Wrong Imgur link… Fix it please, I want to see your FW3A !

NICE !

Love the way the switch and clip turned purple

@JaredM Could you share some of your beamshots?

Can you link to the “KD optic with reflector like beam”? That sounds great.

Not a huge fan of the now-gold color but man that purple switch button and clip are georgous!

I like the torched version better!  

Looks like you’ve got some pretty nice mods done or coming soon.

I’m not really modifying mine much, but I’m tempted to put a longer nub in the button of an older prototype so it’ll stop missing button clicks. Also waiting for the $30 version to be released so I can put 219B emitters into one.

So far the only modding I’ve done is to try out different emitters and optics:

• 3x SST20 95 CRI 4000K – nice throw, reds that pop, but everything looked greenish and not as bright as XPL HI.
• Same as above but with Lee 279 minus-green filter added. Better than raw SST-20, but 14% dimmer. Also, the filter warmed up the tint and made things feel a bit too orange.
• 2x XPL HI 5000K + 1x XPL HI 4000K – quite nice. Similar to original 5K, tint but slightly warmer.
• I thought of swapping in my 4000K 90+ CRI LH351D triple star, but in testing the tint looks rather greenish. I’m not sure it’s worth the effort.
• Also tried different optics including Carclo 10511 with the frosting polished off with jeweler’s rouge, and an unmodified 10507.

Currently my modded FW3A is sporting 2x XPL HI 3D 5000K and 1x XPL HI 5D 4000K with Carclo 10507 narrow spot optic. My other FW3A is unmodified.

I don’t have any plans to modify the exterior of the light. It looks beautiful as-is. However, it is a little slippery. I do wonder if adding some grip tape around the indented portion of the battery tube would help. If I did that I would leave an open area under the clip.

All I got so far……they are Works in Progress…..

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.

. and so it go’s…

KawiBoy1428 wrote:

All I got so far……they are Works in Progress…..

Yeah. I think I may have to sand and polish one. That looks really nice.

Those pictures make me irrationally want a stainless steel one.

Lumintop could use nickel plating like in their hlaaa flashlight for a similar effect.
(Hello, I’ve been lurking for a long time before joining for this group buy.)

aeon wrote:

Lumintop could use nickel plating like in their hlaaa flashlight for a similar effect.
(Hello, I’ve been lurking for a long time before joining for this group buy.)

Yes, it’s bare stainless steel.

Trying to nickel plate aluminium is one of those things that’s quite expensive from an electroplating company.

Well, Lumintop disagrees with you. This is from their HL AAA page under Features: “11. Made of aircraft-grade aluminum alloy with nickel plating on the surface”.
Also I have been interested in that light and have handled one myself. The fact, that it is not made of steel, has stopped me from buying it.
Anyway, I just wanted to add an idea, that should be doable by the manufacturer.

The problem that I’ve heard about is that the nickel layer on the HL AAA is extremely thin, since it’s using an electroless nickel process, meaning it’s not a very durable plating.

A real thick nickel plating would be much tougher and thicker, but way more expensive as there are many more steps involved.

KawiBoy1428 wrote:

This is my favorite one, very cool mod! The clip was well done, not sure if I’d want the tail cap in the same finish as the rest. But either way, very nice flashlight.

ToyKeeper wrote:

KawiBoy1428 wrote:

All I got so far……they are Works in Progress…..

Yeah. I think I may have to sand and polish one. That looks really nice.

anything I missed?

should fit, I am not super confident the MCPCB solder points fit excactly as I can only guess from pictures, while I have the measurtements from the optic

Looks good Lexel!

One suggestion: It looks like you designed this board to fit the 20mm star that comes with the FW3A, which is great.

However, it might also be a good idea to design it so this board also fits standard Noctigon 20mm triple stars. That way it can be used in many more lights, since Noctigon stars are easy to get. To make it fit Noctigons you would need another hole for a driver wire though, somewhere near where the “L” in “Lexel” is on the board.

updated for Noctigon should fit?

All the inner bondwire pads on the Noctigon are for the + wire. All the outer pads are for the negative wire. Your board might need a wire hole further out to line up with one of the negative wire pads?

Looks like if you made a second hole right above the “T” in TLF then it should work.

I notice Vinh has his FW3Avn thread up on CPF. Looks like he’s modified them with Oslon white flat and Nichia 219B. And he also made one into a quad using a modified Carclo quad optic.

No waaaaay….and i still didn’t get my shipping info!!!!!

BlueSwordM wrote:

The problem that I’ve heard about is that the nickel layer on the HL AAA is extremely thin, since it’s using an electroless nickel process, meaning it’s not a very durable plating.

A real thick nickel plating would be much tougher and thicker, but way more expensive as there are many more steps involved.

My experience has been 0.0003” e-nickel or thicker is reasonably durable, and cost scales nearly linearly with thickness.

Yeah, 0,0003” nickel is durable.

However, at 7 microns, that means the part must have spent ages in the bath to form such a layer without electricity.