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

I like your updates! Wish there was some way to update existing lights. Will definitely pick up an SST-20 when they come out. Thanks again, TK. :beer:

Thanks for the improvements to AndĆŗril, TK! You continue to spoil us. :+1:

Momentary strobe sounds neat, and stephenk will certainly enjoy it.

Improved candle mode and brighter lightning strikes will be awesome. I think the shorter beacon flashes are a good move.

Iā€™ll definitely be updating AndĆŗril on the dozen lights I have using it. Thanks again for all of your hard work!

momentary strobes? Hoo-yah!

Your in luck, there is a way. You can re-flash them with the updated firmware. :+1:

Yeah, I should have qualified with ā€œWish there was some way for ME to update existing lights.ā€ :wink: I donā€™t have the necessary hardware and lack the knowledge of the program to deploy it into the EPROM. Iā€™ve flashed custom ROMs on my Android phonesā€¦ if I can do that, should I be able to flash Anduril onto my FW3A?

I would ā€™thinkā€™ soā€¦ but I am certainly not the person to ask. :wink:
I just know it can be done & the hardware/stuff to get going is supposedly pretty cheap.

Aye, the hardware is really cheap from China. Mine took forever to arrive though. I flashed a D4S easily enough thanks to the driver having little acupuncture holes, meaning I didnā€™t have to desolder anything. I havenā€™t tried it on a flashlight that Iā€™d have to do surgery on yet, as Iā€™m terrified of bricking it like I did when I tried to perform my first emitter swap.

Short tube D4 works great for that! Absolute most power you can reasonably get on a keychain. I have seen someone attach their keys to the tripod hole on a BLF GT though. Canā€™t imagine thatā€™s fun to try and fit in your pocket.

Theyā€™re not much brighter. It was maxing out at ramp level 143/150, and now it goes to 150/150. I doubt anyone will even notice.

About that though, momentary lightning is kind of neat. The way the algorithms work, every time the button is pressed, it triggers a new lightning flash. This wasnā€™t even strictly on purpose; it happens as a happy side effect of some other code I added months ago. Each button press cancels any pending timers and drops back to the FSM libraryā€™s inner main loop, so it stops whatever itā€™s doing and loops back around to the beginning of the next lightning strike.

TBH, itā€™s kind of a pain. Some lights are easy, like the BLF Q8ā€¦ but the FW3A is obnoxious to reflash. It requires unsoldering the LED wires and pulling the driver completely out to get access to the MCU.

Iā€™ve only updated one of mine so far, and that was so I could run some thermal tests. I used the oldest one which still works, in case anything went wrong. I donā€™t like having a soldering iron inside the ones I actually use, at least if itā€™s not absolutely necessary. It adds wear and tear that Iā€™d prefer to avoid.

I really like newer designs which can be reflashed by pogo pin adapters. Those only take a moment to update.

A few days ago I mentioned that the only improvement for the FW3A that came to my mind would be a less wobbly button. Iā€™d like to add pogo pins to this. Makes flashing so much more beginner friendly, and keeping firmware up to date much less of a pain.

If that optical programming thing could work very reliably, then itā€™d be even easier. Just press the bezel against a monitor and play a video with a load of different white flashes to reprogram, if my understanding of the concept is correct. :slight_smile:

The pogo pin adapters, so far, arenā€™t actually available for purchase. Theyā€™re more of a build-your-own kind of thing at this point. So they donā€™t really help much for people who arenā€™t already pretty invested. But maybe eventually theyā€™ll be easy to get.

Updating the firmware via optical programming would take like six hours, and involves a significant amount of risk. Itā€™s not a very feasible method to do that sort of thing. It could be used to edit config values though. The thing is, itā€™s not much faster than using the buttonā€¦ and the server-side details are pretty complicated. There are a lot of different versions of the firmware, running on a lot of different devices, and each one needs its own special configurator.

Mostly, Iā€™m hoping the pogo pin adapters will become easier to get. They work well, and more drivers support this method every month; theyā€™re just not widely available yet.

Wobbly button ?.

The side switch on an the SP10.V2 i have is wobbly, one can even hear it when shaking the light but I don't have a wobbly button on my FW3A.

The FW3A button is well seated and produce a firm click when pressed on the center, a bit less firm when pressed on the side but still not wobbly.

Am i Lucky or is there a problem with yours ?

Is there a way to turn memory off, so the flashlight always start with the lowest mode?

Hum, this may be a stupid question but after being baked, if it gets polished, will it turn ā€œpolished baked colourā€ or will it assume the aluminium below the brown surface?

Sorry if this is too dumb :zipper_mouth_face:

If you press & hold from OFF it will start from the lowest luminous level.

Nah, I think mineā€™s pretty standard. The button rocks a little if you donā€™t press it dead centre, which I think feels sloppy compared to the button on something like an Emisar D4. Iā€™d personally far prefer the FW3A to have a consistent, very short travel, quiet click like the D4 rather than the variable amount of clickyness it has now depending on what part of the button you press.

So if I understood that correctly Iā€™m better off trying to source a driver with the new firmware than update the one thatā€™s supposed to be here any day?

Taking it apart is the hard part. By the time you take it apart to swap the driver you could easily just flash the existing driver.

Looks like we were wrong. Bead blasted copper. FW3C.
Bad choice of finish, especially in copper. The ones for sale should be polished.

that is so cool. how heavy are these in copper? has anybody seen a order date for these yet?
Thanks.

Definitely interested in a FULL COPPER version that is POLISHED.