Sudden Death of a Light?
 

I have a Nite Rider Lumina 850, and while it's been a good unit it just suddenly stopped working. It won't take a charge. Has anyone seen this? Any ideas on a cause?

Every LED light I've ever repaired, one of the leads had come off the controller board. Every LED light I haven't been able to repair, one of the leads smoked a capacitor or resistor on the board.

I've had LiPo/Li-Ion cells go bad a couple of times, some are easily replaced, some not so much.

If it's newer, send it in. If you've had it for a couple of years, pop it open. Can't break it any more than it's already broke.

Is your light powered by an internal Li Ion battery? I am not familiar with your specific light, but some Li Ion batteries have a protection circuit that prevents them from charging if they were discharged to too low a voltage, I am not a battery expert but it is my understanding that this protection circuit is for safety purposes. When I have had a Li Ion battery refuse to take a charge, I chuck it.

I buy AAA powered taillights, if the batteries die I can replace them easy enough. And I use NiMH rechargeable AA and AAA batteries, have not bought non-rechargable AA or AAA for over a decade.

Niterider will repair it out of warranty for $25 plus the cost of shipping it to them https://www.niterider.com/niterider-warranty/ Only you can decide if spending this much to resurrect a $65 light is wise. If they simply give you a brand new light it might be a bargain but if they return the light with the old battery inside it may not be so good a deal. Li-ion batteries have about a 500 recharge cycle according to most battery sites.

I'm going to assume this lamp recharges via a micro-USB port. Not unusual for the micro-USB port to just wear out. So, the real question is; "Is this the port, the charger or something else inside the lamp".

If you decide to buy a new one ( as they are very affordable ) I'd recommend buying from REI because their customer service is excellent. ( I'm assuming REI still sells the Niterider line-up )

Repair
 

Correct, it uses one of those worthless micro UB ports. A mini would have fit the space...

I sent it to Nite Rider for repair. It's a good light (when it works) and the repair quote was cheaper than buying a new unit. I should have it back soon. I have a second light, and while larger and heavier, it's better than nothing.

I have one of those Night Rider Luminas as well. I bought it new in 2012. After a few years it too stoped working. I remove those four screws holding the outer case together and found that one of the battery leads had broke. I purchased a replacement battery directly from them.

You can prevent wear and tear on the micro-USB port by using an extension. Unfortunately the Lumina 850 has the port on the side so if you use the smallest extension it will stick out a bit. By using the extension ( you plug it in and leave it in ) you never have to worry about over using the port on the lamp itself. If the extension breaks you just buy a new one for about $7. PITA to have to buy a new lamp just because a metal piece inside the port broke.

The mico-USB port on my Raveman CR-900 went up last week. Had to buy a new one even though the lamp still works. I bought a 6" extension ( male on one end, six inches of wire with a female port on the other end ) because my lamp also uses the same port for the wired remote. Having a little extra wire gives me more mounting options for the remote. Got to hate micro-USB ports. Can't wait till all lamps start using USB-C. I might try to do what you did and return the lamp to the manufacturer and see if they can fix it for cheap.

My 850 has the port under a rubber flap on the bottom. I have it mounted using a K Edge mount and gopro adapter, so the port faces up. The adapter won't work for me.

Well that does make things more difficult. In your case you might be able to find an extension that has the male part that is designed at a 90° angle. That way when inserted the wire comes off at a right angle. Then you'd probably need a good 12" of wire which you could then wrap around the mount when not in use. I saw similar right angle extensions on Amazon but don't know if they have one exactly like what you would need.

Anyway if you have the lamp mounted upside down that has to make changing modes more difficult. If you owned one of the Raveman CR-series lamps you could flip the lens ( cut-off type lens ) upside down and use the remote for changing modes. Raveman does sell a Gopro adapter that should work with the CR series lamps but you have to order it separately. ( Note; I flipped the lens on one of my Raveman CR's before so I know that it works )

Either way, if I leave something permanently inserted it exposes the port to water damage. I really need to close that rubber flap.

Well...in your case it certainly wouldn't help since you have the lamp flipped upside down. Personally I never put any kind of faith in some of those rubber flaps. FWIW I've been caught in rain more than a couple times now and with the remote wire plugged in I've yet to have a problem. I suppose if you wanted to you could use an eye dropper and put in a little alcohol to dry the port out when you get home. There is also the option of using some electrical tape to put around the port and wire if you use an extension. Of course I forgot that in the event of running into rain you also have the option of just pulling out the extension and closing off the port with the rubber flap. In your case the idea of using an extension is just to prevent over-wear of the port. Perfectly fine to take the wire out once in a while. The port on my lamp gets twice the wear and tear because it also is used with a remote control wire. Still, I got a good two years out of it. Too bad I didn't figure out how to save wear and tear on the port until it broke.

Odd that you mentioned wanting to use the rubber flap to protect the port. I have numerous small front and rear LED self-contained lamps where the flap just stopped working or simply broke off. These lamps keep working which amazes me because I'm sure they've seen their share of getting wet.

Only time I ever had an issue with a port not working after getting wet was with my phone. Odd too because I have the phone inside a plastic holder and mounted on my stem. Somehow some water got into the port and when I tried to charge the phone after taking it out, the phone gave me a prompt telling me I couldn't charge the phone till the port dried out. Since I had no alcohol to help it dry out it took about an hour before I could charge the phone.

The final chapter: I sent the light to Nite Rider, who replaced the battery for no charge. It was a dead battery, I guess.

Micro USB Problems
 

Apparently I have fallen victim to the dreaded broken micro USB connector. At first the internals (mainly plastic) slid up inside the metal sheath when inserting the plug from the power source. I could disassemble the light and push the plastic piece back down so that there was contact with the power supply.

Recently, the entire micro USB connector fell away from the circuit board, rendering charging disabled. If the micro USB was soldered onto the circuit board, it was not heavily soldered.

Anyone have any suggestions or comments on whether or not the micro USB adapter was really soldered to the circuit board?

Replacment Micro USB Connector
 

Has anyone successfully replaced the micro USB connector? Seems one could be super glued in place as the important thing is the contact of the 5 pins on the mini circuit board.

fwiw - might be worth a try. lately I've enjoyed using the glues listed below. I often wear disposable gloves. have a napkin handy. use something tiny like a toothpick to apply it. put a little puddle on a piece of cardboard & scoop some with the toothpick. while they dry sort of quickly it's best to leave them alone for 24 hrs while they "set"

Loctite Gel Control Super Glue

there's also a type that stays slightly flexible

Powerflex Ultra Control Gel Super Glue by Loctite

I like them both