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.
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.
Well, I think I can chalk my lights problems up to something other than the battery. The fact that it ever worked is still a mystery.
Today after appearing to work fine for a day it has started to not work again. Exhibiting the same behavior as before. I just check the battery with a Multi Meter and it reads 4.02V.
Went from working to not working without taking it apart, only messing with lockout, clicking on/off while showing a friend turbo.
Which then the light started not to respond to input as it’s suppose to, but jumping to full turbo then turning off and other odd behavior.
Now won’t even turn on.
One of my six cats throw my FWA3 off a table (1m) and it doesn’t work any more
Does anyone know the driver size and whether is’t replaceable with the Emisar D4 driver?
That has to be it, a tightening issue (retaining ring, head, tail cap). Light isn’t so fragile as to stop working from a simple fall of 1 meter. I’d bet it would survive a 10 meter drop onto pavement. I don’t get how someone can presume immediate driver failure like this… :person_facepalming:
This light is so finicky, took the lens and optic off, wiggled the PCB board with a tiny screw driver. Reassembled, tight, very tight. Working normal again.
Is it possible to select which blinky mode comes up by default, when I go into blinky group?
(I’d prefer to have it go to the bicycle strobe immediately, rather than any of the other options)
Yep, I can confirm that behavior with my FW3A. I have been playing with lightning strobe lately. When off, a double-click w/press+hold goes right to the strobe group and that’s the first one coming up, so the strobe mode memory works.
My FW3A survived its first hard drop. I was walking across a parking lot carrying several items together with my light and somehow managed to sling it 4 or 5 feet onto concrete.
It hit hard. Pick it up turn on and test. Wow it’s still working great. Took apart to check contact pads because I thought contact pads may have been damaged but all looks good. Well everything except a small ding on the edge of front bezel.
Guess I am a klutz. Probably drop my lights more then most.
Actually have only hurt 1 light from drops. It was a Nitecore SRT3 and 1 drop from 3 or 4 feet and it only lights the red LED.
Must be more careful . . . Not going to happen though.
FW3A should easily survive 1m drop from any angle.
If it stops working, what probably happened is the head or tailcap loosened slightly. Loosen the head, then loosen and tighten the tailcap, then tighten the head. It should then work normally.
For the driver to fail from a drop it would have to have something improperly soldered. I had this happen to my Sunwayman V10A years ago. Head fell 1m onto wooden floor during a battery change. Something popped off the driver. Could hear it rattling around in the head. Light didn’t work again (until I opened it up, found the component and soldered it back on. Even then it never worked quite right after that).
After disassembling the 3D twice more and reassembling, somehow it must have broken the short and started to work. This allowed me to troubleshoot some more, and I found what I think might be the problem with the 7A.
Checking resistance in the head, both lights have zero resistance between the spring and + wire on the mcpcb. However, the working 3D shows a resistance of 0.33 Mohm between the square head threads and the - wire and the 7A has absolutely no contact. I’m guessing there’s a broken solder joint at the driver side of the wire.
