Emisar D4 Mods

Thanks.

Never was able to get Windows to allow AVRdude on my desktop. I installed it on my laptop and flashed from that. The instructions were about right, except that the first try AVRdude failed to find the hex file. It erased the ATiny, but couldnā€™t find the new file to put in its place even though I had it inside the AVRdude install directory. Fortunately, a quick edit to the command line to include the full path to the hex file did the trick.

nice!

after everything is done the whole process feels so easy, but before it felt like an endless battle - at least that what it did for me :slight_smile:

Anduril with its vast customization options is just a work of art.

Installed Lexelā€™s aux LED board in my D4 last night:

It was too bright for me. The blue LEDs seemed as bright as moonlight mode! I added a random resistor taken from an old driver to dim it down. This helped quite a bit.

Mods I am still contemplating for this light:

  • The random resistor I added to the aux LED circuit is wired to the aux LED board between the positive lead and the board. Iā€™m thinking of moving this resistor to a more secure location on the driver between the negative lead and the ground pad on the 7135 chip.
  • The aux LED board is currently wired directly to positive so is always on. I need to look at that walkthrough and figure out how to enable aux LED support in the driver so the driver can control the aux LEDs.
  • Iā€™d like to try to make a lighted switch on this D4 with one or two LEDs. The plan is to drill a hole through a bare portion of the switch cavity for the LED switch wire. Inside the switch cavity I plan to mount an LED or two plus resistors. Not sure how well this will work. Possible complications include the resistors and LEDs being felt by the finger through the switch button, which might require dremeling a cavity for them.
  • I plan to replace the black switch boot with a clear or white one so the switch light is visible. To make the new switch boot I plan to cut up a standard clicky switch boot. However, I do not know if this will be flexible enough. One concern is that I might not be able to sufficiently shape the new switch boot to provide the right tactile feel.

Iā€™ll post this here too:

Very nice.

Yeah thatā€™s what I used for a lighted switch on the D4, two 1206 green LEDs & two resistors, quite a difficult job mucking about with trying to get the switch right.
If you could dremmel out space for the compnents that would prob be better but youā€™ll have a lot of experimetation with this :smiley:

I actually used copper tape with the SMDs & wires soldered on and some 12mm acrylic tube to give a lighted ring effect, lot of trial & error there.

That looks nice CRX. what did you use for the new switch boot? Is your modded D4ā€™s switch still waterproof?

Yeah, I went through quite a few iterations of switch as can be seen in the OP :smiley:
I wouldnā€™t go swimming with it but waterproof enough.

The final version has the LEDs & switch under a thin clear silicone sheet and diffuser film with a section of 14mm carbon fibre tube pressed onto it/ into the switch well then a piece of 12mm acrylic tube glued into place as well, then the black kydex switch cover was siliconed to the clear silicone sheet just under flush with the top of the inserted tubes.
A LOT of playing around with that but it is really good having the lighted switch so worth it :+1:

Decided to sandblast my D4Ti



Nice & grippy now.

That looks great!

I like it!

That looks great.

Today I reflashed my D4 with Pobelā€™s aux-LED enabled Anduril. Works great! :slight_smile:

I also added an extra random resistor between the negative led to the aux led board and the 7135 driver. This helped dim down the blue aux LEDs to a more managable level.

Modded my D4 some more. This time I added a lighted switch! :sunglasses:

Whewwwwā€¦. what a pain! Actually burnt out something in one D4 driver during mid-assembly testing when I didnā€™t realize the positive and negative driver wires for the main LEDs were touching when the star was not installed. Oops! I think the FETā€™s gone. Fortunately, I had another driver, so rebuilt it and kept on going.

The first problem I encountered was removing the finishing washer I had previously attached to this light.

  • It was attached with Arctic Silver thermal epoxy and I found I couldnā€™t lever up the switch retaining ring and remove the boot with the washer still in place.
  • Trying to cut the arctic alumina or lever up the washer didnā€™t work. That glue is strong!
  • I ended up having to use a hammer and chisel to get it off. Fortunately, with that method the washer came off instantly.

I had some ideas about building my own mini-circuit board for the switch LEDs out of scrap on hand. A big complication is the D4ā€™s switch does not sit on a board. Instead it fits in a socket in the head. The switch leads come out the bottom of the switch. I needed a board small enough to fit in the light without raising above the head much.

  • First I tried some thin brass sheet with a layer of Kapton tape on top. I used tiny strips of copper tape applied by hand for traces and then soldered it all together. No luck. My switch LEDs poofedā€¦ didnā€™t have the right resistors. Also this felt very awkward. I was worried the kapton tape might break and cause a short.
  • Second attempt used a piece of 0.020ā€ polystyrene sheet for the base with copper sheet on top. Unfortunately polystyrene has a low melting point and my board melted during soldering. No go.
  • Third attempt was back to the brass sheet, this time using a conductive carbon ink pen for traces. It worked during initial testing. I then coated the works with superglue to lock everything together only to discover it no longer worked for some reason. I think the LEDs poofed again since I saw a tiny bit of smoke.
  • Fourth attempt I decided to go for tried and true. I started with a basic lighted clicky switch module from I think Aliexpress. I desoldered and removed the switch and spring. Then I filed down the edges enough to verify that it could fit into the D4ā€™s switch receptacle. Finally I drilled a whole in the center of the board, then filed it to size with a handfile. I also filed down the back of the board to make it thinner.

Here is what I started with:

And what it looked like after I worked it to shape:

The next step was to wire up the driver for the switch.

  • This was fairly tricky since the open space around the D4ā€™s driver is tiny and there are now 8 separate wires inside: 2 for the main LED, 2 for the switch, 2 for Lexelā€™s bezel LEDs, and now 2 for the switch LEDs. It was in doing this wiring I accidentally burned out the FET on my driver. When I redid the wiring on my second driver I covered all exposed joints with arctic alumina epoxy for extra support and to protect against shorts.
  • I also needed a way to get the LED switch wires to the LEDs. There wasnā€™t any space around the switch, so I used a dremel to widen the sides around the switch socket, creating an opening. I coated the dremeled area with arctic alumina for extra ground protection.
  • With the sides of the switch socket dremeled off I found the switch no longer fit securely in its socket. I used a little fiberfix superglue to hold it in place.

Here is what it looks like with the new lighted switch LEDs installed:

I needed a new switch boot to cover the LED. I used 1mm thick translucent high temp silicone sheet from Amazon. Thanks CRX for the tip on using Silicone sheet for this! :+1:

  • First I cut a circle of silicone sheet the same size as the switch socket.
  • Then I cut a very small circle to glue onto the center of the big circle to serve as the piston. I used plastic super glue activator followed by firberfix super glue. I love fiberfix because it cures instantly when you apply the little blue LED light built into the dispenser.
  • With the board for the switch LEDs installed it was no longer possible to use the switch boot retaining ring. Instead, I used more plastic activator and fiberfix to superglue the big circle onto the light. I carefully went around all the edges to make I didnā€™t miss any cracks and the glue formed a water-tight seal.
    Here is what it looks like with the silicone sheet on. I apologize for the blurry phone camera picture:

I then stuck the washer back onto the light around the switch with Arctic Silver Thermal Epoxy. Here is what it looks like with the washer in place (light is wrapped in tape to prevent epoxy getting on it):

Finally, to cover up the still visible switch and give it a classy feel I glued a circle of aluminum onto the center of the switch with fiberfix. Prior to gluing I used plastic activator on the silicone. I also filed the edges of the circle at an angle and roughened the underside of the circle to reduce the chance the circle might come off.

Hereā€™s the end result:

It took a lot of effort but Iā€™m quite pleased with how it came out. The switch looks and feels great and still has a distinct click. Due to the washer the switch is recessed reducing the chance of accidental activation (though not as much as the rubber boot did). The firmware is Pobelā€™s modified version of D4 Anduril with aux LED controls activated.

Told you it was a pain :smiley:
Well done for persevering with it :+1:
Really cool now, one of only two lighted switch D4s in existence (probably) :sunglasses:

Good job! I took the driver out my D4 once to flash it. Never again!

Another day another Emisar D4 mod. :sunglasses:

This time, I added a simple metal switch button.

The goal was to do as simple a mod as possible, with the idea that other modders might give it a shot. I got the idea for this after doing my last mod with a lighted metal switch button on the D4. Unlike that last one this one is pretty straightforward.

Tools and parts needed:

  • 1mm thick high-temp silicone sheet. Available at Amazon for $13.
  • Scissors
  • a small hand file
  • tin snips (metal cutting scissors).
  • steel wool
  • super glue - I highly recommend Fiberfix optical super-glue for its ease of use and instant results (it cures instantly when you shine the blue led built into the applicator). Also available at Amazon, but not cheap.
  • Plastic activator pen for super glue - I got this from a package of super glue advertised for plastics. Not sure if it works with other super-glues but certainly doesnā€™t hurt.
  • a screwdriver, victorinox mini knife or other tool to help in removing the switch boot retaining ring.

How to do the mod:

  • Step 1: Remove the switch retaining ring and remove the stock button boot. On a number of D4s, I can lever the boot off with the screwdriver at the end of the nail file on a Victorinox mini. Bring the file in from the side and dig it into the boot under the retaining ring, then lever it up. However, this didnā€™t work on every light. On my most recent D4, the ring was stuck and I gave up before seeing if it would break my knife. Itā€™s possible that a twisting action would get a better result but would be more likely to damage the stock boot.
  • Step 2: cut a circle of 1mm thick high temperature silicone sheet with the exact same diameter as the stock button boot.
  • Step 3: cut a circle of aluminum sheet for the button. I used 0.016ā€ aluminum sheet cut with tin snips and then filed with a hand file into a nice circle. File down the circle until it is about 1mm smaller than the retaining ring on all sides. Chamfer the upper edge so there is no sharp edge and then run steel wool over the edge to smooth it out. Rough up the bottom with an etcher so the glue will grip better.
  • Step 4: make a piston on the bottom of the silicone sheet. The barest hint of a piston is all thatā€™s needed. I penned on the plastic activator, waited one minute, then put a single drop of fiberfix super glue right in the middle. I used the light on the glue applicator to instantly cure the glue.
  • Step 5: place the silicone circle into the switch socket of the light, piston down and test for fit.
  • Step 6: place the retaining ring back into the light with the silicone circle as the new switch boot. I found the easiest way to get the ring back on was to place it in position with the head upside down over a small anvil, then press hard with my hands to push the ring back in.
  • Step 7: Glue the Aluminum circle onto the top of the silicone circle. Carefully center the aluminum circle within the switch retaining ring before gluing, then use the plastic activator and fiberfix. When I first did this I noticed the silicone was bowing up into a dome with the boot sitting on top. I removed the new boot and determined the silicone circle was slightly too big so trimmed a bit off at the edges. I then used a toothpick to apply more fiberfix glue all around the edges of the metal button so there was no longer any gap.

Result: A fairly good looking metal switch that looks like it came with the light and sits flush with the stock retaining ring.

This entire project took me just half an hour. It was really quick.

Yeahā€¦ I wrote the code and even I feel that way about many of my lights. I could update the firmwareā€¦ but is it really worth the trouble of taking the light apart again? Not usually.

Another nice switch :+1:

I just love the Emisar D4!!! :heart_eyes: :heart_eyes: :heart_eyes:

Hereā€™s a white one I modded with:

  • metal switch boot
  • Lexel aux bezel leds (pink and ice blue)
  • Firmware: TKā€™s Anduril as modified by Pobel, with aux LED support.
  • Emitter Swap: two XPL HI 5D combined with two XPL HI 3D. Very bright and high output, without looking greenish like SST-20.

Main thing different between this and my last D4 mod was that I used 0.5mm Silicone sheet as the backing for the metal button boot. In my 2 prior builds I used 1mm thick Silicone sheet.

0.5mm thick Silicone sheet is thick enough for this purpose and allows the entire button boot to be thinner. With the new backing, the metal button is recessed below the level of the stock switch retaining ring, which further reduces the risk of accidental activation and makes it easy to find the button in the pocket.

The switch is not lit in this mod. Would be nice to do, but doing so is complex and would almost certainly result in the switch button being higher.

So this seems like a good place to ask this question, Iā€™ve searched this thread for button and switch, but Iā€™m not finding what I need. Does anyone know where I can find an entire new switch for my D4? The little metal pop-cap part came off of mine and shifted around in there, stopping it from working. I centered it and taped it down into place, and itā€™s working for the moment. But itā€™s not perfect, itā€™s causing me to double click on accident occasionally. Has anyone replaced this switch before? Maybe have a link to mouser or something? Or do I need to start searching manually by the dimensions lol.

I also tore the boot a little, so Iā€™m debating asking Hank if I can buy a new one. Maybe I should ask if he can sell me a switch too, or a few of them.

I havenā€™t seen the switch available anywhere, but it looks like itā€™s probably a standard part of some sort. I think Hank may have made a custom PCB for it though. You should probably ask him if you can get some extras.

Iā€™ve broken a couple too, because itā€™s so small and has such delicate soldering. Itā€™s easy to mess up the switch while doing modifications. The switch wires are pretty fragile too, which is why one of my D4 lights is currently broken. Iā€™ll have to get the press-fit switch ring off before I can fix it, so Iā€™ve been avoiding the project.

Hopefully any future products will have flashing pads so I donā€™t have to open things up so much.