The retaining ring doesn’t need to be very tight. Turn it clock wise to tighten. I really only tightened mine with one of the notches (at that was because I took everything apart to mod it). I don’t think my usual pliers and stuff will grab both ends of the ring at once without slipping.
I see that people have already started getting 7A.
Sadly, my not even sent.
Paid Apr 28, 2019
That’s what I did too. Small screwdriver in one notch, spun around until finger tight.
Good tip. My ambient default temp was set to 39. Recalibrated now.
Just for the sake of clarity, for anyone still not seeing it… retaining ring notches highlighted:
I hope they come out with some new colors. As much as I like this light the only thing keeping me from buying multiple is no $30 option and the weird gray on fingerprint black on silver color combo. I may just have to try to bake the anno if a $30 one comes out.
Neal, will there be a 5D, or any other Cree tints besides the three currently available?
Ordered mine on 27th April order #3015 - haven’t heard a thing back (tracking number etc) Hmmm, anybody else in the same boat? did send an email but have heard nothing back. Thought they were starting to send out on the 8th?
My FW3A arrived today!
First interesting thing - the box had a return address of Cranbury, NJ and appears to be shipped by USPS (US Postal Service). I see no typical Chinese markings on the outer box.
I googled the address and found a company who’s web site states:
So maybe Lumintop is shipping cases of lights to NJ and this company handling shipping within the US.
I know, right?
Well, maybe not 5D, but perhaps 5A. Or 4D.
The proto4 sample I got appears to be a 5A, and it’s really nice. It’d probably be even better as a 4D though. It’s just a touch warm for my taste. The 3D production model seems colder than I was hoping though, and the tint isn’t as good as some other 3D lights I have.
I asked Neal a couple times to do 7A, 5A, 3D, and 2A/1D. I provided data on the relative quantities to make too, to match the poll data. Now there’s 7A, 3D, and 1A… but he didn’t want to do a “5” tint because it was too similar to the SST-20 model. And that’s fair. But it sure would be nice if other people could get one like the 5A proto4 unit I have.
So now my favorites are 219B sw45k and XP-L HI 5A… and it’s hard to decide between the two. Maybe someday I can get some 4D emitters to use as a tie-breaker. 
I placed my order on the 28th (3625, 2x 3D + 1x 7A) and haven’t heard anything beyond the order confirmation e-mail either. Just figured that an update would come when it comes (sooner rather than later being preferable, of course).
Mine’s saying the same thing. It’s interesting to see just how synced several deliveries from the same place at about the same time to the UK can be.
Mine’s coming to Devon.
they don’t have plan for this tint now
sorry
the shipping delayed because of the baby birth and the led out of stock
Now my baby is already back home. and the lights are arrived today.
I will ship all the orders in group buy this week.
Regards
Neal
I got my FW3A today and have been screwing around with it for about 2 hours. Literally screwing around; screwing the head, screwing the tail, screwing the head, screwing the tail, etc.
It worked for a short while (2-3 minutes) with me turning it on/ramp/off/on/off/on/ramp, and so on. But then it stopped working. Time to trouble shoot.
- Check battery - 4.2 v, good.
- Loosen head, loosen tail, tighten tail (really good), tighten head. - no luck.
- Check and tighten driver retaining ring. done - no luck.
- While I had the head off I noticed one of the chips had a wart. That is odd. Using tweezers I removed it. It looks like a nubbin from the tail switch. Time to check the tail.
- With the head pointing to the ceiling and the tail on the table, remove the body tube from the tail. Remove the switch. - the nubbin is there. Looks like I have an extra nubbin.
- Since I have the tail off I decide to remove the clip. I generally don't keep clips on my lights. Hmmm, between the clip and the body tube is a white o-ring. Oh, that is suppose to be around the inner tube. Edit: it should be there. see posts below.
- Since I have the tail off I decide to remove the clip. I generally don't keep clips on my lights. Hmmm, between the clip and the body tube is a white o-ring. Oh, that is suppose to be around the inner tube. Edit: it should be there. see posts below.
- Remove the inner tube there is the white o-ring. Looks like I have an extra o-ring too.
The problem is I have now exhausted my ideas for troubleshooting and my light still doesn't work.
Additional info:
- When I screw the head on I get the momentarily blink others have described.
- Typically the light doesn't work after tightening the head. I click the switch but it doesn't turn on
- Maybe 10% of the time the light comes on when I tighten the head and ramps all the way to high. I click the switch but it doesn't shut off. I have to unscrew the head to get it to turn off.
- When I press the switch I can hear and feel a good "click".
Any suggestions what I should try next.
It sounds like the inner e switch tube isn’t making contact. You might want to try tightening the driver retaining ring so the body tube tightens lower and makes the switch tube contact. That white o ring is meant to be above the clip by the way; it stops the clip rotating.
Because it sometimes automatically ramp, another possibility is that the switch always makes contact, not just when you click it. You can check that by trying to use the light as a twisty: see if you can get the UI working by tightening/loosing the head instead of clicking the switch. If it does that, the switch is always “on”. (the switch plate may be soldered crooked, bridging the outer and inner ring on the tail PCB)
I find the notches easier to see from an angle rather than looking straight down at the driver. (Hope it shows up in this picture. There is some glare.)
Yeah, the white O-ring by the clip is there to keep the clip from spinning freely. It’s not for the inner tube.
Something else which might help is to take out the driver retaining ring entirely, wiggle the driver around to make sure it goes into the slot it’s meant to be in, and then tighten the ring again. One edge of the driver is flat, so it can only go in one direction. Be careful not to twist the wires off though. Without de-soldering the wires, the driver can only move a little bit.
Good idea. I previously tightened the driver retaining ring, but I didn’t think to check that the flat spot on the driver was aligned with the tube.
Re: white o-ring. My first thought was that it was to keep the clip tight. But then I noted in CRX’s review that the o-ring was around the inner tube. 
It seems I have a white o-ring around my inner tube too and between the clip and the body.