I have two Convoy S21a flashlights, and recently I decided to install lighted switches on them. A blue switch on the XHP50.2 flashlight, everything worked fine (except from a short on the base of the spring due to bad QC, but I easily solved that). The red that went to the SST20 flashlight, flashes at full brightness while I’m screwing the tailcap, but when it’s in the final position, the LEDs shine very dim, and they flicker. The SST20 flashlight is a 4 mode one, and the modes worked fine. Fast forward a few days after the switch being installed, and the 4 mode stopped working. It turns on always on mode 2 and doesn’t change.
I did a few switch/battery swaps to see if I could find the problem, but I can’t think of anything other than some sort of driver compatibility.
XHP50.2, 12 mode, button driver (3A):
With blue switch - Works OK
With red switch - Works OK
With any of the batteries - Works OK
SST20, 4 mode, spring driver (3A):
Blue switch flickers, 4 mode works OK with any of the batteries.
Red switch flickers, and the 4 modes work fine with a Liitokala battery. With the Wurkkos battery the flashlight works only in single mode (mode 2, 3%) and the switch also flickers.
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Other things I noticed: The red switch uses a thinner, longer spring. I tried a bypass but nothing changed. And the tailcap of the sst20 flashlight doesn’t screw all the way in, like on the XHP50 one. It sits about .3mm higher, which makes me think that the aluminum shelf inside the tailcap isn’t screwed all the way in, but none of these observations should have any relevance, since the tailcap works fine on the XHP50 flashlight.
The driver needs to be compatible with a lighted switch - this is done using a bleeder resistor that allows some current to leak and thus light up the switch. Some drivers will still let this happen a little or a lot, but then run into a variety issues like you’re having. Assuming all else is clean and correct in terms of electrical connection and such, this is probably what’s going on. Simon updated a few of his drivers to allow lighted switches but not all of them will do it…his store is invisible for the holiday but you can google the product pages and get them to come up that way, where you can read whatever description he’s shared about them. You can also mod some drivers with an added bleeder to accomplish this (search the forum for bleeder resistor and there’s a lot of good past info). That said, different resistor values will make different emitters/switch board designs shine brighter or dimmer, so you can select the resister (or mod/replace it) with a different value to get where you want to be.
Consider the driver like a water valve on a garden hose…if the valve is shut off it doesn’t matter what you do downstream…no water for the job.
What drives me nuts is the fact that with one battery the light can’t even change modes, works only on 3, but if I swap the battery, not only I can change modes, but the light remembers the mode it was the last time I used with this specific battery. For example, if I turn the light off at 0.1, with the liito battery, swap to the Wurkkos battery, the light will turn on at 3% and won’t change. If I put the liito battery again, it will turn on at 0.1%. :confounded:
Gonna search read about the bleeder, but won’t it just affect the problem of the switch being dim/flickering? If I don’t find anything obvious I’m probably just revert the light to the original unlit switch.
