After seeing a lot of useful infos buried in the groupbuy thread I thought we could need a thread were we copy and link useful infos and mods which interest a lot of us.
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Tailcap light
Post #6126
That means that a normal 14500 lasts about 2 month until it’s empty. Given the fact that it’s pretty bright there is potential to customize it. The higher the resistor in the tailcap the lower the current/brightness of the LED. If someone wants to disable the light permanently the resistor could be un soldered totally.
In stock form there is a 202 resistor which is 20*10^2=2000ohm
I just used a 0805 3900ohm resistor which reduces the current about half, it’s still pretty bright at night and still visible in daylight so the value could be chosen even higher.
I used 0805 resistors like that: https://www.fasttech.com/p/1005200 but they seem to be out of stock so this https://www.fasttech.com/products/1002/10000028/1007902 will do the job too.
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1. does the 3.9 kOhm resistor drain the battery any slower?
2. Can this tail switch be replaced by a non lighted tail switch? does it need any special resistors to make the flashlight function properly?
3. Fasttech seems to be out of those resistors, can you provide another link? or do you have any extras laying around you would part with? Maybe a higher resistance for a dimmer light?
edit: fasttech says they are discontinued
1) it does drain the battery slower
2)tail switch can be replaced by a non-lighted one (or just unsolder/break off the resistor or led)
3)search ebay for 0805 led or 0603 led, or the entire web, these are not rare components
I need to change the resistors in mine out… much dimmer would be nice. Not sure what the optimal value would be, but I’d like the battery to last maybe 6mo-1year…
That resistor is the main current limiting component in the tail-led circuitry, so it will not be that far from: double the resistor value -> double the battery drain time. (anyone not agree?)
I think Manker may have used 0805 for the LEDs and 0603 for the resistor.
For just dim enough to see and long lasting battery, look for a resistor in the 8k-12kohm range. That should give about a year on an 18650 if I remember correctly.
I replaced my tail switch board with one of PD68’s designs (Rev3), used 2x multicolor leds and a single 22K resistor. Also changed the bleeder on the driver to a 604 ohm bleeder. In daylight its hard to see, but in the dark the tailcap is perfectly well lit.
By the time this thread is through, I think you’ll need an index to keep track of all the different FAQ’s. Otherwise, it will take almost as long searching this thread as it would to sort the original thread.
A higher resistant bleeder will lower the parasitic current when the light is on, something negligable at the higher modes, but in moon mode there is 3 times as much current as without the bleeder, limiting the runtime on moon (in the X5) from a week to only 2 days.
The bleeder value can not be too high or it will affect the timing of the firmware, messing up the UI. But a higher resistor in the tail will allow a higher value for the bleeder without affecting the UI.
When I used the 604 ohm bleeder with 11K for the tail leds, the driver never switched off fully. Basically maintained mode memory. When I increased the tail led resistor to 22K, driver went back to normal.
My stock resistor was 0805 size in my X6. I put in an 18k resistor in its place. Its now bright enough to be seen and doesn’t light up the room like it used to. The moded X6 on the left, the stock X5 on the right (just for comparison).
!!
I’d like to change the tailcap LED on a couple X5/X6 lights to another color and add a second LED. I’ll also switch to a 12k - 18k tailcap resistor to dim the output.
Should the replacement LEDs be of a certain Vf? I didn’t see mention of what voltage range the LEDs should be in.
Are some LED colors more/less affected by resistor values? I plan on trying green, amber, red, and white tailcap LEDs. Thanks!
Different colors have different Vf’s and also different apparent brightness due to eye/wavelength sensitivity.youll probably have to play with the resistor values if you want to use different colors but have them look the same and be the brightness you desire.
