different power consumption for lighted tailswitch in Convoy S2+?

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1

I have installed a lighted metal switch on a Convoy S2+ before, and noticed that the brightness of the lighted tailswitch is good (it's quite bright, visible even in daytime).

I haven't tried measuring the power consumption before.

Now someone ask me to also install a lighted metal tailswitch on their Convoy S2+, but I notice the light is very dim, barely noticeable when in daytime - visible only when in the dark.

Now I tried the same tailswitch, just swapped that tailcap on the 2 different Convoy S2+.

This is an orange lighted tailswitch (the metal type from Convoy),

1) when installed on a Convoy S2+ (LH351D 5700k, 12-group driver, 5 Amp driver), I measured 3.07mA of power consumption (the orange light was bright)

2) but when I connected that exact same tailcap with the orange lighted switch to the other Convoy S2+ (XM-L2 3B, 7138x8, 5/3-modes, new batch 3Amp driver instead of the older 2.8Amp driver), I measured only 0.13mA of power consumption -- no wonder the light is barely visible.

It seems the Convoy lighted tailswitch has different power consumption depending on which LED driver is used?

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(other side comment: I remember the previous S2+ XM-L2 7135x8 driver uses 8x 350mA chips, but the new batch appear to now use 8x 380mA chip).

Some other side comment: on the previous S2+ 5/3-mode driver, the behavior is like this:

A) (earlier batch 5/3-mode driver)

when flashlight is ON, half-press will advance to the next level (low-medium-high-strobe-SOS); BUT if it has been some time since there was a half-press, then that first half-press will not advance to next mode (stays the same). I think the rationale for this behavior is if there was no previous half-press for some amount of time, the first half-press is considered an 'accidental half-press', and the driver will not advance mode. A continuous half-press will advance mode

B) (newer batch 5/3-mode driver)

- on the newer S2+ 5/3-mode driver (the one with 3.0Amp driver instead of 2.8Amp driver), it appears the half-press will now always advance to next mode, and it doesn't matter whether there was a previous half-press or not..

2

That is correct, different drivers have different impacts on the amount of current that a lighted switch draws.

3.07 mA is a lot of current (at least for me) and it must be very bright! At that current, your battery will be dead in less than 2 months so keep an eye on it. My orange measures 0.48 mA at 4.1 volts which is plenty bright at night. I change the resistors on my lighted switches in order to get the brightness that I want.

If you want bright with less current, stay away from red and orange. Green is by far the most efficient of the lighted switches. Compared to orange for similar brightness, my green measures at 0.07 mA. Blue is also pretty good at 0.17 mA.

And perhaps what you are experiencing with the modes on your drivers is due to the lighted switches. Most of the time you will need to add a bleeder resistor to keep the driver behaving like it’s supposed to. Some of the Convoy drivers specifically state they’re compatible with lighted switches which is a nice feature.

Here is an excellent post about lighted switches in case you’re interested: D.I.Y. Illuminated tailcap.

3

Yeah I’m using an orange S2+ switch on a 14500 mod host with a convoy T3 12mode driver. And it’s extremely bright. It will pull a battery down from 4.2 to 3.9 in a few days. I’m also using them in different C8+ models and they are all different brightness.