D.I.Y. Illuminated tailcap

My observations are with the standard Banggood drivers, and with a bistro-driver from Richard that I bought a year ago.

Here’s the Astrolux lighted switch set: 2LED 17mm DIY Lighting Switch Set For Astrolux SS/SC/S2/S3/BLF X5 X6 LED Flashlight.

Convoy version

https://www.fasttech.com/products/9627747

Hi Nicolicous,

Looks very nice!

What parts did you use?

I have a lumintop tool aa in the mail, looking forward to build a illuminated tailcap for it.

Not sure how though… Pictures or parts would be great!
You use stock driver?

Pilotdog and myself have made those ring boards
I added balance resistors to it so it can have 6 different LEDs
Lighted tail switch board replacing the washer around the switch


For the exampke pink and warm white, other combinations possible the board with balance resistors could use more than 2 different colors

16mm

17mm
https://oshpark.com/shared_projects/yplKNhqL

with balance resistors
16mm

17mm
https://oshpark.com/shared_projects/aqiAxQx1
20mm
https://oshpark.com/shared_projects/fWtrkfax

Thanx Lexel. Can I sand these dowm to fit the Tool AA you think? Is it possible to populate only 2 leds?

And will it work with your 15mm driver without enabling next mode memory?

Just using two of the leds is no problem.
You may be the first to try it in the Tool AA, let us know your findings! :slight_smile:

Without measurements on Tool tailvap and switch no way knowing if it fits

You can populate 1 to 6 LEDs

For those that are fans of the Generation 1 lighted switch, here’s something to consider when installing your switch. The washer is essentially a diffuser for the switch LEDs. The clearer the washer, the more light that can pass thru, but also shows more artifacts (outline of the switch and the position of the LEDs). Less transparent the washer, less light, but a more uniform illumination of the tailcap.

I initially used the Home Depot washer from the link in the OP (left picture below): 5/16 in. Nylon Washer (3-Piece per Pack). I had to sand down the perimeter to make it fit in the Convoy S2+ and the hole was too big for the Omten switch so I filled the gap with a smaller washer that I also sanded down. When installed it looked good, but it seemed to block too much light from the LEDs and looked a little dull. So I made some washers from some plastic items I had in my workroom.

Here are some of the washers on the switch (left is the Home Depot washer).

And here’s how they look in the flashlight. Please notice (and I tried to take the pictures to show this) that the left is less bright and a little dull, but uniformly lights the tailcap. The middle is bright and crisp, but definitely shows some artifacts. And the right is a good compromise.

The clear washer and the semitransparent washer had the same effect in the tailcap. I then sanded 1 side of the semitransparent washer, and then both sides, but that still wasn’t enough to adequately defuse the light. So I sanded down 2 washers to make them thinner and stacked them. I’m pleased with the final result.

Thanks for the nice comparison NeutralFan!

Because the classic lighted tail set is for sale, it is attractive for people who do not solder to build this version. Fiddling with the washers is something within reach of almost everyone :slight_smile:

I could use a few of those. 3 Convoys & an Astrolux. PM me ?

To prevent confusion, they are for the Convoys with the metal tailcap, the early ones came with a black waterproofing silicon seal inside the switch that would not let light through. For well more than a year the S2+ already comes with a transparent seal. I have a stash of transparent seals for who still has the old S2+ with black seal and want to build a lighted tail for them.

I did this a long time ago. I have to pull them apart and tell u on weekend.

From memory, i had to trial and error with different types of resistors to get the LED lid evenly without affecting the driver and i didnt have to use bleeder resistor.

@djozz, never mind. No S2+’s. thanks

Last night I made a EDC for a collegue of mine who is a fan of my flashlight hobby. It has a lighted tail and because not all combinations of led. driver, bleeder resistor, tail resistors and tail leds, work well I tend to post them if I did a succesful build. Here are the numbers that I used on this light and that work very well and do not disturb the user interface. It has a 6-led ring with red 0805 leds under an orange tailcap that give out medium bright light: already well visible in low light conditions and visible at a distance in the dark.
-it is a S2+ shorty with Aspire 18350 battery
-Luxeon V led on a DTP board
-BLF-A6 driver with 470 Ohm bleeder
-both springs bypassed
-Lexel tail ring with two strings of 3 leds, for each string a 10K Ohm resistor
–6x red 0805 leds

First I tried it on my regular 6x Tail boards with conventional 6 Balance resistors and a 1kOhm Bleeder
Main Problem was that with low battery voltage the higher voltage LEds (Blue, White, pink, ice blue) get dimmer tan the low voltage ones (red, yellow, green)

I came up to enhance this idea with a voltage regulator, but had to do some steps to make it work

first get the voltage and resistor value for each LED at the same brightness

Then I made some calculation to get fixed current draw versions

It is also possible to use this with side switch lights like Convoy L6, as I can get the parasitic drain for the 18kOhm bleeder down to 0.4mA when the tail board has 0.15mA for the LEDs

Now the first 4 Prototypes
I did quite some measurements and tests to even out the brighteness of them
Firt L6/L2 prototypes are build and successfully tested on my bench, modding the lights will follow

One tme i skipped the very current hungry Emerald green for a warm white

The tail board itself uses a voltage regulator so the brightness is constant down to 3V cell voltage and can be fitted with 1S or 2S voltage regulator
The 2S Voltage regulator has a 0.1mA higher drain

I haver also ordered fitting 3x3mm trimmers so that the brightness of the board can be adjusted for 2V and 2.5V LEds in 2 groups
On the other hand I can also build em with a current draw from 0.15-1mA with the balance resistors without trimmers
have made a 4x4 cross section board for 2 channels in cross pattern

The rainbow LED boards have one drawback which are the inefficient Emerald green and yellow LEDs,
so their brightness is lower than green or white LEDs at the same current

Could somebody list me all the components I need to build the Rev6 illuminated tailcap including the type of LEDs with the metal Convoy S2+ button? I'm new so I found the list it came with a bit confusing. Any help is appreciated.

I’m interested in adding a lighted tailcap to my new S2+ build from MTN.

With the qlite 7135 running guppydrv do I need a bleeder resistor?

Can I buy one of these as a drop in with the current tailcap? Which is recommended?
https://www.fasttech.com/products/9627747
https://www.gearbest.com/flashlight-accessories/pp_1403798.html
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Jiguoor-1288-LED-Lighting-Switch-For-Convoy-C8-M1-M2-S2-S2-Flashlight/32843005481.html

I can see on the Aliexpress listing that it has an Omten switch, but I can’t tell in the other listings. I think it’s a good idea to keep that switch.

You’ll probably need a bleeder resistor. All of those switch is the same, but if you want to buy on aliexpress, buy from Simon

https://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/lighted-switch-for-convoy-flashlight/330416_32843122324.html?spm=2114.12010612.0.0.3d1273814vhpZp

I got mine from the same seller on ali express. Got it in not too long and it had a omten switch. It did mess with mode memory with both my mtn electronics driver and blf a6 driver. Need to figure out what resistor to get.