FW3A mod thread. Post yours!

Ugh, I take it you're one of the folks who got a dud? :TIRED:

nice photos :slight_smile:

Im a recent convert to Green glow tape. I use it on the tail of my lights.

I dont even pre-charge it, and I can see the marker on my lights in the middle of the night when I wake for a bathroom.

The only charging the glow markers on my lights get, is ambient light from sitting on a table indoors. It glows 24/7 and is easily bright enough, in green, to see with dark adapted eyes. No charging required.

pics taken during the day
left is glow powder, middle is a glow tape, right is another brand of glow tape (I dont know which is what, they all work)

Yup , & still waiting ,it would’ve been quicker to walk to China to get a replacement :weary: :weary: :weary:

it is faster to get a refund:
step 1, paypal dispute
step 2, you get a fast refund
step 3, place a new order

Another style…FW3A Ti-trit button WIP… :cowboy_hat_face:

I am not sure if you have disputed something after PayPal modified its policy last year, but it is far harder to get a refund these days. PayPal took no action when I received a Astrolux light with a defective driver. They will require you to ship back defective items to China (at your expense) and give you a small credit towards shipping after you send the item back to the seller. To ship my light back it would have cost me $80 and they offered to pay $40, for an item I paid around $85. Paypal will basically favor sellers now, they changed their policy to gain acceptance from Chinese sellers. On eBay they even refused to refund me for a order that I never received, even though the seller did not respond to me for 3 months and provided no tracking. My only option was getting my CC company to do a charge back and PayPal then threated to cancel my account (though they did not).

Yep, that’s awesome.

Thanks, and nice work on yours too. The photos were taken momentarily after taking away the light source, so the phosphor is glowing brightly. Looks amazing… but of course, it doesn’t last. Still, like you say, the ambient glow is very long and useful in the dead of night. I cut out some GITD tape for my RRT-01 (original), but I didn’t use a template. It’s a little “off”. But, it works. Do you find the glow powder glow duration to be similar to the tape?

That’s a lot of tritium! Very precise cutting to get that symmetry just right. For me, I’d like just an “=”. That way no trits are overlapping and its plenty bright. I hope we see a future FW3A with trit slots drilled in similar to Tain’s work.

the powder that CRX installed in the Titanium TCR-1 is noticeably brighter than the two different green tapes

the green powder charges up brighter, it does not fade as fast, it stays brighter longer

The powder is also brighter in the middle of the night than the tapes.

Both glow tapes and the powder, are all easily visible enough to see on my nightstand, when I wake in the dark without my glasses on. They do look a little fuzzy… lol

I like the tape because it is removable if someone changes their mind

I like the permanent green powder, because it is… permanent… lol

Thanks to pinkpanda, I also tried permanent red powder, it was very weak, and I could not see it on the nightstand. So I put some wedges of green glow sticker over it. :wink:

The red is only visible immediately after charging, it fades almost immediately.

hope this glow conversation is not too much of a hijack, since my lights are not fw3a

RRT01

I like it. . :beer: It reminds me of a ‘Nuclear Radiation Warning Sign’.
.

I’ve been trying to be patient with neal as he is a quite good seller but it’s common knowledge that you are in for a very long wait when you get a defective item,
I hate it when the seller ignore you after sending multiple communications over a number of weeks. My last resort was to send the same messages to him but through PayPal (that way I know he is actually getting them )but unfortunately once that is done you only get a certain amount of time until you have to close the case or escalate it to dispute.
I just don’t like to be mucked about , if I was told a new head is gonna be sent then I am mug enough to believe it &patiently wait ,but it pisses me right off when replying through PayPal he asks would I like new optics or wait :person_facepalming: & there’s me watching my doorstep thinking it’ll be here any day now as I was told it’s sent a few weeks earlier. Communication would have been very welcome

Very shaved dome LH351D in 10507 optic and UCL lens. Pretty good result. I tested with 10507 but I think 10511 would be better for shaved dome. With the dome on the 10507 is a huge round nice spot with almost zero spill which I really like.

Result is XYZ: 41.760214 40.952261 27.366394, Yxy: 40.952261 0.379366 0.372027
Ambient = 41.0 Lux, CCT = 3994K (Duv –0.0019)
Color Rendering Index (Ra) = 94.5 [ R9 = 68.9 ]

Result is XYZ: 308.742837 302.893439 203.654038, Yxy: 302.893439 0.378691 0.371516
Ambient = 302.9 Lux, CCT = 4009K (Duv –0.0020)
Color Rendering Index (Ra) = 94.3 [ R9 = 67.8 ]

Result is XYZ: 895.338142 879.402151 588.706878, Yxy: 879.402151 0.378827 0.372085
Ambient = 879.4 Lux, CCT = 4010K (Duv –0.0017)
Color Rendering Index (Ra) = 94.2 [ R9 = 67.1 ]

Result is XYZ: 1719.819988 1693.457136 1139.562316, Yxy: 1693.457136 0.377747 0.371956
Ambient = 1693.5 Lux, CCT = 4039K (Duv –0.0015)
Color Rendering Index (Ra) = 93.9 [ R9 = 66.3 ]

Result is XYZ: 3505.114982 3472.750461 2363.751932, Yxy: 3472.750461 0.375215 0.371750
Ambient = 3472.8 Lux, CCT = 4110K (Duv –0.0008)
Color Rendering Index (Ra) = 93.1 [ R9 = 63.8 ]

Result is XYZ: 6088.595046 6043.818431 4139.761315, Yxy: 6043.818431 0.374172 0.371420
Ambient = 6043.8 Lux, CCT = 4138K (Duv –0.0006)
Color Rendering Index (Ra) = 92.8 [ R9 = 62.7 ]

Result is XYZ: 9818.604960 9744.793063 6742.845071, Yxy: 9744.793063 0.373242 0.370437
Ambient = 9744.8 Lux, CCT = 4158K (Duv –0.0008)
Color Rendering Index (Ra) = 92.7 [ R9 = 61.8 ]

Result is XYZ: 20608.971910 20581.199213 14884.540903, Yxy: 20581.199213 0.367527 0.367032
Ambient = 20581.2 Lux, CCT = 4307K (Duv –0.0006)
Color Rendering Index (Ra) = 91.4 [ R9 = 56.4 ]

I also flashed a new 219B firmware to another light with all the new features (optional memory, 2 mode lockout, factory reset). Pretty cool. When my aux boards from Lexel get here i’ll play with that more.

Thanks! Wow… that’s some serious glow power. Does CRX have a topic where he gets into the details of what product he uses and the substrate? I’m thinking it might be worthwhile to paint the GITD paste over GITD tape, so it can be removed at some later point.

CRX about glow types (and he sells glow gaskets for triples):

CRX about fw3a mods:

I received the two FW3A, standard dark gray aluminum and the copper. The copper is drop dead gorgeous! The finish is very shiny, almost mirror like. It is the most beautiful copper light I’ve seen yet. Below are my test results:

Copper SST-20 4000K w/ stock Carclo and glass lens
lumens: 1,974
CCT: 3972
DUV: –0.0012
CRI: 95.2
R9: 83.8
Rf: 93
Rg: 102

Copper SST-20 4000K w/ UCL glass lens
lumens: 2,051
CCT: 3960
DUV: –0.0024
CRI: 95.6
R9: 86.0
Rf: 93
Rg: 103

Gray aluminum with stock non-Carclo optics (no glass lens)
lumens: 1,819
CCT: 3898K
DUV: –0.0025
CRI: 95.8
R9: 86.9
Rf: 93
Rg: 103

Gray aluminum with Carclo 10509 optics (no glass lens)
lumens: 1,767
CCT: 3982K
DUV: –0.0031
CRI: 96.2
R9: 88.6
Rf: 93
Rg: 103

Gray aluminum with Carclo 10509 optics (w/ UCL glass lens)
lumens: 1,802
CCT: 3904K
DUV: –0.0029
CRI: 96.3
R9: 87.7
Rf: 93
Rg: 103

Gray aluminum with Carclo 10509 optics (w/ UCL glass lens) at low output (first blink)
lumens: 99
CCT: 4052K
DUV: 0.0014
CRI: 96.4
R9: 93.4
Rf: 89
Rg: 98

E07 SST-20 4000K FB4 tint bin for comparison:
CCT: 3822K
DUV: 0.0028
CRI: 93.7
R9: 76.5
Rf: 93
Rg: 101

The SST-20 4000k in the FW3A matches the FD2 tint bin. It looks much better than the widely used FB4 tint or 219C 90CRI and high output is almost as good as Cree 5A/5D tint.

For anyone interested, I think the Kaidomain quad mcpcb and quad optic would be a direct swap in to the FW3A. The Kaidomain quad optic is smaller diameter than the Carclo quad but larger than Carclo triple. However it has slightly smaller OD than the non-Carclo stock triple that Lumintop was using in the previous batch of FW3A.

So you are saying this might fit cause the MCPCB is thicker and you would get rid of the front glass?