FW3A Troubleshooting / FAQ

The lower blip is where it transitions from the single 7135 to the 7 x 7135 (about 125-130 lumen). In other words, when you ramp up from moonlight the first blip shows the transition between channel 1 and channel 2 and then the higher blip shows the transition between channel 2 and channel 3 (the FET).

When I first fired mine up (after inserting the battery by removing the head, per instructions), it wouldn’t stay on. I’d just get a flash. I loosened and tightened the tail cap and then it started to work. But when I went to max output, it would flash and shut off. I loosened/tightened the tail cap once more and now it seems OK. Would it be a good idea to take off the tail cap and clean everything? I’m just a little concerned about possibly making things worse…

don;t lose your nudgie, noodle, nuffin, whatever it;s called! ( i mean if you take the tail apart… )

that little black button

so i got mine
so far everything seems to be working
i did have to make sure it was all tight though

it flaked a couple times, to low intensity high speed unalterable strobe, tightened head and tail, it got fixed

and i burned a black shirt, when the light was close and it inadvertently got into turbo somehow

question, it says party strobe speed can be altered, but i can;t see that it does anything different on a ceiling fan…?

wle

WLE, funny you should mention that! I used it to show the kids how the frequency of flashing light can “change” the speed of a fan.
While in party strobe click/hold for faster, click click/hold for slower.
(Used the D4 running Andúril, Fw3A should be the same. Haven’t got mine yet :(. )

Literally just got mine out of the mailbox. When ramping up above the hybrid mode, the light just turns off. Direct to turbo works okay, ramping down from turbo works okay, but ramping up in either stepped or smooth ramp causes the light to simply go off. Any ideas?

Mine did this after I removed the tailcap in order to lube the o-ring and threads. Following Toykeeper's tightening procedure and tightening a lot (very tight) it began to work correctly again.

Sorry if I’m being an idiot and missed it, but what’s the recommended thermal ceiling for the FW3A? In the UI, is the base 30C and then you just add a click for each degree C on top of that?

Yes, but first blink setting is for the current temp, 2nd for setting the ceiling that starts at 30C.

Also, this isn’t totally recommended, but as a shortcut for getting a usable thermal config, it should work pretty well if you click only once at each thermal config menu option.

This tells it the current temperature is 1 C, and the ceiling is 31 C. But if the light is actually at room temperature, the effect is mostly the same as if you clicked 20 times at each option (for 20 C calbration and 50 C limit). The only significant difference is that the temperature check mode will give the wrong values.

I carried mine in my jeans pocket, clipped. Later in the day noticed it was on in my pocket, and in 7 levels mode. The jeans are stiff ones, and think'n from sitting/moving, the switch could have engaged from fold of the pants. My lean mean body doesn't look good in tight jeans, for some reason... Ok, maybe I'm not so lean but I am mean!

That 1/4 or 1/8 turn at the head is bout a perfect lockout, for the switch that is, and that's all you really need is to disable the switch, so my "issue" has an easy solution!

I do carry other e-switch EDC's the same way - clipped. I found if I align the clip with the switch (switch still clears it), the switch is held to the outside and doesn't seem to get accidental activations, even for a ZY-T11 clone using this deep pocket clip with a soft bulging switch, clip not shown here:

That clip fits the ZY-T11's bout perfect, little loose but good for my usage.

Yep, figured that out — but thanks for confirming.

Great — that’s terrific info (should be in 1st post, FWIW). I do like getting accurate temp reading, so I do 20 clicks (room temp @ 70). So I’ll do 1 click for ceiling.
:beer:

Some deep pocket clipped lights:

More comparative shots with the FW3A

Small 18650 (21700 for the PL47):

Couple AA size lights:

Sorry - you are wrong!

1 click at both settings ensures a 30° difference

your example lowers to 10° difference only!

OK… but this:

What I get from that is single click adds 20C. So single click for each thermal config menu option sets current temp to 20C and ceiling to 50C (because of 30C base). So basically, I didn’t even need to click 20 times (just once) for setting the current temp.

EDIT: Well, I decided to test it out first hand… and it seems that you’re right. When I click 20 times for the ceiling, the light gets hot, almost too much to handle, but not quite. If I then set thermal ceiling with 1 click, it’s not the same. The light doesn’t get as hot and ramp down happens sooner.

ONLY if you click ONCE in temp SET when room temp = 20°

then real 20° = 1° FW3A temp

and real 50° = 31° FW3A temp Limit

Logic flaw is that 1 click only adds 1°C but start for ambient is 0°C while start for limit is 30°C

So clicking once for each will tell the light that (whatever the real temp is) the ambient temp is 1°C and set the limit to +31°C so that a +30°C from the actual ambient temp and is the same as (with an ambient temp of 20°C) clicking 20 times for ambient (=0+20) and 20 times for limit (=30+20)

Not sure if this is as clear as i'd like it to be ...

Edit : Not fast enough ;)

Can’t find it back but it was mentioned before: in muggle mode my FW3A does a completely needless stepdown from highest to lowest after a minute or so, sometimes faster sometimes not at all. Nothing is the matter though, not hot at all, battery voltage over 4V, I have set the right tenperature and the FW3A blinks it out correct too, temperature limit set at 52degC.

Is this a bug?

Yeah, seems I had a thick-headed moment there. :weary:
So basically there’s an automatic 20C padded to BOTH values of current and limit. Current starts at a base of 0, and Max at 30. So first click means 21C and 51C respectfully. And each successive single click in the menu just adds 1C. I get the logic of the 20C padding, because it’s a safe base value, and saves having to click 20 extra times for each value.

So when I clicked 20 times for the max limit, it was 50C (FW3A) PLUS 20C more… making it 70C actual. That’s 158F… I’d read a while back that 60C to 80C is about the safe maximum operating temperature for LED’s, depending upon the maker and LED type. And the longer you burn at a higher temperature, the shorter your LED life. So maybe it’s safer to set max limit to 60C (10 clicks).

By “padding”, I meant figuratively. Maybe there’s a better synonym to use. Maybe “base value.” I don’t know. We’ve got 2 things being talked about — actual temperature versus FW3A click count. I think it could be better clarified in the instructions. It’s a little confusing for those of us who are not experienced with thermal management settings.

I think the post above is not correct at all.
………

Current Temp is this isn’t it??. If room temp is 19C & light is at room temp. Click 19 times. If room temp is 21C, click 21 times. Etc., etc., etc……

I thought Temp Limit started at 30C. To get 50C you click 20 times.

This \… taken straight from the FW3A User Manual that came in the box:

Thermal configuration

Look at a thermometer to check the current room temperature. Let us assume it says 21 Celsius Turn the light off and wait for its temperature to settle to room temperature.

Go to TempCheck
When you are in TempCheck, then click 4 times to enter thermal config mode, and calibrate the sensor.

Thermal config mode has two settings:

1. Current temperature Calibration.

  • Click once per degree C to calibrate the sensor. For our example, the ambient temperature is 21 C = click 21 times.

2. Temperature limit.

  • This sets the maximum temperature the light can reach before it will start doing thermal regulation to keep itself from overheating. Click once per degree C above 30. For example, to set the limit to 50 C, click 20 times.

The default is 45 C (15 clicks).

Hint: If you don’t click,the lamp will leave the value unchanged.
The lowest value the user can set is 31 C, by clicking once.