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

No turbo from off? :open_mouth:

Hopefully at least with the momentary if turbo was the last mode used.

You can always set your ceiling and turbo to be the same if you want turbo from off

No TURBO from OFF was the reason why I asked.

A few thoughts

  • some hot running olights has this staged turbo (turbo 1 -> double click -> turbo 2) and it works for the users.
  • The FW3A overheats (without regulation) in Turbo, so I guess it makes sense.
  • a double click, double click brings you to TURBO
  • With this setup you has quick access to 4 different brightness levels froom OFF
    • floor (or Moon if you chose that low)
    • memorized level
    • ceiling
    • TURBO
  • The FW3A will run about 15sec on turbo an than throttle, so it will reduce anyway. I guess most will have as ceiling a level which is thermally stable. The ussage of a 15sec blast is for me limited.
  • you can set the ceiling to TURBO, and you can have different ceilings in SMOOTH and STEPPED
  • maybe it can be configured by the user if he wants to to have from OFF -> double click -> TURBO
    The question will come anyway

I am fine with the UI as it is.

Interest

Hi, please add me to the list (1 Nichia). Thank you.

Please add me for a 3rd. I am 494 and 1106 already.

Love the clean look of the prototype and would keep at least one as is.

Don’t want anything to slow down production but would also like an optional head with indents cut out to install tritium vials. Guess I could find someone to do that for me but don’t know if that causes problems with the anodization.

Either way this light may be a game changer.

Please put me on the list for two of these! Thanks!

Put me on the list for 2.

Thanks

I remind that Lumintop produced some small diffusers for the Tool AA! They are made of a soft luminescent material (silicone?!).
Maybe they can produce something alike, even if not in that material. Not sure how much cost that would add, though…

Friends ask me almost daily to borrow a flashlight, and I like to share. :slight_smile:

I posted my thoughts on muggle mode several months ago when ToyKeeper first asked for input, but I’ll repeat myself.

I prefer a ramping muggle mode. I have eight lights running TK’s excellent Andúril UI. When I lend out a Q8 or Emisar I simply say, “Click for on and off. Hold to change brightness.” I don’t even mention ‘reversing,’ and people still catch on quickly.

Exiting muggle mode with a simple power cut isn’t ideal. Like djozz mentioned and joechina reiterated, the first thing most people do with a flashlight is open it to look at the cell. Then they usually try their best to cross-thread it back together. :person_facepalming:

To exit muggle mode, I like TK’s ‘password’ or ‘unlikely-to-be-done-by-accident sequence of presses’ concept. Nothing complicated, but perhaps six-clicks-and-hold rather than just six-clicks or similar.

Quite often, someone will borrow my light and enter battery check or strobe mode by clicking repeatedly while staring into the emitter. “Hmm, it’s not doing what I expected. I’d better press the button some more!” :smiley:

Thank you TK, so I didn’t miss out that’s great, such a beautiful light.
I’ve sort of learned on some of these projects to sign up and then when it happens it happens,
The BLF GT took along time and I actually forgot about that light until I got the notice,
Thanks again and keep up the great work as always…!

As bmengineer and joechina said, the user can configure it to do turbo from off by setting the ceiling to turbo. In that case, the sequence is:
Off -> double click: Go to turbo.
Turbo -> double click: Go back to memorized level.

The floor, ceiling, and anything above the ceiling aren’t remembered unless ramped to. So if you take a shortcut to the floor, ceiling, or turbo, it does not replace the memorized level. It’s safe to turn the light off from those levels, or take another shortcut from those levels, without erasing memory.

Momentary uses the memorized level, which is the last-ramped level. If the user ramped up to turbo, momentary uses turbo. If they took a shortcut to turbo, the memorized level is lower so momentary is lower too. Same story with beacon.

What is not yet determined is what the light should do if it’s on, at a low or medium level, and the user double clicks. Should this go to the ceiling, or should it go directly to turbo?

There probably isn’t enough material to remove for that. Cutting slots for tritium vials would probably expose internal parts of the light or interfere with threads. Some other lights have enough extra bulk for vials to fit, but this one is thinner and avoids extra material to reduce weight.

However, trits could still be installed in or under the optic.

Since holding the button already ramps you to the ceiling quickly enough, it makes sense to use the double-click to get to turbo.

Okay, so WE can adjust our ramp ceiling?

I was thinking along the lines of NarsilM v1.2 were the ceiling is set before flashing the driver. It’s not user setable.

But if the user can set the ceiling, it’s all good.

Please put me on the list. I kept looking at those first 2 pictures in the thread and kept asking myself: do I really want to have a BLF light that I dont like the shape off. Now I finally saw the proto type pics and actually like it.. Much better than the original design, that looked like a $5 ebay light to me. Glad it came out nicer than expected and thats the reason im so late to the game :$

Please sign me up for 1.

You can set the bottom (Moon level) and ceiling in both, smooth ramp and stepped ramp. They can be different in smooth and stepped!

Yes.

While on, the user can switch between smooth and stepped ramp by clicking three times.

In either mode, the user can enter a config menu for that mode by clicking four times. This menu has the following entries:

  1. Floor level.
  2. Ceiling level.
  3. Number of steps (stepped ramp only).

For each option, it’ll blink N times, then “buzz”. During the buzz, click one or more times to enter a number, or simply wait to go to the next setting with no changes. The “buzz” keeps going as long as you keep clicking, so there is no hurry if you want to enter a big number.

Modes which have a config menu are:

  • Ramp modes (smooth, stepped).
  • Beacon. (lets user set number of seconds between flashes)
  • Tempcheck. (lets user calibrate room temperature and thermal ceiling)

The longest menu is three items (for the stepped ramp settings).

There are also settings which are configured without entering a menu:

  • Ramp brightness. Is also used for momentary and beacon modes.
  • Ramp style.
  • Remembers which mode was last used in the “strobes” group.
  • Strobe speed, for both strobes.
  • Bike flasher brightness.
  • Candle mode brightness. (not saved in eeprom)
  • Whether muggle mode is active. (not implemented yet)
  • On lights with a lighted switch (Q8, not FW3A): Button brightness while off, for both regular “off” mode and lockout mode.

Lockout mode functions as a momentary moon mode, for quickly checking things without the need to unlock the light. The brightness of this momentary mode is determined by the floor of the current ramp.

For the regular modes, it basically has two profiles which you can switch between with a triple click while on. One profile is smooth, the other has steps. They can have completely different limits, like one with moon and one without, one with full turbo in the ramp and one with a lower limit, one for inside and one for outside, or whatever. There are no predefined mode groups though, because the user can create their own with a few clicks.