In other news, still no news… sorry. CNY takes a while.
The FW3A proto4 is still working nicely, except for the issue already noted. I get occasional short+reboot errors when A) the parts go out of alignment, B) I’m holding the button, and C) it’s using more than 1x7135 worth of power. Loosen/tighten the tube though, and it’s happy again for another day or two.
So I’m hoping that’ll be taken care of. My proto2 unit doesn’t do this. Even with that issue though, I still find it nicer overall than most of my other lights.
It is 27mm x 25mm (1mm wall) 3K roll wrapped matt tube bonded to the copper with a very thin layer of JB Weld, something like 5-7 in plane, .5-.8 transverse for CF/ resin if that helps, I just know it takes the edge off
Ish. Not very well though. One can only do so much with a dremel. And to make things fit a little better I filed down the edges of the driver as far as they can go without making it not work any more, so there’s only a hair width of ground ring left. It’s not ideal.
In any case, my proto4 is now modified and no longer represents what to expect from a stock light. After CNY, I hope Lumintop will have some good news for us.
Maybe the formulas aren’t the best way to judge it then.
When I first made the light I had a copper core & titanium outer shell but felt it was too much power not getting distributed through the metal, head area around the pill was scorching hot on turbo & rapid stepdown but the light was relatively cool elsewhere.
So I changed the shell to all copper but then the whole thing got too hot to handle while having a decent temp threshold (60°)
Then I tried the additional CF sleeve which made holding the light bearable though it still gets very hot.
Yes, lots of people looking forward to this one becoming available.
Remember you can send any of these protos to me to try to fix if you like :innocent:
That’s for someone with a 3D printer or an x-acto knife and some creativity to figure out. I’m not super serious with this suggestion but it does interest me, and since it’s from a real optics manufacturer I suspect it would diffuse better and have less impact on the tint of the beam than some of the other options I have seen.
Season it. Running it on turbo until just below the smoke point of the oil and holding it there forms a durable protective coating as the oil soaks into the pores of the cast iron and polymerizes. I do it with all of my cast iron lights.
