D.I.Y. Illuminated tailcap

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.

Ok, thanks for the feedback. I’m in no rush, I should order one so it’s ready when I get to it.

i have a quick question I suppose in the same realm of tailcap lighting. On the emisar d1 driver there is a unused pad for an indicator light, or other device but indicator is what im after. What type led should be used and how would I go about doing it for the e switch?

I think that whatever you solder in, it will need adaptation of the firmware too, the standard D1 firmware does not support an indicator led AFAIK.

I do believe you are most likely right. I just recently obtained the d1 and upon looking through this site found a post that revealed that info. So I wanted to do that modification if it was able. Oh...and it's an honor to have you reply to my post. I've watched and read most of your posts and YouTube videos

Do people actually watch those video’s? I should make more then :slight_smile: And it is a good practise here on BLF that new members are helped out with stuff, for we all want more flashlight lunatics, makes us feel normal :smiley:

[/quote]
Do people actually watch those video’s? I should make more then :slight_smile: And it is a good practise here on BLF that new members are helped out with stuff, for we all want more flashlight lunatics, makes us feel normal :smiley:
[/quote]

Yes, i did watch them when i was researching led emitter reflowing I also seen the blf a6 triangle fix. I believe that is what it was

It was a bit of fiddling around, but I finally got my illuminated tailcap working on my just modded Lumintop AA. New EDC is born :sunglasses:

What I used eventually:

*Lexel’s 15mm drvr with BistroHD. Had to be sanded down just slightly.
I Added 1*2.2Kohm (SMD 222) bleeder between + and middle of an AMC7135. The AMC had to be replaced, since the middle paws were missing on the ones from Lexel. I assume for clearance to the + terminal. Adding a bleeder over C1 is easier I guess, but I had already glued the driver on the pill. I wasn’t aware that a bleeder was needed on this driver :person_facepalming:

*XPL HI on noctigon star

*17mm Illuminated tailcap from fasttech. Replaced the leds with 2*0805 red’s and 2*473 SMD resistors.
The transparent spacer had to be sanded down a bit to fit.

*Green transparent tailcap from kaidomain. Nice transparency and no problems with tailstanding.

*Keeppower 14500

The tailcap is perfect for finding your light at night. Basically invisible in daylight. Just how I like it.

I couldn’t measure (0.000A) any current through the tailcap, so it’ll last at least 2,5 months on a full keeppower.



I’d like to make a couple of single AA lights with illuminated tail caps for my young kids.

Apart from the Tool AA (thanks Dutchee) can anyone recommend a single AA or three AAA light that takes s 17mm Switch PCB?

I’d prefer no strobe and not too bright. I was originally planning to give the single mode SK68s (with a resistor in series with the LED, but I think they have press-fit switches.