GFS16 - Battery Indicator Tailcap Light & 1mR FET Tailswitch! (Rev B)

Yep, that looks like really nice.

BTW guys, Iā€™m just waiting for the Omten switches to come to start building these FET switches.

Using the bigger Q1 might save you some work Blue. Makes the switch shelf higher to clear the SC. :wink:
I built this second one with the leaning SC this morning. I been playing with it off and on all day, itā€™s worked very reliable.
Very cool fet switch now with a super cap.

I built a GFS16 with a battery and the led GFS18 last night. It works but doesnā€™t act right, probably something I done in the process of the build. The GFS18 seems to be working correctly, something in the GFS16 isnā€™t hardly right I guess. I tested the led GFS18 on my power supply and the led color change to voltages were dead on, cut off voltage was dead on too.

Moderator007, this is very cool! Did you see any difference between using SC and battery (after they both charge?) I am wondering what the run time is for SC compare to lithium battery before each charging.

No difference in performance. Just takes a minute to charge. If you unscrew the tail switch and leave it off several minutes it does drain back down and needs to be screwed back on and set in the off position for about one minute, then it works threw all the modes. Once itā€™s charged a few minutes and turned on, I have clicked and changed modes over a 100 times quickly in a row, it just keeps switching modes like normal. :+1:

We have to compare the quantity of energy between them first.

The lithium ion cell has 10,8J of energy.

The super capacity has 0,4356J of energy.

It can store 25x more energy, meaning it can last 25x longer.

One advantage of using the super cap though is it can be charged extremely quickly.

A full charge can be achieved in 9 min with a 100Ohm resistor.

A partial charge will take around 30 sec-1min.

Thanks for the info Blue, gives me something to go by now. :+1:
All I know is, It works great and thanks for sharing your idea.

Dont these super caps self discharge must faster than a lion battery? Just comparing the capacity is not enough. Caps are probably way more reliable in the long run though.

These switches may not be a great idea for people who physically lock out their lights frequently.

Yeah.

At 40%/month at 70C, and 15-20%/month at ambient temps and pressure(20-25C), itā€™s going to be fully discharged down to 2,0V after 4-5 months.

Look'n good all! Totally sort of unrelated, I have to get some ice blue AUX LED's. Got every color but that. Anyone have ideas? I think my previous LED buys were off of eBay.

I built and added the led board to the GSF16 with the SC. It works great.
One very cool feature with the SC and the led board is that when you first twist the tail back on the leds donā€™t light up, then at about 30 seconds the red leds light up, then at another 30 seconds the blue leds light up and the switch will work. When first screwed together the leds are indicating the SC charge. :smiley:

I donā€™t think they have ice blue leds but I just use blue and a high value resistor (120k to 200k). Looks more ice blue when not driven hard.
https://www.fasttech.com/search?0805%20leds
Takes a blue moon to get here but order different sizes and several colors and youā€™ll be stocked up when they arrive. :+1:

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I changed the resistor values on the led board today. I changed R3 to 536k and the low voltage threshold activated at 3.14v.
I changed R5 to 390K for a cut off at 2.83v, Iā€™m ordering a few more values to play around with. Ideally Iā€™m thinking 3.2v on the low and 2.75v on the cut off.
Most all li-ions now a days can run down to 2.7v under load with no problems, so Iā€™m reducing the values to more resemble the cells recommended cut off voltage.
A cell under a heavy load with a cut off of 3v would still have some usable capacity left. In HKJā€™s test data itā€™s usually given down to 2.8v.

This extra wouldnā€™t make much difference if a light was running in just turbo mode but if the low threshold voltage was reached, the leds turn to red then changing to a lower mode might give you enough usable light to get you out of a pickle before the cut off voltage was reached and your left in the dark. At least using this in combination with the GXB172 I would think is better, since the driver draws quite a bit of current in high or turbo.

I also changed the charging resistor on the fet switch board to 130 ohms (R1) and didnā€™t seem to make much difference in charging time. Iā€™m wondering if my bleedback resistor isnā€™t a little to high. Iā€™ll keep playing around with valueā€™s until I find the happy medium.

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Update: Almost forgot, I switched all the led current limiting resistors out to 165k. This seems about right on the blue led with a clear switch boot if your one of those people like me that stands the light up on the bed side table at bed time encase of a emergency. I donā€™t like it lighting up the whole room blue while Iā€™m trying to sleep, the misses doesnā€™t either :person_facepalming: . I prefer a little dimmer than what the 165k is producing. Since the red leds is a ā€œyour about to be in the dark warningā€ Iā€™m thinking around 50k bright in day or night and the low voltage blue leds around 180 to 200K, blue just barely noticeable in the daylight but easily seen in the dark.

I got plenty of blues, pinks, reds, oranges, greens. I really thought ice blue was a separate LED - Lexel must know?

I have seen them around in ice blue but I donā€™t own one to know what color that is exactly. I just assumed it was like a white blue, dim or light blue.

You already know what the trit color ice blue is, I kind of figured it was like that. ENEDED - #22 by Tom_E

Yea, I know the trits are unique in ice blue, figured the SMD LED's would be too, but I really dunno -haven't done serious searching yet.

I was looking around at a few places for ice blue and decided to switch my search strategy, came up with this.
https://www.google.com/search?q=0805+ice+blue+led&tbm=isch&source=hp&sa=X&ved
I might order a few off ebay, look cool. Baby blue. :smiley:

I order a lot of different led including this aqua blue one from aliexpress. They have 0805and 0603 size:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/100PCS-0805-Ice-Blue-2012-Light-Blue-Clear-Ultra-Bright-SMD-LED-Indication-2-0-1/32715527561.html

Ordered those ice blues - for $2.44 shipped, worth it for that price. This is the store, US:

https://www.aliexpress.com/store/1758868?spm=a2g1y.12024536.pcShopHead_11169370.0

Only just came across this switch, its amazing work!!

Will it take much for a board like this to be implemented as an electronic switch with a small momentary switch instead of a clicky? Im imagining that it needs a bit more electronics to store the switch state.

Mechanically it also wont be the same eitherā€¦ but this thought comes about for a replacement switch for a V10R or other DIY projects.

Forgive my ignorance but where do the bleeder resistors go on the boards? Iā€™m similarly interested in building this switch for use with an Mtnelectronics H17F. Are they soldered in addition to the cited components or in place of some them?

The bleed resistor goes anywhere you can get battery positive to battery ground (outside driver ring) on the driver. Its a additional component that needs to be added in some drivers. Some work without a bleed resistor.
Hereā€™s a few pics.