FW3A Troubleshooting / FAQ

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

You can make the inner tube longer by making the outer tube shorter. Did you test for continuity with the head removed like in the video I showed? I’m guessing that the switch does work and that’s why you’re thinking the inner tube not making contact with the driver ring? Assuming you have a little bit of a gap between the head and the battery tube when they are fully tightened you should be able to remove a little of the battery tube length on the head side.

Get you some sandpaper that’s about 400 to 600 grit and put it on a flat surface and then you can hold the battery tube on top of it and slide it back and forth making sure to rotate the tube every now and then so that it takes material off evenly.

Do I need to calibrate the temp(ambient) on the EDC18 like I did on FW3A? Just checking cause it’s a little harder to do the multiple clicks with the side switch & not sure if these are set up already.

Just let it set for a long time so its fully cooled down and do a temperature check. Then you will know.

Thanks Jason, I got a good deal on it from amazon, came with a Samsung battery and glow gasket for about $36+tax…couldnt resist even though I’m pretty happy with the FW3A….one more flashlight can’t hurt right? :wink:

I’m hoping someone can shed some light on my driver issues.
I own about 10 x FWxA lights, all various custom leds.
I’ve ended up with 2 with the same driver/grounding issue.
1 came like this from banggood, I got a refund. The other was OK until I swapped the led board one day and it was broken since. I’ve since removed the driver, run new emitter wires, tried two different sets of mcpcb and leds, and checked the driver ring 100 times.

Basically, the lights are always on. It’s not a switch issue, even without a driver/switch ring installed, the second the battery touches the spring when screwing it in, the leds light up, somewhere above moon.when the switch connected, I can still turn it on, ramp and turbo, but once it’s off there is still power running to the leds.

The one that started doing it by itself I have tried everything within in knowledge/skill base.

Anyone seen this issue before? Only time I’ve had it was a badly sanded e21a board where the mcpcb was grounding in the light. This isn’t the case.

Are the drivers just screwed? I wouldn’t know where to start if I needed resolder components on the driver board.
Anything I should be looking out for?

I plan on buying a number of the buck/boost drivers that Neal apparently will be making in coming months, so eventually I hope to have spare drivers. That said, I’ve got new leds in the way I want to Install, as well as I want to try and fix them to improve my skills - not much to lose.

Thanks in advance!

A potential small short sometimes happens under the led when too much solder is used. If the negative pad of the led develops a tiny bit of continuity to the thermal pad next to it, you can get what your describing.

Have you tried swapping that mcpcb for one in another light? That would tell you if the problem is with the led or the rest of the light.