FW3A, a TLF/BLF EDC flashlight - SST-20 available, coupon codes public

I believe mine will be here tomorrow. Look forward to measuring these sst20 with new lenses

It’s rare there is enough current flowing through a wires soldered end for the solder to liquify. Once it does, tension in the wire can pull it loose. A scenario that can cause this is if a wire has a poor solder joint to a pad. The poor connection can create a lot of resistance which then heats up.

What exactly happened to your light?

I posted a video of it but can’t remember which thread I put it in ,
Well one led was discoloured & when on the light was bluish from that led , when on turbo I could smell burning almost instantly,so I took the bezel & lens off to make a video of it to show neal ,and while videoing it I could see smoke & within a few seconds it stoped working & when I inspected it afterwards I found the black - wire was not connected any more ,so I’m guessing it was the black wire was getting way to hot & was melting the insulation but instead of catching fire luckily it melted the solder & disconected itself & therefore shut down.

Here is the video post FW3A Troubleshooting / FAQ - #244 by Nev

If it’s coming from the top the LED probably had solder or flux on the dome and it burned up. Without the bezel pressing down the optics and mcpcb the heat wont get to the body as well too.

As a rule of thumb when I get a new light I turn it on in moon and check for dirt. If any exists clean with alcohol.

Yes that’s it , thanks.

If it was just the wire to solder back on then I might have attempted to solder it back on , but because one led was duff makes it useless to me as I don’t posses the skills or tools to repair it.

Sell it for parts to someone in UK if you get your replacement.

I might be interested in an offer like that. I wouldn’t mind having a go at swapping the emitters for some 219Bs and reflashing the firmware if I had a spare FW3A host.

See if you can get yourself a replacement first though, because something is definitely not right with the product you received.

Copper…

:heart_eyes:

With the lighting in this room the two others almost look like polished brass

FW3Cs are arriving? Sweeet!

Emitters? SST-20s? Tint?

FW3T stonewashed interest list: https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/57471

If the shelf is Titanium then you might as well just remove the FET altogether. Makes even less sense than the current version we have :slight_smile:

Are all 3 copper or just the middle one?

Just got my FW3C today.

Unfortunately, I did not order the SST-20 model. I hadn’t received my SST-20 aluminum FW3A at the time and didn’t realize the SST-20 were going to be so good. Had I known I would have definitely purchased the SST-20 version.

Preliminary impression:

  • HEAVY - 126g empty. 168g with cell inside. Compare to aluminum FW3A which comes in at 99g with cell inside. The extra weight makes it weight about the same as a D4 TI (those weigh 126g empty). I suspect this is a bit too heavy for EDC especially since the aluminum one feels so good in the pocket.
  • Looks beautiful in polished bare copper. However, this IS bare copper. I expect it will look tarnished and used within a few days. I thought about sealing it with something, but I didn’t have any metal sealer on hand and would probably have had to do so before touching the light.
  • Switch feels the same as first-run FW3A. It doesn’t have the slightly reduced travel distance of the second run.
  • Comes with shiny chrome clip. I think this clip looks better than the dark colored one. It matches the stainless steel button.

Aluminum Copper Aluminum

It’s the Copper Glow cast upon the Polished Aluminum gives it a Brassy tint…they did a most excellent job polishing this Copper light…there was still a touch of rouge left behind in the knurl…you can see it on the sink top left…

If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. This is two different lights, 1x FW3C and 1x FW3A.

My SST-20 FW3A arrived. The tint is fantastic and makes what I thought was a good looking SST-20 I had in another light look green at low levels. The switch however sounds a little crunchy if you press down on it in the middle. Regarding the edges of the switch the edge of one side is smooth and silent (how I think its supposed to be compared to the middle?) while the other side has a crunchy sound and doesn’t always register a click. Pressing down in the middle of the switch always registered albeit not in a pleasant sounding/feeling way.

Are the curves across the beam or at different power levels?