FW3A Troubleshooting / FAQ

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197

I have seen erratic behavior on lights before, and it was almost always dirty threads. Maybe you could try cleaning the light, as just stated before.

198

No, it does not go to turbo. When holding the switch, it goes to different levels in steps, stays at the brightest. After that, it step-ramps down if i release the switch and hold it again. The driver is flat, however the notches do not align perfectly, so maybe there is a short between the case and the driver? !Imgur: The magic of the Internet! In order to pull out the driver, I assume I have to desolder the wires at the front, right?

No, it does not go to turbo. When holding the switch, it goes to different levels in steps, stays at the brightest. After that, it step-ramps down if i release the switch and hold it again. The driver is flat, however the notches do not align perfectly, so maybe there is a short between the case and the driver?

In order to pull out the driver, I assume I have to desolder the wires at the front, right?

199

I don’t think it’s dirty threads as it also happens when I directly connect the battery to the spring and case. I don’t see how the threads could be involved.

200

What your describing sounds like proper normal function. It ramps up when you hold the button, release and press again and it goes back down.

Are you confused that it goes in steps instead of the smooth ramp? To switch from stepped ramping to smooth ramping turn the light on and do 3 fast clicks.

201

Well, it turns on immediately when inserting the battery and tightening. And I can’t turn it off. It acts like a twisty.

I have pulled out the driver and cleaned it. Re-inserted it taking care of the notch. Same result :-(.

I am clueless. Somehow, the MCU must be working as it’s doing something when pressing the button. The button must also be working. It almost looks like (on of the) 7135 are permanently working so there might be a short somewhere?

202

My two cents

203

Try unscrewing the head and tail cap, screw in the tail cap nice & tight, insert battery, then screw in the head nice and tight. Or try the reverse of doing the head first, then tail. Of course, just be careful of the tail cap as the switch board and button will fall out (not secured in place at all).

I had a similar flaky operation before I did this. Now my FW3A is working great.

204

These are excellent points!

However it’s happening with the head only when connecting + to the spring and - to the body. So that would narrow it down to the driver board. I desoldered the star, the driver board looks good. Hard to debug though.

205

Tried this several times, turns on immediately. Even when directly connecting the battery to the head.

206

Yeah, in reading what you posted about a moment ago, it does sound like there’s some kind of electronic defect going on with your driver board. Probably too expensive to mail back, unfortunately.

207

If your light is acting like a twisty, check your driver retaining ring and make sure it’s tight. That could also be the problem.

208

In order to turn the light on directly, the retaining ring would have to be making contact with the signal ring on the driver, they should be 2 different circuits right?

209

My FW3A started ramping up and down as soon as power was connected when it arrived too, I tightened the driver ring, pulled the inner tube out and made sure it was clean and reassembled the switch assembly. Problems cleared right up.

210

Oh sure - it had been sitting on the desk indoors for a good 30 minutes when I set it with a thermometer nearby.

211

If one of the amc7135 chips is dead, it could cause behavior like that. Those chips fail open, meaning they allow current to pass through… so it would be always on. But the other chips would still work, so it could still sort of function.

212

I see. It does seem there is a problem there. Maybe TK is right in that a 7135 has failed. I would contact Neal about this.

It seems Lumintop is not testing the lights at the factory like they did with the GT. They are just shipping out as fast as they can.

213

Not an EE but I presume one could verify that with a multimeter probing between the pins? How does it fail i.e. what pins to check? If I would have to guess, let’s say VDD and OUT?

For reference I checked a couple of 7135’s on my E2L
VDD - GND ~61.6K
OUT - GND ~0.54M
VDD - OUT infinity

214

Wow, I think you are exactly right. Basically the light works including ramping etc., the problem is just that “off” level is not really off. Hitting the switch once goes to a brighter level (“on”), hitting it again to the lower level (“off”). This is exactly the behavior I would expect from an open 7135. I just didn’t know that they fail open.

I am going to contact Neil about that.

Thanks for all the ideas and help!

215

Thanks for the idea and the measurements! As FW3A is a 7+1 configuration, individual 7135 probably can’t be measured without desoldering them, right?

My measurements:
VDD - GND ~ 40.8
OUT - GND ~ 1.23 M
VDD - OUT ~ 1.23 M

216

Yeah, this is in circuit measuring. They’re all connected so if you want to measure an individual chip you’d need to desolder it.
Again, not an EE, but I guess someone with a properly functioning FW3A driver could take the measurements so we get a rough ballpark of what they should be. I’m still waiting for mine to arrive…
Since if there’s a 7135 that has failed open, the values should be different since they’re all connected. Right?

P.S. I botched the VDD-OUT measurement of the E2L driver yesterday. I don’t know what I did but as I saw your numbers I realised I did something wrong.
So I checked the E2L again (6x7135) since the temperature is different today.
VDD - GND ~61.2K
OUT - GND ~0.52M
VDD - OUT ~0.60M
Took a quick look at my S2+ (8x7135) at the same time.
VDD - GND ~44.4K
OUT - GND ~0.51M
VDD - OUT ~0.57M
These probably don’t matter as the FW3A driver is completely different but oh well.
It is interesting though that the uhm “ratio” of these measurements are so different to yours.