D.I.Y. Illuminated tailcap

Read thru the post carefully and have ordered some Rev4 & pyro1son 16mm boards. I have also ordered my LEDs, pots, resisters and translucent tail caps. I will need to hunt down or create a transparent/translucent washers. Just waiting on the slow boat at this point. I have constructed 18 Convoy C8s so far. 14 of them I gave away as gifts. The Convoy C8 hosts I used were the version 3s with the integrated aluminum shelf. The tail switch uses a Omten 1288 type switch. The switch board is 16mm x 1mm. The ring/washer is 18mm x 1.4mm. I will share my results when I have some. I would also like to appeal to pilotdog68 on the creation of a 18mm Rev 5.2.

Wouldn’t be too hard. When I was editing the OP I noticed a few holes in sizes. Give me a couple days.

Thanks in Advance!

Will the following be enough:

Any suggestions for more pcbs (any kind)?

Any other PCBs? Hmm do you want to build drivers? There are a million of them to choose from.

I still have a hundred or so translucent silicon thingies for the S2+ which I can sent out for shipping costs. Even to the US it is just $1.70 from here (long live postnl!).

(that reminds me there was a request for them that I never sent, I’ll look that up :person_facepalming: )

Thank you for updating the OP. This thread was so big that I didn’t think I would ever get around to reading it. Bought some boards and LED’s. :slight_smile:

I’m glad the OP is better now.

Stretching out a board to a larger size is usually pretty easy. I’m doing that to Rev5.2, and we already have the BIG version of 5.1. Any other sizes I should do? Most of them are purposely a little small because I don’t like having to sand off the little nubs Oshpark leaves on stuff. I account for them adding some size so I can still just drop it in the light.

edit: 18mm Rev5.2 is now in the OP

PD, is there a version coming with a larger center hole? For bigger switches and such…

Post #1064?

I might take you up on some of those depending on how I like the lighted tailcaps I already ordered.

A lot better!
I really appreciate your dedication on this :+1:

I like the nylon right mod with the metal switch, it looks clean.

I just built a lighted tailcap in my S2+ with rev 5.1 board. I had a problem with channel 3. I want to put green leds on channel 1 and 2 and red on 3. 4,7K resistors worked fine for channel 1 and 2 but on channel 3 the red was very bright. I tried to raise the resistor to 47K but nothing changed and the current stayed the same. I started searching for shorts and found that the ring positive connection is shorted to channel 3’s trace on bottom side so the resistor is shorted.

Cutted the short with an X-acto knife and it was OK.

Then I found the result with two green and one red led not really nice, and changed to six green leds.

The final version is barely visible at daylight but in dark it’s good and not disturbing. Overall current is 1,06mA. I needed the low current cause I use it in the 18350 version S2+

Where do you get clear tailcaps for the astrolux lineup (S1, S2, S41 ect.)? They are smaller then the convoy clear tailcaps I have.

14mm. I get mine from KD

Thanks, got some ordered. For some reason I just assumed that the convoy tailcaps I had would fit.

Just successfully constructed an illuminated tailcap for a Convoy C8 Version 3.

I used the following parts:

16mm Rev5.3 - Bottom
18mm Rev 5.2 - Top
Omten 1288 switch from MntElectronics
Clear Translucent Boot from Simon
1 3x3 50K ohm Panasonic SMD Pot from ebay
1 0805 SMD Slow 7 color changing RGB LED from ebay

I used 2 header pins to stack the boards around the switch. The 7 color changing LED cycles thru R G B with a slight color shift between cycles. I measured a 0.23 mA draw on the tailcap. I still need to add a bleeder resistor to the driver. My driver is a QLITE with guppydrv firmware running at 3.8 Amps. Without the bleeder resistor the driver no longer starts on high when initially turned on. If switched off it starts where you left off. Like you have memory enabled. Everything else seems to work fine. I am also still able to program the driver with custom modes.

I am tempted to add an additional color changing LED to the ring board to see if additional colors occur, since the chip built into the color changing RGB LED most probably have slightly different timing/cycle rates.

Thanks again PD for making the 18mm top available!

Received today 10 pcs PD68 Illuminated Switch - 16mm Rev5.1, I have about 5 or 6 models of switches and this PCB fits only one of them!
Only small orange omten switch will work but for them center hole is a bit wider than it should be while for others center hole is too small. Thought I could just sand it until it fits but thre are 2 vias very close to center hole that will be damaged by sanding just not sure if they will dissapear complitely or will they still have function

There’s no problem with a bit of play on the ring, that was on purpose. In any case if you choose to drill/sand, this can be your guide (if you didn’t check it already). As long as half of the via is left it should be fine.