Also, it should be noted that very many people had their omten switches fail on the xintd x3.
Ok, but i see some wisperings in this thread about the next future GB could be triples & quads, do you think the ones who buys them will be satisfied with 8 months use before the switch start to fail? If they can mod like us of course no problem, but if they can’t that means a dead light 
I am really surprised you and djozz find any noname unknown switches a good idea :~
But maybe i am alone in my concern, i will just continue and upgrading my switches to the best in the size i can find and stop whining about it then.
You remove some uncertainty by using branded parts, I agree that is a good idea, i.e. there's Noctigons in the A6 so we don't worry about the ledboard quality. But a lot of unbranded stuff remained: the reflector, the electronic parts for the driver, the clip and maybe more. You can use branded parts for everything (it appears that sourcing all those specific branded parts is a pain for the manufacturer, takes time and is more expensive), but you will also to some extend have to trust the manufacturer for just using parts that do the job well. And then there's the job of the BLF design team to test if it all is good enough for 'mass' production.
Yes you are right, and fortunately we have Dale who will push the part to the limit before we get our hands on them. And he have already gotten some nice numbers.
But really i don’t trust the manufacturer to know what i need that is why i mod 
And if it would be easy to mass manufacture reliable hotrods it would be done already & we would not be in the golden age of flashlights :bigsmile: with these past, present & future BLF GB’s
I haven’t read anywhere that Manker won’t or can’t get omten’s but if that is the case & not just some assumption that is just how it is i guess.
I would hope this journey for BLF with Manker is such that these are the kind of issues that will get worked out, yes it may be annoying for them to get precise request but, is it not the whole point? To get them to learn how to build it to our spec with specific parts for a special performance result.
Actually I recommended going with the Omten for this in my earlier post. Any BLF edition should have them, if for no other reason than they give us a known component vs whatever the manufacturer would choose to use.
The point I’m advocating is that there is a possibility that many of the early failures we get from switches (Omten or otherwise) could be due to overheating it during a spring bypass attempt.
That is good to hear 
i started to think i was crazy when you guys sounded to me like we shouldn’t push for the known good switch we use so often.
I agree that it could be initial overheating that kills off some switches, but i don’t know how & why that would differentiate against omtens & noname ones.
But if it is overheating that breaks many switches, that would be another advantage to getting the omten’s soldered on to the switch board by the picker machine instead of by us & by hand
EDIT
And i still hope that some day i see a future GB of a high performing light with that bypass problem sorted, by using a copper beryllium spring & beefed up traces & vias filed with solder on the switch board, so we don’t have to do any switch/spring bypass at all for full performance.
Whenever a flashlight is designed “from the ground up” it will include having the springs bypassed, right?
We haven’t yet really figured out how to do that and build a long term reliable, tens-of-thousands-of-cycles piece of hardware (or does someone sell such a thing anywhere for any purpose in the world?)
Heck, until this morning, in this topic, I’d missed all but one single mention of actually taking the switch off the board to install a spring bypass. And I’d been wondering, where did that idea come from?
The older I get, the shakier my hands, the poorer my eyesight, and the harder modding gets.
So I’m more and more in favor of over-built, over-tested hardware that will outlast me.
And the easier that gets, of course, to accomplish.
Even an omten switch isn’t rated for the currents we put through them. I don’t expect any switch to hold up to 5amps+ for months because most of them are designed for 1.5amps. Not to mention the 15amps+ that a 219c triple pulls. If you are going to expect reliable long-term performance, you have to run the parts at least close to spec.
I agree with KKW, 95% of switch failures for me happened before I learned to take the switch off before bypassing the spring.
I’m also not convinced in the wisdom of doing a special edition fet-driven triple. It could be downright dangerous for people who don’t know what they’re doing, and when they’re on sale at BG or GB, anybody can aquire them with our name on them.
Plus, if lights come “pre-modded”, where is the fun in that?
That is very strange hank……i wrote that edit in my previous post as you wrote your post.
That edit, is my suggestion on how to do a reliable bypass from the manufacturer
That’s a really good point that I didn’t think about. I agree…FET triple is a seriously dangerous fire hazard in the hands of less experienced people.
Most chains have a weak link, perhaps that link is me. Oh well…
20mm round mcpcb fits in the K6 with a touch of filing (emitter shelf is 19.7mm). A 20mm star would need to be filed more aggressively to fit due to the corners it has.
Switch is an Omten mini, black.
My sample lights, X6 size or otherwise, easily handle 9A with a pcb pass-through spring bypass. The most current I have running through a mini Omten is a bit over 21 Amps. Pretty sure we’re ok here.
The reflector on the K6 is of the same style as the one in the X6, but smaller. Due to the size of the light, it’s shallower. Like it’s larger sibling, it has a ramping shelf for the o-ring that is designed to press the o-ring against the lens and side of the bezel at the same time. Thus, looking at the light from the business end it might appear that the reflector could be a bit larger in diameter but the reality is there is precious little room in this light to make that happen. The bezel lens lip would have to be reduced, allowing miniscule room for an o-ring. So I think they have this one right.
The beam profile is nice, but come on fellas, you know you’re not getting a thrower out of a small headed light. It’s impressive, as good as can be hoped for, no miracles. They did use a light orange peel for some reason and we are making our requests to not do that, seeking the mirror finish of the big brother. But I do believe this is an improvement over a TIR optic and at very worst the orange peel can be polished out if one wants mirror finish badly enough. (I’ve done it many times)
And yes, it can be hot rodded with little effort. The through board spring bypass and a driver spring bypass with a 20mm triple will work fine (with a riser/spacer/sink), making for a remarkable amount of light from a shirt pocket sized host. Crazy stuff.
FWIW, a spring bypass only protects the spring from collapsing due to heat under load. The switch is rated at 1.5A 125V.
Be careful to clamp hemostats or something to the leg of the switch when soldering a wire directly to the switch to enable some heat sinking so the switch doesn’t heat up too much internally from the soldering. Also be careful not to apply too much heat for too long, whether doing the through board or just a surface bypass, as it’s the soldering heat that makes a switch get mushy.
You pays your monies and you takes your chances….
Cajampa…Do you feel I am making an assumption about the longevity/quality of this switch?
Thanks for this info Dale! When doing a pcb pass-through spring bypass, does it matter which tab of the switch I solder to? Or can I solder to either side?
I’m liking how the SSl X6-SE V2 is turning out and I’d like to be put down for one in NW. I’d also like to take my name off for the aluminum set, I’m #108 on the list.
I am not sure i understand what you are asking……and what i feel about it seems to have little bearing on this. My views on the switch issue is pretty clear. And i hope to convince you that an known component like a proven good switch the omten is worth trying to get Manker to use.
I think it sound like you where satisfied with the noname switch they used on the A6 with what ever know or unknown performance it has & i hope you reconsider that position and ask them to use an more well know switch like the omten…
I imagine it does matter or you could be completely bypassing the switch. The switch breaks the contact between the battery and the body. Solder to the wrong tab and it will be permanently on.
I havent dine a bypass so im not sure what tabs are even visible but the above stands to reason.
Thanks for the info, sounds great
Was the omten stock? If it is then all this back & forth about the switch could have been avoided from the start 
And you guys who are scared of a mass manufactured triple being a fire hazard, i would say any of the latest BLF A6, X6-SE2 would be the same. You do know that banggood sells actual lighters right 
It is a tool like any other, if you handle a tool wrong you get hurt
I heard yesterday that in the US they have 40,000 toilet-related injuries every year………hmm
But i think maybe the driver wizards may be able to cook up something with the attiny25’s temp sensor, that could make future GB FET driver based lights including the triple much safer, we will see
Personally i don’t worry about it i run most lights without drivers at all, and there is always lock out for those anxious about it.
Thanks Dale for the details, that sounds like all will be good with the K6, that flashlight will be a killer!
But those lighters don’t have BLF written on them, and people know what a lighter does. People buying a flashlight don’t assume that it could be a danger if not treated properly. I would just hate for people to be injured by something that we did. If they read how and do it themselves, that’s a different matter.
I’m more cautious than others, I understand that. But for your example of running lights without drivers (lvp), that just sounds lazy.
Anyways, this is off-topic from this thread, so I’ll butt-out