They’re not much brighter. It was maxing out at ramp level 143/150, and now it goes to 150/150. I doubt anyone will even notice.
About that though, momentary lightning is kind of neat. The way the algorithms work, every time the button is pressed, it triggers a new lightning flash. This wasn’t even strictly on purpose; it happens as a happy side effect of some other code I added months ago. Each button press cancels any pending timers and drops back to the FSM library’s inner main loop, so it stops whatever it’s doing and loops back around to the beginning of the next lightning strike.
TBH, it’s kind of a pain. Some lights are easy, like the BLF Q8… but the FW3A is obnoxious to reflash. It requires unsoldering the LED wires and pulling the driver completely out to get access to the MCU.
I’ve only updated one of mine so far, and that was so I could run some thermal tests. I used the oldest one which still works, in case anything went wrong. I don’t like having a soldering iron inside the ones I actually use, at least if it’s not absolutely necessary. It adds wear and tear that I’d prefer to avoid.
I really like newer designs which can be reflashed by pogo pin adapters. Those only take a moment to update.
A few days ago I mentioned that the only improvement for the FW3A that came to my mind would be a less wobbly button. I’d like to add pogo pins to this. Makes flashing so much more beginner friendly, and keeping firmware up to date much less of a pain.
If that optical programming thing could work very reliably, then it’d be even easier. Just press the bezel against a monitor and play a video with a load of different white flashes to reprogram, if my understanding of the concept is correct.
The pogo pin adapters, so far, aren’t actually available for purchase. They’re more of a build-your-own kind of thing at this point. So they don’t really help much for people who aren’t already pretty invested. But maybe eventually they’ll be easy to get.
Updating the firmware via optical programming would take like six hours, and involves a significant amount of risk. It’s not a very feasible method to do that sort of thing. It could be used to edit config values though. The thing is, it’s not much faster than using the button… and the server-side details are pretty complicated. There are a lot of different versions of the firmware, running on a lot of different devices, and each one needs its own special configurator.
Mostly, I’m hoping the pogo pin adapters will become easier to get. They work well, and more drivers support this method every month; they’re just not widely available yet.
Hum, this may be a stupid question but after being baked, if it gets polished, will it turn “polished baked colour” or will it assume the aluminium below the brown surface?
Nah, I think mine’s pretty standard. The button rocks a little if you don’t press it dead centre, which I think feels sloppy compared to the button on something like an Emisar D4. I’d personally far prefer the FW3A to have a consistent, very short travel, quiet click like the D4 rather than the variable amount of clickyness it has now depending on what part of the button you press.
So if I understood that correctly I’m better off trying to source a driver with the new firmware than update the one that’s supposed to be here any day?
I guess I’m “Lucky” too, I find the buttons on mine to be ae you described. I think the buttons are very well done in fact, I see little room for improvement.
But that of course is just my opinion… everyone has one.
Wow, you’re not kidding! Having to pull the driver out completely… nah, not going to try that. I am impressed by the D4S where there’s sockets to insert wiring to perform a flash. I expect that easier access to flashing firmware won’t become a trend and will only be case-by-case basis depending upon the light, like a BLF project. If there’s ever a FW3B, please push the idea!
. Who knew a FW3C had been made though… 
