Should be interesting.
Thanks for doing this, can’t wait to see what you find!
One thing to consider may be the tiny sparks that are made when a switch disconnects. These may or may not have a significant effect on the switch life and reliability. They are caused by the stray inductance of the wires and springs in the flashlight and in the switch, and they may cause corrosion and abrasion of the contact surfaces. The effect is similar to the reason that the contact points in an old fashioned automotive high tension ignition system had to be replaced or honed every ten thousand miles or so.
I am thinking the tests may be more relevant to flashlight use if the inductance in the test is similar to that in a typical light. At least the inductance in the test should not be much greater than that in a typical flashlight, which is fortunately less than in most other circuits, because of the lack of wire connections and narrow traces. The springs do contribute some inductance.
Stray inductance is caused by the magnetic field energy wrapped around the current carrying elements. It is greater for smaller diameter elements such as thin wires and for coiled elements such as springs.
Did you happen to see scaru’s test rig? I think he set it up for the Tofty switch since he needed something that would handle first 3, then 7 xml’s on a 20mm mule board.
Wow would be great to see a video of this testing procedure.
Cool project!
Here is a preliminary schematic of the test setup.
!
!
There will be a timed relay controlling a liner solenoid set at about 4 cycles per second.
The load will be split between parallel resistors and the LED… I’m shooting for about 5A.
I added an inductor to to the LED to make the output more consistent since my meter polls at 1 second intervals.
I also have a diode blocking the induction back to the switch. I have one resistor placed before the diode so the switch will see some induction which I think is typical in a normal flashlight circuit. The diode can be moved between the switch and all of the resistors (and inductor) if I want to remove virtually all of the induction from the circuit.
During the test, if a switch fails to latch, the light output will fall to about 1/2 output. If an internal problem occurs in the switch, the output will also fall…it should be obvious when everything is graphed out.
I will run the test for 10 minute intervals (about 2400 cycles). Once the switch has cooled, I will check the resistance of the switch and compare it to it’s initial resistance.
Please let me know if you find anything wrong with my testing logic. There are a lot of variables to consider and I may change some things when I start building and testing the setup.
4 cycles a second
Does that really mean 8 presses?
125ms to travel back and forth
Say 3mm movement in 67.5ms
The bang of stopping will be much harder then in ordinary use and fiction could raise temps also more.
I try to time and my max presses on a 2,55mm travel tail switch was 41 in 10 seconds.
~4 per second
~2 cycles.
This is going to sound interesting, please make a video.
I believe this test will give a good representative value of actual mileage we get out of these switches. Well thought out! Thank you for doing the test!!
What equipment and flashlight are you using that is giving you a 21 amp reading? And at what voltage?
Subscribed
Though I have zero experience in any of this I was thinking 4 cycles a second seemed a bit extreme and might introduce variables that could hinder getting real world info.
I have seen this here somewhere before with a rotating servo. I think scaru did it with the custom switches or so.
You should really test the omten switches these are really good and also very affordable.
In the original post, I said a cycle was one click (either on or off)…I’m not sure if this the right, but that’s what I’m calling it. Each second will consist of two ‘ons’ and two ‘offs’. I know this will be very hard on the switch, but it allows each test run to complete in around 2 hours. Also, the playing field is level…all switches tested will have the same rate, so it should be a good comparative analysis. If I’m testing 2 each of 5 switches, that will be about 20 hours total testing, plus several hours setup.
I will video it.
Aha
That video promesis to be good!
And well you know now that your choosen clicks per second can be done by humans, though two hours requires training lol
the best would be if you could do a parallel test of some switches to reduce the time you are watching the clicking.
I don’t know if you have already built your test rig, but you might consider using a motor with a cam to activate the switch. Solenoids have a tendency to move very quickly and you may wind up breaking the plastic portion of the switch with the constant hammering rather than testing the electrical characteristics. It might be easier to build as well.
The light meter will be watching for me…I’m sure I will hear something different if a switch fails mechanically.
If it fails mechanically or electrically, the output graph will tell the tale.
It’s always going to be more difficult subjecting any product to an accelerated test of real life conditions when an operation of the switch and another one so quickly will have an accumultive effect with a build up of heat.
In real life you could operate the switch a number of times very quickly to cycle through the modes and at other times it might just be on or off minutes apart, it’s not easy to replicate but subjecting it to the worst conditions possible will definitely be a good test.
I’m looking forward to seeing what happens. 
Let’s take a vote.
I believe that fast cycling at 5A will represent normal cycling at higher amps.
I am a little concerned about 4 clicks per second along with 5A may be too destructive.
Everyone let me know what you think.
Should the current be set lower?
Should the clicks be set slower?
Will this current and click rate cause all of the switches to fail early? An early electrical failure will not give a good representation to the mechanical ‘latching’ portion of the switch.
Should we expect more than 20,000 clicks?
All switches will be ‘playing on the same field’, so I still think the better switches will survive longer, but I don’t want to fry them with only a few hundred clicks.
Give numbers with your vote, so I can base the test on popular opinion.
Reply with something like ‘4A with 2 clicks per second’ (I really don’t want to go slower than 2 clicks per second)
Then, if applicable, test one of the switches that did survive until they enter failure mode. Multiply that number by 1.5, that will give you actual life rating of the switch. Or, what an actual user would expect to see before failure mode.