How to improve mushy Noctigon KR4 button?

I recently got a couple of new KR4 lights and I LOVE the sleek design but the buttons make me sad. They feel mushy and inconsistent. Does anyone know of a good solution? I saw a thread on reddit where they swapped in a K1 switch boot, but I’m not a fan of the white rubber button replacing the stainless steel button. Is there another way to improve the click?

Sidenote: The tints on these lights are not as expected. The XPL-Hi 2850k looks more orange than my e21a lights in 2700k. The XPL-Hi 5000k looks like it is actually 6000k or 6500k. I’m so torn. The feel of this host in the hand is amazing. And despite having more mass, I think they feel better in my pocket than the d4v2. I think I may end up reselling the cooler light and reordering it in XPL-HI 4000k but only if I can figure out how to make the buttons better.

Yeah, you can mod it in some way, but the result is not perfect. I’ve described it here: 21700 D4KTi COLORFUL version is available - #2061 by SammysHP

Thanks for pointing out the thread. The components you are arranging in the post you linked, are all of them already in the light? If not, which ones were added?

Why wasn’t he taking the KR1 design for the button? It’s brillant.

I’ve added a 3D printed ring marked by the red dots in the drawing. It lowers the stainless steel button slightly to shorten the travel and also centers it so that it does not scratch on the aluminum.

KR4 and KR1 have exactly the same tailcap and thus the same button. But there is a huge variance in quality and sadly some are very mushy.

I don’t really have a problem with how far it travels; does your setup prevent the button from rocking so much? How about tactile feel?

It’s a real shame about this button. Sofirn lights have better buttons and they are cheap and ugly in comparison to Hank’s lights. I don’t understand why he chose this design.

Note: Not knocking Sofirn. They are amazing value for the money and my SP36 is a very practical light. The majority of their designs just don’t look very premium, that’s all.

It reduces the rocking because it is more preloaded, but there’s just not much tolerance anyway.

Just disassembled my switch again. I think the brass nubbin is to big! Mine has a diameter of 5 mm but it should be less than 2 mm with the tactile dome. Too bad I don’t have a lathe. Would be easy to create a better nubbin.

edit: Yes! A tiny blob of glue in the middle of the brass nubbin (facing towards the tactile dome) makes a huge difference! Really precise, snappy click. So all it needs is a new nubbin or literally a grain of salt at the right place. For a more permanent solution you can add a small blob of solder, but you got just one chance.

Wow that’s interesting. I guess a nubbins are made for specific applications and you can’t just buy them somewhere? BTW does your spacer make accidental activation more of a possibility?

I’d say my previous modification with the ring makes accidental activation more likely.

As for the nubbin, something like this should be enough:

This version makes accidental activation the same risk as the original, but has much better feeling.

Take a piece of dried epoxy resin and cut it down with an x-acto knife into a shape similar to the nubbin.

Remove the nubbin and replace with the resin piece. If it isn’t better, pull out the resin and carve it down some more.

A lot of trial and error is involved, but eventually you should be able to tune the switch to something you like.