Those links are for specific quantities of cut tape. If Neal is asking about sourcing for the full project, Digikey offers better pricing for reels in increments of 800 emitters, for at least $0.41 USD cheaper per emitter than that link. That adds up quickly for a project Iām sure will be using several thousand emitters.
Hereās links for tape and reel.
Iām sure an experienced buyer could negotiate a better price, assuming that they have a signed BOM and commitment for a substantial quantity.
Otherwise it just seems rather amateur.
The same goes for all the other parts.
@iamlucky13, I thought he only wanted samples, not a full reel.
If so, Iāll be including them in my original post.
The inner tube is only there there to pass the tail switch signal (normally open, signal is connect to ground) from the tail to the driver.
If it gets displaced, say at the driver end, it gets grounded. No hazard, (unless locked onto turbo) except it stops working.
Or perhaps open-circuit. Same difference.
Firmware could detect such a fault condition (grounded) and do the necessary. E.g. shut down.
Every time the cell is replaced/recharged this connection is re-made. So it has to be ultimately reliable. And the arrangement sturdy (not thin-walled pieces relying on delicate tolerances, particularly pressing against a few microns of plating on a driver PCB).
Thatās as I understand it. I could be completely wrong, and look forward to seeing how it turns out. This is certainly not an obvious way to make such a thing. My interest is just to see how far this goes, and how well it eventually works.
If delivered successfully it will definitely be unique, and well worth the āinvestmentā.
Crack on.
I wasnāt sure, so I figured Iād add the information to the thread.
Besides, who knows what other members might want 800 emitters. :sunglasses:
(Pretty sure RMM already has bought that many)
Received a New PM message in my email just now, Got so excited, thought it was for this. But was for another light I forgot about. Just read a couple pages back and looks like early next year maybe? 
So unique Nitecore did it YEARS ago.
D10/ D11 / D11.2 / EX11 / EX11.2, the āPDā (Piston Drive) series.
Piston Drive, which I think was actually invented by McGizmo, is a different design. PD flashlights donāt have a switch in the tail at all, just the end of a piston that transmits mechanical force to a switch in the head.
The FW3A isnāt the first to use nested tubes to transmit an e-switch signal from the tail to the driver though. Several dual-tailswitch designs from Nitecore, Fenix, and Klarus do this. The Folomov 18650S also uses a tail e-switch, but Iām not sure if it has nested tubes or uses a different technique.
I find the FW3A compelling because it puts together a combination of features in a way that I expect to work really well for how I use an everyday carry flashlight, and does so at a very low price. It doesnāt need to be the first light with some feature in order to do that.
18650s has the entire driver at the tail, only components at the head are the LED and a bleed resistor.
Tomato, potato.
Thanks for that list Zak.Wilson!
TK, that needs hotlinks!
PS, how would our corporate overlords describe us?
Something like: http://crackedlabs.org/dl/CrackedLabs_Christl_CorporateSurveillance.pdf
Exactly. Thatās the point of the FW3A. It may not do anything particularly new, but it puts together a lot of good older ideas into one nice package. Itās a well-rounded sort of design for practical use. Thatās why I carry it around on a daily basis even though I have a hundred other lights to choose from.
[quote=ToyKeeper]
All of us can only dream about thatā¦
Hello, decided to finally make an account, Iāve been watching this project for some time now, and I wouldnāt want to be too late to the interest list. So, put me down for one, and big thanks to everyone involved!
I definitely want one when available and I am patient, not really but the wait will be worth it. The light looks like a work of art with those clean lines.
Welcome to the forum guys. You should see your names added to the list the next time itās updated.
Whew. For a moment I was worried my collection of nitrolon/GRP P60 hosts would make me weird.
Is it too late to get my name on that list?
Nah never too late mate, this is the never ending project with zero communication and even less progress 
Well, occasionally coming into this thread can be tricky as normally there are some few updates, here and there, and people may lose them - if they do not read the thread correctly - in the middle of the conversation and off-topic chat!
Still, there are some updates:
But I must confess, lionheart_2281, many of your posts here are not encouraging or inspiring those updatesā¦nor the waiting time!ā¦ As others form other members here in this thread as wellā¦ :person_facepalming:
This will not help the mood of the people that - like you - want this flashlight !!
It has been said before: this is not an enterprise, people will do it when they can, and as The Miller used to āsayā āItās done when itās doneā !!! :arrow_right: