The BLF A6 though. Such a turkey, whatever happened to that one? 
I would love to see a 21700 version too. At that diameter, might as well go with a quad like the D4 and call it FW4A.
Perhaps it is possible to make such leds without MCU. I think it could be done similar to the illuminated tail-switch on the BLF X6 e.g.
That means hard connected to the battery.
Is this worth thinking about?
Sure, it’s no different that hard wiring leds into a side switch. The problem with doing it on the FW3A is the much smaller mcpcb. You’ve got the same four emitters, but a much smaller board to put them on and you still need room for the optics to fit over the top, so space will be tight.
If Lumintop want sales they should choose two LEDs. In that case I must up my number like many others.
Banggood has 330 reviews for the Q8 and only one is 4 stars. There is little to complain about it. Over 3900 sold in less than a year.
Blf A6 black 17657
A6 silver 2547
Astrolux S1 Short 939
Astrolux S1 4988
Total: 26 131
I could be wrong, but I think I rember:
Lexcel did design an aux LED-board for the normal D4 but could also be the D4S. I think the D4 quad has the same diameter of the optik than the triple FW3A.
Based on a lighten tail switch.
Please search for it
Is it too late to ask another company to make it?
That would be like going to Mercedes and asking: Look we have here this nice two prototypes from BMW. Can you produce it too?
Bad analogy.
Was there a signed contract? Are all BLF designed products made exclusively by Lumintop? Look at the BLF Edition Master List
It is more like lotus or mclaren sourcing different engines for different needs.
Admittedly I have no idea what agreement was made behind the scene. If Lumintop already started manufacturing or buying parts for the flashlight then there is no need to consider switching. I don’t know if the second prototype was made by lumintop or by Fritz15.
If Lumintop hasn’t started the process then I don’t see anything wrong with switching companies. Who knows, most likely they are out sourcing it to other small companies. I don’t know how much manufacturing Lumintop does in house.
edit: First prototype was made on a lathe by Fritz15. Okay, second prototype was made by Lumintop.
The host was still designed by Fritz15, Toykeeper handled the firmware, and Tom E did the driver. Lumintop did not design the flashlight.
Hum, am I wrong to say that the diameter or the boards and optics will be quite different because the D4 and D4S are quadruples and the FW3A will be a triple?
That would most likely delay this even further I’d imagine. And possibly burn down some bridges.
…
If BLF wants companies to cooperate on any future projects, or if BLF wants this project to ever be produced, it would be a bad idea to jump ship halfway through manufacturing of the final samples.
Normally for projects like this, we’d have to get investors or kickstarter backers or something, collecting money up front to fund development and production. BLF projects work differently though, depending on the manufacturer to incur all the up-front costs and all the risk, based on trust that they’ll make it all back and then some, when the product goes up for sale.
Aborting or switching companies last-minute breaks that trust, leaving Lumintop to eat the costs incurred so far, and signals to other companies that the risk is not worthwhile.
Thanks for explaining the back end side of things. I guess Lumintop was already heavily invested in the project.
Maybe I’m really slow but…….why would we deem this to be necessary?
It is not. Other users expressed their dissatisfaction with the turn around time and are losing interest.
Personally, I don’t care if it took another year. I will just buy it when it is available. I was just wondering if the option was feasible.
No, the D4 optic and FW3A optic are not the same size. D4 is bigger.
I seem to have been spoiled by the gang at Emisar, who seem to knock a home run every few months with a ground-breaking new light.
I really doubt the work on the Emisar lights took much less time… you just didn’t see it.
I’d also argue that nothing since the D4 has really been “ground breaking”, and even its wasn’t as crazy as some make it out to be. It more that the combination of features has been impressive… at that price point. That’s much less because they solved some engineering problem than it was smart business sense and a TON of interest prior to release.
Every few months?
Technically the D4 was not groundbreaking, everything about it was already thought out and tested on BLF, the groundbreaking part is that a chinese company (Hank) watched and understood what happened on BLF and trusted that enough to develope a flashlight that combined everything and make it available for a budget price.
That is very far from the usual practice of chinese budget flashlight companies, who are very conservative in their designs and are in the habit of copying what has been shown to sell before more than anything else.