CNI disassembly

[Chad]

Ok... my 125mW CNI pen just gave up the ghost... or at least the button. Less than a week after the warranty expired. just my luck, eh?
Anyhow, I figured I'd take it all apart to see if I could do something with it... and guess what? I FORGOT HOW. Anyone care to tell me how to get these things apart?

 

[john_lawson]

just remove the sticker and it will pull apart the trick is getting it togather make sure you put the white plastic brace back on and put the rubber button on pc board when assembling i used a touch of cooking oil on top of rubber button so it would slide into place easily my infinity did the same thing about 96 days 6 over the warranty it failed be carefull and good luck

John :-/

 

[IgorT]

I have one in pieces..

I can post the pics. The original owner harmed it during dissasembly tho. I hope you can do it better.

It comes appart at the head, at the golden ring. There is an alluminum tube inside, with a brass lower part, where the diode is. I would not recommend twisting, as you can break off the driver.

This tube contains all the optics, the crystals and the diode at the bottom, soldered to the driver. It should come out in one piece. If something dislodges (crystals, diode), you're screwed...


I don't have time for pics now.. Too much work. Here's a pic of the body... What is missing is the tube in the middle, that connects the two parts of the body. In the upper edge of the picture, the driver is visible. It should be screwed into the tube from the brass side, but was unfortunately taken appart by the owner.

 

[styropyro]

It does come apart at the gold ring, but be careful, this is how my old X105 got busted. I still don't know what happened to cause the dot to get screwed up into a huge blob, but there is obviously something than can break by opening up the top.

 

[john_lawson]

mine pulled apart as a whole everything stayed intact you have to push the rubber button down in the tube and slide the axis and board out togather then switch is easily re-soldered is yours stuck on like mine was i was thinking about getting the nova key on switch and use it that way it just screws on the tail just an option if yours is stuck on like mine was

 

[IgorT]

Yeah, the rubber button has a hole in the middle, that sits on the SMD push-button tip. You would have to squeeze it down and maybe lube it up first.. :



Oh, and when you get the head off (or even before) DO NOT TWIST IT under ANY circumstances!!!
The rubber button could hold the PCB in place and prevent it from turning, and you could break the diode mount from the driver, or the contact pads on the driver PCB could simply fall off, and that sucks. Happened to me (while desoldering the diode mount, not twisting), with the driver in the above pic. Luckily, the pad was still connected to the copper trace, so i glued it back down with CA. It's not as good as it should be tho.

Maybe you can twist the head part of the body a little, but when you are left with the aluminum tube in the lower body, you have to pull it out straight, and not twist.

 

[RA_pierce]

Is there an internal difference between the model with the smooth curved pocket clip and the model with the flat clip thats split in the middle?
My Nova X105 has the flat clip but in all the pictures I've seen of CNI pens they have a smooth curved clip.

 

[IgorT]

My >150mW, that came directly from CNI has a flat clip with the "split" in the middle. The one in the picture has a curved one.

I don't think there are any differences, other than that.