OK so please forgive me as I am very new to this lighted tail cap. It is very cool so I have to try it. I’m trying to use Rev 5.3 to light up some S2+ metal tail caps.
So far I have orange LEDs soldered to channel 1 and that is all I want to do for now. I have had the tail cap together and the flashlight works but no tail cap illumination….I’m assuming I”m going to need a bleeder which I’ll get to that in a second. Can anyone help me with these questions:
1) does the switch allow me to change channels? If i have orange LEDs on channel 1 and blue LEDs on channel 2 will the switch let me have just one channel illuminated at a time?
2) I get the POT let’s me adjust the current for each channel, so can I just bypass the resistor pads?
3) If using a POT does that mean I have to jump the P next to the channel 2 resistor pads?
4) I’m using a DrJones H17F driver (amazing driver) so where would I put the bleeder?
I haven’t used the H17F yet, so I can’t comment on that.
The illumination should still work even without the bleeder. The bleeder is supposed to help with mode switching/memory.
If you’re only using three LEDs, there’s no need to jump the P pad. That’s for when you want to run all 6 LEDs off one resistor.
The pot feeds both channel 1 and 2. If you don’t need to “balance” the channels, you may not need to use a separate resistor.
You can’t change channels back and forth via the switch.
Are you sure the tailcap isn’t lighting up? They can be a bit difficult to see with the metal tailcap unless you have the juice cranked up high. I’d bench test that guy if you haven’t already. Carefully hook up leads to a battery (don’t short them!) and then hook the leads to the switch or boards. Make sure it’s working outside of the light before you install it.
Thanks for the response and help. Not sure it’s lighting up or not. I’m not sure how to test it outside the light. I know you explained how to do this but I still don’t follow lol. I did light the LEDs up with my multimeter via the anode and cathode.
So if I want to run a resistor, don’t use a POT and if using a POT just jump the resistor pads?
So what does the switch do? I’m also confused on why there are 2 POT pads.
Maybe it is working but I just couldn’t see it. Maybe I’ll try all 6 LEDs.
I think 5.3 just has too many options for me lol
The switch allows you to switch between which pot you are using. For example you could set a high and low mode. Or not install one pot so you have on and off.
You can still use resistors for balancing. Or you can bypass them and the a pot will control the resistance.
You seem confused if your boards are working. What components do you currently have attached and what is bypassed?
Right now I have LEDs on channel 1. Switch installed, POT on channel one, P jumped and both resistors jumped. Sounds like I have it right. Maybe I just need to crank up the juice or add some LEDs.
So to test it outside the light can I just put some leads on the spring and ground of the PCB and touch the leads to a battery?
Jumping P doesn’t really make any difference in this situation. It’s just used when you’re using 6 LEDs and want to run them off a single resistor (or single jumped resistor pad).
Yeah, try a bench test. Hook up your negative lead to the spring. Connect positive to the grounding ring. * Make sure the switch is off or you’ll end up with a short & sparks!*
I am having problems. I built a complete 5.3 with a 5k ohm resistor on both channel. I bypassed one pot and that whole setup works great. When I put it in the flashlight everything works OK but when I turn the light off and then back on it acts as if I do a long press. I am using a MTN FET+1 driver and have a 500 ohm bleeder. Should I go lower and how much lower. Also if anyone could recommend where to put the resistor that would be great.
None of the H17f drivers I have in lights with lighted tailcaps need a bleed resistor. I always use a 560 on the driver and adjust the tailcap resistors to control brightness.
I want to fit fancy lighted tailcaps into some of my lights, but a 19mm board won’t fit. I don’t suppose anyone has found a way to fit the rev6 smart board into a 17mm form factor for common tube lights?
The voltage divider isn’t really needed since the MCU can sense voltage on its VCC pin, so that saves a bit of space and reduces overall power use. And if necessary, a smaller version of the MCU could be used, with pins extruded to pads or vias for reflashing bed-of-nails style.
Is this a thing anyone has attempted? I like the idea of a smart tailcap light, but 19mm doesn’t fit in very many hosts.
Tk, I have not tried to shrink it. It is above my abilities with eagle… I did get one of them to sort of run with your firmware but never did get a true usable result. Has the firmware matured for the smart boards and I just did not see that in the monster thread?
I’ve never gotten to try a smart board, so the code is mostly just a shot in the dark. The closest I’ve seen to it actually working was on a Ferrero Rocher driver, where it blinked the two indicator LEDs and the main LED in patterns.
To actually get it working for real, I would need some hardware to test it on… and I haven’t tried to build one yet.
I built a TAv1 with OTSM (Bistro-HD) last night with a 500 ohm BR, and a rev 5.1 tailcap with a 63k ohm resistor on each of the 3 channels. It’s almost perfect, but occasionally short presses are interpreted as medium presses (opposite from the usual problem I have with these tailcaps).
Any idea if I should I try more resistance or less on the bleeder to fix this? It’s kind of a pain to replace the BR on this board, so I thought I’d ask here first.
**Edit: The answer was no bleeder at all. I didn’t even think to try it without one present.
