FW3A Troubleshooting / FAQ

When I put it on the charger it read 3.2 & didn’t work.

RFI? Set an AM radio to the noise between stations and walk around your house listening for noise sources, many LED and CFL light bulbs are great producers of Radio Frequency Interference. You may have a “buzz” signal from something nearby. And you may also pick up a burst of electronic noise when a flashlight driver operates, if it’s not well designed to avoid creating RFI.

Electronic waves are simiar to ocean waves in that several waves can combine to create a “rogue wave” or a strong electronic signal spike momentarily.

I’ve noticed fairly often that using a ham or GMRS/FRS “walkie talkie” radio triggers various motion sensor lights around the house, and I once had a neighbor’s car alarm trigger just as I walked past it while using the radio.

It’s not just me: ham radio motion sensor trigger - Google Search

https://www.reddit.com/r/amateurradio/comments/7qg9ta/motion_sensing_light_can_seerf/

It might be worth reviewing the FCC’s “shall not cause interference/shall not be overly sensitive to interference” testing for the electronics.

Not surprised it didn’t work. But all’s well that ends well. You’ve now got a super clean, checked out, & working FW3A out of the deal.
All for the price of charging the battery…. :wink: . :+1:

FWIW, the light should work until the battery gets down to 2.9V or so, because that’s where LVP activates. It technically should still light up even as low as 2.6V, but it’ll shut itself off pretty quickly to avoid hurting the battery.

Brightness gets lower and lower as the voltage drops, in a pattern which should almost exactly match the Vf curve of the emitters being used. Everything used in the FW3A should light up at least a little at 2.9V though.

Phaze13 said his would not work at 3.2 V, any idea why? Just curious… ??

It wasn’t the battery that was causing the problem probably.

Good point. Quite possibly the correct answer. Either the battery was not really at 3.2 V, it was much lower; or during the multiple takedowns he inadvertently ’fixed’ whatever was not tight or lined up properly.

The inadvertent fix is my favorite fix.
“How did you fix it?”
“I took it apart, put it back together, and it worked.”
“Great!”

Maybe a combination of the battery and the 1x7135 channel chip being bad?

With a depleted battery the light should turn on in low. I assume if the battery is low enough only the 1x7135 channel is activating. If that 7135 chip is not functioning, perhaps you end up with a situation where the light stops working at slightly higher voltage than it should.

I agree, in some situations…. lucky trumps good. :wink: . :+1:

I received my FW3A yesterday. Fortunately everything seems to be working well. The UI took a bit of playing with to get figured out. It definitely has some awesome features (candlelight and lightning storm)
Mine does have one odd thing though. When in smooth ramp mode, starting at moonlight, it seems that it has more blinks than it should.
It blinks just above Moon, at Max Regulation, a bit before Max Ceiling and at Max Ceiling or Turbo. So 4 times, although just after Moon is very subtle.
If I have the Max Ceiling at 130 instead of 151 it will only blink once at the top of the ramp to signify Max Ceiling.
This doesn’t bother me, and it might be normal. Just haven’t seen it mentioned.
I know my D4 blinks only at Max Reg and at Turbo.

Finally received my two XP-Ls, and am sorely disappointed. One doesn’t work at all, and the other is stuck on turbo from the second the threads make contact. I’ve tried swapping components between the two, tightening the tail first and then head, loosening and retightening the driver retaining rings.

Don’t forget to try compressed air, to blow out any chips of metal left in delicate spots.

Just completely disassembled and reassembled each light and took my time swapping a single component at a time between each body. It looks like the problems follow the heads - the neutral white always goes on instantly to very bright/very hot and the warm white hasn’t turned on at all. In addition, I compared the two switches. One seemed a uniform brassy/yellow color and the other looked silver with a bit of Kapton tape to insulate. The Kapton tape version definitely sucks, with an almost undetectable click whereas the brassy color has a nice tactile click and a little more movement.

Very unhappy with Lumintop’s QC at the moment.

@ clip.

Can you please post a picture of your two switches side by side??

I love to get a look, especially at the “brassy color one”. By what you said it does not have the Kapton tape??

TIA….

Default - as you ramp up from moonlight, the first blink signals the change between the single 7135 channel and the 7 x 7135 channel (about 125-130 lumen).

Then the next blink signals the change between the 7 x 7135 channel and the FET channel which is also the top of the normal ramp (about 1000 lumen).

If you have changed the top of the ramp to full power, then I guess you will get an extra blink to signal the end of the ramp. I don’t think most folks have changed the ramping levels, I haven’t, and that’s why no one has mentioned it.

Hopefully TK can confirm all this.

BTW, TK ran a poll for the FW3A to see how many blinks people wanted and where. This is why it’s unique.

Keep in mind the D4 uses a very different UI and was custom made for Emisar.

I can read you already checked a lot, but …… have you checked if the drivers were properly aligned?
And not inconsequential: my FW3A only works properly if I screw in the body into the head with mild force.

I’ll double check the driver alignment but I did back the rings out, confirm the driver flats hit the notches, and tighten the rings again. I have noticed the driver on both lights looks to be printed slightly off so the switch contact ring isn’t concentric with the head, but it looks similar to others I’ve seen and the switch tube will still make contact at two points at least.

Every thing is fine with your light.

1th blink
right at moonlight is a little timing hint to release the button to stay in moonlight.
Many have a hard time to notice it.

2th blink
signals the change between the single 7135 channel and the 7 × 7135 channel . At level 65

3th blink
signals the change from the 7 × 7135 channel to the FET channel. At level 130

4th blink
end of ramp blink. You see this when you set the ceiling higher than level 130

The reason 3th and 4th blinks are so close together is the ramp is very steep at the end.

The Emisar D4 Firmware is based on NarsilM and blinks different than Andúril

Help needed here. I can’t go into strobe mode now. PM Neal already, while waiting his reply maybe someone in here have the solution.