Hey GBFans, been a long time since I’ve posted since my pack was completed a couple years back.
As I had a few spare parts laying around I want to revisit the front grip and build a second as the first has taken a few good hits over the years.
I am working with a TCv3 front grip and always wanted to make the wiring cleaner in the front right ear. As most of us know this is a HUGE PITA!
I just received a new orange hat lens and socket base. Yet, I am trying to brainstorm how I am going to properly wire this to my Spongeface kit. I plan to use to bulbs intended for the socket found here:
One thing I did notice is that the sockets sold on GBFans seem to be missing a ring around the threads where you can solder a wire. Does anyone know if the hat lights sold on GBFans can be functional?
Given that yours is identical to the one on the store page (pictured below), I can only presume the fittings were gotten to allow people to thread the covers into their Proton Guns, rather than serve as an electrical connections… It was probably intended for holes to be drilled into the sockets to allow LEDs to be installed inside them.
If you’re trying to insert the LEDs from the wand light kit into the socket simply pull that piece of plastic off and the inside comes out leaving a big opening on the bottom.
If you’re trying to use the socket as it was intended, you could just solder the wire to the side.
The ring you’re asking about is used so the socket can be removed from the panel and it simply touches the side to make connection.
The full setup would be a plastic black ring with a steep that you put on the socket first, then you put it through the hole and put a brown ring that insulate the socket from touching the metal panel and then the soldered ring followed by the nut.
I forget to mention that if your wand is resin just soldering the wire on the side would probably work but if your wand is aluminum then you would have to use both insulated rings.
I’m no electronics expert so please forgive me if I’m wrong.
I am working with a spare TCv3 resin front grip that I purchased a few years back when I was just a newbie. The front grip has been sitting in a drawer along with a spare acrylic tip and I now that I gain more experience with building I want to revisit this part of the build again.
The front ear’s push button/hat light components and writing always has intrigued me more than any part of the entire build due to the simplicity and complexity. On my first build I used the pre-made push button and LED included with Spongeface’s kit. While I was new to building it was still a very difficult piece to work with as I personally found the wires to be way too short.
Over time I noticed that whenever I met a fellow Ghostbuster the front ear was something I looked at first. It didn’t matter to me if the builder used resin or aluminum I wanted to see how they approached the front ear.
For my first build I removed the bottom part of the hat light socket and simply fed the LED through, but with this upcoming re-build I plan to use the T-1 3/4 bulbs. I was able to purchase a pair off of eBay as, at this point, I do not want to purchase 20, in bulk, as I might not ever use them all.
Like Glenn suggested to solder wire to the side of the socket could work. I remember this did work when I reverse engineered one of Fincher’s e-cigarette units when mine burnt out. I managed to get my hands on all the parts needed to rebuild the Kanger T2 clearomizer from scratch. So, I am hopeful this will too work with the hat light socket sold from GBFans.
Ideally the teminal ring going in before the nut is where you connect the negative wire. You could cut a recess in the bottom of the ear, just deep enough to get the ring in plus a couple truns on the nut. That’s the easiest solution imo.
I thought about that too but the one problem with that is fitting it to the ear. It’s an idea, sadly I wasn’t able to find a terminal ring that would fit it properly but the hint continues.
So far I’m coming up with a measurement of 5/16 hole for the hat light socket base.
I have a surplus store near me that has sockets rings and nuts if you need it.. only thing they no longer have are the hatlights since one ghosthead took a trip there years ago and bought everything they had…
The GbFans ones come with socket nuts, unless you are talking about something else. And, yes, OMG I can’t find those rings anywhere even on eBay or any other site! It’s crazy.
I always believed finding hat light sockets outside of GBfans was impossible but the other day I found a second source that ships the exact same ones, but better, for a slightly cheaper price.
And best part is that they sell the socket nut AND ring with it!!!
