D.I.Y. Illuminated tailcap

Would you mind posting a link? The link I had in the op originally now redirected to a completely different product, so I deleted it.

Thanks

HERE

Took me a while to find

uhh is the brown just a peel off paper or something? I think that’s the link I had originally, but the pictures used to show clear

Oh that’s not right! Bare with me!

Appears they no longer stock them. I have quite a few if you’re in need.

Found! HERE

lol that looks better. Do those require any trimming at all?

I haven’t had to trim any so far but depends on the light being used.

Cool. The smaller ones from Home Depot I always have to increase the interior diameter a bit to fit over the switch.

What Home Depot dept? I have a step drill.

They’re nylon washers, in the hardware/screws/nails aisle at my home depot. I also use a step bit to drill out the middle.

They’re not exactly clear, but they help to diffuse the light more evenly under the boot at the cost of some efficiency.

Linked at the bottom of the OP

Thanks. I think Orchard Supply might also have them. That’s where I normally get nylons. :wink:

A while ago I realized 17mm was still too big for many lights. A few months later, I have finally gotten around to shrinking the pcb down to 16mm. While I was at it, I enlarged all pads bigger than they were on v3, and added the pot footprint (thanks pyro for the idea and .lbr). Also, instead of adding 1 or 2 more vias, I made all vias much larger than before. The only negatives I can think of vs the 17mm v3 board are:

- The two sides are now dependent, you can’t just cut a trace and have two distinct circuits

  • The spring pad diameter has gone down from 10mm to 9.5mm

As always, let me know if you see any errors.

I was thinking about doing one with the pot right in the middle of the spring pad. Thoughts?

My initial concerns:
I don’t know if the pot case is electrically neutral
It would make spring bypasses more difficult

The kind of spring bypass i do with silicon wire shouldn’t connect to the casing of the pot if the spring dosen’t bottom out, are you thinking of copper braided spring bypasses?

We could always do spring bypasses on the outside if the pot where in the way.

I think a slider switch in the middle of the spring is a better idea, but the switches I have are just barely too big. Has anyone found a switch smaller than 6.75*4.5mm?

I really like that last design, with the pot in there, it could be fine tuned or one could even eliminate the fixed value resistor with a jumper and only tune the pot. Maybe a thru hole behind the pot to allow for adjustment without taking it all apart? Please?

Matt

I’m not 100% on which pads we need to be using for the pot. I think the way you have it set at the moment will be fixed at the maximum value of the POT

It occurred to me this morning that as long as the bleeder resistor is on the cap after the D1 on the driver board we would still have reverse polarity protection.

Hmm, you're on to something here :-) . But in an assembled tail, the hole would be behind the retaining ring. How about a version with the pot on the spring side, right in the middle? The middle contact of the pot can be made the batt-minus to that contact with the compressed spring is allowed.

(artist's impression:)

Still has 10mm spring pad. I will create 17 and 16mm versions later

Ignore silk screen for now was done quickly at work

Wow, you're fast!

One thing, I believe in those little metal pots the electrical connection to the slider is also connected to the metal top of the pot, so if you swap the electrical connections of the pot, the metal top part of the pot is batt-minus and then it is no problem if the spring touches the pot.