FW3A, a TLF/BLF EDC flashlight - SST-20 available, coupon codes public

Business is business, the same rules apply. When something like this carries on interminably, either write it off as R+D (which you can add to your books as an asset, like “goodwill” but better, even set it off against tax), or keep it going as some sort of marketing research that might become worthwhile sometime. It’s not as if you are having to pay for the voluntary engineering and design work, though keeping the knowledge.

If you can make and sell some, all the better, makes it more legitimate. Even at a loss (deductible).

At least that’s how it works in the West.

If we consumers get something from this, that’s a bonus.

I hope we do, it is still very interesting to me, possibly the best EDC I’ve seen.

Cynically yours, Tom Tom.

Proto2 showed up today. Fritz already posted some pictures, but I’ve been doing some tests and measurements.

Several things were fixed compared to proto1:

  • Tail end of the body tube is now tapered too, which is nice.
  • Tail updated to Fritz’ latest design.
  • Tail parts are no longer glued.
  • The clip ring no longer sticks out wider than the body.
  • The clip is straighter. (my first prototype was bent in as if someone squeezed it too hard)
  • Driver has raptor claw 7135 chips, not failboat chips. :slight_smile:
  • The LEDs come on at level 1/150 now, at 0.2 lm. Output and clock speed are stable, and it has no missing levels.
  • Uses 10511 optic instead of 10507. This makes the beam pattern smoother, even with XP-G3.
  • Has springs on both ends of the battery now.
  • No longer reboots at the slightest bump; the springs are stronger.
  • Ano color is consistent between parts now.
  • Inner tube has thicker anodizing, and is now black.
  • Comes with the latest firmware, so a bunch of bugs were fixed and features were added.

There are still a few things left to do though, like finalizing the surface finish, deciding on the emitter type(s), improving isolation of the inner tube, and adding some finishing touches like extra O-rings and hopefully an optional traffic wand diffuser cone.

Oh, and it seems the light is 92.5 mm long, not 94.8 mm. It’s quite small.

You might be happy to hear that this has a few differences from the D4:

  • Regulated output up to about 1100 lm
  • There is a good chance the emitters won’t run as hot as the D4-219
  • Thermal regulation is smoother, less prone to oscillating, more configurable, and has a higher floor
  • The ramp ceiling can be set lower than turbo, and by default is set to the highest regulated level
  • Preset levels are available too, and are configurable to whatever you like. The default is about 10 lm to 1100 lm, in 7 steps.
  • Other practical improvements have been added, like faster access to lockout, and momentary moon during lockout. Direct access to the ceiling level from off. Predictable ramping direction without having to remember anything. Plus a bunch of extra modes and extras.

Thank you for the info TK, it is sounding good. :+1:

blf

I don’t think anyone is sitting around, delaying the light while we all decide what kind of emitter we want. This is all just people talking, feeling good about their reasons for choosing a tint or type of emitter.
In the end the scrolls will be carefully handed to the manufacturer with the results of the emitter poll and they’ll say “Huh? oh, no, we got a good deal on some 6500k emitters that almost look like Cree made them. Thanks anyway!”

You’ll notice Fritz posted some pics of the latest version and it’s looking great. Or terrible because it doesn’t have swarf and burrs hanging off of it.
(Swarf and Burrs will be the name of my soft rock duo.)

These folks are not some fancy engineering managers ruling over a 20 million euro project with an iron hand and a grumpy heart, they just seem to be drawn here while they await the coming of the special, daresay, Elegant triple.

This is going to be epic. EPIC!

Damn, this light is sounding really nice. Good stuff

I’m interested in 2 lights, thanks.

I did a quick thermal test just now. With the XP-G3 emitter it came with, and while holding the light in my hand, thermal regulation slowly reduced output from about 1080 lm to 800 lm, and then settled at about 800. The change was too smooth to see by eye, but it showed up in my light box. Then to make sure it wasn’t just the battery sagging, I held the button to ramp it back up to the ceiling, and it went back up as expected.

Results might not be so gentle when using full FET turbo though. It’s recommended that people treat turbo as a burst mode for brief use only, and don’t expect it to throttle itself gracefully when at full power.

Before testing, I calibrated thermal settings:

  • Navigate to tempcheck mode. It said the current temperature was 29 C, which wasn’t correct. This is expected though, when it hasn’t been configured yet.
  • 4 clicks for thermal config mode.
  • At the buzz, 20 clicks to tell it the current temperature is 20 C.
  • Optional: At the second buzz, 20 clicks to tell it to set the thermal ceiling to 50 C. (30 C + N clicks) (optional because 50 C is the default)

That only needs to be done once, and then it’ll remember.

Just told my brother about this and I need one more for him, thanks!

Voting is open for emitter details:


- TK

Sounds like things are progressing very nicely. I’m getting exited. I’m glad to hear they got the message about gluing things together. That’s a concern I had.

Domeless led has obout 20% less LPW than led with dome.

True. This would be pretty relevant if it was XP-L HD vs XP-L HI, the same emitter with or without a dome. But it’s not.

Thanks for the insight TK, by no means I believe the D4 firmware is lacking, just that for me it is more of a show off light, very fun to use but not so practical for everyday tasks. The changes on the FW3A FW sounds great and that makes it a light that I would definitely EDC. :smiley:

Please put me down for one!

351D 5000K 70cri has almost the same lpw(even a bit higher) as xpl hd/xpl2 5000K

Thanks for the work on this TK!
May I ask only 2 questions (more)?
a)The last prototype arrived with 10511 optics. Does it mean that production will be done with those optics? I actualky like it more than the 10507 and it produces a better beam IMO

b) Was there a practical or technical reason to not consider Luxeon V as a possible type of emitter? No need to justify, I would only want to understand if these emitters will not be good for this light!

Again, thank you and Fritz and all the team involved on this!! And pepinfaxera for the updates:THUMBS-UP:

The plan is to use the 10511 optic, because it produces a much smoother beam and can be polished pretty easily to increase throw if desired. The polished version throws at least as well as 10507, IIRC, but still looks better. I don’t know why they don’t manufacture one like that.

The Luxeon V isn’t XP-sized, which makes it not compatible with the other emitter choices.

Invalid vote
Confusion
To vote 1 is to put it in first place?
or do I prefer to vote 5 and give 5 votes?
My favorite is XP-L
I gave him one vote. Was I wrong?