FW3A Troubleshooting / FAQ

It helps that computronium has recently become relatively small and cheap, and so has circuit printing. Many tasks don’t need more than a few MHz on the control chip, or more than a few KB of instructions, so all it needs for a brain is a fifty-cent chip the size of a small toenail.

Yes it was turbo but you can see it was only on for a few seconds before smoking & the light was cold at startup , it’s actually melted the solder on the black wire , mine will ( would have ) always step down when it reached 45*C from cold & 55 when warm whatever thermal limit I put it on , out of the box the step down was almost instant. The dodgy led has only been happening since 24 hours ago ,since the dodgy led ,although it still did work you could clearly see that only two of them works on full power ( like car head beams)

Very interesting, my flashlight lives his own life, it can turn on an off without me. Happend a few minutes ago, it stood on the table near me and suddenly swithed on. It’s kind of…disturbing.

I had the exact same thing happen with my fireflies rot66. Two or three times it just decided to turn on, and then eventually it changed to the switch just being always on which makes the light inoperable. I would email Neal and see if he can send you a replacement switch since it is easy to replace on the FW3A. Hopefully Neal/Lumintop have better warranty support than fireflies.

:open_mouth: . That is somewhat “disturbing” for sure. Keep us posted on any more ’magical events’… :person_facepalming: … as well as the outcome. Good luck finding the cause… :+1:

@ Random Dan….

It had slipped my mind but your post above about your Fireflies rot66 jarred my memory.

One of my Fireflies E07’s turned itself on a couple of weeks ago. I just happened to be looking at the lit up Auxiliary LED’s one night as it lay on a bedside table & the light just magically came on … :open_mouth:

I was surprised to say the least & started right then manually locking out all my E07’s.

So I’ll be interested as to what causes this as well. :+1:

1/ Check if the retaining ring of the driver is firmly screwed in.
2/ Talking about force: my light does not like it if the body is screwed into the head with too much force.
Stop screwing in the body when you feel contact is made (don’t keep on pushing).

This light does have two sets of parts (of conductive materials) to close an electrical circuit from front to back.
Too much pressure on one set may disrupt the working of the other set.
These parts are all made of aluminum. Think of what happens when some of it changes into Cu, SS or Ti.
Each with their own expansion coefficient. And your photon grenade starts warming up.

Thank you for advices, everyone!
Well, when I received my fw3a, I checked the retaining ring and the switch, the ring was screwed very tight so I couldn’t unscrew it, cleaned everything with vodka and it work fine until today.
So, when it suddenly turned on, I removed the battery and then inserted it again… and nothing, just short blink.
And I did the same thing-cleaned everything with vodka once again. It works as usual.
So maybe my fw3a only works when it’s drunk? :person_facepalming: I don’t know :smiley:

short blink can mean ‘lockout mode’. try 4 presses. if you have not already.

No, it was not lockout, when I screw the head, it blinks and I assume it means that it has contact somewhere. When the head full screwed, the flashlight didn’t react to any switch press.
But when in lockout mode when you press the switch, the flashlight goes to moonlight.
Sorry for my bad English.
Anyway after cleaning it works fine, for now.

I also had something strange happen with mine. I generally never turn my light off when in Turbo or on a high ramp without lowering but last night when I turned it on, it was either on Turbo or ramped to highest level but when I tried to ramp down it did not dim and when I tried to turn it off it the switch would not turn it off. It kinda caught me off guard and by the time I figured my only option was to unscrew the head it was already too hot to touch. Luckily, I was able to find a rag and get the head unscrewed but it was a little scary. After reassembly, the light again functioned normally and I have been unable to reproduce the anomaly…… I had already done the tighten tail/head/retaining ring checks…. not sure what caused this, but I really hope it doesnt come on by itself when I am not around.

Did the “short blink” happen as you were screwing the head back on??

If so… that is normal.

Just thinking…… the driver ring is tight you said.

But is the driver properly seated & slotted in the recess it fits in?

Go HERE to see pictures of what I’m referring to.

It can’t hurt to check…. :slight_smile:

Checked the link and had a closer look at the driver, yes it seems a little moved and doesn’t installed properly. But I can’t move the ring, is it left or right screw there?

Turn ring to left to loosen.

Anyone play around with the Group 2 - Strobe mode.

I can only go into the strobe mode for 1 time only after i received this light. I cycle from candle > bike flasher > party strobe > tactical strobe > lightning storm > off.

Problem : after that i click, click, hold it just respond by dim flash once and turn off by itself.

reinsert the battery still the same problem. dim flash once and turn off by itself.

Light Arrived but does not work.

Had to leave home and took it with me.

Order with battery, assuming the battery arrived with partial charge. Will try another battery when I get home.

Removed tape from negative side of battery and reinserted.

When screwing on the head the light blinks twice, after first blink there is about a full rotation and it blinks again. At this point it is fully closed with no gap.

Retaining ring seems to be in place, will not budge with pliers either direction.

Tail cap is screwed tight no gap. Button click feels good.

Symptoms:

Light doesn’t turn on.

Click tail button does nothing.

Hold tail button for 3 or more seconds, light blinks upon release.

Haven’t seen these symptoms posted yet. Any ideas? Besides verify battery.

Thanks

@ Phaze13

Try cleaning the threads.

Go HERE . Read it, do what is says again, also look at the driver to make sure it is seated correctly. :+1:

Cleaned threads, nothing to find. Driver seems seated however I can’t budge the retaining ring. Certianly not loose.

Still same symptoms, not working. :frowning:

:frowning: …… Take the tailcap apart & see it there is a ’nubbin’ in it.

If you need it, you can go HERE and find info on tailcap disassembly & ’nubbins’. :+1:

The nub is there, tail switch feels like its working.