I think most machinists would agree with DB. Titanium threads are not inherently gritty.
But galling or seizing of threads can occur, even with properly machined threads. This is true of aluminum, stainless steel, and other metals. Depending on the alloy, titanium is a particular offender, given the properties of the material under pressure. It is springy and tends to adhere.
Paul at Photon Fanatic no doubt takes great care to have smooth threads. In fact I just got a titanium retainer ring for a Mac’s Custom from Paul and it has wonderfully smooth threads. I would not be surprised if Fred used polishing compound to ease the threads on DB’s light, especially as it is a bespoke custom built to a high standard.
The machinists at the shop where I hang out are not particularly fond of working titanium. I once heard that titanium is 17 times more costly to machine than Aluminum (which, granted, is a easy material to work.) Titanium eats up tooling. It requires “best practices” to cost effectively machine. Thus, the shops that are trying to build to constrained budget are more likely to create problems in the finished product.
That said, my Reylight threads seem to be just fine. In fact they seem to be getting smoother as they are worked and as the Titanium develops a fine film of oxide on the outside surfaces. Can’t wait to see what the Ti X6 is like!
It’s really nice having a light designed to hold a triple, and it was helpful having plenty of room in the pill for the wires. I did a pretty sloppy job of attaching a brass post to the driver, but it seems to work well regardless.
Tomorrow I need to open it up again to reflash, now that I’ve had a chance to get a feel for this individual driver. It needs its timing loop calibrated since it runs a bit slow, and the low mode bumped up a couple lumens, and I should fine-tune the switch a bit more… maybe even put a trit in if it’s sunny outside. But building and tweaking is at least half the fun!
Coders are lucky people! They have fun. (Even at work.)
You gotta have fun. Regardless of how you look at it, we’re playing a game. It’s a business, it’s our job, but I don’t think you can do well unless you’re having fun.
— Derek Jeter
Hi ToyKeeper. It’s funny, I have 2 hosts, the first one went together fine. The second I put together last night, would not screw together, then I noted your response, relubed it and did some twisting and it now works fine.
Note, I had a similar issue with the button retainer. Some lube, and twisting, and you should be able to tailstand (hopefully I didn’t go too far and shred by o-ring).
In any case, I got the stock switch to work, used a 14mm flat (6mm tall?) boot with most of the nub cut off, now it’s waterproof, no rattle, and pretty good feel. I needed to put de-oxit in my switches, because they are pretty lousy and I had one that tended to ghost (turn on by itself). Not great switches. Looking forward to swapping them out.
My first one is a triple Nichia 219B with a 3.0A Dr. Jone’s circuit. The second is a miser, single Nichia 219B with 1.4A Dr. Jone’s circuit.
As far as I can tell, the button retainer threads in just fine, but it stops when the smooth back portion hits the body threads. It simply can’t be screwed in any farther than that… but it needs to go about half a millimeter deeper.
However, the switch is stiff enough that I can gently tail-stand it on the button and it won’t switch modes. It’d just be a lot nicer if the button wasn’t sticking out.
It sounds like the threading is too close to the tail of the light. Does the threading continue past the inner edge of the clip holes? That’s where mine stops and it assembles to flush. Could you lightly sand /bevel the inner lip of the outer edge of the retainer? Mine has ~1mm long edge below the outer bevel.
Or maybe it’s hanging up on the clip holes.
I’ll have to check again, next time I take the switch apart to tweak it. I’m at least going to remove a tiny bit more rubber so I can fully tighten the inner retaining ring.
BTW, I got an unexpected comment from my partner tonight. She saw the tailcap trit glowing and picked up the light, looked it over, and said that she likes how this light looks since it’s not boring or plain like my other lights.
This was a surprise, since I figured she would find it too blingy.
FWIW, I have it configured in shorty mode with a clip and (so far) only one trit.
So… WWEFANS… I thought I should mention that what you made is girlfriend-approved!
Quote: “Whether it’s a mobile phone, a vacuum cleaner or a chair, the very best examples of industrial design seamlessly blend form and function to make products truly desirable.”
Or: Don’t you buy no ugly flashlight!
The Reylight is beautiful on the outside. All it needs is your beautiful firmware on the inside to be perfect.
TK, just checking, did you try tightening the ring all the way with the switch inside loose?then you can back up the switch into the ring and adjust that way. It may help get the ring tighter (it did for me ).
Yes, that’s how I’ve been doing it. I took another shot at it today though, repeatedly tightening the retainer as far is it would go, backing off, cleaning and lubing the parts, tightening it again as far as it could go, backing off, cleaning and lubing, and eventually I got it to go in far enough. I think I needed to wear down the threads a little.
After removing a very thin additional slice of rubber from the post, I’m also able to tighten the battery-side retaining ring far enough too.
So, today’s tweaks got the switch working well. It’s recessed barely far enough to tail stand, and everything inside is tight enough to stay put on its own. The press action has a few hair-widths of play because I removed too much rubber, but it’s not loose enough to rattle. The EE X6 switch feels good in this host; I’m glad I had one plus an EE A6 tail assembly to replace it with. (BTW, no, the A6 retaining ring doesn’t fit the Reylight; only the X6 does)
I’m pretty sure the tail isn’t waterproof, since all the rubber parts are pressed against threads. Water should still be able to leak through the threads. And I don’t have an o-ring or glass lens in front of the optics, but I suspect there may be room for one or both. But that’s okay; it doesn’t have to be waterproof.
I agree with some of the designs in that article.
As for the Reylight Ti, I’m using cypreus2 firmware on it. It’s similar to BLF-A6, but the hidden modes act as shortcuts into a completely separate larger hidden mode loop, it has no soft config options, and it uses motion-freezing party strobes instead of tactical strobes because I’m easily amused.
That’s pretty darn neat. Wish I had you mad skillz.
I am trying out the 18650 configuration. It’s nice and grippy but pretty darn heavy. I think I’ll stick to 18350. If you stay in 18650, the light benefits from a longer clip, this is no longer ideal when using as 18350. Next iteration, make the body longer and head shorter so that a longer clip can be used.
About clips… it’d be nice if the area under the clip was smooth and/or recessed a little so it wouldn’t tear up the item it’s clipped to. It grips well, but it also can wear through cloth after a while.
And about weight… would also be nice to see a future version with narrower walls. Slightly wider inner diameter to allow wrapped cells and untrimmed lenses/reflectors, narrower outer diameter, and no trit slots in the head. Preferably a smaller switch mechanism too, like perhaps what the CNQG brass 18650 light uses (especially the original version). Keep the tail button design and body texture if possible; they’re very nice. I just think it’d be nice to have a smaller, lighter version.
Smaller, lighter, as in 14650? 14500? 10440? I like the 14650 size Minimags I’ve done. I have smallish hands(short fingers really) and the tube length is just the width of my hand with a smaller dia than 18650 lights. Though 16650/16340 would be more flexible for tube extensions etc.
