FW3A Troubleshooting / FAQ

It is an early one. In particular, this is the one with the ToyKeeper icon on the switch. My full size 18650 had this same trouble very early on and was resolved after cleaning and reseating the tube. Hasn’t happened again since.

Thanks. I did clean everything before, which should’ve taken care of the problem… not sure how to “check alignments” as I can’t see inside the tube when closing up. But I did not know about that tailcap retaining ring tip. This one does have a retaining ring, unlike my other FW3A. One of these days I will see about flashing firmware, but right now I’m not set up to do it. Good to know that Anduril 2 has a failsafe to mitigate that problem!

Hi everyone! I’m new here, but reading quite a while.
Just got my fw3a sst-20 4000k from aliexpress and wonder how to check did I have a “full version” with all the power channels or missing some.
Head inside looks just like on the left (I mean photo in the first post). What else can I check?

I hope you have fun here, Alexxey!

Thanks a lot :slight_smile:

Mainly just count all the 7135 chips. There’s 6 on the back and 2 on the front, but the front side might require unsoldering the 2 main wires to look at it. You can check that the brightness when ramping up or down is smooth.
There should be a short dip in power as you ramp between the 7135 chips and the FET. The newer firmware might be different though. Let’s see what other folks say. (My light is a very early one)

All 6 are in the back, but don’t want to unsolder anything to count those on the front. :slight_smile:
Ramp is all smooth and there are two ‘blinks’, one on the high and one in somewhere in between.

I checked mine. When ramping up there are two short blinks. One when it switches from channel 1 to 2 and another from 2 to 3.
I’m still not sure that’s a guarantee you have 3 channels in yours. I’m not even sure which software version your light has. Hopefully someone can give you a more concrete answer.

If the ramp is smooth I wouldn’t even worry about it.

Is it safe for leds, driver etc? Won’t affect flashlight lifespan?

[quote=JasonWW]

[quote=Alexxey]

Ok thank you nice to hear.

The led and driver components get heated to over 200°C during assembly. They are quite robust.

But only once and with a very specific heating profile. Otherwise they will get damaged. 80 °C is a pretty safe temperature, though.

They can actually handle higher heat than that, but briefly and people have ran the leds to the point of the heat melting the solder. My point was that 85° is a good upper level to not exceed due to the battery. Then there is a huge gap from 85°C to 200°C. So no one really needs to worry about the led or driver components. Worry about battery heat first (and not burning your hand). Don’t waste time worrying about the driver and led. They are quite robust.

JasonWW, SammysHP, thank you for detailed explanation!

[quote=JasonWW]

[quote=Alexxey]

Actually I checked one more time, ramp is not so smooth near to moonlight level. I can see several barely visible steps (starting from moon) before it gets nice and smooth. Is it same for original version or is it a bad sign?

It’s not very likely you got an old original model with all 3 channels. It’s not the newest version for sure either which is one channel (no 7135 chips). So you might have that middle version. It’s hard to say for sure. Even my early model is not perfectly smooth around the very lowest levels.

You should decide if whatever version you have is going to work for your needs and not worry so much how many channels you have. That is a tiny detail that makes a tiny difference. Even a FET only version should be pretty decent except for the very lowest levels around moonlight. It’s really not that big a deal as long as it’s operation and functionality is good.

Yeah I know, it’s just some deep desire of a perfect toy :slight_smile:
For sure it’s not the old original version, but what if Lumintop decided to make fw3a great again? I guess there is no way to tell other than unsolder something.
Comments like this made me worried in the first place actually :slight_smile: - Which Lumintop FW3A to buy? - #10 by BlueSwordM

I get the feeling that was Blueswords way of saying he’s disappointed in Lumintop.
If he tried a modern one he may think it was fine.

I thought there were basically 4 versions of the FW3A made:

  • First version: 7+1+FET driver, no tailcap retaining ring. <— good
  • Second version: 7+1+FET driver <— best
  • Third version: 1+FET driver <— bad (not efficient at mid-to-low power settings).
  • Fourth version: FET driver <— worst (not efficient at mid-to-super low power settings and lacks moonlight).

So basically, only the 1st and 2nd versions have the best driver. The 1st and 2nd versions should have 6 chips visible on the underside of the driver when the head is removed from the body.

The 3rd and 4th versions should have a flat underside of the driver with no visible chips. The final 7135 chip is on the topside of the driver so can’t be seen without removing the driver. However, a user should easily be able to distinguish a 3rd from 4th version without disassembly simply by setting to the lowest possible ramp. The 3rd version will have a really low moonlight with which you can easily stare into the emitters while the light is on from close range with dark-adapted eyes without discomfort. The 4th version won’t have moonlight and will be too bright to comfortably stare into the emitters at their lowest setting.

The original poster of this thread described looking into the bottom of the head and seeing 6 chips on the underside of the driver. This means he should have either the first or second version, … meaning he got a good one.

At least that’s my recollection.

Sounds right to me.

Four basic hardware differences sound right to me too. To those, you can add firmware variations. I have no idea how many versions were applied to production lights. I have an early April 2019, first batch with no tailcap retainer ring as well as a June 2019 version and there is a slight difference in what happens when the lights are e-locked and the switch button depressed and held.

The April ’19 light comes on in moonlight no matter how many clicks the switch gets before being held down. The June ’19 light produces genuine moonlight mode when given a 1H. Or 3H, 5H, etc (odd numbers). When the switch is given a 2H, 4H, 6H, etc. (even numbers) the light is on at a brighter level. I prefer that. It gives me a choice depending on the circumstances. That June light operation pleased me so much that I reflashed the April ’19 light with the June ’19 firmware. (That is the behavior when set to smooth ramping. When set to stepped-level operation the first, 1H produces the brighter level and the 2H produces the moonlight.) Both lights use that June ’19 firmware to this day. It does what I want and I have seen no need to change to any later version.

I’ve ended up with two of the elusive purple TK-editions. Both have the plastic tail retaining ring, two-step lockout brightness, and full three channels.

I haven’t heard of any middle revisions with 6 7135s on the underside that don’t have three channels. So it sounds like a good one.

I rarely use them anymore. Eventually the switches got unreliable, I believe due to tube contact issues. My KR4 took over their duties. The sprung tube is just superior.