I will put it in the list of other failures of venders to think twice about dealing with. Email, messaging here, No replies.
Great concept, Poor execution of product and customer support. Yes I do understand that there is a limited number of people behind the scenes, but that is no excuse of leaving any customers out in the cold.
To those that come to the defense, it was poorly planned and executed hence 35+ pages of people having problems. Yes I am sour on this transaction with Neal.
35 pages yes, that does not mean it’s tons of people having problems. In fact, most got it figured out. The rest do seem to be defects of some sort. A certain percentage of all products will have defects and manufacturers know this.
Also, this light is sold by Banggood, Lumintop and Neal. Not just Neal alone.
It was your automatic ramping that seemed most worrying. That would indicate a short to ground somewhere in the driver, inner tube or switch area.
Since your issue seems quite tricky, I would suggest removing the head and battery and just testing the switch circuit. I show it here.
If we can get this part of the light working, then we can focus on the head. Make sure your clip is not preventing the tail from fully tightening down.
Oh yeah, please tell us what battery your using. Unprotected flat top I’m hoping. Button tops may or may not fit.
IMHO, the one HUGE problem in this whole endeavor was the cost cutting measure of NOT putting a ring in the tail cap so that it doesn’t fall apart when removed. That was just… not good judgement. The result was a huge number of problems. And now? Guess what—they’re now doing it, after all this.
I personally don’t have a problem with the unsecured tail cap parts. I always remove the front to change batteries & in fact, doing it from the battery side is a pain because it loosens the clip. So the encouragement to go from the front is the right idea.
I have tried rotating the driver and it didn’t seem to fall into any groove. It only had freedom to rotate less than 180 degrees though and I may have missed it - I didn’t remove it completely as this would have required desoldering the leads and I thought that would stop me from being allowed to return it if it does come to that.
Anyway, the continuity test with the tail section indicates that this is where the problem lies. Depending upon how tightly it is screwed down, and how it is assembled (whether I include the metal spacer between switch board and tailcap or not), continuity is made or is not. Clicking the switch doesn’t change anything in either situation.
I’ve tried taking the switch apart already, and couldn’t see any sign of oxidization either on or under the dome - I really can’t work out what the problem is there.
The spacer is a slightly bent flat ring that was seated between the switch board and the rubber boot with the ‘nubbin’ in. I haven’t seen any sign of one in the FW3A dissassembly videos so perhaps it’s a new addition?
I have an FW3A with the tail switch held in place by a retaining ring. It works only if the retaining ring is slightly loose; the Goldilocks position. If I tighten it all the way, it ramps to high and stays there - clicking the switch has no effect. If the retaining ring is too loose, it won’t switch on.
Took my switch retaining ring out along with the Oring holding the clip from slipping. Left them out! Clip moves a little, but it doesn’t bother me as much as the switch not working
I wish we could get whoever does QA/QC at the manufacturers’ site online here to talk about what to look for where.
Stuff gets by them that ought to be resolved by attention early on in the production line.
Another post commented the FWxx design requires especially high tolerances. Perhaps they are higher than Lumintop, or most flashlight manufacturers, can consistently achieve.
They test the prototypes, but after that they may only test some random lights coming off the assembly line (my guess). They definitely don’t test each light, if that’s what your thinking. The person doing the testing probably doesn’t speak English so it would be very difficult to ask anything.
I am in need of a couple of the white o-rings that sit above the pocket clip, 1 is broken and another is close. Is there a source for them? I really do not like it when the clip spins and the tailcap is tight.
I’ve also had a couple of those white o-rings break. Managed to find a replacement black o-ring among my miscellaneous supplies that fit. But I agree it would be good to make replacements available.
