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

My feelings exactly Cheap Thrills!! :+1: . :smiley: :smiley: . :wink:
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Your welcome peabody, my pleasure. :beer: . :beer:
It pretty well “cracks me up” too. There has/have certainly been some unique suggestions for sure…… :wink:

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It is done my BLF friend from Big Sky Country!!! . . . :+1:

Are we now officially back from 67mm to 66mm in battery length?

It has always been 66mm hasn’t it??
From the OP??

The FW3A

Small elegant EDC triple flashlight designed by Fritz15

  • Runs on a single 18650 battery.
  • 92.5 × 25.5 mm: Unusually small for an 18650 light — about the size of a SK-68 (1xAA).
  • Battery size: 18mm x 65mm (66mm maximum). Protected cells won’t fit.
  • Tail e-switch.
  • Wide range from ~0.3 lm to ~3000 lm.
  • Regulated output up to ~1000 lm.
  • Fancy yet easy UI.
  • Nice clip firmly attached.
  • Good ergonomics.

It doesnt say tho specific if button top cells will fit or not ?

Maybe they will, maybe they won’t.
If they are not over 66mm, the way I read it; they should fit.
If they are over 66mm, they probably will not fit.

Wouldn’t the fake/knockoff be called FW3fire…?

Also I didn’t find my own personal led preference (because it’s better than everybody else’s preference :wink: ), I want lightsaber green, please :innocent: …. for just such occasions I need to defend myself against Tusken Raiders (sand people).

Point taken pinkpanda3310. As ’keeper of THE LIST…. it is my aim to register any & all requests…… yours have been added. :+1: . :smiley: :smiley: :smiley:

  • FW3F = Fire
  • FW3PP = Personal Preference

Good luck with those “Tusken Raiders” too……. :wink::beer:

There was never a promise of 67mm, as far as I’m aware. Battery size was only specified as “18650” until mid-2018, when I added “maximum 66mm” to the OP. The only prior mention of 67mm was this comment, which was not official or correct. I have no idea where that number came from. Anyway, old snapshots are available on archive.org if anyone would like to see how the first post looked in the past.

However, in proto4, it’s really more of a maximum of 65mm. But I’m hoping Lumintop can fix that because the reduction from 66mm to 65mm was only caused by a manufacturing error.

I will take one.

Maybe it will sound strange but am I the only one who thinks that almost two years for flashlight development and putting into production is way too long? I really dont understand why it take so long and why there is no feedback from manufacturer and members who assist in development (and production?) process about schedule of production and actual date it will be ready for purchase?
Looking to the specs its probably best ever EDC light that will (hopefully) be available (also direct competitor to Emisar D4 and many other similar lights), so I assume for manufacturer and development team this need to be priority number one. Instead it looks like manufacturer is not interested (maybe initial price calculation is wrong or other reason?).
Again, looking to the specs, its clear that this light will be one of the best available (for that price) and manufacturer should know that as sooner it will be available for purchase, more lights will sell.
Sorry if this all sounds dumb. I dont know anything about production, just wanted to know why its soooo long.

A few reasons:

  • Turnover. None of the original project members are still involved.
  • Communication issues. Remember when Ford Prefect wrote an entire book about Earth, and his editor shortened it to “mostly harmless”? That sort of thing happens a lot.
  • Getting stuff manufactured in China is complicated. Many surprising things can go wrong.
  • It’s being made by volunteers, not employees.

However, it’s still happening faster than many Kickstarter projects. My experience with those has generally been about 3 or 4 years between buy-in and actual product delivery.

Ok. But what about feedback from manufacturer? As I understand, some production samples where made and sent to few volunteers for testing. I see three reviews, but why there are no information from manufacturer like, what is the status and when they plan to make first 2000 lights? Can someone, who knows better, guess or just ask manufacturer actual status?

The best person who can give you that answer already gave you her answer. What more do you want? You just have to be patient and remember this is being done by volunteers on THEIR OWN time, so we should be grateful and learn to wait. :wink:

Teacher,

From what I’ve been able to glean, even if the driver recess in prototype 3 had been correctly machined, only the very shortest of button-top cells would be likely to work. Is that your opinion as well?

Yep, it has taken a while, but we are all hoping it is getting close to production.

hm so even flat top cells can be an issue is that correct ?

You can wonder why it goes like this, figure out how the process would go better, even conclude that the improved process would benefit both manufacturer and customer, and you could be right in all aspects.

But the simple truth is that when working with chinese flashlight manufacturers the process does not follow common sense. Communication can be slow or absent at times, and that is just one aspect of the process that is troublesome.

What may just happen is that while we expect the latest feedback to be incorporated in a final design, the flashlight goes on sale without notice to the development team, without minding the feedback. Once customer complaints about the design/manufacturing flaws start rolling in, they just improve the next batch.

If you can not live with that, it is best not to get too involved in these BLF projects, or just wait until a finalised batch with all flaws ironed out hits the market.

Honestly, the only opinion I have is if the total length of the cell (battery) is 66 mm or under it should fit.

If it is over 66 mm total length it’s probably not going to fit.

“Total length” is referring to anything that makes the battery longer, whether that be a button top, a solder b(. )( .)b, …… anything.

That is honestly all I know. I just take what I read in the OP at face value. “Maximum length is 66 mm”.

It is what it is…….

See, there are 2 problems we face here:

1. We don’t speak mandarin.

2. We aren’t based in China/don’t go in China.

It would help immensely if there weren’t a language barrier.

Also, if we were all based in the same timezone, that would make communication much quicker.

Word! :wink: :+1:

Now let’s get back to the off topic jive…… :beer: