FW3A Troubleshooting / FAQ

Interesting. Before production, we tried to get Lumintop to fix the inner sleeve issue… by improving manufacturing tolerances enough to match what Fritz made. Getting all the right parts consistently in the right place is generally sufficient to fix the issues. However, they were unable to do that, so it ended up being common to have things out of alignment or even have a driver shelf which wasn’t big enough for the driver.

So I guess this was one way to solve it. The proprietary cell is a deal-breaker though. Also, the clip wasn’t adjusted to fit the new length… and if there’s no inner tube, the entire light’s diameter could be reduced.

In any case, would be nice if they’d update the firmware. From zeroair’s review, it looks like it’s running a pretty old version. :frowning:

A year ago is probably the older version.

Follow my advice. If you dont know how to do those things, just ask.

You can also make a video showing what it’s doing.

It probably doesn’t have a factory reset function… but if it does, it would be accessed by a “13H” action. In other words, click the button 13 times, but hold the last one for a few seconds.

But it probably doesn’t have that, because the factory reset function was added a month or two after the FW3A was launched, and Lumintop rejected the firmware updates I sent.

The 13 clicks thing is unique for the FW lights, right? The “hold the button while connecting power” is for more conventional e-switch lights, right? I’m always getting these mixed up. Lol

The 13H thing is currently only used on lights with tail e-switches… because on those, it’s usually impossible to hold the button while connecting power. For the FW3A in particular, power is connected long before the button.

I’ve been thinking of adding 13H as a standard thing on all lights though, for consistency.

If they were smart IMO, they’d make a proprietary 21700 standard, and then an adapter sleeve to make an flat top 18650 work

There is no way to physically make an adapter sleeve work with the FW3E. It is a very unique driver layout.

I have read thru the majority of this thread I have three FW3a’s I have taken them all apart and put them together again and they all work. Today I received a 18350 copper tube and inner tube the from Neal and I cannot get it to work. With any of the switches. The o ring is in place I put on the tail cap first tight and then screw on the head sometimes I get the connection flash others not. The switches all work on each other but not with the short copper tube. I dont know what to try next any ideas ?
Chris

I don’t know much about the short copper tubes but you might want to verify they are designed to work with your particular tail switches. There was a design change when they added a retaining ring to hold the switch assembly in place. They had to alter the battery tube threads in order to get them to work.

You can test if your tail switches are making contact. Check this vid at the 2 min mark.

Still no luck both short tubes I have,al and cu look identical. The al one works the cu not. Dimensions are within .001 of each other in length and all.
Chris

I have two short copper tubes - one works fine the other does not work.

EDIT - The one tube works one any FW3 the other does not work on any light.

Are they identical? can you swap out parts and make the other work? Pulling my hair out here -_^

I have a short alu tube I could never get to work right. Maybe due to tailswitch change—I’ll have to get it out and try it again with various iterations of tail switches.

None of my switches has the lock ring in it.

Am I the only one who has never had the tailcap off of either of the two FW3A’s that I have?

Could be - can’t do any of this without taking off the tailcaps

Are the thread lengths and inner tube lengths the same?

Also, did you try without the clip? Sometimes the thickness of the clip is too big preventing the cap from screwing down all the way.

The clip is not on it. The threads are the same. After fiddling with it some more I have come to the conclusion that the inner tube is not making good contact with the switch ring in the head, I can’t make it longer so I am sol I guess.
C
thanks for the help guys.

If no other way, buy a (cheaper) aluminum short tube and use the inner tube out of it

I tried changing the tube I have, no joy.
C