FW3A Troubleshooting / FAQ

Make sure you start with the light turned off.
Also make sure you are not stuck in Muggle mode. I think Muggle mode will step the light down quickly without being too hot.

When in battery check mode it blinks the voltage (4 slow then 1 fast is 4.1v). In sunset it’s a steady light. In beacon it blinks once every few seconds. In temp check it blinks out the temperature (2 slow blinks followed by 8 fast blinks is 28°C for instance).

If I am in muggle mode, how would I get out of it? 6 clicks?

Edit: Found it in the manual.

I was in muggle mode. Like a muggle would be. :person_facepalming:

I’ve reached the point where I need every flashlight’s instruction text saved to my PDA so I can remember what I’m doing.

I find myself wishing for a magic signal that says “lock the light in its current mode so I can turn it on and off without losing the setting” — particularly for the bike strobe, which I use in crosswalks to wake up cellphone-drivers on the streets locally. (The Sofirn SP32A is best for those crosswalks because it wants nothing more than a triple click to start strobing.)

[quote=hank]
I’ve reached the point where I need every flashlight’s instruction text saved to my PDA so I can remember what I’m doing.



I need this too! Last night I was using my Emisar D4 for the 1st time in a while. I KNEW it had NarsilM, I just knew it! Kept trying things, like double click high, double click again for strobe … but no strobe showed up? And I tried battery check, then double click for temp, double click again for version #. Nothing. I thought the light was broken! Took the head off to see if I could see anything wrong. Tried another cell. Was going to contact Mountain about a warranty. Finally went to a D4 search on BLF to see the unique UI. Oh yeah, now I remember! Go easy on me with over 100 lights.

Remember the days where flashlights just had a switch that slid forward or back for on/off? And no modes.

Yep, and had the little button in front of the switch for ‘momentary’. :+1:
How things have changed……

This is why I make up the cheatsheets & keep them on my phone :smiley:

If i want blinking stuff for crossing the road on a Narsil or Andúril, I use 3 clicks for battery check.
It is also a bit milder than strobes, in case you don’t want to blind someone.

Received 4 lights with batteries installed. Checked retaining rings and all were tight. One light would get stuck in the low level strobe and no other modes available when the switch was pressed. This was intermittent and only happened a few times.

Took time to investigate the problem today and I could create the problem by very slightly loosen the head.

I finally cleaned threads and lubed with nyogel. Now I could not create the problem again.

Did not clean contact pads on the board yet but all seems well for now.

Love these FW3A`s

This has been talked about. You need to tighten the tail first, then tighten the head.

Tail was tightened first very tight and problem still there. Somehow cleaning threads fixed and I could not recreate the problem by loosening the head very slightly as before.

I’ve posted before about my fw3a stepping down to soon @40-50*C. , well I undid the bezel & took the optics out & noticed a discoloured led ,when the light is on moonlight it was showing a blue tinge , & I’ve been noticing it getting extremely hot to the touch whilst on turbo but also only reading 45*C when cold & about 54-55*C when warm when the thermal regulation turns the light down sharply ,now I have the optics off I can now see the FW smoking quite badly , I’ve emailed neal & told him. I thought I would take a video of it to show him & whilst I was videoing it I managed to catch it stop working ,it’s actually melted the solder on the black wire. Here’s the video

http://youtube.com/watch?v=MOXaQUa2t-4

I’m getting this error when trying to view it:

“An error occurred. Please try again later. (Playback ID: nhuq-WC4H53FCJPL)
Learn More”

So am I , I don’t know what I’m doing :person_facepalming:

Change the video tag from
video:http://youtube.com/watch?v=https://youtu.be/MOXaQUa2t-4
to
video:http://youtube.com/watch?v=MOXaQUa2t-4

I just did , thanks :+1:

No problem.

Regarding your flashlight: oof, that looks sketchy. Can you share a picture of the MCPCB?

Was that ‘candlelight mode’ Nev??
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Complete with smoke…… :person_facepalming:
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Something ain’t right for sure…… :frowning:

See, this is what happens when thermal paste application isn’t adequate.

Factory step down temp is 45°C.

On turbo it will get very hot, very fast. Mine steps down after 15 seconds with a 30Q. It stepped down after 12 seconds when the stock ambient calibration was off.

You never want to run a light (any light) at high power with nothing pressing the mcpcb to the head. The pressure is needed to transfer the heat and prevents the leds from burning up.

The smoke in your video is probably the flux or maybe the wire insulation burning because the mcpcb over heated due to insufficient pressure to the head.

Your original issue of a blueish led on moonlight is quite odd. It might have been due to that led not being reflowed properly, but it’s hard to say for sure.