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

Relampago · 2019-05-03T16:05:46.000Z

My FW3A shipped, earlier than I expected considering my place on the list. I went with the free shipping and I’ve received my tracking number.

Spiderlight · 2019-05-03T16:26:53.000Z

Is DHL Paket the right carrier to select at 17Track?

JasonWW · 2019-05-03T16:26:53.000Z

BurningPlayd0h:

The stepdown is temperature based and can be configured for a higher or lower temp range.

Yes, and mine is still the factory calibration which could be off a little. I’ll try to see if it’s accurate.

With a high capacity 3400+ cell you might see a bit less lumens, but you’ll probably gain extra Turbo time. I’ll try out some other cells I have laying around.

JasonWW · 2019-05-03T17:01:15.000Z

I also have all 4 of the Carclo lenses and the stock one seems to be the best, in my opinion. The clear 07 is a tiny bit tighter focused, but I see yellow streaks in the hot spot when shined on a whitewall or equivalent. Eh, it’s not worth using in my opinion. The 08 and 09 are nice if you need a wider spot, and don’t need the distance.

The 10511 is called a narrow spot. 22° (lightly frosted)
The 10508 is called a medium spot. 27° (heavier frosted)
The 10509 is called a wide spot. 40° (heaviest frosted)

The 10507 is the non-frosted, clear version with a narrow spot. 18°

Actually, it would not surprise me if the physical dimensions of all four lenses we’re identical and the beam angle difference is strictly due to the amount of frosting on the surface. Here is a picture in the same order as above.

.

JasonWW · 2019-05-03T17:16:46.000Z

JasonWW:

BurningPlayd0h:

The stepdown is temperature based and can be configured for a higher or lower temp range.

Yes, and mine is still the factory calibration which could be off a little. I’ll try to see if it’s accurate.

My FW3A is saying it’s 38°C, when room temp is about 24°C. I’ll make sure it’s fully cooled down internally (when I wake up later) and then check it again. At the moment, my light is probably stepping down a little bit prematurely. Once I reset it, I’ll measure the stepdown time again.

Maukka got 20 seconds out of his light with a 30Q, but he calibrated the ambient temperature as well as bumped the default step down temp of 45°C to a slightly higher 55°C.

jknut · 2019-05-03T17:37:21.000Z

Has anyone found a diffuser that works well with FW3A that they like?

I did think this was interesting, but I didn’t see anyone finding anything “ready to go” that works well by searching the thread.

CRX Rotary - 6th Annual BLF/ Old Lumens Contest Winner Giveaways and Contests

Thanks very much, sure was a lot of patience went into this one O:) . Diffuser/ protective case. I made a simple diffuser from an old berocca tube. Rubbed down with wire wool to remove the printscreen, cut some from the length of the tube, installed a ring of stickyback felt inside the tube for a snug fit and added some GITD powder & UV glue to the ends. [image][image][image][image][image][image][image] Can also be used as a protective case for the light.[image]

iamlucky13 · 2019-05-03T18:20:05.000Z

JasonWW:

TK, is there any combination of button presses that can make the light turn on at a medium level and then not respond to the switch anymore?

I let a newb check out the light and he did some crazy button clicking and it did this. I had to cut battery power to get it back to normal. It was odd.

Was it momentary or did it stay on?

My first thought from the description is he got it in 5-click momentary mode.

teacher · 2019-05-03T19:04:32.000Z

iamlucky13:

JasonWW:

TK, is there any combination of button presses that can make the light turn on at a medium level and then not respond to the switch anymore?

I let a newb check out the light and he did some crazy button clicking and it did this. I had to cut battery power to get it back to normal. It was odd.

Was it momentary or did it stay on?

My first thought from the description is he got it in 5-click momentary mode.

Yeah… I did that by accident last night. :person_facepalming: … I forgot for a couple of minutes that to exit all power had to be cut.

I did have to completely remove the head for this to work. Just loosening would not do it.

ToyKeeper · 2019-05-03T20:23:29.000Z

DooMMasteR:

copper would require an additional insulator because it cannot be anodized to be an Isolator as Aluminium.

hodor:

Bead blasted titanium gets my vote. Other aluminium colours could also be tempting.

…Or silver / clear version?… runs and hides… Only kidding, I don’t like these as they can’t be hard locked out.

If there is a FW3C or FW3T or FW3B, the inner tube will probably still be anodized aluminum. It’s not there to look pretty; it’s there to carry a signal without electrical interference.

The other metals mostly just change the appearance and weight and thermal properties. They don’t really change anything about the light electrically. It was designed to work with bare aluminum, so the anodizing of the host doesn’t really serve an electrical purpose (except on the inner tube). Even the anodized aluminum version can’t be hard locked out. If I turn the light on and then start unscrewing the head, it gets well past the O-ring before the LEDs shut off.

I’m guessing that’s what JasonWW’s friend did — just loosened the tube a little so the switch wasn’t connected any more.

JasonWW:

At the 7135 x 1 level I got 132 lm

On mine, I’ve measured 125 lm on one light and 126 lm on another. So, fairly close. At first I got higher numbers, but when I checked my calibration light again I found the calibration of the tube had changed… so after fixing that, it was a few lumens lower.

Now I calibrate the tube before each batch of measurements. It’s fairly simple to do… just measure the reference light and plug that number into my conversion script. The multiplier is the expected lumens divided by measured lux. Then measure a couple other reference lights to make sure they’re all still in agreement, and it’s ready to use.

JasonWW:

Parasitic drain measured an excellent 23 microamps with no sleep delay.

It could be lower, actually… but when I had the parasitic drain even lower, it was nearly impossible to exit from momentary mode. The head of the light had to be removed for over a minute before it finally drained enough to reboot, so it was necessary to hold the button to keep the light on, then unscrew the head.

jknut:

Has anyone found a diffuser that works well with FW3A that they like?

Not really. The closest I’ve found is a Fenix AOD-S, but it’s not very good. It’s an odd shape, the material is much thicker than necessary, and it has poor optical properties. Most of the light still goes forward instead of sideways, and it splits light like a prism so the yellow parts go forward while the blue parts go sideways. It can even make high-CRI 219B lights look ugly.

Here’s what I posted about it a few months ago:

I’m also hoping there will be a diffuser cone made for it, because I like those and they work well with candle mode. I’m using a Fenix AOD-S now, but it’s not ideal. Here are a few of my lights with their party hats on:

Ideally, I’d like the FW3A diffuser to be nearly identical to the Olight S-Mini diffuser, except scaled up to fit.

hodor · 2019-05-03T20:52:03.000Z

ToyKeeper:

If there is a FW3C or FW3T or FW3B, the inner tube will probably still be anodized aluminum. It’s not there to look pretty; it’s there to carry a signal without electrical interference.

The other metals mostly just change the appearance and weight and thermal properties. They don’t really change anything about the light electrically. It was designed to work with bare aluminum, so the anodizing of the host doesn’t really serve an electrical purpose (except on the inner tube). Even the anodized aluminum version can’t be hard locked out. If I turn the light on and then start unscrewing the head, it gets well past the O-ring before the LEDs shut off.

Very true about the hard lock out on the FW3A, I was speaking generally and wasn’t meant to be in reference to the FW3A :+1:

xevious · 2019-05-03T23:04:37.000Z

The message I got from Neal’s Gadgets about my FW3A shipping gave an order number, which then revealed a tracking number on FlyTExpress. Status showed “EN ROUTE TO DHL ECOMMERCE” on 4/30, then it updated with FlyTExpress on 5/04. When I went to DHL’s site to test that tracking number, it doesn’t recognize it. Is this still a proprietary number that will convert to a DHL tracking number later once it leaves China, or will same number start to show a valid tracking status? The number I was given is F32706190430003A.

xevious · 2019-05-03T23:07:19.000Z

M4D M4X:

the FW3A is such a beauty!

Great photos, M4D M4X! In that first photo, are those orange fruits some kind of mini edible citrus?

ttylamg · 2019-05-03T23:09:01.000Z

now that you mention it, either that’s a photoshop, or those citrus fruits are tiny!

M4D_M4X · 2019-05-03T23:15:35.000Z

yes they are tiny - my wife grows them for cocktails ;)

KawiBoy1428 · 2019-05-03T23:25:24.000Z

M4D M4X:

yes they are tiny - my wife grows them for cocktails

Yum… it is Friday!

Streamtronics · 2019-05-03T23:38:34.000Z

Firelight2:

Swapped in a Noctigon triple with 3x SST-20, 4000K 95 CRI. The results are about what you would expect:

[…]

noticeably dimmer than XPL HI

[…]

gets hot insanely faster than XPL HI due to the lower vF emitter. That’s not a good thing as it means less runtime in turbo. And because of the lower output I’d probably want turbo more often.

I’m not sure the benefits of tint and CRI outweigh the large loss of lumens and turbo runtime compared to XPL HI. […]

How would the LH351D compare to this? Apart from the whole flood/throw thing that is (which I find ridiculous anyway, wanting to get max throw out of a triple EDC light just seems contra-productive to me). I believe I have read it’s more efficient than the SST-20, is that true? I only have SST-20s in 3000K in a D4 atm, and I actually prefer the higher green content in the lower modes. If the LH351Ds are brighter while producing less heat than the SST-20s I’d probably want to give them a try. Anyone know where I can get a pre-soldered high quality triple board (I’m assuming it should be a DTP copper board)? I’m in Europe so I’d prefer shipping from China instead of US. I could solder them myself, but would rather not, also buying 3 LEDs and paying like 5-6€ shipping isn’t really worth it for me lol.

BlueSwordM · 2019-05-03T23:51:35.000Z

Well, the LH351D 90CRI are more efficient than the SST-20, but they are much floodier than the SST-20, so the relative efficiency of the SST-20 is actually higher than the LH351D since you don’t have to use as much power to see slightly farther.

JasonWW · 2019-05-03T23:53:52.000Z

iamlucky13:

JasonWW:

TK, is there any combination of button presses that can make the light turn on at a medium level and then not respond to the switch anymore?

I let a newb check out the light and he did some crazy button clicking and it did this. I had to cut battery power to get it back to normal. It was odd.

Was it momentary or did it stay on?

My first thought from the description is he got it in 5-click momentary mode.

It just stayed on.

He didn’t loosen the tube, he just clicked the switch.

I duplicated it once. I’m thinking the inner tube was just barely making contact and heavy switch pressure pushes on the tube (since there is no retaining ring on the switch) possibly creating a gap on one of the ends. I may need to clean the contacts and make sure I tighten both ends a bit more.

teacher · 2019-05-04T00:05:21.000Z

xevious:

The message I got from Neal’s Gadgets about my FW3A shipping gave an order number, which then revealed a tracking number on FlyTExpress. Status showed “EN ROUTE TO DHL ECOMMERCE” on 4/30, then it updated with FlyTExpress on 5/04. When I went to DHL’s site to test that tracking number, it doesn’t recognize it. Is this still a proprietary number that will convert to a DHL tracking number later once it leaves China, or will same number start to show a valid tracking status? The number I was given is F32706190430003A.

Here’s what your tracking number reveals on www.packageradar.com

May 4 04:44
In transit - Departed waypoint
Flyt Express’s sorting centre, Guangzhou
…
May 4 02:39
Package in transit
Flyt Express’s sorting centre, Guangzhou
…
May 4 02:34
Package accepted
Flyt Express’s sorting centre, Guangzhou
…
April 30 11:31
Transfered to the local postal service
Flyt Express
…
April 30 11:30
Electronic shipment information received
Flyt Express

……….
’Most likely’ that number will not be a DHL number once DHL gets the package. But this tracking may update all the way to delivery.

www.17track.net is good too.

shirnask · 2019-05-04T00:08:07.000Z

Streamtronics:

Firelight2:

How would the LH351D compare to this? Apart from the whole flood/throw thing that is (which I find ridiculous anyway, wanting to get max throw out of a triple EDC light just seems contra-productive to me). I believe I have read it’s more efficient than the SST-20, is that true? I only have SST-20s in 3000K in a D4 atm, and I actually prefer the higher green content in the lower modes. If the LH351Ds are brighter while producing less heat than the SST-20s I’d probably want to give them a try. Anyone know where I can get a pre-soldered high quality triple board (I’m assuming it should be a DTP copper board)? I’m in Europe so I’d prefer shipping from China instead of US. I could solder them myself, but would rather not, also buying 3 LEDs and paying like 5-6€ shipping isn’t really worth it for me lol.

led4power