FW3A mod thread. Post yours!

Is there an 18350 cell that can put out that much current?

samsung q30 can put out 20amps

sony vts can put out 30amps

irun samsungs in my fw3 and fw1
ive also got 6 sony vts that are great, but nothing that warrents me putting them in

You need to look at the listing carefully and read what I wrote carefully - 18350 cell

ah its to early and im only on my 3rd coffee

ok well i use a efest 18350 700mAh battery in one of my convoy s2 , it got full brightness draws about 5 amps, i read its max output is 10 amp

this should be good for about a very very short amount of time on full power

If that’s the case I can’t ever see that light reaching 10,000 lm with a short battery.

10,000 lm / 12 leds = 833 lumens per led

According to Texas_Ace’s tests you need more than 1.5amps to reach 800 lumens.

12 leds * 1.5amps = 18 amps

So something capable of 20 amps (the 18650’s forsh mentioned) might see the specified output but not happening with short cells

18350 battery 15A 1200mAh Flat Top Li-ion ORBTRONIC 15amp for 5 seconds on and 30 seconds off,

yeah like you say pal, 18350 is proberly not possible drawing 20 amps, and really who wants to have a torch that can go full power for 1 seconds, unless your making some kind of strobe that blinks twice a minuite!

Plastic ring mod

Ok, that was really weird……… I was looking at your photo forsch and rolling my fw3a (normal) between my two hands thinking, suddenly it came on and off a few times, the started doing alsorts of weird flashes! It wouldn’t switch off and i had to unscrew the head to stop it………
I have no idea why - maybe it was jealous! :stuck_out_tongue:

Maybe some kind of cpu freeze or something

The plastic ring is something from b&q type shop for 10 pence (cent)
Water pipe washer , 22mm 24mm outside , I had to sand the inside a bit
But it works so well
It maybe needs cleaning a bit and the colour isn’t great , I’d like blue or green or something

But it works for now

I have a Keepower 1200mAh 18350 that I managed to suck 14A from. So I guess it’s possible with an even better battery. For about 7 seconds until it’s empty :stuck_out_tongue:

See forsh’s post #1279 (5 seconds on 30 seconds off).

Also I think 20 amps is the minimum requirement to reach 10,000 lumens.

I’ve just jumped on this because that guy must be measuring in Chinese lumens. Theoretically plausible but technologically not possible.

chinese lumens are the best lumens, i had a torch from wish, that had 90000 lumens! it was super bright and only drawing 5amps

im not sure how they measure the lumens, maybe look at the light and say, yeah that about a million lumens!

Got a 2nd FW3A from a generous BLF member here. Previous owner had tried to customize the body but ended up hitting a dead end. Mainly the center body had been stripped of anno & had an uneven finish. I reworked it with various grades of micromesh from 1500 up to 12000. Now it’s more of a satin polished finish. I originally planned to do a twisted scoring, but I’ve found the aluminum is rather soft and wouldn’t likely hold up to an even scoring. Later on, I may give it a go with a Dremel. I’m tempted to try a finish like I did on this vintage Pilot mechanical pencil:


(original body was a smooth satin finish metal alloy)

Installed a GITD optic surround, a lanyard ring, and an o-ring for added grip. The lanyard ring doesn’t anchor down, spinning freely. Tried using a few different o-rings, but it doesn’t work (they get squished out). Looks like a special washer may be called for. Some photos, with the first two showing this FW3A next to my first one.




FWIW, no beam shots but FW3A #1 is Cree XP-L HI 3D, #2 is Nichia 4000k 219C.

Would soda blasting take the ano off ?

Probably, but I don’t have the equipment or space to do that. I am going to try a few powdered abrasives hand scrubbed.

I’ve got a soda blaster at work , maybe I’ll try it later today , I quite like a alu finnish

Draino and hot water will remove the ano in under a minute

It seems like 219B mod is one of the popular mods. I have got some questions about the firmware. For 219B, I understand that fw3a-nofet or fw3a-219 should be used to limit the current for the Turbo mode.

The latest version I can find at this time is 2020-03-18 for both of them. I have been trying to find the information about the revisions and the histories, but I have not found them so far. I am sure the way I am looking is not good. Do you know much about the version of 2020-03-18? Which version do you use? My thinking is to go with the latest.

Also, what is the maximum current for fw3a-219? I read somewhere like FET is limited to 50% or 60%.

Thanks.

Will this fit on the FW21?

No, the diameters are too different