D.I.Y. Illuminated tailcap

I have no idea on digikey, but here are some on ebay shipped from the US. They’ll probably get to you long before the oshpark boards.

It’s up to your preference anyways. I can understand having access to the pot from the bottom, but I prefer having “presets” of levels I can just jump between with the switch.

We started using pots because it can be annoying to be swapping resistors trying to find the right balance. For pots get either 50k or 100k. For LED resistors it could be anywhere from 2k-50k based on how bright you want them to be and how your leds behave under low power.

Ok, got the boards ordered, I look forward to playing with them.

Very simple and good idea PD now that I see how it is all working together.

Unfortunately it’s still a slightly custom process thanks to the differences in machining between lights. To give examples, I needed to use the thin 0.8mm boards on top and bottom for an S2+ with metal switch cap, but needed to use a thin bottom board and thick (1.6mm) top board for my Astrolux S41 with rubber switch cap. Otherwise the switch itself was too far back (pressed against the rubber) and it didn’t have enough travel to reset.

Yeah, I am used to modding, not scared of some custom work.

After years of this type of thing I have learned to buy the most universal parts ahead of time since you never know what you might want to use them in.

Hi pilotdog68, could you give me an advice, which one of this boards (with 2 leds) is easiest to build with parts available from OSH and ebay, for use on nanjg 105 and A17-DD and BLF X6 drivers

Thanks :+1:

are you saying you want a version that only uses 2 leds? most of the better versions you’ll need at least 3 to have a balanced look.

So it looks like it’s time to update the OP with new pictures and fix broken links.

If someone is building one soon, or already has pictures, or is willing to take apart a light:

I need some pictures of how the newer versions are constructed.

I’m looking for high-quality macro shots of the top of the board, how it’s stacked, etc. Basically an updated version of what are now the bottom four pictures in the OP. I would take some myself, but I only have a cellphone camera to work with. I’ll do that if I must, but I know we have some better cameras (and lighting) among us.

Also, if you have other suggestions on how to better organize this huge amount of info, please let me know.

Here in my Eagle Eye triple build you can find my photos of the tailcap build too. Not all the best shot because I used phone too but I hope you can use some of them:
EE X6 triple build and lighted tailcap build.

This is super nice, I didn’t see this version before :smiley:

any instructions how to make that switch, which board to order!

Hi I made this to my Eagle Eye X6. It has BLF A17DD driver. I used 470 Ohm bleeder resistor on driver side and 47 KOhm resistors on the ring led PCB’s bottom side for each pair of leds. And some blue 0805 leds from ebay. The PCB is this 5.1 version
Here you can see the place for the 3 resistors at the bottom:

The led board’s negative contact is wired to the switch leg which goes to directly to the battery spring:

The positive goes to the other leg of the switch.

The spring bypass is not necessary if you don’t make a high current setup as a triple led light and you can use your original switch board with spring and switch. Just leave the washer out from the top of the switch because the led ring board function as the washer too. And also replace the swicch boot with a translucent one. This board is good for 14mm diameter switch boots.

Thanks for the info ZozzV6, I just ordered 6 x 17mm High-Amp Switch PCB copy and 6 x PD68 Illuminated Switch - 16mm Rev5.1 copy, alredy have some tiny leds and SMD resistors as well as A17-DD drivers.
Now I wait :smiley:

For pictures these may be ok as well? This is the last one I built, for an S2+:


I tend now to make the connection bewtween ring and switch-board short and stiff (filling the entire wires with solder), I fix the ring well in place like this so nothing will mangle when the assembly is screwed in place.

I have had issues with this as well. I solved it by super gluing the ring to the top flat parts of the switch (after I was done soldering it)

I’m considering making those vias big enough for 0.025” header pins now that I’m using them on the TripleStack

I got these tailswitches, after paying extra and some delay and confusion (and a wonderful firm explanation by OL in the seller forum about what belongs in a host)
I’d like to make this into an amber, rather than blue, emitter — if I can solder this small stuff.

Can’t promise anyone else that they’ll be able to get switches with the hosts described in this thread

Sweet, the board functioned as washer as well :+1:

Hey djozz, remind me where you get all these interesting colors?

What you have there is Manker’s version of the PCB, but functionally I think its identical to my Rev3 boards. You will need to find some 0805 LED’s, you will need an 0805 resistor somewhere around 500ohms for the driver, and between 1-20kohms for the tail. I recommend getting multiple values in that range so you can play with it to find a brightness you like. These are common parts, you can check the OP for links or just do an ebay search.

Or… after all your work to get one of these tailcap boards, you could toss it and order one of the newer, better pcb’s from Oshpark :smiley:

Chuckle. All I expected was an ordinary switch that would fit the host.

I’m guessing they’re scraping the bottom of various parts barrels when filling those host orders.

Oh well. Given my shaky hands, I suspect I’ll ruin one or two, then be waiting and hoping RMM or someone else, finds reason to build driver-and-switch combinations for sale to modders at my stick-it-together level ….

Thanks for the info. This stuff is always fun to watch, more so the more it gets past my reach.

It was asked to me by PM too by someone . It was a 100x gree-to-blue mix very leisure tossed loose in a small grip-bag by ebay-seller ledbaron. But the listing is gone now, and it appears that cyan 0603 or 0805 leds can’t be found on ebay anymore (or anywhere else?). Green, blue and ice-blue are easily found though, i.e. at lebaron (german seller).

So far the most I have ever used is 3 LED’s. For my next one I think I will use all 6 pads. I just can’t decide if I want to mix red and blue, or blue and green, or red and yellow.