FW3A Useful Information.....

My FW3A won’t work or was working but quit.

If your FW3A quit working or does not work, check these two things first.

1. Is the battery sufficiently charged

  • If not, charge it

2. Is everything tight

  • Driver retaining ring - check for tightness & tighten if necessary (see details below)
  • Loosen the head
  • Tighten the tailcap very tight
  • Then tighten the head very tight

If this fails to make your FW3A operational go HERE
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Driver Retaining Ring

A loose driver retaining ring can cause an issue. That issue is described below along with the simple solution.

Firelight2 wrote:
Discovered an issue today:

Several times now after inserting the battery at the head and then screwing closed the light I’ve noted that the head sometimes stops screwing down a couple mm before it should. This appears to be caused by the inner switch contact tube being slightly off-center and hitting the edges of the narrow driver retaining ring. When this happens the inner tube does not make contact with the driver and the light does not work.

If this occurs, the light can still be screwed down by unscrewing and then rescrewing the head in several times until things line up right. But that doesn’t solve the problem and is frustrating to do. This issue occurred with both my FW3As.

Analysis and Solution:

The problem appears to be caused by the driver retaining ring not being screwed tight to the driver at the factory. If you encounter this issue, use tweezers to turn the driver retaining ring so that it is flush against the driver. Once the retaining ring is snug, this problem goes away completely.

Driver Retaining Ring: Loose / Installed


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steel_1024 wrote:
In addition to tightening the retaining ring.
Also align the 2 notches shown in the figure below.

NOTE: This driver retaining ring is very thin, but it is there. If you do not have the proper tweezers, a nail, toothpick, pointed fingernail file, etc. may be used to tighten a loose retaining ring.

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Threads, Posts, & Videos of Interest

Threads & Posts:

Mod Threads:

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Videos:
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Neal - FW3A Assembly

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M4D M4X - FW3A Switch Assembly

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M4D M4X - FW3A Video Review

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Anduril Configuration starting with Thermal Configuration / by ZozzV6

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Miscellaneous Information

1. Batteries

  • The FW3A takes 1 x 18650 Li Ion Battery. Flat top batteries will fit as will most button top batteries. Your particular button top could be an exception.
  • Protected batteries will not fit
  • Either High Drain or High Capacity battery may be used. Performance will be about the same. Run time will be extended with High Capacity.
  • Sanyo/Panasonic GA - LG MJ1 - Samsung 35E - Samsung 30Q, to name a few

2. Optics

FW3A Optics

  • Glass AR coated lens 23.0 mm x 1.5 mm
  • The optic is a Carclo 10511, which is a lightly frosted optic with a relatively narrow spot. It gets almost as much throw as the 10507 optic, but with greatly reduced tint shift and artifacts.
    The 105xx Series Carclo Optic may be easily replaced or interchanged in the FW3A if needed or desired.

Beam angle comparisons between four Carclo optics:

Frosted Carclo Optics

  • The 10511 is called a narrow spot. 22°
  • The 10508 is called a medium spot. 27°
  • The 10509 is called a wide spot. 40°

Clear Non-Frosted Carclo Optic

  • The 10507 is called a narrow spot. 18°

Buy Carclo Optics:

3. MCPCB

  • The FW3A uses a standard 20mm Triple MCPCB compatible with the Carclo 20mm triple-TIR optics.
    Noctigon & similar 20mm Triple MCPCB’s should fit in the FW3A just about perfectly should you wish to modify your FW3A.

These can be purchased from many places easily. GOOGLE is your friend.

4. Accessories

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Part time job as a scalper i see :stuck_out_tongue:

Wow....lots of reservations here. :-P

Can't wait to see what this will be about.

Some ideas - probably you’ll be doing these anyway but just thought I’d pop them in! :+1:
Optics, I believe there were 4 (item numbers 10507, 10508, 10509 & 10511 I think and what they do to throw etc) and where to buy them - I did see it in the main thread but like all the info it’s lost forever in a million posts.
Holsters that fit
Modding bits, glow tapes/ disks, trits etc. Someone even did drilled optics, but they were a little expensive for me sadly (a lot of work is involved in making them though)
Diffusers for the ‘play’ modes lightening , candle etc - the rubber cone/dome things
Batteries - their pros and cons with this particular light

I guess more ideas will follow from others when they get their lights and start playing :partying_face:

Thanks for the ideas Goose. Ideas welcome… :wink:

Yeah I’m working on it & should have it up later today after I get finished with a doctors appointment.

Last night TK asked a volunteer to do this… I could not refuse the ‘Light Goddess’ and the rest will be history. :smiley:

@ Lux-Perpetua…. Yeah… I went “reservation” crazy. :smiley: I figured better to many than not enough. I’ll just delete the unneeded ones later. :+1:

I'd have to say, I have some... reservations about this thread...

;)

:smiley: …. You won’t be dissappointed. :wink:

Would it be more useful to put the issues and fixes into a spreadsheet rather than another BLF thread?

Just thinking out-loud….and thanks for taking this one :+1:

Soon… ALL of BLF will be FW3A :smiley:

CRX, i’m waiting for you to add your custom switch with trit installed to this thread. Then, I can PM you and you can take my money.

Maybe some smaller trits in a triangle around the tiny plastic switch nub?

My light is on it’s way, traveling by Yodel, which is always fun :laughing:

From the pictures I have seen, for a single central vial install it looks like the centre nub in the steel cover can be ground down/ slotted, a hole or slot into that with a 6mm x 1.5mm trit & UV glue and then some playing around with the nub on the rubber switch boot. Maybe also use a thinner vial there.
Or as you say three trits in a triangle shape etc would look really nice too.

This is not going to be about mods or anything… it is just going to be a listing of simple things that TK can put a link to in the FW3A Thread OP… according to her…. IIUC.

I know …. Yodel! same here!
I’m kinda surprised someone on here doesn’t sort of mass produce some trit switches for this, once programmed the time and cost would be minimal - next to no materials either and the milling would take a matter of minutes. I could make some on the lathe, but no milling option sadly.

Thanks you for creating this thread, teacher.

I'm sure it will help a lot of BLF members.

GO TIGERS

My pleasure raccoon city. :+1:
Hopefully it will help those that need it. :slight_smile:

This might be a topic for a more advanced guide, and it’s not strictly unique to the FW3A:

How about including some notes on calibrating the thermal sensor in Andúril? Might help some folks squeeze out a few extra seconds on turbo.

Also, I don’t see a link to the manual at all. Maybe include that near the top, at the very least.

Yeah right… :wink:
You been in the swamp to long buddy…… :smiley:

I hear you actually…. I wish it could ’somehow’ be us two at the end, 1 & 2.
I would honestly be good with either being 1.
As long as they both “showed up” & played that is. I couldn’t take a repeat of last year on our part at the end… :cry: . :person_facepalming: . :person_facepalming: … :smiley:
RTR & GT