FW3A mod thread. Post yours!

Nice, what did you use for your aux LEDs? Lexel’s board or a PCB with secondaries?


@ KB…

You owe me a keyboard. You did not post a ’DROOL WARNING’ wth your photos & I shorted my keyboard out. It was bad…. magic smoke & flames. . :cry: . :wink:

Seriously… those look amazing!! . :beer:

/\ +1

Seriously impressive! Man, sure hope the FW3A evolves into a later version providing aux LED’s like this. I just don’t have the technical know-how to do it myself.

@ KawiBoy, you’re giving my eyes diabetes. :wink:

I did not use any additional board. I placed the additional diode centrally on the existing board and connected it to the driver.
I compiled the latest version (FW3A) of adruil with aux led support. Everything works very well : :wink:

Sorry if this has already been asked, but is there a guide with pics of the mod required and also a guide and firmware for flashing, hopefully including a good cable for the flashing?

Start here: [SALE] FW3A lighted TIR board multicolored with LVP, stabilized or High/low

The flashing process is pretty much the same as any other attiny85 based driver. Lexel has a bit of info and a precompiled .hex file in his thread where he is selling these boards.

You’ll need a USBasp, an SOIC8 clip and something to connect them (dupont wires are the usual recommendation). For instructions, there is a thread going up for the D4V2 and the instructions will be adaptable to the FW3A. The main differences between the lights are the method of connection (FW3A uses a generic clip and the D4V2 uses a special programming key), the chip being flashed (attiny85 instead of attiny1634), and the file to be flashed.

I think there is an old thread/post by Hoop on how to flash attiny based drivers as well. (they are all very similar)

You only need to flash if you want high/low/off. Lexel has a board with LVP built in you can wire up with no changes but you get 1 brightness level and always on.

Approximately how long before one of those boards drained a battery?

Is this correct…

A 0.3 mA board would drain a 3000mAh battery in approximately 10,000 hours??

A 0.5 mA board would last about 6,000 hours with the same battery & no LVP.

Have I figured that correctly??

Yes I believe so.

Just as a reference the D4v2 on high draws 3mA according to TK so 10x higher than some configs here. Them fancy bright RBG LEDs you pay a price for!

Thank you contactcr…… :+1:

So, deep carry pocket clips. Anyone make them?

Or cool button options?

I already have a board with secondaries, the one commonly used with Dragon drivers. That board uses a common + for the primary and secondary LEDs and separate ground cables.

Is there a driver mod and firmware for the FW3A to work with this board? I prefer to use it as I already have it and I also want to use a turboglow gasket between it and the optic, something obviously impossible if there is a second board in there.

Steve Ku is making some really nice trit tailcaps.

I saw these but they appear to stick out past the light since they are bigger. Haven’t seen anyone confirm though

Look nice but I’m not into the protrusion.

yea sitting ON the switch is a deal breaker for me. This switch is finicky enough without protruding.

I guess the only solution is for CRX to make me one

So, I got a FW3A intending to turn it into a green dragon.

I got the Steve Ku trit button, a drilled for trits Carclo optic and filled them both with green trits. I got a dragon mcpcb with green secondaries and replaced the primaries with Nichia 219b sw45, which I prefer. Then oppened the light to see the driver board is a larger diameter and that it makes contact with the button via a tube, so I will have to keep the original driver.

It is a nice driver, with the Anduril firmware, for sure, but I want green secondaries on it.

I saw JC Customs offers FW3A lights with secondaries so I contacted them via Facebook and asked to buy a driver. I got an answer saying they do not sell drivers but I could send mine to be modified and flashed with the required firmware. I replied I would be interested in that and asked for the cost and the location where I should send it. I never heard back. I have send a couple more messages which have been received and also ignored.

I saw there is another option for a secondary board available for purchase and a modified firmware and instructions to flash it, but I really want to be able to use the turboglow gasket I got that fits the dragon MCPCB.

Does anyone know of a solution to my situation? I would be happy to do any required mods myself (hardware wise) and follow any instructions to flash any required firmware (and purchase the required cable / adaptor to do it).

Many thanks in advance for any help offered!