I got some protected 35E’s and they fit in my 219c and sst20 FW3As but not in my titanium and copper version. That has a different tail switch arrangement.
Absolutely hated the switch in my titanium version, too soft/mushy and no click what so ever. Swapped it with the switch from my aluminum and its perfect now. Nice solid click and you actually have to apply pressure instead of breathing on it to activate. Wonder if the different size plastic nub has anything to do with it?
Mine is strange, I swapped out all the parts, no change
Then I swapped out an aluminum tail cap for the brass, worked perfectly.
So there is something different in the cap.
It works just fine until that last slight turn to get the signal to work then it is like crushed, still works but too little distance in the throw.
Even changed the inner tube, no help. Something in the copper cap.
My other copper FW3 works perfectly
Can not figure it out.
When I first switched the buttons I didn’t notice a difference either, until I removed the retaining ring on the tail of my Ti light. With the button form the aluminum light(little nub) and no ring, it’s perfect.
Order placed July 14, Asked for refund about a few times, most recently a month ago from Neal, still no refund.
Really bad service probably the worst I ever had. What can I realistically do? Is there a better way to reach him? I have PMed him a few times, wrote it in email and had trusted him to do the right thing. Is my money lost?
My raw aluminum came in today.
For the first time ever I didn’t even need to remove the tail cap. Works perfectly.
Does have the one step lockout, which is strange since it is new production.
I’m sure you already have, but make sure the ramp and stepped modes aren’t set to the same floor. I think that would make it look like one step lockout.
Got my raw aluminum and Ti-Cu last week. Both with 4000K SST-20.
My impressions:
Raw aluminum - Very impressed
Looks great
Everything in order and works out of the box
High-CRI SST-20 have excellent tint. Noticeably less green even than the 4000K SST-20 in my first-run grey FW3A.
Ti-Cu - Not impressed
Did not work out of the box - head retaining ring was loose, but even after tightening it and tailcap, light still did not work.
Finally got it to work, but only when I pressed the button really hard. Problem identified as being a defective microswitch. The switch had a noticeable click, but only made contact internally when pressed extremely hard. Fixed it by replacing the tailcap PCB and switch with one from an aluminum FW3A. Now it works.
Light came missing the o-ring at the tailcap that is meant to prevent the clip from rotating.
Tint is comparable to the first-run grey 4000K SST-20 FW3A. Still good, but noticeably worse than the tint in the raw aluminum FW3A.
Once I fixed all the problems (which required canabalizing an earlier model FW3A), the light now works fine and looks good.