I thought tape switches were a no-no

[parishioner]

I am out of the loop on this one so someone please enlighten me. I remember a time not too long ago when tape switches were in vogue and then one day they were being ditched left and right due to malfunctions and inconsistencies. Now it seems people are gravitating back to them. What is the reason for this? Has surefire worked out the bugs, increasing reliability?

[JSantoro]

BLUF = Maybe!

Jury's still out, but it looks very possible that THEY have. As to whether or not all the other vendors have managed to do so remains to be seen. Failure rates on most of the ones in the military can approach 40% of a given number deadlined within 3 months usage OCONUS. It pays to get spares. Copius spares, if you use them heavily. Greatest single failure area is the ones with a right-angle interface; people tend to pull them out by the chord instead of the interface, causing stress on the conductive wires, which break over time. Same can happen with straight interfaces, though less likely.

Pull it from the device by the actual plug and not the chord, take that 40% down to around 20%.

I'm not a huge fan, but think that they're a necessary evil if you're utilizing more than one lighting and/or optic system at a time, otherwise you have to prioritize which momentary switch to use whichever hand on at some point in time where you don't need any extra factors inside your OODA loop.

If I have an IR laser and a white light on the end, I think that any situation I get in that somehow requires both at the same time is beladen with silly-straw chromosome, so I see no need for a tape switch...uuuuuunless your setup puts one or the other out of easy reach for activation when you do need that one system that you had to put HERE because there was no room for it THERE. They're like a democratic republic; the only advantage they have is that they work better than any other solution made so far.

That's the saving grace of that switch, you can make your configuration work for you, instead of maybe having to adjust the way you do business to fit your configuration. Most of the breakage is simply through usage and user abuse; if they were made more robust, they'd not be as lo-pro, so they are made as lo-pro as possible and still get a reasonable amount of life out of them.

[GLOCKMASTER]

The only tape switch that I would even consider using would be the Surefire SR-07 (http://www.surefire.com/Remote-Dual-Switch-for-WeaponLight-SR07) and that's because of it's constant on feature. If you ever spend any length of time trying to run a carbine, with only one hand, in the dark you will quickly find out that a tape switch is not the best of choices unless it has a constant on feature.

[Dos Cylindros]

My work rifle used to have a tap switch, until I got tired of it snagging when hiking the hills looking for the evil weed. Since then all (work and personal carbines) have push button momentary/constant on end caps.

[glocktogo]

The only tape switch that I would even consider using would be the Surefire SR-07 (http://www.surefire.com/Remote-Dual-Switch-for-WeaponLight-SR07) and that's because of it's constant on feature. If you ever spend any length of time trying to run a carbine, with only one hand, in the dark you will quickly find out that a tape switch is not the best of choices unless it has a constant on feature.

The XM07 also has a dual mode, and you can remove the tape switch and still use it as a regular click type tailcap.