D.I.Y. Illuminated tailcap

Hmm, BG is now selling the X5/X6 illuminated tailcap, ready to roll. Of course this is the Gen1 style and you’d probably still need to add a bleeder. But might be an easy way for someone to get off the ground. OK, and being Gen1 style, you’d need a translucent spacer, too. OK, maybe won’t be too useful… oh well

Thing is, by buying that part you will have avoided nothing: you still have to experiment with bleeder resistor values and perhaps even tail resistor values, you still have to solder tiny components.

Definitely agree, djozz! Just thought it was worth mentioning, and tried to highlight those issues.

Though if you consider buying the boards and LEDs, if you only plan on doing one, this would be a cheaper route. And while you’d still need to solder small components, it’s only one instead of several (assuming tail resistors are OK).

Ok, I need to correct myself. I made a few mistakes. PD you were correct in your statements.

I broke out the good equipment today instead of the harbor freight meter and ran some tests in a dark room.

Basically I could not see the LED’s glowing due to the direction they were pointed and the meter read 0 so I assumed it was not on. Turns out the meter was simply not sensitive enough.

Once I hooked everything up properly I noticed that I do actually have lit LED’s for most of the adjustment range up to 50k. at 50k it is pulling around .03ma.

What threw me off was that in the first ~5k of resistance (a mere hairs turn of the pot) the current would go from ~20ma down to .5ma. It appeared to turn off at this point as after reaching about .25ma at around 10k ohms it was a very slow drop down to .03 and was hardly noticeable.

I was basically only noticing the first 5k-10k worth of change as it was so sudden, the rest happened so slow comparatively it appeared to not be on.

I think going forward I am going to install a fixed resistor instead of jumping the pads on the top board. Something like a 4.7k-10k since I have a ton of them already. This will limit the max current to something like .2-.4ma depending on the LED VF based on my early testing (still need to try red, white and blue).

This would mean that even at it’s brightest it should not effect the driver with a 560ohm bleeder and then can easily be adjusted down to whatever I want.

Sorry I wasted your time, I should have finished testing before posting.

I can also see why you say that a bright tailcap is not needed, if you just forget about how it looks int he day a dim tailcap is still usable at night.

TA, I’m glad you’ve posted what you have. It reminds me of Edison and the light bulb… you learn a lot on the way from the “failures”. By sharing your experiences, it helps guide the rest of us!

I would probably have more bright ones if it wasn’t such a big power sucker. I keep them dim so I don’t have to lock them out on my shelf.

Glad it’s working out for you

Yeah, I always find it annoying when you find an old thread with the same issue you have and the solution was never mentioned.

I hope to get a basic rundown of resistance needed to limit current to ~.5ma for a fixed resistor with various colors.

This should ensure that the sudden drop in brightness and the driver issues are no more and give a nice wide adjustment range from .5ma down to ~.03ma.

Yeah, I was also worried about the drain over time but I also am very careful with my lights and charge them up after basically any use. It is rare for a cell to enter the charger will less then 3.5V rested. They look so pretty glowing on the shelf!

That said I think that .5ma is enough for even this and anymore is wasteful, so capping the current there would make things simpler all around.

Plus I would like to find a parts list that is known to work together with the TA drivers and put it in the TA thread is that is ok with you. That way it makes things easy for people to build and use the lighted tailcap and TA drivers together.

Sure, go ahead

I know my answers are buried in this thread, but there are just way too many pages. Trying to take what I can from the original post, though. So Gen2 is more efficient. Makes sense since not using the clear spacer. I want to buy all the parts to do my first cap on an F13 which I believe has a 20mm board. Am I correct in that I can use the stock switch board and just need the top board?

The largest board looks like the 19mm BIG SWITCH. Also, am I correct in that the large switch is not equipped for use with pots?

Appreciate all the time PD and everyone has put into this. Making a list of parts now and will post them before making the purchases.

Even if the switch pcb is 20mm in the F13, is the switch itself big? The BIG SWITCH version has a larger center hole to fit a larger switch under it. You are correct, it is only set up for resistors, though rigging up a pot on it wouldn’t be too hard.

Or you could use a smaller switch and therefore a different ring pcb. most of them will work fine with a 16mm silicone boot.

Ok, thanks for the reply. I knew if I just jumped in this it would start to slowly make sense. You are correct…I compared the F13 cap setup and except for the switch pcb, everything else is the same, so I should be able to use a 16mm ring pcb.

So, I should be able to pair the stock switch pcb with the Rev5.1 or 5.2 ring pcb. And, for all other normal 16mm lights, I can just purchase a 5.1 or 5.2 ring pcb, or 5.3 with switch and ring pcb’s with more feature. Does that all sound right?

Other than that, I’ll put in some orders for clear boots, pack of resistors/pots, and bag ’o LEDs.

The 5.1,2,3 mainly work with the small omten 1288 switch. If it’s a bigger switch you may want to order the BIG SWITCH boards or order some of the small Omtens. The 5.3 top rings can also be used with a stock switch pcb (without the 5.3 bottom boards) by just using wires instead of the pins (same as the 5.1 and 5.2 can). If you go the smaller route just pick which of those three fits your need best as far as pots vs resistors, etc.

Last night I swapped switchboard (with LED & resistors soldered) from Manker E14 to BLF Special Edition X6 and it works without bleeder. Amazing.

Have a great weeekend, guys!

I haven’t built one of these tailcaps in months, but I got inspired today. I put a white tailcap in my polished/curly maple BLF A6.

As you can see, I like mine pretty dim. Its almost blue, definitely some cool white emitters, but I like it. It suits the light I think.

Looks very nice on that light

Thanks, I think so too. It is truly a blf light — BLF A6 + rufusbduck wooden tube + pd68 lighted tailcap. One of my favorites.

i reckon white colour is the best and you can use them as moonlight :smiley:

Damn, never mad so many short circuit in my life until I started experimenting with this lights for switches.
I installed one in new C8 (clear one, with new driver), used 3 channel board and 3 x 220 ohms resistors, no modification on the driver. I must have done something wrong because it behaves unpredictably, sometimes works OK, light up nicely, when I turn on the flashlight tailcap lights turn off, when switch is in off position tailcap lights are ON… but sometimes just doesn’t work no light from tailcap and no light from flashlight main LED! this is harder than it looks :slight_smile:

If the main light no longer works then it’s probably not the lighted “daughter” board to blame. Is the switch getting good ground to the tailcap body through the retaining ring?

One other thing to try:. When I’ve got one being ornery I wrap the whole outer edge in kapton tape, just don’t let it wrap under the bottom and insulate the ground contact.

If y’all weren’t aware, Texas Ace has a few tailcaps for sale as add-ons when you buy one of his drivers. He is doing them all pre-calibrated to work with the driver, all you would have to do is fit them in your light and adjust the pot with a screwdriver to your desired brightness.