CD REIN tapeswitch with a SF plug

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02-14-22, 08:30
camoman

CD REIN tapeswitch with a SF plug

I decided to sacrifice a hot button, to upgrade my LCS. To me there is no comparison! The Reins tape is superior in every way.
Luckily, I had an extra rein tape collecting dust, that needed a purpose, now it has one.
I decided to make all my electrical connections, where i could hide the work, in the cable management. It took lots of dremiling to get it together on the rail, but its together, works great, and doesn't look horrible. It is a bit crooked, but not enough to bother

https://i.postimg.cc/0N4NT5Ld/BE6-F7...F298-CC000.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/SxqYdshn/FE51-D...98-BAAB5-B.jpg
02-14-22, 09:48
Five_Point_Five_Six

I commend you for taking the initiative to make something work for the purpose at hand.

I despise tape switches though, so if it were my setup, I'd rotate the tail cap more towards the top rail and activate it with my thumb and skip the tape switch all together.

I've heard a few people say they like the Rein tape switch though and I think CD booboo'd by making a proprietary switch for their lights. The SF plug has become the industry standard and I bet they're leaving a lot of money on the table in lost sales.
02-14-22, 09:56
georgeib

Quote:

Originally Posted by Five_Point_Five_Six

I commend you for taking the initiative to make something work for the purpose at hand.

I despise tape switches though, so if it were my setup, I'd rotate the tail cap more towards the top rail and activate it with my thumb and skip the tape switch all together.

I've heard a few people say they like the Rein tape switch though and I think CD booboo'd by making a proprietary switch for their lights. The SF plug has become the industry standard and I bet they're leaving a lot of money on the table in lost sales.

Could you clarify why you hate tape switches, please? Thinking of converting all my mine to use tape switches, and want to make sure I'm not missing something.
02-14-22, 13:11
camoman

Quote:

Originally Posted by Five_Point_Five_Six

I commend you for taking the initiative to make something work for the purpose at hand.

I despise tape switches though, so if it were my setup, I'd rotate the tail cap more towards the top rail and activate it with my thumb and skip the tape switch all together.

I've heard a few people say they like the Rein tape switch though and I think CD booboo'd by making a proprietary switch for their lights. The SF plug has become the industry standard and I bet they're leaving a lot of money on the table in lost sales.

I really like the function on the CD tape, it is better for me then any other I've tried. My rein spoiled me. I did a good job fabricating, good solders, all connections, liquid electrical taped, sleeved, and potted....it should be as reliable as the rein's tape, itself.
And, I've already made a trade for another CD Rein tape! Some guy want's a rein switch with no tape....even trade.
02-14-22, 13:31
Five_Point_Five_Six

Quote:

Originally Posted by georgeib

Could you clarify why you hate tape switches, please? Thinking of converting all my mine to use tape switches, and want to make sure I'm not missing something.

You know how sometimes a person will have really bad luck with a particular thing that others don't seem to have? That's me and tape switches.

I find them to be the finicky weak link in the lighting system. Over time, I experienced the wire getting smushed during use and transport leading to intermittent failure to work. I've had them come unplugged by catching on something, and I had one that just quit working with no signs of damage. If you're using the tail cap with just a plug, your light is essentially DOA. That can be mitigated by switching to the DS00 tail cap, or the larger one that camoman has that came with the older SF Millennium lights. That gives you the option to hit the thumb button if your switch goes dead.

The other thing that I started taking notice of when I began taking low light classes and shooting at night with buddies is just how often people are ND'ing their lights when they run their thumb on top of the pressure pad while shooting. I only want the light going off if I intentionally activate it. It could be potentially bad news to accidently activate it when you don't want it to be. For a while I ran the tape switch further back on the rail so I had to make the conscious effort to move my thumb back in order to activate the light. That fixed the ND problem but it created another which was it was less then ideally ergonomic which meant activation could be wonky. Then I switched the tape switch over to the 11 o'clock position and kept the light at 1 o'clock. It was out of the way and easy to activate. Since I shoot thumb over the top rail, I found myself just reaching forward with my thumb and activating the light. After running that setup through a night course I was convinced that it was the best way for me so I ditched the tape switch all together.

One could argue it's a training issue and I don't necessarily disagree, but when real life door kickin face shooters in a class I was in tell me they chose to run with push button tail caps over switches on their white light, I have to think it's not just a problem that I've encountered. You could probably find a bunch of door kickin face shooters who love tape switches though, so it might just boil down to personal preference.

I'm not waging a personal jihad against tape switches and making my life's mission to convince others to follow suit, it's just a simple setup that eliminates the downsides of tape switches that I ran into.
02-14-22, 14:00
georgeib

Quote:

Originally Posted by Five_Point_Five_Six

You know how sometimes a person will have really bad luck with a particular thing that others don't seem to have? That's me and tape switches.

I find them to be the finicky weak link in the lighting system. Over time, I experienced the wire getting smushed during use and transport leading to intermittent failure to work. I've had them come unplugged by catching on something, and I had one that just quit working with no signs of damage. If you're using the tail cap with just a plug, your light is essentially DOA. That can be mitigated by switching to the DS00 tail cap, or the larger one that camoman has that came with the older SF Millennium lights. That gives you the option to hit the thumb button if your switch goes dead.

The other thing that I started taking notice of when I began taking low light classes and shooting at night with buddies is just how often people are ND'ing their lights when they run their thumb on top of the pressure pad while shooting. I only want the light going off if I intentionally activate it. It could be potentially bad news to accidently activate it when you don't want it to be. For a while I ran the tape switch further back on the rail so I had to make the conscious effort to move my thumb back in order to activate the light. That fixed the ND problem but it created another which was it was less then ideally ergonomic which meant activation could be wonky. Then I switched the tape switch over to the 11 o'clock position and kept the light at 1 o'clock. It was out of the way and easy to activate. Since I shoot thumb over the top rail, I found myself just reaching forward with my thumb and activating the light. After running that setup through a night course I was convinced that it was the best way for me so I ditched the tape switch all together.

One could argue it's a training issue and I don't necessarily disagree, but when real life door kickin face shooters in a class I was in tell me they chose to run with push button tail caps over switches on their white light, I have to think it's not just a problem that I've encountered. You could probably find a bunch of door kickin face shooters who love tape switches though, so it might just boil down to personal preference.

I'm not waging a personal jihad against tape switches and making my life's mission to convince others to follow suit, it's just a simple setup that eliminates the downsides of tape switches that I ran into.

Thanks for the reply. Your thought process was illuminating. Think I'm gonna sticky with push buttons for a while longer.
02-16-22, 07:39
camoman

Quote:

Originally Posted by Five_Point_Five_Six

You know how sometimes a person will have really bad luck with a particular thing that others don't seem to have? That's me and tape switches.

I find them to be the finicky weak link in the lighting system. Over time, I experienced the wire getting smushed during use and transport leading to intermittent failure to work. I've had them come unplugged by catching on something, and I had one that just quit working with no signs of damage. If you're using the tail cap with just a plug, your light is essentially DOA. That can be mitigated by switching to the DS00 tail cap, or the larger one that camoman has that came with the older SF Millennium lights. That gives you the option to hit the thumb button if your switch goes dead.

The other thing that I started taking notice of when I began taking low light classes and shooting at night with buddies is just how often people are ND'ing their lights when they run their thumb on top of the pressure pad while shooting. I only want the light going off if I intentionally activate it. It could be potentially bad news to accidently activate it when you don't want it to be. For a while I ran the tape switch further back on the rail so I had to make the conscious effort to move my thumb back in order to activate the light. That fixed the ND problem but it created another which was it was less then ideally ergonomic which meant activation could be wonky. Then I switched the tape switch over to the 11 o'clock position and kept the light at 1 o'clock. It was out of the way and easy to activate. Since I shoot thumb over the top rail, I found myself just reaching forward with my thumb and activating the light. After running that setup through a night course I was convinced that it was the best way for me so I ditched the tape switch all together.

One could argue it's a training issue and I don't necessarily disagree, but when real life door kickin face shooters in a class I was in tell me they chose to run with push button tail caps over switches on their white light, I have to think it's not just a problem that I've encountered. You could probably find a bunch of door kickin face shooters who love tape switches though, so it might just boil down to personal preference.

I'm not waging a personal jihad against tape switches and making my life's mission to convince others to follow suit, it's just a simple setup that eliminates the downsides of tape switches that I ran into.

Thats some good insight. I don't have that kind of luck.
I prefer the CD tape, but redundancy is king.
I refuse to run a tape without redundancy, thats why I ditched all but one of my HLX's. The last one I have will get an Arisaka adapter, but it is not mounted currently.