I have finally seen the light 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
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.
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.
Thanks for putting together a great idea. I just ordered some boards and components, enough make a couple dozen. Now for the long wait for everything to show up.
Oshpark just delivered the boards of my own design, so I went right to work, and decided to post a little more detailed pics of the process.
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Here is the board with the led’s, extra diode, and resistor
Now with the switch added….
Tested that it works….
Nylon retaining ring….
Clear switch cap…
Beautiful!
Here you can see how I have the resistor soldered at the driver. It’s prettier on my other flashlight (because I used a smaller resistor), but this shows how simple it is.
Really dig these illuminated tail switches and I bet they will see widespread use. Is anyone planning on integrating the driver leak resistor into new driver designs? The original thread is good for a laugh since so many people said it was not possible.
Dunno if it’s any help, but I recently spent quite a while searching digikey to find the smallest dip switches. The smallest I could find were about .250” x .140” and .120” tall and are: 1 position, 25mA, 24VDC, SPST, with recessed slider and gullwing contacts.
“dip switch in series with the leak resistor” - that would make it more driver dependable - there are drivers with some leakage current on their own - you would only shut up the resistor part. The switch should be better placed at (in) the tailcap (and is better accessible there).