someone tried to de-anodize. The de-ano job didn't work out and the aluminum looks like it has been weathered for a few years. I few quick passes on the mill and the pill was accessible, threads intact. I've since transplanted this heart patient into a different light and am enjoying the same UI as my MiNi 123.

Beamhead said:

OUCH! Maui aye? That should help you get over it, if you run into McGizmo belly bump him for me.

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If I did run into McGizmo I wouldn't be able to look him in the eyes.:sigh:

I was thinking of taking a couple McGizmo style photos with my Ti Quarks but the way things have gone I'm not so sure now.

PCC said:

Buy an ITP A2 or Maratac AA light and sacrifice that one for its pill. It's the same thing as the MiNi, I'm pretty sure, minus the flashy/blinky modes and the higher price.

I just received a MiNi 123 head that someone tried to de-anodize. The de-ano job didn't work out and the aluminum looks like it has been weathered for a few years. I few quick passes on the mill and the pill was accessible, threads intact. I've since transplanted this heart patient into a different light and am enjoying the same UI as my MiNi 123.

Click to expand...

That did occur to me. That will be the next step if I can't piece it back together with what I've got. Thanks for the suggestion.

Hey folks, I took a few "Pics of Pain".
























































Here's one with some mourners.










I'd rather end this on a high note I think!











I'm off to the airport! See you next week!(unless they have wi-fi!)

so is it going back together?

It will..............when I get back!:wave:


edit: The board in the 3rd to the last pic looks to be in good shape. I think I'll have a good shot at getting it back together.

Hey, do you mind telling me what's printed on the 8-pin microchip on the bottom of the driver board? I want to know if I can hack it.

2410
427HB(maybe 8 instead of B)
POB(maybe 8 instead of B)

It would be great if something good would come from this!

:thinking:
I've never heard of that notation before... That's the 8 pin IC?

Third pic from the bottom, you can see the 4 pins on the bottom board of the IC.