FW3A, a TLF/BLF EDC flashlight - SST-20 available, coupon codes public

spaceminions · 2018-06-11T16:54:19.000Z

I’ve heard doubts aplenty, but the fact is, it’s been nothing but vocal doubts that this amount of light could travel more than a few feet before becoming hopelessly useless. “maybe” under the stove? What, is your stove half a mile across? “Determining the exact color of the boxers(…)”? With that kind of attitude maybe I should determine the exact color of the boot targeted at Uranus.

teacher:

And as you said this…… “while this is going to have a floody beam, it’s still more than capable of being the dominant source of light versus everything in the nearest 2-300ft when it’s legitimately dark outside” … Personally I do not think it will have a snowballs chance of lighting up much of anything at 300 ft. whether it is legitimately dark outside or not. I do not think it will even come remotely close.
And as far as it “being the dominant source of light” at 300ft…… I find that very hard to believe. I find it hard to believe at way less than 300ft too.

You think, you doubt, you think. I have been in the dark, I know how much light it takes to see when there’s not streetlights and floodlights shining in your eyes. If it was truly dark outside, then the other sources of light can’t add up to much; let’s say a full moon even though I don’t consider moonlight dark (I can nearly read a book by it). It’s the wrong phase right now to compare versus that, but at the very least I might show what this rough amount of kcd at 300ft instead of 200 can do. Maybe I’ll try doing a video; of course I will have to turn it down if I go anywhere but an open field. My d4 219c turbo was enough for 200ft+ on a clear night; on a normal night the haze makes any light a bit less useful since more light just means more backscatter. If I get any haze, I might have to just do normal walking around rather than focusing on the infrequent longer ranges.

Generally I either need to be able to search for things at a very far distance with a d1s or equivalent; or maybe to get a very good look at something in specific that was still somewhat distant. Otherwise, my edc is for when you need something to see what’s in the near area (50-150 ft, sometimes more): where are you, where are the buildings / vehicles / other things you’re navigating between, what’s near enough to you to be worth noticing, and where should you put your feet.

Agro · 2018-06-11T17:03:14.000Z

A thought….there are quite a few flashlight users who disregard turbo and want thermally-stable output only. Now….FW3A won’t be the light with the highest output in the class, but the combination of ui, egronomics, price would still make it pretty unique. Would adding an option to stop the ramp at the highest sustainable level make FW3A more appealing to such users?

spaceminions · 2018-06-11T17:05:39.000Z

The ceiling is set by default at full 7135 which is actually not that far off from what it can maintain with some emitters IIRC. I think xp-g3 was 800lm anyway.

Tixx · 2018-06-11T17:05:45.000Z

teacher:

That may be. But as has been stated by several others, it is doubtful the LH351D will make a good outdoor light or a good all around EDC light.

I have no doubt it will excell at looking for something under the kitchen sink or behind the washing machine, maybe even under the stove.

It will probably do very well determining the exact color of the boxers one is about to buy at the department store or the new living room drapes & carpet.

And as you said this…… “while this is going to have a floody beam, it’s still more than capable of being the dominant source of light versus everything in the nearest 2-300ft when it’s legitimately dark outside” … Personally I do not think it will have a snowballs chance of lighting up much of anything at 300 ft. whether it is legitimately dark outside or not. I do not think it will even come remotely close.

And as far as it “being the dominant source of light” at 300ft…… I find that very hard to believe. I find it hard to believe at way less than 300ft too.

And NO…… I do not care about being able to “read billboards 1000ft away” with this light (FW3A)… that is ridiculous.

But I would hope the FW3A would be a nice all around EDC… both indoors & out.

That…… is why I am hoping the XPL HI makes a miraculous comeback in the poll & wins. I personally am convinced it is & would be the best choice.

My opinion & choice.

Time will tell the outcome. . :+1:

Being one of the few who actually has a Samsung 4000k triple, I would disagree. It makes an excellent EDC and can light up my entire yard and garage… Stating things like excellent looking under a washer, sink or stove is quite purposefully misleading especially if you personally don’t own something in this configuration. This is not to be confused with a mule configuration that has no optic. This light is using an optic.

VrestoTaylor · 2018-06-11T17:59:43.000Z

maybe iam blind-its only this grey colour?whats the runtime on high with XPL?thanks a lot

goshdogit · 2018-06-11T18:13:26.000Z

Firelight2:

For maximum brightness, use a large rubber band to bundle all 5 of your FW3As together……

That’s crazy talk!

four Maxtoch Shooter 2Xs

seven BLF Q8s

Firelight2 · 2018-06-11T18:23:48.000Z

goshdogit:

Firelight2:

For maximum brightness, use a large rubber band to bundle all 5 of your FW3As together……

That’s crazy talk!

four Maxtoch Shooter 2Xs

seven BLF Q8s

Awesome! That bottom one looks like it would make a perfect pocket EDC!!!

teacher · 2018-06-11T19:40:51.000Z

Tom Tom:

That’s teacher for you.

Without his posts this thread would be half as long.

And twice as interesting.

More noise & exaggeration from you Tom Tom.

Your quoted post above was #3626.

As of that post I have indeed made 67 of them for 1.847%.
You have posted 59 times of the 3626 for a 1.627%.
So indeed I did outpost you by a whopping 0.220% in post count. :+1:

But in length of post & lines written…… you would be the sure winner.

So Tom Tom……
……your ’declaration’ is somewhat akin to ‘the pot calling the kettle black’.

At least try to be accurate in your future insult attempts Tom Tom……

As far as “interesting”…… that is subjective & depends on the individual listener. You certainly do not have a final say on that besides your own personal opinion.
………………………………

sub·jec·tive / 1. based on or influenced by personal feelings, tastes, or opinions:

WalkIntoTheLight · 2018-06-11T19:48:38.000Z

spaceminions:

teacher:

And as you said this…… “while this is going to have a floody beam, it’s still more than capable of being the dominant source of light versus everything in the nearest 2-300ft when it’s legitimately dark outside” … Personally I do not think it will have a snowballs chance of lighting up much of anything at 300 ft. whether it is legitimately dark outside or not. I do not think it will even come remotely close.
And as far as it “being the dominant source of light” at 300ft…… I find that very hard to believe. I find it hard to believe at way less than 300ft too.

You think, you doubt, you think. I have been in the dark, I know how much light it takes to see when there’s not streetlights and floodlights shining in your eyes. If it was truly dark outside, then the other sources of light can’t add up to much; let’s say a full moon even though I don’t consider moonlight dark (I can nearly read a book by it). It’s the wrong phase right now to compare versus that, but at the very least I might show what this rough amount of kcd at 300ft instead of 200 can do.

I was cycling last night at 2am in a pretty remote rural area about 25km from home. Clear, no moon, the milky way shining bright overhead, so I knew it was dark. I stopped my bike and turned off my light to see how dark.

Wow! I could not even see the road right underneath me, even after letting my eyes dark adapt for a few minutes. I could make out the tree line where it met the starry sky, but that was it. It was actually rather scary, when I thought, “What would happen if my light broke or I ran out of batteries?” I would have been completely unable to navigate anywhere, even by foot, at least until twilight started to give me some light. (But I carried 4 lights and spare batteries, so I wasn’t worried.)

Any light at 300 ft., even a crappy low-power one, would have easily out-shined any stray light (of which there was virtually none). Even 0.01 lux would have allowed me to see where the road was.

Tixx · 2018-06-11T19:52:26.000Z

teacher:

Tom Tom:

That’s teacher for you.

Without his posts this thread would be half as long.

And twice as interesting.

More noise & exaggeration from you Tom Tom.

Your quoted post above was #3626.

As of that post I have indeed made 67 of them for 1.847%.
You have posted 59 times of the 3626 for a 1.627%.
So indeed I did outpost you by a whopping 0.220% in post count. :+1:

But in length of post & lines written…… you would be the sure winner.

So Tom Tom……
……your ’declaration’ is somewhat akin to ‘the pot calling the kettle black’.

At least try to be accurate in your future insult attempts Tom Tom……

As far as “interesting”…… that is subjective & depends on the individual listener. You certainly do not have a final say on that besides your own personal opinion.
………………………………

sub·jec·tive / 1. based on or influenced by personal feelings, tastes, or opinions:

So your comments on the Samsung LED are what exactly? Pots? kettles? Who cares. Just add some actual value to the discussions to help people make better educated choices if you are going to comment on something specifically like the Samsung triple.

Tixx · 2018-06-11T20:28:42.000Z

FW3A Team:

Voting is open for emitter details:

Emitter type

Color temperature

- TK

Curious as to what the Anonymous votes are trending vs the rest of the votes.

spaceminions · 2018-06-11T20:57:52.000Z

WalkIntoTheLight:

spaceminions:

teacher:

And as you said this…… “while this is going to have a floody beam, it’s still more than capable of being the dominant source of light versus everything in the nearest 2-300ft when it’s legitimately dark outside” … Personally I do not think it will have a snowballs chance of lighting up much of anything at 300 ft. whether it is legitimately dark outside or not. I do not think it will even come remotely close.
And as far as it “being the dominant source of light” at 300ft…… I find that very hard to believe. I find it hard to believe at way less than 300ft too.

You think, you doubt, you think. I have been in the dark, I know how much light it takes to see when there’s not streetlights and floodlights shining in your eyes. If it was truly dark outside, then the other sources of light can’t add up to much; let’s say a full moon even though I don’t consider moonlight dark (I can nearly read a book by it). It’s the wrong phase right now to compare versus that, but at the very least I might show what this rough amount of kcd at 300ft instead of 200 can do.

I was cycling last night at 2am in a pretty remote rural area about 25km from home. Clear, no moon, the milky way shining bright overhead, so I knew it was dark. I stopped my bike and turned off my light to see how dark.

Wow! I could not even see the road right underneath me, even after letting my eyes dark adapt for a few minutes. I could make out the tree line where it met the starry sky, but that was it. It was actually rather scary, when I thought, “What would happen if my light broke or I ran out of batteries?” I would have been completely unable to navigate anywhere, even by foot, at least until twilight started to give me some light. (But I carried 4 lights and spare batteries, so I wasn’t worried.)

Any light at 300 ft., even a crappy low-power one, would have easily out-shined any stray light (of which there was virtually none). Even 0.01 lux would have allowed me to see where the road was.

Strange. I can see to walk around by starlight after a short time; of course I might be lucky. I’m sure even those with poor ability to adapt could see better than that after long enough; full adaptation takes much longer than the initial bit- you’d be able to see well enough to walk around after half an hour at worst, because then your rods should be fully recovered. But yeah, even a little illumination would be plenty when it’s truly dark. Many times I’m disappointed with the lowest mode a light offers. And in places with significant stray light, as long as you don’t let yourself get blinded by something bright, you can rely on ambient light some. On a dark night in a rural area, you’ve got to supply all your own light, but it doesn’t have to overpower bright lights to be the dominant source, so best to cover a wider area to avoid tunnel visioning, and of course don’t desensitize yourself too much in case you end up needing that sensitivity. Either way for navigating around I want a nice wide beam, and the beam intensity of today’s triples and quads is still quite a lot, more than enough for that purpose.

teacher · 2018-06-11T21:02:36.000Z

Tixx:

teacher:

Tom Tom:

That’s teacher for you.

Without his posts this thread would be half as long.

And twice as interesting.

More noise & exaggeration from you Tom Tom.

Your quoted post above was #3626.

As of that post I have indeed made 67 of them for 1.847%.
You have posted 59 times of the 3626 for a 1.627%.
So indeed I did outpost you by a whopping 0.220% in post count. :+1:

But in length of post & lines written…… you would be the sure winner.

So Tom Tom……
……your ’declaration’ is somewhat akin to ‘the pot calling the kettle black’.

At least try to be accurate in your future insult attempts Tom Tom……

As far as “interesting”…… that is subjective & depends on the individual listener. You certainly do not have a final say on that besides your own personal opinion.
………………………………

sub·jec·tive / 1. based on or influenced by personal feelings, tastes, or opinions:

So your comments on the Samsung LED are what exactly? Pots? kettles? Who cares. Just add some actual value to the discussions to help people make better educated choices if you are going to comment on something specifically like the Samsung triple.

My thoughts that the XPL HI will make a better all around EDC for this light are based on the comments of ToyKeeper & a few others concerning this light.
Also on the fact that I have many XPL HI lights & am pleased with them beyond measure.

Your right…… who cares. Who cares what I think. Who cares what you think. Who cares what Tom Tom thinks.
Like Tom Tom said in a previous post…. “it’s just a bunch of egos blowing hot air.” (quoted below)

Mostly hoping to ‘sell’ or further advance their/our own personal preference and/or opinion I might add.
……

FW3A, a TLF/BLF EDC flashlight - SST-20 available, coupon codes public BLF Special Edition Products

This is madness. An attempt to impose some sort of “democracy” on the design of a torch ? Then further noise about what a particular sort of democracy means, with algorithms ? I’ve lead several over £20,000,000 projects as Engineering Manager and can assure you that “democracy” never came into it. Whereas listening to the discipline experts, facilitating, summarising, then taking a view, making a decision and pulling the teams together works. Surely there is someone in the team who can abso…

Tom Tom:

This is madness.

…… it’s just a bunch of egos blowing hot air and achieving nothing. Slowly. Wasting opportunity, time to market, and potentially over-taken by superior products from wily and agile manufacturers.

I’d be exasperated if I was the manufacturer and had to deal with this nonsense.

Sorry if I sound grumpy, but I am.

teacher · 2018-06-11T21:47:35.000Z

spaceminions:

I’ve heard doubts aplenty, but the fact is, it’s been nothing but vocal doubts that this amount of light could travel more than a few feet before becoming hopelessly useless. “maybe” under the stove? What, is your stove half a mile across? “Determining the exact color of the boxers(…)”? With that kind of attitude maybe I should determine the exact color of the boot targeted at Uranus.

Yeah…… I have read a lot of ‘vocalization’ too.

And as far as the “stove & boxer” comments, they were simply in reply to the scenarios you brought up. (quoted below) So no “attitude” as you suggest.

And as far as the “boot” you mention above. That would be a real good idea before you send it in the direction you mention. That way you will have a fond memory of it & the leg attached to it when you awake from your proposed space flight.

…

spaceminions:

I expect an EDC light NOT to let me read billboards 1000ft away, because to do that it has to either produce an unpractical number of lumens, which tends to mean ugly but powerful emitters, or it has to give up at the very least the sort of floody beam that makes it practical at short to medium range outside for not tunnel visioning, for illuminating the underside of a car, the inside of a computer, the space behind/under things, etc. (I had a silicone diffuser for a convoy s; it sucked and eventually I lost it.) As for the color quality, I use the d4 219c to gauge colors of anything I’m considering buying where aesthetics matter and the color is dubious.

teacher · 2018-06-11T22:11:12.000Z

Tixx:

teacher:

That may be. But as has been stated by several others, it is doubtful the LH351D will make a good outdoor light or a good all around EDC light.

I have no doubt it will excell at looking for something under the kitchen sink or behind the washing machine, maybe even under the stove.

It will probably do very well determining the exact color of the boxers one is about to buy at the department store or the new living room drapes & carpet.

And as you said this…… “while this is going to have a floody beam, it’s still more than capable of being the dominant source of light versus everything in the nearest 2-300ft when it’s legitimately dark outside” … Personally I do not think it will have a snowballs chance of lighting up much of anything at 300 ft. whether it is legitimately dark outside or not. I do not think it will even come remotely close.

And as far as it “being the dominant source of light” at 300ft…… I find that very hard to believe. I find it hard to believe at way less than 300ft too.

And NO…… I do not care about being able to “read billboards 1000ft away” with this light (FW3A)… that is ridiculous.

But I would hope the FW3A would be a nice all around EDC… both indoors & out.

That…… is why I am hoping the XPL HI makes a miraculous comeback in the poll & wins. I personally am convinced it is & would be the best choice.

My opinion & choice.

Time will tell the outcome. . :+1:

Being one of the few who actually has a Samsung 4000k triple, I would disagree. It makes an excellent EDC and can light up my entire yard and garage… Stating things like excellent looking under a washer, sink or stove is quite purposefully misleading especially if you personally don’t own something in this configuration. This is not to be confused with a mule configuration that has no optic. This light is using an optic.

The comments I made were simply in response to scenarios spaceminions suggested. (quoted below)
There was no intent to be “misleading” & certainly no intent to be “purposefully misleading” either.
……

spaceminions:

I expect an EDC light NOT to let me read billboards 1000ft away, because to do that it has to either produce an unpractical number of lumens, which tends to mean ugly but powerful emitters, or it has to give up at the very least the sort of floody beam that makes it practical at short to medium range outside for not tunnel visioning, for illuminating the underside of a car, the inside of a computer, the space behind/under things, etc. (I had a silicone diffuser for a convoy s; it sucked and eventually I lost it.) As for the color quality, I use the d4 219c to gauge colors of anything I’m considering buying where aesthetics matter and the color is dubious.

Tixx · 2018-06-11T22:21:47.000Z

teacher:

Tixx:

teacher:

That may be. But as has been stated by several others, it is doubtful the LH351D will make a good outdoor light or a good all around EDC light.

I have no doubt it will excell at looking for something under the kitchen sink or behind the washing machine, maybe even under the stove.

It will probably do very well determining the exact color of the boxers one is about to buy at the department store or the new living room drapes & carpet.

And as you said this…… “while this is going to have a floody beam, it’s still more than capable of being the dominant source of light versus everything in the nearest 2-300ft when it’s legitimately dark outside” … Personally I do not think it will have a snowballs chance of lighting up much of anything at 300 ft. whether it is legitimately dark outside or not. I do not think it will even come remotely close.

And as far as it “being the dominant source of light” at 300ft…… I find that very hard to believe. I find it hard to believe at way less than 300ft too.

And NO…… I do not care about being able to “read billboards 1000ft away” with this light (FW3A)… that is ridiculous.

But I would hope the FW3A would be a nice all around EDC… both indoors & out.

That…… is why I am hoping the XPL HI makes a miraculous comeback in the poll & wins. I personally am convinced it is & would be the best choice.

My opinion & choice.

Time will tell the outcome. . :+1:

Being one of the few who actually has a Samsung 4000k triple, I would disagree. It makes an excellent EDC and can light up my entire yard and garage… Stating things like excellent looking under a washer, sink or stove is quite purposefully misleading especially if you personally don’t own something in this configuration. This is not to be confused with a mule configuration that has no optic. This light is using an optic.

The comments I made were simply in response to scenarios spaceminions suggested. (quoted below)
There was no intent to be “misleading” & certainly no intent to be “purposefully misleading” either.
……

spaceminions:

I expect an EDC light NOT to let me read billboards 1000ft away, because to do that it has to either produce an unpractical number of lumens, which tends to mean ugly but powerful emitters, or it has to give up at the very least the sort of floody beam that makes it practical at short to medium range outside for not tunnel visioning, for illuminating the underside of a car, the inside of a computer, the space behind/under things, etc. (I had a silicone diffuser for a convoy s; it sucked and eventually I lost it.) As for the color quality, I use the d4 219c to gauge colors of anything I’m considering buying where aesthetics matter and the color is dubious.

Oh, took the time to post and blame the other guy for you drawing false conclusions on an LED not even specified by him or handled by you. Yeah, this is definitely a $20,000,000 response. LOL!

MascaratumB · 2018-06-11T23:13:57.000Z

Fellows, with all due respect, please let’s not turn this GB thread into another rant thread!! :zipper_mouth_face:
It is already hard to follow, sometimes, this flashlight’s development information and the discussions that may elucidate unaware people, like myself!

Thanks for your comprehension

ON TOPIC:
When this light is out, and looking to it’s characteristics (theoretically), will an unprotected Samsung 30Q or a Sony US18650VTC6 be good to provide the “max” power?
How about the Sanyo NCR18650GA, will they be good enough?
Sorry, but I wanna order some batteries in advance and wanted to know which would be better!

Thanks for the answers, in advance, and the updates on this :+1:

shirnask · 2018-06-11T23:23:49.000Z

/\ :+1:

Firelight2 · 2018-06-11T23:35:00.000Z

MascaratumB:

…will an unprotected Samsung 30Q or a Sony US18650VTC6 be good to provide the “max” power?
How about the Sanyo NCR18650GA, will they be good enough? …

My understanding is that the VTC6 is slightly better than the 30Q. So the VTC6 should give best performance.

As the FW3A uses a FET like the D4, it will pretty much pull as many amps as your cell can provide. This means that high drain cells like the 30Q and VTC6 should produce higher peak output than lower drain cells like the GA.

That said, if you run the FW3A in max turbo I expect that it will start ramping down almost immediately, like the D4. Using high-drain cells might not provide as much benefit due to that rampdown.

drjamesfox · 2018-06-11T23:48:19.000Z

pepinfaxera:

drjamesfox:

I’m interested! Please add me to the list.

You are number No. # 815 on: Interest List , Post # 4 , ” Page 1 , “:FW3A, a TLF/BLF EDC flashlight - SST-20 available, coupon codes public - #4 by FW3A_Team

drjamesfox:

Please add me to the list. … ”# Post of Mon, 11/27/2017 - 05:17”:FW3A, a TLF/BLF EDC flashlight - SST-20 available, coupon codes public - #1754 by drjamesfox

For a total of 1 lights .
How many lanterns do you want in total? … x … units? .

Just 1 light please.

Sorry! I forgot I was already on the list.