FW3A Troubleshooting / FAQ

WLE, I have complete confidence that BLF will crack the code that Liteflux could not.
Liteflux was considered a boutique brand and I don’t think they sold as many as the FW3A will. Also I think the very nature of the users and the support forum is completely different.
There are some very serious brainiacs here and I doubt this issue will go unsolved.
I haven’t received mine yet so I can’t investigate any fixes or best practices yet, but will post anything once I get mine and can check them out.
The local member I mentioned had very positive things to say about the beam and tint.

i am slated for mine to come tomorrrow or next day

i’m a banzai fixer too, though I sort of hope mine ‘just works’

i had issues like with the DQG tiny and others, so i know about troubleshooting this kind of thing

the annoying thing is, it is a simple circuit but you cannot observe anything directly - it all happens in the sealed light, and you can;t measure voltages and currrents under real conditions, all you can do is hypothesize and test

so far we have seen tube contact, heat sink compound and driver looseness all as problems

wle

To be honest, has the heatsink compound caused any problems? No, it’s there and it works.

We’ve tried to make this message hard to miss… but with enough determination, it can still be done.

Don't you have to remove the tailcap to take off the clip?

good point raccoon - I don’t want a clip on mine.

Yeah, I never use clips on my flashlights.

Yes, if you are going to take off the clip you must remove the tailcap to do so. That is aboit the only reason you have to remove the tailcap.

Okay, I’ll ask a silly question. In ramping mode, if I start out at moonlight and ramp up, there are two “blips”. I’m used to seeing one, as in my GT Micro and my Emisar lights. My understanding is on those lights, the blip is the end (ramping upwards) of regulated output 7135 light, and getting into where the FET takes over. I assume on this light, that’s the higher blip. So, what’s the lower one? Thanks in advance…

The lower blip is where it transitions from the single 7135 to the 7 x 7135 (about 125-130 lumen). In other words, when you ramp up from moonlight the first blip shows the transition between channel 1 and channel 2 and then the higher blip shows the transition between channel 2 and channel 3 (the FET).

When I first fired mine up (after inserting the battery by removing the head, per instructions), it wouldn’t stay on. I’d just get a flash. I loosened and tightened the tail cap and then it started to work. But when I went to max output, it would flash and shut off. I loosened/tightened the tail cap once more and now it seems OK. Would it be a good idea to take off the tail cap and clean everything? I’m just a little concerned about possibly making things worse…

don;t lose your nudgie, noodle, nuffin, whatever it;s called! ( i mean if you take the tail apart… )

that little black button

so i got mine
so far everything seems to be working
i did have to make sure it was all tight though

it flaked a couple times, to low intensity high speed unalterable strobe, tightened head and tail, it got fixed

and i burned a black shirt, when the light was close and it inadvertently got into turbo somehow

question, it says party strobe speed can be altered, but i can;t see that it does anything different on a ceiling fan…?

wle

WLE, funny you should mention that! I used it to show the kids how the frequency of flashing light can “change” the speed of a fan.
While in party strobe click/hold for faster, click click/hold for slower.
(Used the D4 running Andúril, Fw3A should be the same. Haven’t got mine yet :(. )

Literally just got mine out of the mailbox. When ramping up above the hybrid mode, the light just turns off. Direct to turbo works okay, ramping down from turbo works okay, but ramping up in either stepped or smooth ramp causes the light to simply go off. Any ideas?

Mine did this after I removed the tailcap in order to lube the o-ring and threads. Following Toykeeper's tightening procedure and tightening a lot (very tight) it began to work correctly again.

Sorry if I’m being an idiot and missed it, but what’s the recommended thermal ceiling for the FW3A? In the UI, is the base 30C and then you just add a click for each degree C on top of that?

Yes, but first blink setting is for the current temp, 2nd for setting the ceiling that starts at 30C.

Also, this isn’t totally recommended, but as a shortcut for getting a usable thermal config, it should work pretty well if you click only once at each thermal config menu option.

This tells it the current temperature is 1 C, and the ceiling is 31 C. But if the light is actually at room temperature, the effect is mostly the same as if you clicked 20 times at each option (for 20 C calbration and 50 C limit). The only significant difference is that the temperature check mode will give the wrong values.

I carried mine in my jeans pocket, clipped. Later in the day noticed it was on in my pocket, and in 7 levels mode. The jeans are stiff ones, and think'n from sitting/moving, the switch could have engaged from fold of the pants. My lean mean body doesn't look good in tight jeans, for some reason... Ok, maybe I'm not so lean but I am mean!

That 1/4 or 1/8 turn at the head is bout a perfect lockout, for the switch that is, and that's all you really need is to disable the switch, so my "issue" has an easy solution!

I do carry other e-switch EDC's the same way - clipped. I found if I align the clip with the switch (switch still clears it), the switch is held to the outside and doesn't seem to get accidental activations, even for a ZY-T11 clone using this deep pocket clip with a soft bulging switch, clip not shown here:

That clip fits the ZY-T11's bout perfect, little loose but good for my usage.