Getting inside the Infinity Ultra's head?

Getting inside the Infinity Ultra\'s head?

About a month ago I picked up an old-style silver Infinity Ultra, which I've been using as an EDC and love to bits. So I ordered another, and apparently I got lucky on the first one, because not only is the LED in the new one off-center, it's 'tilted' at a pretty significant angle. At a six-foot distance, the hotspot is a good 8-10 inches off from where I aim the light.

The thought of sending it back isn't very appealing, since I'm in Canada and that's generally a huge hassle, so I'm wondering if there's a way I can fix it myself. The thing doesn't really budge from the outside, but I was wondering if I could maybe pop the electronics out of the head and re-solder the LED so that it sits straight. Is there an easy-ish way to get into this thing?

Re: Getting inside the Infinity Ultra\'s head?

Is the second one a Gerber? I had exactly the same experience. I bought a CMG Infinity Ultra and loved it, then ordered a "Gerber" Infinity Ultra -- the LED was off center and had more of a bluish tint. I sent it back. IMO, there is no excuse for an off-center LED. I really got an attidude about. When CMG first came out with their Infinity (not ultra) I got one of every color. Not one was off-center. I ended up selling the color LED ones on Ebay and keeping the white one, which I have been using with the same AA battery for about two years now.

Re: Getting inside the Infinity Ultra\'s head?

They're both Gerbers. The LED in the first one is centered, shoots straight, and has much less blue in the beam. Did you send send yours back to the dealer, or to Gerber?

Re: Getting inside the Infinity Ultra\'s head?

I don't know about the colored leds but the white leds apparently have some centering problems. The problem is in the led itself, i.e. how the die is mounted in the package, not in how the flashlight is assembled.

I've had about about 8 of these lights (Infinity, Ultra, and Ultra-G) and about half of them are well centered, the rest show various degrees of non-centering.

It's just not really a problem in practice. I think it's best to decide to not worry about it.

Re: Getting inside the Infinity Ultra\'s head?

I sent it back to REI. I did (and still do!) have an attitude about it mainly, as I said, I had perfect results with the originals (made by CMG). Some people don't seem to mind. I'm actually still looking for a "better" light by some other manufacturer. The trend seems to be to go for the lux lights. Ideally for me, a 1-watt lux light with 3 brightness settings would be ideal. BUT one more quirk... I do not want to cycle through the settings with one button! I am fussy, I know!

Re: Getting inside the Infinity Ultra\'s head?

Strangely, I have a red, new style Gerber Infinity Ultra that is incredibly and horribly off-center. Most of the reflector, on one side, is left almost dark. It's far worse than my other 4. Yet, it throws a small red spot farther and brighter than the others, even the white ones. Go figure. I also have a new style Gerber that is white and perfectly centered. One Ultra-G centered, one not. And the I have an original CMG Infinity/red that has the prettiest flood with no spot. It's brighter than all the others, to boot.

When you consider what we pay for these, the Infinity beam lottery is going to happen.

I've seen in other threads where people claim you can put an Infinity in a ziplock bag & put that into very hot/boiling water in order to head up the stuff that holds the LED assembly in place. They were doing it with the intention of removing and re-working/replacing the assembly, but it might also allow us to then adjust the LED's "point-of-aim".

Re: Getting inside the Infinity Ultra\'s head?

The Infinity head is potted like the ARCAAA. It takes quite a while to remove the epoxy. But it's worth a straight pointing LED. You will destroy the crimping lips and there is risk to consider too.

-vince.

Re: Getting inside the Infinity Ultra\'s head?

Vince,

What I had hoped for was to be able to heat the epoxy up, adjust the LED to point straight, then let the epoxy cool down. No removal, just adjust the aim. From your post, it sounds like what I wanted to tried isn't as simple as I had hoped. Bummer...

Re: Getting inside the Infinity Ultra\'s head?

Look at these posts. You'll find loads of info:

darzero's Infinity mod
koala's LUXI

Re: Getting inside the Infinity Ultra\'s head?

Thanks!!!

Re: Getting inside the Infinity Ultra\'s head?

The epoxy will crumble like bread when heat up. Not melt.

Re: Getting inside the Infinity Ultra\'s head?

On the Ultra I took apart, the potting compound was NOT epoxy - it was a softer, rubbery compound (looks to me like a clay/mineral-filled urethane resin). I picked all of it away using tweezers and toothpics (no problem @ room temp), soldered on a different LED, and used epoxy to re-pot into the head (temporarily sealing against leaks around the external LED/bezel opening w/putty, and epoxy filling from the battery side using a needle/syringe thru the small hole in the circuit board). Works fine, for a year so far. Dropped many times!!

Re: Getting inside the Infinity Ultra\'s head?

Hmm, so what do you do about the lip on the board side? Just chip away at it?

Re: Getting inside the Infinity Ultra\'s head?

[ QUOTE ]
formicae said:
Hmm, so what do you do about the lip on the board side? Just chip away at it?

[/ QUOTE ]

Welp, thinking I might be able to save the lip (roll crimp) for re-use, I carefully pried and tapped it open and out of the way with a small screwdriver. But about 2/3rds of the lip broke off when re-assembled and re-crimped. And there was not enough remaining lip below the break to provide a new crimp - but has worked fine with the weak remaining 1/3rd. Risky, tho... I'd hate to say "tear into it!" and have ya' end up with grounding issues, if you know what I mean.

Next time, I'm thinking of filing some beveled slots (say, 3 or 4, @ 45 deg., 1/8" wide) into the circuit board's battery side circumference, lining those slots with a bit of soldered-on copper foil, and crimping fresh aluminum over that, for a more reliable mechanical ground for the circuit. Maybe even a little grease, there and on the head's internal "shelf" - against which the board rests - may help prevent any corrosion from disturbing the ground/negative, as well (although mine is still functioning perfectly without doing either, so...??).

Just some ideas... $0.02

Re: Getting inside the Infinity Ultra\'s head?

[ QUOTE ]
Codeman said:
Vince,

What I had hoped for was to be able to heat the epoxy up, adjust the LED to point straight, then let the epoxy cool down. No removal, just adjust the aim.

[/ QUOTE ]

since it's not epoxy, Would this work? I would love to straighten the led on my ultra!

bump!

Does anyone know if you can heat up the head of an Infinity Ultra and straighten up the LED?

Re: bump!

Donovan, check the links I provided at the top of this thread. Other people have used a heatgun and/or a gas torch for removing the Infinity's pill. You *could* straighten the LED, bit it might not be worth the effort. The pill it's completely encased in an epoxy "coffin" and to get it out you basically have to destroy the crimp.

Like koala said, the hot epoxy (or whatever resin it is) crumbles when heated, it does not soften. It crumbles easier when warm. You'd have to completely remove the resin (after prying open the crimp -which invariable will break-, work on the LED, and then rebuild the pill again. At that point, you're better off building yourself a LUXI mod. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Moat5606, how'd you do remove the resin without heating the pill? I tried suing tweezers and a a toothpick, but the toothpick was too soft for the job and kept breaking. I then used a dissection pick, but ended up breaking the inductor. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/jpshakehead.gif

BTW, koala's pointed out that the Infinity Ultra board has an additional neg contact lip on the inside of the board which contacts the small lip on the Infinity's can. That's (IMO) why the crimp is not essential (but I guess it helps hold the pill inside the can while providing a more secure neg path).

Incidentally, the first time I removed the circuit, I boiled the entire head and then pushed the LED with a pencil eraser (read somewhere that was the way to do it -softens the resin and prevents damaging the circuit-). On my second attempt, I pushed the LED without heating the head first and the circuit popped out just as easily. *Then* I boiled the pill to remove the epoxy.

I strongly recommend reading the posts I linked to previously.

Re: bump!

I was considering a simple one-for-one 5mm LED exchange with one of the awesome 26Kmcd LEDs I have siting around here but on second thoughts that looks like a lot of work. I only have one last Inf Ultra.

Modding the little keychain lights is a lot easier, I did 4 of them last night and compared them against the Ultra - they are crazy bright once you've upgraded them.

Having this bright a LED in the ArcAAA would be even nicer, but if I mess up on that one the stakes will be even higher.

Re: bump!

Hi, greenLED -

I just carefully picked little chunks away with a fairly heavy and sharp pair of small tweezers, until down to the components and board. Then used a dental-type pick and finally wood toothpic to scrub off the bits around the components (really wasn't nescessary to go that far, but I wanted a completely "clean" board to fiddle with).

I guess the important word here is "carefully"... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ooo.gif Sorry to hear about the inductor... does it still work?

I must add that it's certainly possible that some runs of Infinities were potted with a "tougher" compound than others. Mine was not bad at all... but it DID take a little time and patience.

I also pushed the guts out cold, with a soft plastic dowel against the LED, whacked with a screwdriver handle to get it started. No LED or board damage, AFAICT.

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Re: bump!

[ QUOTE ]
KevinL said:
I was considering a simple one-for-one 5mm LED exchange with one of the awesome 26Kmcd LEDs I have siting around here but on second thoughts that looks like a lot of work. I only have one last Inf Ultra.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well if you can't just easily heat up the head and straighten up the LED then this was my second thought. To replace the LED with one of the 26Kmcd ones. If you got the assembly out would it not be just an easy swap to replace the LED? I am assuming that you wouldn't need to touch anything but the LED itself?