Stephen

Build 3 Shipping Tally to Date (as of 1/8):
Taillights: 36
Headlights: 6
On deck for batch #2: Mike I., Ivan M., Key B., Jack B., Peter D., Mike F.

Dec 6 Update
Good news and bad news, and then hopefully some good news...

Good news is I finished up all the taillights.
Bad news is, thanks to Bjoern's cold-weather torture test, the waterproof issue has continued to nag me. SO, I made tonight, "open swim" night for the entire lot. Here's a picture of some of them having fun in the pool, until...


an hour later and I start pulling them out for inspection, and (cue Jaws theme song), I start finding slow leaks on the elliptical lens side (due to the ridges, see this POST). I should point out that I intentionally assembled all of them in the same manner as I have been doing up till now (i.e. minimal grease) in order to get an idea as to what may have happened in Germany. Eleven out of the 30 leaked, while the remaining 19 seemed to be holding. I also powered up several of those that didn't leak (immediately after soaking) and found one that was subsequently creating some condensation inside the lens cover, which is what I suspect was happening with Bjoern's light. The remaining lights were totally unaffected. Take at look at the following pic and you'll see it (condensation) around the inside of the lens cover near the o-ring.


SO, the hopeful good news is that this is showing me that I need to change my technique for applying grease to the lens seal. I've been applying only a light layer to the lens o-ring up till now, but these tests are showing me that surface variations from part to part are requiring a heavier layer of grease. I'm trying brushing on a small bead around the edge of the lens itself. It's not hard, but it would seem to have implications for how well the light might re-seal, for example if the DS-500 end-user needs to swap the lenses to change mount orientations. At this point I've got one of the worst leaking units re-worked with the new procedure and will leave it soaking all day today. We'll see how it looks tonight. If all goes well, then I'll be cracking open the remaining lights and re-applying some grease. Ultimately, I think this is going to mean that after you get the light it would be best NOT to remove the lens cover unless really necessary, and if you do, you'd just need to be careful to either re-apply some silicon grease around the edge of any new lens or be careful to maintain the grease that's already on the existing lenses.

I should point out that sitting under water all day is a ridiculously severe test. I've done this test before on a couple of samples with no problem, but what I'm experiencing here is the "pain" of trying to go larger scale. A "yield" issue, if you will. So thanks for bearing with me while I figure out the most reasonable remedy! In general, rainwater and/or road spray should not be problematic for the 25 out of build #3 that have already shipped. Best thing to do after riding with it in the rain would be to just shake it off and maybe blow any water off before putting it away. For the users of the first 25 units from build #3, I'm going to say for now that it will be better to err on the side of caution will cleaning the light, and rather than putting it under running water, you should just wipe it off with a soft, damp cloth. Thanks!

Fast forward 10 hours....
OK, pulled the light out of the sink after soaking all day, and.... NO LEAKS! Hooray! Ran the light for 2 hours afterward with no trace of condensation. Looks like the new process on the grease works great! Now, to re-seal 29 more lights.

Update Dec 7
Here's an unlisted video for all the forum viewers to see the new water sealing process for the DS-500.


Update Dec 8
Starting to ship out some of the taillights from batch #2 with the new sealing process. Continuing to re-seal the rest. It's pretty clear to me now (much to my great disappointment), that I'm not going to be able to finish shipping out all of batch #2 before Christmas, as I'm going to need to take a break from the intense build schedule for the holidays. Thank you all so much for understanding, and never fear, I will continue to provide regular updates for significant activity. I'll be working as hard as possible to get all of my pre-paid orders completed and shipped as soon as possible.

Update Dec 10
Continuing to ship out more taillights this week. Just found out today that the last 35 pieces of the H27 spacer from my Cateye order back in September won't be available until the last day of Feb 2013. Kind of bizarre, but it just means that batch 4 will likely be delayed past that date. I should have enough stock to cover the orders that I've confirmed for batch 3.

Update Dec 28
Hope everyone had a great Christmas! I'm looking to get back to the build schedule very soon and finish filling my existing pre-paid orders from batch #2. Have been doing some heat testing with the headlight and low-and-behold, it looks like it can actually handle running off of a 7.4V pack! This is good news for folks with the headlight, since 7.4V packs with the compatible connector are readily available just about anywhere. In 3 to 4 years when the original 11.1V packs start to fade, you'll have a lot of options for a replacement battery. I plan on posting some heat curves a little later from the testing.
Here's a list of names of the pre-paid orders that I'm currently working on:
Jack B., Mike I., Ivan M., Key B., Peter D., Mike F., Per-Anders, Keith G., Rob W., Andy L., Richard K., Dan F., Jim C., Gino M., Lim Kah, Bruce G., Cedric M., Lee S., John T.

Update Jan 2
Almost finished up the new re-seal process on the remaining batch #2 taillights last night. Will resume shipping out this week. Finished up the heat testing on the headlight with a 7800mAH 7.4V source. Got some nice results, along with a 3.8 hour run time on level 5! Bottom line is that headlight level 5 is still usable with 7.4V input, but it may require slightly more airflow to prevent the automatic thermal cut-back. The only requirement for using 7.4V on the headlight is a re-programming of the battery status voltage thresholds.

Update Jan 3
Finished up the last of the taillight seal re-works last night. Moving on to finish up the batch #2 headlights as well as wiring and sealing some new battery packs.

Update Jan 8
Moving right along, making slow but steady progress. Had to do a quick repair last night on a unit from March of this year. The epoxy that holds the switch to the under side of the lid gave up on the lid side, but was still very firmly attached to the switch. It wasn't until build 3 that I started using MEK to clean the switch area prior to epoxy. So hopefully this was just a fluke where perhaps I didn't get the lid clean enough to make a permanent bond. I'm finally down to finishing the current batch of headlights, so all of you guys that have paid already and have been waiting so patiently on headlights... they're coming!

Update Jan 10
Finished pre-wiring a panel of Maxflex boards last night for the headlights. I find that it's much easier and quicker to solder in all the LED drive wires while the boards are still in their original 20 count panels (see picture). Also, while I was repairing that switch on one customer's 9 month old taillight (used regularly), I took a picture of the main hold-down screw. These black-oxide coated bolts are prone to developing a little surface rust (like you see in the picture). Just an occasional touch of WD-40 (apply with finger tip or Q-tip) should keep this from occurring. However, this brings up a good question... If I used a stainless steel bolt in this location, would it ruin the look, or would it be worth it, not to have the surface rust issue? Any thoughts?

Current status on the batch #2 headlights:
1. LED boards bonded to housings.
2. Lid switches and status LEDs installed and pre-wired
3. Circuit boards tabbed (with heat sink) and pre-wired, ready for install
4. Lens covers taped and ready for 0.005" material removal on the top edge.

Next step... cut power lead wires to length, strip and tin ends, install through the housings, and solder to the Maxflex boards. Believe it or not, I find this to be one of the most tedious tasks of the whole process (next to soldering wires to the power switches). Reason being, the gauge of the power wire is almost the same size as the thru-holes in the MaxFlex board, so it's very tricky getting the wires through the holes without a single strand of copper bending out (bad). This is why I need to tin the wires first, but I have to use just the right amount of solder, or the wires will be too large now to fit. Kind of a balancing act.


Update Jan 14
Made some good progress on the headlights this weekend. Got all the power wires installed and mated to the power boards. All of the top lid o-rings are also installed. Three out of the 12 have lids installed with the power board mated to the housing.