If cleaning the head and tail threads doesnt fix it, then it might be something in the driver. Is the low light level under 120 lumen (single 7135 channel) or also at levels brighter than that?
Maybe one or more of the 7135 chips is flaky, not turning on and off like it should. I kinda think Lumintops driver manufacturer got ahold of some low grade, imitation 7135 chips due to other people having similar issues on the very latest versions. Just a theory.
You may need to contact the place you bought it and see if they can send you either a new driver or new head. (I’m sure they’d prefer just the driver, as it saves them a lot of money)
I appreciate your response, Judging by the other two I have, one being identical emitters the output at its lowest level is still a fair bit higher then the working ones. The flickering/strobe effect I’m seeing could also be caused by the same (erratic switching). Thinking about it, your probably correct in your theory.
The light has some changes from my other ones (older). A tiny screw in the thermal surface to stop the mcpcb from spinning, and no machined notch for the driver. I have a current order I just placed with Neal, I will ask him if he could send me a replacement with that order.
I’ll also add one of the emitters has a noticeable blue tint and is slightly lower output. Not sure if it is a new development or I just failed to notice it previously.
Are you saying you have 3 of them? If so swap the tailcap/head from another that is working issues free and see if it is your tailcap/head that is indeed broken.
Yes, correct, it is definitely the head, as it does the same thing on all three tubes/switches. I pretty much figured after checking everything out it was more then likely a driver issue, I did not think of the of the 7135/s as the culprit until you mentioned it. It does make sense
Here is my troubleshooting thought process, if anyone is interested.
We know Dels driver design is good because we have hundreds (thousands?) of working lights, but 0.5% seem to have strange driver issues (not inner contact tube stuff). This leads me to believe it might be a component issue. Genuine components can be hard to get in China, but they usually work just fine. There may be cloned Attiny85 (according to Lexel), FETs and 7135 chips. The other components are resistors, capacitors and diodes and those don’t usually have issues. Sometimes an SMD capacitor can short internally, but that will manifest itself very clearly. Some of the FETs don’t start having issues until you get into the 150+ watt range, plus that is not an issue in the FW3A. So we have the 7135 chips and Atiny85 chips to look at. 7135 current regulators get cloned hugely. There are clones of clones of clones, etc… and we have definitely seen some go bad on many different models of lights. Usually just a tiny percentage of those lights as well. It’s like the electrical tolerances are not as good as the genuine ones from ADDtek, etc… If you get one of those outlier chips it might cause this type of issue.
I can’t really remember what kind of trouble the cloned Atiny85 chips caused (Lexel thinks there may be clones because they sometimes won’t reflash properly, but it might just be that the company that originally flashed it used the wrong fuses or that they encrypted it somehow). I don’t think there were any functionality problems. Since we are only getting a flicker and all the other more complicated functions work, I’m leaning towards a bad 7135 chip.
The only other factor might be the soldering itself. I remember seeing one leg of the MCU not fully soldered on some other model light and that caused weird problems. If you are good with an iron, you could go over all the joints to make sure they are 100%. It’s not something the average person can do, but it doesnt hurt to try.
Unfortunately I missed the warnings about the tail and opened it a few times. I’ve lost my nubbin now. Considering most flashlights open at the tail, having a tiny loose part like this is poor design imo.
How? It’s all people talk about in any FWXX thread and also there is a note in every box. It’s not a poor design, it’s a modders/enthusiast/flashaholic dream imo.
I was just talking to Texas_Ace and he agrees that the defect rate on those 7135 chips seems to be getting higher and higher. He has run across so many bad ones that he’s changing his driver designs to either FET plus single 7135 chip or else dual FET with resistor bank. Reliability is way better.
If the defect rate starts to get too bad, BLF may need to start designing similar drivers with 1 or no 7135 chips at all.
My problem is with Neal’s. I had a defective unit a month ago and he said he’d send a new one. I been messaging him for weeks and he finally gets back to me and just says “hello” in the message and ignores my questions on where is the replacement. He finally says today oh sorry I’m too busy, I’ll send tomorrow. checked his FB page and others have the same complaint. Does anyone know is this normal for Neals? Can I get anyone else to warranty this?
I have had 2 of these for a while now. No mentionable issues.
Today I chance to one of them the 2-way clip.
In the process I noticed a clear O-ring under original clip, it cut in pieces while taking it off.
Now, with 2-way clip if I tighten the tailcap gently: flashlight will give me only 1% power momentary strobish-thing. Nothing else.
If I tighten the tailcap FIRMLY, the switch “click” sound disappears and switch feel goes from “clicky” to smushy or something. No feel at all BUT thats not the worst it also likes to Fire up on full beam on the table all by itself.
Threads and surfaces are cleaned, no help, but I think this has something to do with the click itself.
From the rubber plate between SS-tailbutton and clickswitch the plastic “nub” was loose. I took it away -> bad feedback from clicky, put it back -> no help to original issue.
I don´t get it…. when I place all the parts inside and press them in tailcap for example with a battery, the “clicky-feel” is correct.
When I assemble the light, it just doesn´t work.
Sometimes this happens. :weary:
AFAIK, Neal is still a one man store. He takes all the orders, gets everything that is in stock shipped out, orders new inventory, tries to answer all the PM from here, Facebook, emails from his website, etc…, but he gets overloaded and backed up. I don’t know why he didn’t send a replacement a month ago, it might have slipped through the cracks. He’s an honest guy, though so he will get it sent to you. Even if it goes out today, it might take a week or so for him to get the tracking number. This is the busy season in China and the mail system also gets overloaded.
Warranty is only through the company you bought it from. No one else will do it as it’s basically them sending a new light/part for free, plus paying the shipping costs. This takes a big bite out of the small profit margins.
I cut away 50% of the hard plastic stud inside the rubber. Not helping.
I cut away the outer rim from rubber and it helped. I think the rubber could not sit again in the tailcap groove once you take it out one time.
On the other hand, the clicky now does not have much feel and the metal cap tries to stick once and awhile.
