FW3A mod thread. Post yours!

CRX is your modded light for sale?

Sure!

Here's the same auction on eBay.com:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1Pcs-Titanium-Alloy-with-Tritium-Tube-Automatic-Glows-DIY-Round-3M-Sticker/123451091983

(I was looking for different sizes on eBay and AliExpress, but didn't find any.)

Thanks, I was looking for some time last night for some tritium bits, but that is the nearest thing I could find other than plain vials. Shame they don’t do different sizes…… to be honest I was trying to find disks (like thin marker dots) but with no luck.
As it goes they have some pretty funky stuff in their shop, some of that carbon material is lovely!

Much cheaper here:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/EDC-Self-luminous-25-Years-DIY-Titanium-Chip-1-5x6mm-Tritium-Tube-Patch-Luminous-Tritium-Gas/32887049510.html

Nice find, thank you for that!
Grrr……. they don’t take Paypal :person_facepalming: a quick search using ‘tritium patch’ found one that does though, bit more expensive.

I also found these rectangular tritium tubes. They are quite pricey though!

There is a bezel? I’m confused, do you have any photos?

They mean the head and or retaining ring I imagine.

No mate, this is a wee keeper :wink:

On my 7A too:

Dang, just noticed 2 tiny beads of solder in this pic as well.

Fyi, the smooth end unscrews, leaving the knurling part, so there's a thread break between those 2 sections of the head.

Thanks, got it now. The gap between the smooth bit of the head and the knurling was so seamless that it didn’t look like there was a joint there.

I was just reading through and saw the references to the bezel. I also didn't see the gap at all (by comparison, the gap between body and head is quite visible) but I just tried twisting anyway, feeling stupid until it turned.

Any chance of making a red ?

Both FW3As I’ve modded so far had small amounts of flux on the LEDs.

I would like 1 of each CRX.

Sounds good.

Do a physical lockout. A slight turn of the head or tail achieves it easily on the FW3A. I do this by habit with all my lights as I absolutely hate parasitic drain, no matter how faint. :wink:

That doesn’t actually lock out the FW3A, because it doesn’t disconnect power.

For example… turn on the FW3A at a low level. Then start unscrewing the head from the body of the light. On mine, the light doesn’t actually stop coming out until about three full turns later, well after the O-ring is exposed.

Alternately, take the head off completely… then screw it on. How far does it get before the light blinks to indicate that power has been connected?

It’s designed to be in a completely bare aluminum host. The threads are not anodized, nor are they meant to be. Twisting it a quarter turn doesn’t really do anything except break contact for the switch ring.

Ah, interesting. I did what you suggested and saw that the illumination kept going even after a full turn of the tail. However, turning the head caused it to cut out right away… just like a mechanical lockout… I’m guessing there’s no difference in parasitic drain, but so low to be negligible, right?
Saw this post in the other FW3A companion thread: LINK.

I think you have some dirty threads or something, when I unscrew the head a bit when the light is on, it stays on but disables the switch. Of course when a electrical disconnection occurs for a very short time during the unscrewing action , the light will go out.