I wished for the same thing. I’m waiting for my boards to show up from Oshpark. I doubt I’ll do a video, but I’ll take a lot of pictures and notes from putting them in my S2, S2+ (metal tailcap), and S6. Maybe C8, too. We’ll see how adventurous I get. I’ll share as soon as those are done.
Super!
Step1: Choose what version you want (and ask questions to help decide).
Step2: Solder all components to bottom of switch pcb (spring, bypass wire, pot/mini switch).
Step3: Solder all components to top of switch pcb (omten switch, pot/jumper pins).
Step4: Solder all components to bottom of Ring pcb (Pots/resistors).
Step5: Solder LEDs to top of ring.
Step6: Assemble/mock-up to test (preferably with actual driver being used in the light).
Step7: If it works, great! Finalize your assembly and pat yourself on the back. If your driver is acting funny, move to step8.
Step8: Read OP about bleeder resister. Add bleeder resistor to driver. If it works, great! if not, move to step9.
Step9: Tell us why steps 1-8 didn’t work for you.
Appreciate the cheat sheets.
Honestly - that’s very helpful. I appreciate you “dumbing it down” for us ambitious folks lacking the practical knowledge. So, what I’m trying to say is, THANKS!
I finally got around to actually putting one of these together today, well 2 actually. Overall it went together easy enough, I like the header pin setup.
The pot is hard to dial in, maybe it is just the ones I ordered. I tried both 50k and 100k but I find that the LED’s won’t light up with anything over ~5k at the most. Why such high pot values?
Besides that the tailcap works great.
The driver on the other hand seems to loose reverse modes with the tailcap installed. I guess because power is flowing through it at all times?
I am using a TA driver with a 560ohm bleeder but also tried it with a another light that didn’t have a bleeder and while the tailcap lit up it lost all modes.
So is this a sign of a larger bleeder resistor needed?
How bright have you set you LEDs? If You can’t see them at all in a bright room, I’d make sure you don’t have any trickle shorts anywhere. It’s odd that you have to set your pots so low, I have to totally max out a 50k to get anything usable.
If you find out where all the extra power is going, that should resolve your driver issue. But otherwise, yes you’re describing symptoms of not enough bleed.
They are about as bright as a stock astrolux S2 tailcap I would say, maybe a bit less.
I built 2 of them, I have not tried the second in a light yet but it needed about the same pot settings. It uses different LED’s and it is significantly brighter though. Both of them have a very narrow window where they will light up at all, be it in the flashlight or on the power supply.
I could not detect any shorts with the multimeter besides the pot bleed.
I guess I will swap to the 2nd cap and see if it does the same thing.
If they draw more power than the banggood tailcaps, you will need more bleed. Banggood had to use a 420ohm on their drivers.
Most of us like them much dimmer though, which pulls less power and you can get away with less bleed/less vampire draw. I use a 1kohm resistor these days.
The S2 tailcap looks to draw about .5ma and one of these pulls 1ma and the other 5ma (the 5ma is dimmer though but I think that may be due to the LED’s, when tested before installing them they were much dimmer as well).
I basically can’t adjust the brightness as minute changes to the pot will cause them to not light up at all, I just feel happy when I get them to light up, there is maybe 1/10 or less of a turn for the entire “adjustment range” if you can call it that. The worst part is that the “working range” of the pot seems to move around the pot so it is nearly impossible to find it again.
What pots are you using? The ones in the OP? I might need to order some and see if that is the issue.
As it is I would just find the correct resistance and use resistors, it is easier then this.
I just ordered the cheapest 50k and 100k pots I could find on ebay. I get adjustment through most of the range, although the change isn’t dramatic, and there is a small section where the pot is essentially ‘off’, no throughput.
5ma is utterly ridiculous, I wouldn’t put that in a light at all. Most of mine draw 0.1ma-0.2ma, or 0.5ma if I want it really bright. You might just have some really inefficient LEDs or something?
The 5ma one sucks anyways, the green is “80’s power LED green” and dim. I have several others to pick from, might try some of those I just got in from ebay and see if it makes a difference.
The 1ma is brighter then the S2 now that I compare them so it seems to be working ok. These are both 0603 LED’s though but that should not make a difference.
I haven't look at how these boards are wiring the Pots. I think Pots are typically wired with a leg to ground and used as an adjustable voltage divider. So the more resistance you assign to the load, the less resistance is assigned for the excess voltage/current to flow to ground. So I would think low resistance pots would let more current flow through them, especially if you have the LED's dim.
We never connect the other leg of the pot, so there should’t be any extra drain there
Ok, I just built another one, these are all using the 5.3 bottom and top boards with a jumper on the top resistor pad and 3 LED’s installed.
This one was in purple (which looks real good BTW) and after playing with the pot for awhile I finally got it to light the LED’s with around .4ma.
Tested on the flashlight and it worked, both forward and reverse modes. Once again the final resistance was under 10K (didn’t measure it after putting it in the tailcap). The pot has virtually no adjustment window to work with and it is a real 50k pot when tested.
No idea why it takes so much less resistance.
The glow is VERY dim like this as well, only if you look would you notice it in a lit room. It acts the same weather installed in a light or run off the bench power supply. I can detect no shorts with the multimeter.
Quite strange.
I think you’re just setting them brighter than I do, and that’s causing extra draw and less resistance being needed. No idea why your pots seem finicky.
In most of mine you cannot see the glow at all with direct overhead light. Otherwise they are too bright with dark-adjusted eyes.
Your 560ohm bleeders should be fine with anything under 0.5ma draw. Nothing scientific about that (that I know of), just from experience.
To be honest I haven’t even tried to figure out how bright I want them, I just am glad when I can get them to actually come on, it is a matter of breathing on the pot and hoping it was enough to make it come on without over shooting and having to start over lol.
I will see how these look tonight and that will give me a better idea of how bright I want them.
The biggest issue I want to figure out is why it is taking so much less resistance in mine? What color LED’s are you using? So far I have used green and purple, they all have had a VF of ~2.3-2.5v, so pretty high and I am guessing why they need so little resistance.
I might do a red one next which should have a lower VF to see what it does.
Overall they look great, just the details I am trying to sort out.
So, you haven’t looked at them in a dark room yet? Maybe what you’re perceiving as “not on” is just as PD said “not visible” in a lit room. 
Yeah, it could be the colors. I recently have used Red, amber, and yellow. And for those I had to get the 100k pots. I did a mixed blue and green one though and used 50k with it and it’s too bright. I’ve been meaning to switch it to 100k at some point (my X2R).
I adjust my pots on my bench with the power supply and usually without the silicone on top. If I have to cup my hands over the assembly and put my eye up close to see anything, that’s roughly the right brightness for me.
Either way keep on trucking, you’ll get it dialed in. This is why I recommend people lear for themselves vs just buying them pre-made everywhere.
Do you generally use 3 or 6 LED’s?
I just tried another one with 6x red LED’s and it is working a lot better. I was able to get it down to .22ma and it still light up although that is still only 10k ohms. I might be able to get it a bit lower but these pots are so touchy! A twitch too much and they stop lighting up all together, (verified by 0 current passing through them).
I can’t decide how bright I want them honestly. Part of me wants them bright enough to be able to see the glow while they are on the shelf, the other says that just bright enough to show me where the light is in pitch black is ideal.
I also need to find more springs, I am having to pull all the spares out of the convoy hosts right now lol.