Here’s an interesting thing — the thread pitch of the switch body is much finer than the thread pitch of the LED body. So you can’t assemble it backwards, and, the switch body generates much more axial force in the direction of the LED when assembled, to hold the black switch tube pushed forward. (I’m still bothered by the possible length mismatch of the switch tube and outer body assembly. It seems to me that to be safe, there should always be at least a small outer gap showing between LED head and exterior battery tube. But I guess if it was too big, one might risk crushing the switch tube into the switch circuit board and the driver circuit board.
A delicate balance. Or as Jason WW says, “The tolerances of this light need to be pretty small to get everything working just right. It can be a pain.”).
Dagnabbit, it’s starting to sound like another Cometa … how well will we trust these in a year, two years, three years? Will they wear well?
i am liking the long term chances
if only because usually switches fail on me, and i have confidence in this one
especially since it is also easy to replace
unlike lights i have broken, from DQG, manker, sofirn, xtar
wle
I don’t have much concern myself for the two we have. One bought in April, the other in June. The only issues I have had are owner inflicted and simple such as trying to lock it out but trying to do that with the light on instead of off. I seldom do that anymore unless there is a beer involved.
I am one of the few it seems, who likes and uses the e-lock out a lot. I carry it in a pocket, not clipped, but e-locked. It is my EDC.
Yeah, I’m not particularly worried about the switch going bad, it’s whatever causes these little intermittent flurries of clicks that changes settings seemingly at random. Guessing it’s some clearance that’s a little bit too tight, wondering if age and wear will make it worse or better.
I think it was the early versions of the Cometa that had a dangerous flaw that could short the battery. It was fixed on later versions.
The FW3A has no such dangerous issues. It seems the vast majority of buyers have no issues at all. If we actually count up the ones that seem to have some actual flaw that makes them not work right we only get 20 to 30 or so? That’s not many considering that thousands have been sold.
I’m about to gift out 3 of my FW3A’s for Christmas, and I’m just now realizing these things don’t have a factory reset (or I’m just doing it wrong).
I’ve tried loosening the head and holding the switch while screwing it back on for 3s. Loosening the tailcap and holding the switch while screwing it back on for 3s. And 13 clicks with a hold on the last click. I can’t seem to get it to go back to factory settings.
Mine were of the first 2000 built. Does my Anduril version not come with a factory reset option?
Consider the ‘accidentally on in pocket’ issue with the “spontaneously ramp up to high brightness due to crap causing accidental button clicks” issue and you may be concerned.
Or not.
You bring up some good points.
Accidentally turning on your light in your pocket is absolutely a people problem and nothing to do with the flashlight. In fact, it can happen with any brand or model flashlight.
I think there was only one person who said their light came on while sitting on a nightstand. It’s kind of bizarre and I dont know how it could do it, but I haven’t heard of it happening to a second light. So this is pretty much a non-issue to me and to most people.
I personally don’t have any worries and I don’t even bother to lock out my light. I leave it on my night stand ready to go.
With the Cometa, there was a small chance the battery could short out. A shorted liion battery is a different kind of dangerous and it was due to flaw in the design (or production, I forget).
The FW3A does not have the factory reset feature. That was introduced after the flashlight was made.
Hm. Earlier today, while walking the dog, I’d find I could ramp up, get halfway, and the light would go out. Repeatable misbehavior.
Went home. Tightened and loosened the head a few times, left it locked out (half turn short of tight)
Hours later, I can ramp up (from Moonlight) and get a single blink partway up, then a fast double blink at maximum brightness.
I’m perfoozled. About ready to blame cosmic rays or RFI futzing with the settings.
Tomorrow I’ll do the full scale disassembly, cleaning, reassembly, and hope.
If/when the FW3A gets me perfoozled, I remove the head entirely, then screw it back on and I am no longer perfoozled. Magic.
You must have set the top of the ramp to full Turbo.
I wonder, though, whether repeatedly unscrewing the head half a turn to “lock out” (I know it doesn’t really quite lock it out) is going to wear down that inner black tube.
In fact I do that five or six times a night, walking the dog, to avoid risking the light coming on in my pocket — and tighten it again that many times, to use it crossing at intersections.
It occurs to me to wonder if the design tolerates that many loosen/tighten cycles or if I’m slowly wearing something down (anodization layer?), or creating more metal debris, and that might be causing the occasional intermittencies that have developed.
It surely does cause wear to any surfaces in contact. Ever notice how dirty the threads/grease gets on the side you regularly use vs one that you don’t? Aluminum over aluminum is highly abrasive due to the oxides inherent the metal. This means that every time these surfaces shear across one another, a huge amount of nano-scale particulates of Aluminum oxide are produced. This is why thread grease turns grey/black, similar to what happens while using a polishing compound on Al wheels. These Al2O3 particles can migrate to other contact surfaces in the light and accelerate abrasion and wear, in addition to causing very high contact resistance. It’s very important to keep threads clean and regreased as often as possible.
As for accidental activation, I would highly recommend trying the o-ring switch mod if you haven’t already. Really eliminates the need for any kind of lockout.
Cheers
Anybody wanta sell me a couple of o-rings?
I don’t want to buy a hundred, I’m decluttering.
I bought mine individually at the local hardware store for 25 or 30 cents each.
Shoot me a PM with your address and I’ll mail a few to you.
I just received a new FW1A (new version with the retaining ring in the tailcap) and it does not turn on. When I screw the head on I get a single flash, but then nothing. I’ve checked that the driver retaining ring is tight, took the head off, tightened the tailcap as much as I can, and then reassembled but still nothing. I checked continuity between the tailcap spring and outer trace on the switch PCB that’s supposed to contact the inner tube and I get good continuity when I press the switch.
Any ideas?
Edit: I replaced the standard bezel with the SS one and now when I tighten the head down, the light comes on by itself and steps up to a bright setting and does not respond to button presses…
Edit 2: I completely disassembled the tailcap and reassembled and the light seems to be working correctly now. The switch retaining ring was not tight at all and the leading edge of one of the notches was totally gouged. The assembler who installed the ring obviously botched the operation. We’ll see how it works from now on.
I posted the same on the other thread, buying 100 when I just need 1 is too much to handle for my overflowing “stuff” drawers.