tailswitch

is there an illuminated tailswitch for the convoy s6 in RGB

Thanks

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The S6 uses the same tailswitch as the S2+.

Both the clear rubber:

And metal one’s will fit:

On convoy lights such as s6, does the lighted tailswitch only come one when the switch is on, and stays unlit when the switch is off?

It’s the opposite.
It’s On when the light is Off and Off when the light is On.

Note: There’s no LVP so you’ll want to remove the battery or do a mechanical lockout if you plan to leave it unattended for a long period of time.

Good to know. Both issues make it a no go for me.

Thanks for the info.

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A tailswitch is exactly that, a switch. It’s either open and disconnected, or closed and shorted out.

When on/shorted, the voltage across the only 2 contacts, spring and body, is 0. So no light possible.

When off/open, you’ll see the battery voltage and can “leak” just enough juice to light an LED.

There are freaky exceptions, eg, I have a light that just has the LED in front, and the “tailswitch” IS the driver. It steals like 1% time-slices from the main load to power the driver and any indicator light. My Tacklife is like that. Even has a charging port in the “tailswitch”.

I’m baffled, why would you want the tail switch to be lit when the light was on? I thought the idea of a lit switch was so that you could find the light in the dark.

Good point. My thought process is it’s a cool mod to do so that’s why I’m interested. But when I’m carrying it in my pocket with a clip I don’t want the top of my pocket lit up because it would make me look like the flashlight nerd that I’ve become. Hence the question and answer negating my interest.

That makes sense. I was tempted by one of the lit switches myself, but the drain looks pretty high and it says on one of the pages that’s it’s not compatible with the Biscotti driver which is the one I’ve ordered.

Biscotti is only on the older drivers.
The newer ones have 12Group(which is a slightly modified version of Biscotti).
Either way it’s a hardware issue not a firmware issue.
The 12Group drivers come with a bleeder resistor installed, which is what the Illuminated tailswitch needs to power it.
You can add a bleeder to any driver, though some are easier than others.

If LVP is an issue for anyone you can get/build an illuminated tailcap with LVP.
Several members have designed them.
I personally use gCharts LVP CC.

I really like the look of the 4 LEDs:

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Sorry, does that mean that the lit switch is compatible with the newer 12 group driver?

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Yes, the Convoy Illuminated tailswitches are compatible with the 12Group Drivers because they already have the bleeder resistor installed, which is what the Illuminated tailswitch needs to power it.

Thank you. I do not understand the function of a bleeder resistor, so wasn’t sure if that meant it was or was not compatible.

The main thing that put me off was the circa 9ma draw for the switch LED.

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I edited my previous posts.
The bleeder resistor is literally a small resistor that connects from battery + to -.
It allows a small amount of current to power the LEDs on the tailswitch.

I always have plenty of batteries so runtime and drain from aux/tailswitch LEDs aren’t something I worry about.
That being said, the amount of drain can be reduced by installing higher value resistors in the tailswitch.
Also the choice of LED color also greatly affects the amount of drain, choosing a more efficient color would reduce the drain.

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Thank you, that makes sense.

For me it depends on how high the drain is, at this time of year I could easily carry a light for two weeks and not actually use it. By my reckoning a 9ma tail switch light would drain a 3500mah battery in that time. The other consideration is that if it’s drawing that much power it’s likely too bright, I just want enough from an aux light to be able to find it in the dark, not for it to act as a night-light. :joy:

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That was my main grex about my Cometa, which I call my Big Blue Lighthouse.

It’s bright, but doesn’t seem to draw all that much, as I had it around for months and it never went dead. Even 1mA would seem overly bright in a completely dark room.