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

I'm pretty sure Firelight2 doesn't know how to mod lights . :P

Oh man ....now I'm thinking Burled Oak ,Quilted Ash,Curly Maple? FW3Wood

Wonder who will be the first to bake one ?

This is why I put some CF on this, stops most of the copper smell transfering to hands, less tarnishing & buffers the heat a little on high output. (Plus I like the look) :smiley:

CRX, would it be possible to estimate thermal resistance of that CF layer?
Could you tell us the thickenss?

My off the napkin and not necessarily correct calculations agree with Firelight2.

Copper gives better sustained performance but shorter turbos. Unless turbo is actually quite long, so better heat shedding helps.

The CRX way with carefully chosen insulation thickness (I think it should be quite thinā€¦and too thin is better than too thick) can get the same thermal path from LED to skin as alu - and so the same LED temperature. However it will spread heat around the host better leading to higher sustained performance. Also turbo times should be much better than either alu or copper alone. More than 50% for sure.

I have 1 copper light and I EDC it nowadays.
Astrolux A1.
With a light this small the extra weight doesnā€™t matter every day. I also EDC Lumintop GT Mini (with a shorty tube). If that light was copper - no way I would carry it around.
I would love to have some larger copper host just for the sake of it but I wouldnā€™t use it very much.

In other news, still no newsā€¦ sorry. CNY takes a while.

The FW3A proto4 is still working nicely, except for the issue already noted. I get occasional short+reboot errors when A) the parts go out of alignment, B) Iā€™m holding the button, and C) itā€™s using more than 1x7135 worth of power. Loosen/tighten the tube though, and itā€™s happy again for another day or two.

So Iā€™m hoping thatā€™ll be taken care of. My proto2 unit doesnā€™t do this. Even with that issue though, I still find it nicer overall than most of my other lights.

It is 27mm x 25mm (1mm wall) 3K roll wrapped matt tube bonded to the copper with a very thin layer of JB Weld, something like 5-7 in plane, .5-.8 transverse for CF/ resin if that helps, I just know it takes the edge off :smiley:

Did you manage to level the driver so the signal tube sits properly or still at an angle?

If I understand that correctly - thatā€™s a lot of insulation. Your LEDs will unsolder before it burns you on Turbo. It may become burning hot on a lower level though.
https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=70W%2F(0.5W%2Fm+K+)*1mm%2F675mm%5E2

1 mm of Titanium should be betterā€¦though actually a bit thin.

Ish. Not very well though. One can only do so much with a dremel. And to make things fit a little better I filed down the edges of the driver as far as they can go without making it not work any more, so thereā€™s only a hair width of ground ring left. Itā€™s not ideal.

In any case, my proto4 is now modified and no longer represents what to expect from a stock light. After CNY, I hope Lumintop will have some good news for us.

Maybe the formulas arenā€™t the best way to judge it then.
When I first made the light I had a copper core & titanium outer shell but felt it was too much power not getting distributed through the metal, head area around the pill was scorching hot on turbo & rapid stepdown but the light was relatively cool elsewhere.

So I changed the shell to all copper but then the whole thing got too hot to handle while having a decent temp threshold (60Ā°) :smiley:

Then I tried the additional CF sleeve which made holding the light bearable though it still gets very hot.

Yes, lots of people looking forward to this one becoming available.
Remember you can send any of these protos to me to try to fix if you like :innocent:

Thatā€™s perfectly possible.

Please put me down for one LH351D.

I found a diffuser for the FW3A

https://www.ledil.com/product-card/?product=FP15072_ZORYA-SC-C

Very ā€œMetroidā€-esque.

That looks like itā€™s designed to fit a 42mm HEKLA-SOCKET.

The FW3A is 25mm. How would this fit?

Thatā€™s for someone with a 3D printer or an x-acto knife and some creativity to figure out. Iā€™m not super serious with this suggestion but it does interest me, and since itā€™s from a real optics manufacturer I suspect it would diffuse better and have less impact on the tint of the beam than some of the other options I have seen.

There are other sizes too but obviously nothing that fits without some modding

Please put me down for one of each emitter with aluminum body.

And I would also be intersted in a single-emitter version.

Thanks.

Is the cast iron version ready to order yet? FW3I