# Tutorial: How to make a momentary-only Switch for the Maglite



## wquiles (Feb 12, 2008)

If you have used LED drivers from Taskled (www.taskled.com), you know that these great drivers require a normally open, momentary switch as the main and only input. Problem is that the standard switch in the Maglite is not momentary, and it does not allow for the battery power to reach the driver all of the time (also required by the driver). 

I have seen some tutorials about how to do this here in the forums, but I felt it does not hurt to have another guide/tutorial, specially since I LOVE posting pictures!. Note that you can "skin this cat" in many possible ways - I am showing here just "one" way to do this 

For this tutorial, I am using my most often switch, the standard switch from a "C" size Maglite:







Now, use the same Allen wrench you used to remove the switch to open up the switch:






Then take a thin/sharp knife to pull appart the switch. At first, all we are trying to do is to remove the extra "top", so don't go too fast as there is a spring inside and we don't want to try to "recover" parts flying everywhere!:
















Once you remove the spring and the two metal pieces that go with it, we need to modify the small plastic piece to make it non-latching:
















Now we start doing some "electrical" work. We need to break the electrical connection between the positive battery contact and the lower switch contact:











Here is the contact already cut:











This is how the switch should look like once we put back the lower contact:






We can now temporarily re-assemble the switch (without the spring or white part) so that we can drill a small hole which we will use to route the positive battery contact to the top of the switch:





















Now we re-open the switch:






We now need to clean up the interior from all of the debris. Note that the drill "must" miss the circular center region of the switch - there is another spring there that will get messed up if you don't (I wonder how I know this!):






This is basically the goal:






We now have to re-make the battery positive contact with the piece we cut earlier:






The idea for this solder blob is to be raised as some cells have a flat top - this raised solder blob solves that "problem":






This is how it should look like:











Now we work on the negative contact. We need to shorten it, and solder a wire to it:





















We now need to add a solder blog to the top of the switch, and solder a wire to the blob as shown here. The drivers from Taskled do have two inputs for the switch, but one is grounded - the other one is open, and it is this wire at the top of the switch the one that gets connected to the open switch contact in the driver:











We are almost done, but not quite. We now need to solder a wire to the bottom switch contact, which we will solder together to the ground wire. The easiest way I have found to route this wire is to use a small set of cutters and "cut away" a little bit of plastic to route the wire as shown here (of course, make SURE there is no short circuit between this contact and the battery contact!):






The photo is not very clear (sorry about that!), but this wire from the bottom contact is now soldered to the negative contact shown here on the left of the switch:












To finish, we re-assemble switch with the spring an internal pieces, then make sure that the switch button is moving smoothly, and of course NOT latching. If this is not good, open the switch, rotate the white piece and 4-star piece a little bit, and try again. 

Once everything is moving smoothly, close up the switch again, then use a voltmeter and test that between the top center to ground there is no connectivity (open), but that as soon as you press the button, you get connectivity (short circuit). If this works well, we are almost done.

We now epoxy the new battery top in place, which will keep it secure:
















While the epoxy is curing, you can carefully put something "heavy" on top to keep it in place:






Once cured, when you re-install the switch inside the Maglite, you should have 3 wires coming from the top = battery, ground, and the switch contact (from the middle of the mag switch). It should look like this:











Well, that was not "that" bad, right? :devil:

Will


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## Mirage_Man (Feb 12, 2008)

Fantastic tutorial Will! :twothumbs


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## PhotonAddict (Feb 12, 2008)

Good stuff. Thanks for taking the time to put this tutorial together.


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## eebowler (Feb 12, 2008)

Wow! I greatly appreciate the well focused pictures!


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## KingSmono (Feb 12, 2008)

Great tutorial! Thanks for taking the time!


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## TranquillityBase (Feb 12, 2008)

Will, your tutorial threads are the best:thumbsup: 

That looks to be a fun project

Thanks for sharing,
TB


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## tino_ale (Feb 12, 2008)

Great tutorial :twothumbs

Seems like you're good to go for a good "third helping hand". I suggest you to take a look at this thread.


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## cnjl3 (Feb 12, 2008)

+1 Fantastic tutorial Will! :twothumbs

But I have a couple of questions:

1. What do you use as a light source to get those great pic's?
2. Is that modeling clay/silly putty you are using as a third hand?


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## wquiles (Feb 13, 2008)

Thank you all for the comments - much appreciated. I am glad this is indeed helpful 




tino_ale said:


> Great tutorial :twothumbs
> 
> Seems like you're good to go for a good "third helping hand". I suggest you to take a look at this thread.


Absolutely. You really can't do these projects with some "sort" of helping hand!. Thanks for the link - I might get something like that to complement my current setup 





cnjl3 said:


> +1 Fantastic tutorial Will! :twothumbs
> 
> But I have a couple of questions:
> 
> ...



1) My setup is a Canon Digital SLR, Rebel XT (using the built-in flash), and a Canon "L" 28-105mm F4 lens. In terms of additional lighting, most of the time the light comes from the built-in flash, with the lens set to 105mm. 

Photos on the bench had 3 fluorescent lights: one on the ceiling, one on the back of the bench (about 2 feet high from the top of the bench), and then I have a round one with the magnifying lens which is on an articulated arm - this is the most helpful to get good pictures.


2) Yes, a "flexible" 3rd hand. The modeling clay is actually a flexible tack material sold at Home Depot. Although alligator clamps and the more fancy 3'rd hand stuff in the link above are great, this stuff you can actually mold to the object, and since it is fairly "tacky", it helps tremendously - plus is not conductive. The one "problem" is that it melts at high temp, so when holding something to be soldered, it works best away from the hot area.


Will


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## milkyspit (Mar 16, 2008)

Will, this is a great tutorial. The photos are as always, awesome! Thanks for taking the time to put it together, no doubt you put a lot of effort into it.

Kudos my friend! :thumbsup: :bow:


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## mdocod (Mar 16, 2008)

Amazing photos! NICE CAMERA BTW!!! (I'm jealous, my old Kodak DX6340 unfortunately keeps working, putting off the purchase of something more fun  )

This guide is fantastic, keep up the good work!


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## wquiles (Mar 17, 2008)

Thank you guys!

I will be adding a new tutorial on how to do the "D" size switch sometime this week 

Will


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## LuxLuthor (Mar 17, 2008)

wquiles said:


> Thank you guys!
> 
> I will be adding a new tutorial on how to do the "D" size switch sometime this week
> 
> Will


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## rizky_p (Mar 17, 2008)

wquiles said:


> Thank you guys!
> 
> I will be adding a new tutorial on how to do the "D" size switch sometime this week
> 
> Will



Nice indeed. Clearly states what to do.

Put in my Bookmark as i might need it somedays 

Someone did the mag D already: here the link.
https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/90912

thanks.


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## milkyspit (Mar 18, 2008)

rizky_p said:


> Nice indeed. Clearly states what to do.
> 
> Put in my Bookmark as i might need it somedays
> 
> ...




That's the Sway tutorial. Excellent for the Mag D switch. A classic! :thumbsup:

Would be pretty neat for someone to put the switch tutorials together and perhaps turn into a downloadable PDF... just thinking out loud here... maybe along with some other Mag info on lenses, reflectors, boring, and the like... kinda a Mag mod field manual! :naughty:


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## Aircraft800 (Mar 18, 2008)

*Great Tutorial!!*

*couldn't get any more clear than this. It will be nice to have the D switch here also then STICKY!*


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## kasey197 (Jan 7, 2015)

Augh !! the pictures are all lost ;(
Did anyone happen to keep a pdf copy of this thread ?


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## kosPap (Jan 16, 2015)

I have a word copy of it.

Here it is
http://www.mediafire.com/download/4...y_Switch_for_the_Maglite_Tutorial_–_Topic.zip


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