D.I.Y. Illuminated tailcap

I haven’t read all the posts in both threads so this could has been suggested before.

But a way to detect battery level would be very cool to get in the tailcap :slight_smile: but maybe it is not possible without a connection to the positive terminal.

I think that’s a great idea.

Awesome, I need to build one or two of these.

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.

Big thumbs 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.

This one was among the smallest: KAE01SGGT

Would it be easier to put the dip switch in series with the leak resistor on the driver? That would still turn off the tail cap right?

Beautiful indeed! I'm sure you could sell a lot of these boards. Great job!

“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).

Really awesome project pilotdog68!

Now we just need small LED's that can change from green to orange to red based on the voltage across them, and we have the perfect battery indicator!

Could we have all the dimensions for the nylon washers?

I can measure when I get home, but here in the US they are sold in little bags marked 5/16”

If I understood the idea correctly, this would also make sense in some lights with lockout possibility. This would just disable the standby signal light and still have the light ready to use and not potentially about to spontaneously fall apart. Using tailcap lockout is sort of the same as removing batteries and storing them in a separate case, excuse my exaggeration here.

Agreed. As this sort of locator light circuit goes through both the driver and tailcap boards, and some drivers may be ready to use in stock config, it makes sense to put any hypothetical switch in the tailcap. Also the accessibility issue would be kinda critical on some hosts. The tailcap is most of the time easily accessible vs. the driver board or other front contact board that often is not.

Just had my first go at making one of these 17mm single led version for now will give the 20mm version a go later in the week.
120 ohm bleeder on driver and two 10k ohm parallel on the tail.

Cool. I was wondering when other people would start trying it. :beer:

So far I have used 650ohm 560ohm on everything for my bleeder, then anywhere from 2k to 22k for the led resistor.

Only just got the boards today. 120 ohm was the only one I had below 1kohm area.

Yeah it’s a shame Oshpark takes so long sometimes. It really slows down development on things like this.

Yeh true, but I can’t really complain no min order and free delivery to the UK :slight_smile:

Exactly. I just can’t wait till 3D printers are common household appliances

I just ordered my pcb's so I think it will still take some time before I can start building my first switch.

BTW, did you ever try a GITD switch boot?