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

some rogue mailman dropped off my batteries on a holiday today! I had similar issues with this V2 version as a lot reported, mostly it wouldn’t shut off, one time right after I hit turbo, man was that hot unscrewing the head. then it wouldn’t turn on after I let it cool. Took it apart and cleaned everything with alcohol, still nothing.

Seems to be working now after I cranked down the tail and head simultaneously, that seems to be best way to get some good leverage. Hopefully that was the only issue.

Now that all the versions are available has anyone tested thermal regulation on the various metal combinations?

Something like a fan cooled 5 minute run time chart for each (assuming the same LED)

I did 30 seconds on the copper and it was too hot to hold.
I posted it on here someplace.
I think it was around 60 C

Every light will be too hot to hold depending on your settings. Not really what I want to know. More interested in something like this:

With temp ceiling set to ~55C and a small fan on. Start from Turbo or Ceiling Max and then record % output for 5 minutes.

Curious how much you are really sacrificing by choosing full Ti for example.

I don’t have a meter to do that, but I can tell you for sure you will never have this light on Turbo for 5 minutes. You would be in the burn unit by then.

With my lights —if you don’t manually step down Turbo —they will ramp down and continiue to ramp way down — sometimes to 35 lumens or so —I have the Temp set on 60c—you better be careful it will burn you —that’s in about 2 min —- it only stays in Turbo for 30 + seconds

Yea i’m referring to lights with the thermal regulation set correctly i’m not sure why scosgt is reading my reply as otherwise. Anyways, curious to see where and how fast it ends up at that “few hundred lumen” level depending on the material. I have one of each of the metals but only 2 share the same LED or I would do it myself. I may still try I suppose.

ok please forgive me if this has been brought up already but has anyone else had the button of their cells absolutely crushed by the driver spring of the FW3A?

Yes, my FW3A dented the positive contact on my NCR18650GA when I dropped it head down. It has happened in other lights as well.

2 things, there is a length limit which is why flat top cells are recommended.
Second, anytime you have a new flashlight you have to make sure to not over tighten the head or tail and crush/damage the battery.

This would be a different situation where the G forces of the dropped battery dented the button. That can happen by dropping a battery by itself. It’s a little more likely to happen inside a flashlight as the impact angle doesn’t have to be so exact and the coiled spring focuses the pressure on a smaller area. The middle of the button is weaker than the edge.

Obviously… I just told him my experience with dented cells. I stick to the cell size recommendations for all my flashlights.

5 minute 30 second fan cooled with GA cell at 4.1x volts. I make no promises of the accuracy and in fact I don’t think the percentages are accurate but i’m hoping the overall shape is. When I pulled it off the box the SST-20 lights were in the 320-360 lumen range which doesn’t make sense given the percent stated.

I’m curious about the box. What are you talking about?

Integrating shoebox?

I used my old integrating shoe box and my Galaxy S10 with ceilingbounce app. I haven’t really used the app on this phone or the shoe box in a long time so I cant really trust how either of those work.

At the end of the test I stuck them on my own somewhat calibrated DIY sphere just to have a more accurate measurement at the ~5-6 minute mark

The ambient light sensor on the phone might simply be very non-linear.

The camera light meter should be quite accurate, but I don’t know if it’s possible to modify Ceiling Bounce to be able to use that sensor.

That was my thought as well. Should be good enough looking at the end results though

I took this photo and posted it on Reddit, but then I thought you guys might appreciate it too. The TK edition’s purple colour looks really nice!

Really wish that button was available separately. :cry: