D.I.Y. Illuminated tailcap

Great work Pilotdog! How bright do you think a pair of blue 0603’s would be? I’m looking for about twice as bright as a tritium vial.

it depends on the resistor value but with almost any value it will be way brighter.

Ordered all the parts just got to wait for them to turn up and give it a go :slight_smile:

I don’t have any trits, but if use anything lower than 4.7k in the tail, its basically like an always-on moon mode. It’s enough light to walk by in total darkness.

In total darkness if I hold my watch up to a page of a book, I can just barely read it. I definitely can’t navigate by it.

I see at the store you linked to the highest that they have is 2.4k ohm resistors in the 0805 size. I must be missing something.

If you use SMD Led’s you’ll want to pick up some 5/16” white nylon washers as well.

The blue one is with 2 dip led’s sitting above the retaining ring. It has a 5.6kohm in the tail. It is far too bright to keep by your bed, but is a good brightness for showing off to friends in daylight.

The red one has a single 0603 led under a nylon washer (0805 fits just fine, but I didn’t have any at the time). It also has a 5.6kohm resistor. I’m not sure if it is because the red led isn’t as bright, or the nylon washer blocks a bunch of light (or both), but it is the perfect brightness for a bedside light. In broad daylight the red isn’t visible, in a lit room it is barely visible, but in pitch back with your eyes adjusted it is a nice even glow that doesn’t make you squint if you just woke up.

edit: sorry, i bought my LED’s from lighthouse but I already had the resistors. Fasttech sells multipacks for super cheap

Perfect, that’s what I needed.

Try this:
GITD Tailcap + UV LED

The Tailcap will be enlightened from the inside…

If I understand this correct: All I need is one of the boards, the switch, a resistor and a LED - nothing special like a cable running from one end of the light to the other or a special driver or something like that?

You don’t need to run a cable or a special driver. You will need to add a resistor to whatever driver you are using though. I have it working with 3 different driver designs, but I suppose there is still the potential that a driver may not function with this mod installed.

Can you link where this action is described for dummies? :smiley:

Edit:

So, just adding a resistor between plus and minus of the driver/battery - correct?
So minus becomes plus for the LED through the resistor and the electrons can float…

Just ordered a few of the 17 and 20mm ones… can’t believe how cheap OSHpark is…
My first order from them btw :slight_smile:

Correct. I just solder a dip resistor between the batt+ driver spring and the driver GND ring. I’ll post a pic of one of mine later. Its super easy.

pilotdog 68 very interesting stuff you have done here. I’m curious if you have any info on how much battery life do these leds in the tail consume?

Yep. It’s in the top of the OP. It’s around 0.2ma.

I have finally seen the light :slight_smile: this is a really great idea.

I don’t know why it didn’t interested me before, but then i thought about that a low moon mode with a white lead still has lots of blue & green that can effect melatonin production & make the eyes lose its dark adaption & that we can buy cheap ebay red & amber ledstrips to harvest leds from to build red & amber glowing tailcaps instead.

Proper moon mode really should have red or amber, and without a moon mode in the firmware we can always start in a usable for daylight mode & simplify the UI :slight_smile:

Do you think it is possible to connect it to the switch? so that when the switch is off the tailcap light is on but off when the switch is on.
But maybe only complicates things more than necessary for something that pulls so little current.

But then when the switch is ‘on’ so is your main light. I’m sure something could be done though.

Currently I use it on lights that have tail-cap lockout, which shuts off the tail LED’s when I don’t need them.

I also ordered some tiny switches to see if I could fit in a way to disable the tail light for storage, but it would be mounted on the inside next to the battery spring. I’m still working on that.

A switch for the led in the switch? I love it. Dip switch maybe?

Maybe.

i was hoping to find smaller, but I ordered some of these. Now I’m just waiting on delivery to see if it’s feasible.

Interesting. How do you intend to place them or se those switches?

It would be something to disable the tail when the light isn’t in use. If I can get it to fit, it would be on the inside of the light, next to (or even inside) the batt- spring. You would have to take off the tailcap and use your finger or pencil or something to flip the switch. It would only affect the tail led’s, the regular light would function normally.

I’m not completely sure it will work at all, and wouldn’t really serve any purpose if the flashlight has tailcap lockout anyways.

looking pretty cool any updates on the build?