FW3A, a TLF/BLF EDC flashlight - SST-20 available, coupon codes public

Nobody is late yet. Development isn’t finished, and it won’t be available until sometime next year.

I like the original design better as well, but I will still order this tapered version.

I don’t know. I like both versions but the new tapered maybe will be better if it has a 45degree bevel at the tailcap too like Dale said and showed on Lumintop TOOL.

I’ve already managed to mess up my prototype a little. I replaced the 1x7135 chip with a different brand to see if it’d help, and it seems to have made the driver stick out a little so now I can’t thread the thing together quite as far. It still works, but I’ll have to fix it next time I take out the driver.

OTOH, I greatly improved the button debouncing. It’s not 100% yet, but it’s at least like 90% now.

Regardless of how the tapered section works out, whether it’s 5 degrees or 45 degrees or 90 degrees, the narrow middle area makes the light much more comfortable to hold. It fits comfortably between any two fingers, which isn’t something I can say for most of my 18650 lights.

This prototype has the wrong emitters (XP-G2), and there are some thin wires, and my main contact points are weak at the moment due to the replaced chip not fitting quite right, and my battery wasn’t full, but I did some quick output tests…

  • Moon: 0.24 lm (after swapping 1x7135 chip)
  • 1x7135: 160 lm
  • 8x7135: 1063 lm (highest regulated level)
  • FET: 2160 lm

The real thing should go significantly higher (though keep in mind the high modes are basically burst only, not for sustained use).

I also like the orignal the design better (even more with a 45 degree slope). But like ToyKeeper mentioned before, this way it gets a bit more thermal mass and that is (to my opinion) something this light could use very well. But I rather would have seen it in a different way (a thicker wall maybe). I still like the inside of this light so I would buy it anyway.

TK: For quick hack can you dremel the 7135 to size?

Are quick bursts shorter than 10sec?

How quick gets it hot fully regulated?

Yes Dale, you have an eye for detail and beauty.

Hmz,

I signed up for this

Now its fully blasted and tapered?

I like the original shape (that tapered design, can’t get used to it), but the blasted look of the latest sample.

Several times now I have headed out to the lathe to build a light, with the internal components in hand and no design cues in mind at all. Start out making the tail switch fit into a bar stock and then machine a copper light engine to hold the driver and emitter/s of choice. Then put the pieces together and shape the outside to whatever feels right. It’s odd maybe, but doing it that way the design takes it’s own shape on-the-fly and has produced some really neat and interesting results. Like making the battery tube fit my fingers in the grip I like to use, then seeing it resembled to spools of thread stacked on top of each other. I like machining it after it’s assembled because it makes the two pieces seem as one, even a transition between copper and aluminum the metal seems to be one piece that abruptly changes colors. I like that, it amazes me. (I’m easily amazed, true enough)

So it’s not that I don’t like the ramp on the tube, it’s just that I was drawn to Fritz’s primary design to begin with. It was more Raw, elemental, form following function. And so it goes, it’s never-ending…. :wink:

Yeah, agreed.

From TLF regarding the design:

Nice Moonlight!

I don’t know how long a quick burst is yet, and don’t know how the thermal regulation will behave yet, because I haven’t measured it yet or adjusted the code to fit.

I can probably trim the chip’s wide tab down to fit.

… a few moments later …

Yeah, okay, it wasn’t the 7135 tab. The driver has a notch on one side, and so does the host. It just wasn’t rotated the right way. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

While I had it apart, I also fixed debouncing. It seems to work 100% so far.

The Devil is in the details… :wink:

I’d like to throw in a vote of support for both the blasted finish and the tapered tube.

Really wished the prototype could have come with the XPG3 emitters that were planned so we could see what the tint/beam would look like.
Maybe the next round or someone could swap some in?

Is that where he’s been hiding?

I swear, that guy must have a spidey sense or something. He’s way too good at avoiding me.



I was disappointed too. I was hoping we could settle the emitter type issue, but it remains unresolved.