Tixx wrote:

teacher wrote:

Tixx…. did you choose Free shipping or pay for DHL??

Probably just chose Free Shipping. Is it all DHL people getting theirs?

EnlightenMe wrote:

Seeing how some users are already reporting their packages being delivered, I’m led to believe that there is some domestic supply on-hand of the FW3A. Otherwise, it would seem like the slow-boat from China received an engine upgrade.

Mine arrived in the USA at 09:53. That is 6 hours & 59 minutes before it left Hong Kong!!

Gotta love that 13 hour time difference…..

Wednesday, May 01, 2019

6 Customs status updated CINCINNATI HUB, OH – USA 09:53
5 Departed Facility in HONG KONG – HONG KONG 16:52

cool

mine also arrived (Leipzig, Germany) 

hope it reaches Austria tomorrow 

Wow DHL seems to be very fast. I hope my light won’t get stuck for too long at Frankfurt Airport customs.

It is somewhat luck of the draw, I think. I was early on the list, and ordered quickly, but have no shipping notification as of yet. As said above, after two years, another few weeks should be expected I guess. At any rate, I am very eager to hear impressions from those that get theirs earlier.

EnlightenMe wrote:

Seeing how some users are already reporting their packages being delivered, I’m led to believe that there is some domestic supply on-hand of the FW3A. Otherwise, it would seem like the slow-boat from China received an engine upgrade.

No domestic supply. It’s just that DHL from China appears to be very fast.

“Slow boat” is just an expression. In fact most of the packages arrive via Air.

Enlightened yet?

@cabfrank 
did you order a 7A?

No, 3D.

Neal said he has around 200 3D and i know 1000+ ordered in total 

Do we know when the LH351D or SST-20 version will be available?

TheOnlyDocc wrote:

Do we know when the LH351D or SST-20 version will be available?

Fortunately, these should be quite easy to mod.

I have two 3D on the way. I expect one of them will get an emitter and optic swap the same day I receive it (hopefully today).

Please let us know what you think of it.

Mine supposedly just got delivered. I ordered it on Friday and was supposed to be delivered tomorrow. Last night I got a text to authorize delivery without signature and I did. And now I just get a text saying it was delivered. How is this possible. Won’t know till I get home. I’m use to waiting for at least a month.

Just received my shipment of two FW3As.

I ordered on Friday as soon as I got the email. I was around number 190 on the list. I paid for expedited shipping via DHL to California. This is about the fastest I’ve ever received anything from China. I applaud Neal’s service.

My initial impressions:

• Looks beautiful and feels great in the hand. Though as expected it does not feel as secure in the hand as my white D4. This is because the D4 has slightly gritty grippier anodizing and a side switch.
• Very clean looking design with no logos. The bare switch looks great.
• Same length as my white aluminum Emisar D4, but slightly thinner at the head and body tube. Tailcap is about the same thickness as a D4 tailcap.
• Weight including battery is 98g compared to 112g for my white Emisar D4 (NOTE: my D4 is modded to include a metal switchboot and a Lexel lighted bezel board so might be slightly different from stock weight).
• Tailcap e-switch has a nice positive click.
• No glue. Tailcap and front bezel can both be unscrewed by hand. No tools needed. I haven’t completely removed it yet, but it looks like changing the emitter does not require removal of a pill or driver. Instead you just unscrew the top portion of the bezel, remove the optic and have direct access to the star.
• Tint appears to indeed be 5000K. I’ll likely fix that tonight on one of them via an emitter swap.
• Dark Grey anodizing looks well done. Looks like the anodizing on a grey Emisar D4.
• I have not tried to remove the clip. Previously I used to always remove clips, but now I sometimes keep them on to serve as antiroll devices. Given that the tailcap is not glued I expect clip removal would be easy.
• The clip is not deep carry, but it has adequate spring tension and the body tube is nicely contoured around it. It is fairly easy to insert this clip into the pocket of a pair of pants.
• The clip touches the body tube just before the head. The head does NOT grind against the clip when changing the battery.
• Since this light uses a standard Carclo triple TIR optic, I suspect Lexel could make a nice aux bezel board for it. However, TK mentioned that there isn’t an available pin to control it so it might have to be wired in the “always on” configuration.

Kudos to the development team. Nice to see this project come together.

Wow, that is fast shipping!

I ordered the 7A with free slow shipping, so I'll be waiting for a while.  

Firelight2 wrote:

• The clip touches the body tube just before the head. The head does grind against the clip when changing the battery.
  

JasonWW wrote:

Firelight2 wrote:

• The clip touches the body tube just before the head. The head does grind against the clip when changing the battery.
  

What? The clip length is too long? This is the kind of stuff that irritates me.

WHOOPS!!!

I meant to say “does NOT grind against the head”… but somehow the “not” was accidentally left out of my post. I have corrected my previous post. It is quite obvious a lot of care was taken with the design of this light and it shows.

Here is a picture of one of my FW3As sitting next to my modded white D4:

Thanks for your thoughts! For some reason I thought it was slightly shorter than the D4, but it is certainly small either way.

cabfrank wrote:

Thanks for your thoughts! For some reason I thought it was slightly shorter than the D4, but it is certainly small either way.

Not shorter. Actually when I put my D4 next to an FW3A I think the FW3A might be half a mm taller. But they’re so close they might as well be the same length.

However, I think that the first run D4 was a little longer than later run D4. A first run D4 might be a mm or two longer then the FW3A.

Firelight2 wrote:

JasonWW wrote:

Firelight2 wrote:

• The clip touches the body tube just before the head. The head does grind against the clip when changing the battery.
  

What? The clip length is too long? This is the kind of stuff that irritates me.

WHOOPS!!!

I meant to say “does NOT grind against the head”…

For anyone who would like to see more detail about this, here’s the point where the clip lands:

It’s very precisely at the exact spot it should be.

Absolutely perfect.

Firelight2 wrote:

JasonWW wrote:

Firelight2 wrote:

• The clip touches the body tube just before the head. The head does grind against the clip when changing the battery.
  

What? The clip length is too long? This is the kind of stuff that irritates me.

WHOOPS!!!

I meant to say “does NOT grind against the head”… but somehow the “not” was accidentally left out of my post. I have corrected my previous post. It is quite obvious a lot of care was taken with the design of this light and it shows.

I’ve always looked at the development photos carefully and noticed that the clip should not grind against the head. I was shocked to hear about yours. Kinda like them changing the color, I thought they extended the length slightly.

It’s all good. False alarm.

cabfrank wrote:

It is somewhat luck of the draw, I think. I was early on the list, and ordered quickly, but have no shipping notification as of yet. As said above, after two years, another few weeks should be expected I guess. At any rate, I am very eager to hear impressions from those that get theirs earlier.

I was somewhat late on the list and ordered promptly after getting the notification and await shipment confirmation yet others seemingly later than me have theirs in transit. Paypal not so consistent on the handoff or some delay between handoff to the carrier and shipment confirmation (“Unfulfilled” so I’d think not)? Perplexing, however I expect to receive it eventually.

It appears to depend on what you ordered and whether you paid for expedited shipping. The wait list arrangement is not an indicator of shipping order.

So I have a tracking number as of a few days ago but I don’t see any updates. Neal’s site says fulfilled so guess I’ll wait hoping it make it to my impatient hands.

Another observation:

Due to the lack of heatsinking I noticed the light gets hot very fast when using Turbo mode on VTC6 or VTC5A. Much faster an Emisar D4.

Samsung 30Q seems to be a better choice for this light since it didn’t heat up quite as fast.

I thought max current was set to 3 amps (it’s in the name). So why is there a difference? Is it because the 30Q has more voltage droop than the other 2 ?

pinkpanda3310 wrote:

I thought max current was set to 3 amps (it’s in the name). So why is there a difference? Is it because the 30Q has more voltage droop than the other 2 ?

The maximum current is direct drive. It has regulated output up to 2.8A, and can go above that in direct drive.

The default ceiling is 2.8A, but it can still access turbo with a double click while the light is already on. Double click from off goes to the ceiling though.

pinkpanda3310 wrote:

I thought max current was set to 3 amps (it’s in the name). So why is there a difference? Is it because the 30Q has more voltage droop than the other 2 ?

JasonWW wrote:

pinkpanda3310 wrote:

I thought max current was set to 3 amps (it’s in the name). So why is there a difference? Is it because the 30Q has more voltage droop than the other 2 ?

The 3 in the name refers to 3 emitters. This is a direct drive, FET powered light so it’s sensitive to resistance at max output. The 30Q is a nice comprise between capacity and current. Some cells can deliver more current and some cells deliver more capacity.

The SST-20 version, with lower voltage, will even run perfectly fine regulated and full FET on the low-drain NCR18650B.