FW3A Troubleshooting / FAQ

Cleaned threads, nothing to find. Driver seems seated however I can’t budge the retaining ring. Certianly not loose.

Still same symptoms, not working. :frowning:

:frowning: …… Take the tailcap apart & see it there is a ’nubbin’ in it.

If you need it, you can go HERE and find info on tailcap disassembly & ’nubbins’. :+1:

The nub is there, tail switch feels like its working.

:frowning: … Wow…. :frowning:

The only other thing ‘I’ can think of is…. take off the head & look at the end of the black inner tube. It should be clean & shiny with no anodization. Give that end a good wipe with a rag, put the head back on & try it.

Guess the low operating voltage of the FW3A is higher than the Emisar D4.

Battery that worked (emitted light) in the D4 didn’t work in the FW3A.

The battery ordered with the flashlight (Sony VTC6) didn’t come with enough of a charge.

Coincidentally the battery (LG HG2) that was working in the D4 was low enough not to work in the FW3A.

Charged batteries over night, all good now.

Only other batteries I had charged last night were protected cells which as stated don’t work.

Thanks for the help.

You had not charged the battery?? :person_facepalming:

For future reference… batteries do not come charged. They usually arrive around 3.4 V to 3.6V

When my fw3a was working it worked right up to when the lvp kicked in ,it should work with a cell at 3.2-3.4v.

When I put it on the charger it read 3.2 & didn’t work.

RFI? Set an AM radio to the noise between stations and walk around your house listening for noise sources, many LED and CFL light bulbs are great producers of Radio Frequency Interference. You may have a “buzz” signal from something nearby. And you may also pick up a burst of electronic noise when a flashlight driver operates, if it’s not well designed to avoid creating RFI.

Electronic waves are simiar to ocean waves in that several waves can combine to create a “rogue wave” or a strong electronic signal spike momentarily.

I’ve noticed fairly often that using a ham or GMRS/FRS “walkie talkie” radio triggers various motion sensor lights around the house, and I once had a neighbor’s car alarm trigger just as I walked past it while using the radio.

It’s not just me: ham radio motion sensor trigger - Google Search

https://www.reddit.com/r/amateurradio/comments/7qg9ta/motion_sensing_light_can_seerf/

It might be worth reviewing the FCC’s “shall not cause interference/shall not be overly sensitive to interference” testing for the electronics.

Not surprised it didn’t work. But all’s well that ends well. You’ve now got a super clean, checked out, & working FW3A out of the deal.
All for the price of charging the battery…. :wink: . :+1:

FWIW, the light should work until the battery gets down to 2.9V or so, because that’s where LVP activates. It technically should still light up even as low as 2.6V, but it’ll shut itself off pretty quickly to avoid hurting the battery.

Brightness gets lower and lower as the voltage drops, in a pattern which should almost exactly match the Vf curve of the emitters being used. Everything used in the FW3A should light up at least a little at 2.9V though.

Phaze13 said his would not work at 3.2 V, any idea why? Just curious… ??

It wasn’t the battery that was causing the problem probably.

Good point. Quite possibly the correct answer. Either the battery was not really at 3.2 V, it was much lower; or during the multiple takedowns he inadvertently ’fixed’ whatever was not tight or lined up properly.

The inadvertent fix is my favorite fix.
“How did you fix it?”
“I took it apart, put it back together, and it worked.”
“Great!”

Maybe a combination of the battery and the 1x7135 channel chip being bad?

With a depleted battery the light should turn on in low. I assume if the battery is low enough only the 1x7135 channel is activating. If that 7135 chip is not functioning, perhaps you end up with a situation where the light stops working at slightly higher voltage than it should.

I agree, in some situations…. lucky trumps good. :wink: . :+1:

I received my FW3A yesterday. Fortunately everything seems to be working well. The UI took a bit of playing with to get figured out. It definitely has some awesome features (candlelight and lightning storm)
Mine does have one odd thing though. When in smooth ramp mode, starting at moonlight, it seems that it has more blinks than it should.
It blinks just above Moon, at Max Regulation, a bit before Max Ceiling and at Max Ceiling or Turbo. So 4 times, although just after Moon is very subtle.
If I have the Max Ceiling at 130 instead of 151 it will only blink once at the top of the ramp to signify Max Ceiling.
This doesn’t bother me, and it might be normal. Just haven’t seen it mentioned.
I know my D4 blinks only at Max Reg and at Turbo.

Finally received my two XP-Ls, and am sorely disappointed. One doesn’t work at all, and the other is stuck on turbo from the second the threads make contact. I’ve tried swapping components between the two, tightening the tail first and then head, loosening and retightening the driver retaining rings.

Don’t forget to try compressed air, to blow out any chips of metal left in delicate spots.