I added an extra feature to my BLF-A6 (5A tint) that I already had equipped with a red lighted tailcap. I use it as a bike light and keep forgetting taking it off the bike when I go inside the house (my bicycle lives outside on the street). The lighted tailcap helps a lot with that, I can still see the light on the handlebar when it is switched off. But it appears that when I use the light at medium power and do not switch it off upon arrival, I miss noticing it when I go indoors, even though there is light coming out of the front (Amsterdam is very light, even at night). So as silly as it sounds, I wanted an indicator light on the side while the light is on .
It is not the best or neatest mod I have done, and perhaps not that safe, but I spent an evening on it so I may as well tell you about it :-)
First I drilled a hole, I figured the easiest spot would be sort of in between the driver reataining ring and the driver, three quarters hitting the ring, one quarter through the side of the driver. The chipping ano does not make this a very goodlooking hole :-(
The hole was filled with Norland-61 by sticking a bit of tape to the outside over the hole and filling the hole from the inside. Cured with 365nm UV-light. Then an extra blob on the outside to get a shiny finish, cured, then an extra blob on the inside for a bit extra body, cured, done. No pictures because you just can not see the process on a picture.
The brass ring was filed wider on the inside to help inserting the led diagonally from above (see later on).
Then I made a led-circuit from two tiny wires, a green 603-led and a 100 Ohm resistor.
Heatshrinktubed it
soldered it in (used the solder points of the bleeder resistor that was already there)
Inserted the led into the hole. It just stays there without glue or anything. The whole assembly is flatter than the thickness of the compressed spring, so there will be no pressure on it by the battery.
It works, and luckily the resulting lowered resistance because of the extra resistance placed parallel to the bleeder resistor does not interfere with the user interface! :-)
It is not great looking because of the chipped-off anodisation, but I hope that it stops me from forgetting the light on my handlebar and getting it stolen overnight.