It’s petroleum-based lubricants like vaseline that will stretch or dissolve rubber o-rings.
I am using a flat top 30Q. I have cleaned the contacts and threads; the threads were a bit dirty. I am also noticing that when ramping up and down, there is a gap in brightness, i.e. there is a sudden jump in brightness from medium low to medium high and vice-versa, rather than a smooth transition.
Scariest documentary I remember seeing.
Wow, so in addition to turning off (occasionally) while ramping up, it also has a sudden jump in brightness?
Man, I would see about getting a replacement. Sounds like there is an issue with the driver. There are three channels and it’s designed to transition through all 3 smoothly. If it’s not transmitting the pwm signal for channel two it will ramp up through channel one and then stay at that brightness level until channel two goes 100% and then you might see the jump in brightness. That would be a pretty big jump though. What you’re describing sounds very strange like there’s a problem in the MCU.
What does it do when you double-click to go to Turbo? Does it sometimes go to Turbo and sometimes turn off?
Turbo works fine. The problem is intermittent, so it was working fine all yesterday and last night. This morning it was switching off consistently when ramping - around the mid-level brightness. Switching it to turbo and off a few times just now has reset it to normal, save for the jump in brightness, which is not that big. I am wondering if it might be a switch problem.
It turning off seems highly unlikely to be related to the switch. If the switch circuit got disconnected it would simply stop ramping as if you are taking your finger off the button. If the switch circuit got shorted it would continue to ramp all the way as if you were holding down the button. If the switch circuit got disconnected and then reconnected it would jump to Turbo. I can’t think of any thing related to the switch that could make it turn off while ramping up.
The one exception being is if the switch circuit got disconnected for at least 1 second and then somehow reconnected very briefly. That would simulate you ramping up, taking your finger off the switch for a second and then doing a single click. This would turn the light off but I find the odds of all of that happening just like I described to be extremely unlikely.
Besides something wrong with the driver, I’m not thinking of too many other things that it could be. Maybe temperature related? You said going to Turbo seemed to fix it and turbo does generate a lot of heat. I’m sorry I’m not of much help.
I wonder if you can buy a new driver really cheap. Has anybody seen drivers for sale?
I am thinking of posting to see if anyone is willing to swap out the driver for a Lume1 CC driver.
You can’t solder? It’s not that hard and the equipment is not that expensive. It’s definitely a good ability to have.
I’m planning on reflashing my FW3A with Anduril2, and i see there is a no-FET version. I’m guessing I’ll be able to tell when I take the driver out to flash if there’s a FET or not, and it was advertised to have a FET and produce 2800 lumen. Is there a no FET version available commercially, or do folks remove the FET as a mod?
Some LEDs (eg, 219B) could be damaged using a FET. The no-fet firmware simply disables the FET without having to physically remove it.
that makes sense. I see there’s a 219 version also, maybe for the 219c emitter?
my FW3A was purchased on amazon, it didn’t specify the emitter. I’m guessing because of that its not a 219, is that a decent assumption?
The listing should tell you what LEDs you have. If you don’t see it, try to post a link to where you bought it from and we’ll take a look.
You’re right JasonWW, it was in the title of the listing, as well as in the descriptions, 3 Cree XP-L HI LEDS 
I got a question about blip at 1x7135 - if I’m ramping from floor and I want to stay on exactly on 1x7135 level - should I stop ramping right at the blip? Or I should go higher, and then ramp back down and stop at the blip?
Anything below the blip is the 1 x 7135 channel. If you ramp up you may go too high, so it’s better to ramp down.
Oh thank you, so when the blip happens when ramping up - it’s already higher the 1 × 7135, that’s what I wanted to know
So I bought 4 FW3 the other day. 2 x grey (different emitters), 1x stainless and one brown/tan (Oh and a HW3a)
The FW3a’s (XML hi) does the following:
Always comes on at the bottom of the range. If I then ramp up and switch off, then switch on again it hasn’t remembered where I was and is always back at the bottom every time. This is straight out the box. I’ve not played with any modes. This is with a short single click. I’m not holding. The other FW3s behave as expected and come back on where they were switched off.
The HW3 (thought I’d mention it here as same UI) also does some funny stuff.
If I switch it on. Then press and hold it ramps up and down just fine. If I press and hold from off then it starts to ramp but with a lot of flicker. Almost like a strobe. And if I don’t ramp far when I let go it goes off. If I ramp quite high then when I let go it drop low and then ramps all the way to the top from low on its own. The other thing is. If I ramp to somewhere. When I switch off then back on (single click) it always starts at a mid point brightness. Any ideas on where to start? I’ve tried different tails on the FW3 so I guess that rules out the switch. I’ve emailed Neal and waiting on a reply. Absolutely love the UI. These are mainly replacements for a gen2 H600 zebralight and an olight. Thanks!
In terms of the light not remembering the level you stopped at, it sounds like manual memory is on.
To turn on automatic memory (where it will turn on at the level it was turned off in), click 5 times and hold the button on the last click.
More details can be found under the Ramping/Stepped Ramping Modes section in the Anduril guide.
No idea what’s up with the flickering, though. If you’re talking about the HL3A headlamp, it could be a driver or a switch issue, but I don’t know how you’d narrow it down.
(I’d probably send it back for exchange, unless you’re pretty confident you could replace the driver yourself if you were sent a replacement.)
Here’s a little thing I learned last night:
Problem:
Flashlight not working properly.
It always turned on from low to high every time a battery is inserted and cap is tighten. Driver not responding to switch operation.
Finding:
If the retainer ring was too tight, it will scratch the coating layer on board (either driver or switch board) and expose the metal/circuit path. Then, the inner tube might touch this exposed part and contact to signal pad is occurred.
Solution:
I had an idea to cover this scratched board with either paint, tape, or nail polish. But I end up scratching the outer part of the board with cutter to remove the circuit layer outside the signal pad.
It’s working now.
Thanks Serlite. You’re 100% correct. That sorted the FW3 out. Much appreciated.
Now I just need to get the HW3 sorted and I’m up and running. That’s a strange one though with the behaviour being different In ramping properly when on. Yet not ramping properly from off with press and hold.