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

BLF Special Edition Products
11101

I’m thinking that they probably don’t want to show the machining marks in a finished product. I would actually be interested in a light like that. I wonder what the cost difference between a high polish surface and media-blasted is? It’s probably going to favor media-blasting is my guess and they want to keep the cost down.

If I were to polish it myself, I’d take machined copper over blasted.

It’ll patina super quickly with the increased surface area from the media-blasting. I’d guess a very short period in pocket and you’d have a patina, though it’d be pretty delicate considering the texture. I’d like to see it after a few weeks of EDC in a sweaty person’s pocket.

11102

I volunteer :smiley:

11103

Maybe it’s because the XP-L HI doesn’t have a dome on the led.

11104

What did you use to polish the AR coating off? Did it make a big difference?

Mike

11105

They have single 20mm TIRs that support that LED. The XP-L HD is too big and the HI only barely fits. Probably just the die size

11106

The difference in throw is very tiny. I can’t even see it with my eyes. I can however see the tiny imperfections in the hot spot with the clear lens. I prefer the smoother hotspot of the stock lens.

You can use some rubbing compound made for plastics. Really any light abrasive will do: Brasso, car polish, toothpaste, etc…

It’s easier, depending on where you located, to just buy the other lenses and try them out. Just a few dollars each from Arrow with free shipping to the USA.

11107

Thanks for sharing

11108

Thanks for replying. My understanding was that TK polished the AR coating from the glass lens, not the plastic optic, though I know some have polished that, too.

11109

The Nichia 219C is the absolute worst in terms of performance.

Lowest forward voltage of all LEDs, and worse efficiency than even the SST-20 95CRI.

11110

Can anyone point me to the bit of code in Anduril source that can be modified to shorten the timeout between clicking the button and the light turning off? I don’t mind the delay, but I think it could be shorter.

11111

Yes once scratched, you really have your work cut out for you… it is a really BAD Idea Bead Blasting Copper…

Now a close up…

A bit closer…

This was done with 80grt Glass Bead at 60psi… Now I hit it with a Red Scotch Brite pad and then some 800grt.

Close up…

A bit closer…

…just leave it as it came off the machine, have it professionally polished and I will take 2 please :smiley:

11112

I used a “Sunshine polishing cloth”. It took a while. Basically, put a sheet of plastic on a table, put the cloth on the sheet, and then rub the lens on it for a while.

This reduced the lumens by about 3% or maybe 4%, but also changed the tint a bit to make it less green and more pink.

There’s a compile-time option called RELEASE_TIMEOUT. It specifies the number of frames to wait between releasing the button and deciding the button sequence is done. It can be reduced, but it’ll also mean multi-click sequences must be done faster.

If you change it, you may also want to change PRESS_TIMEOUT.

IIRC, the default is 24. People have used anything from 16 to 40. Each frame is 16 ms.

11113

My bad, I read your post as being about polishing the lens to remove the frosting. TK talked about doing that earlier. Now I see you are refering to the AR coating.

I’ve never polished that. I’ve swapped between clear and AR lenses, though. I’ve always noticed that the AR lenses shift the tint a bit more yellow, while the clear lenses shift it a bit less yellow. I’ve got a lot of S2 sized lights and lenses and I swapped them around to improve the tint. I put AR coated on the CW and clear on the NW, etc… It’s all about personal preference.

I haven’t noticed much shift between green and pink, though. Maybe the extra yellow I see also brings a little green with it. The clear lens reduces yellow and I thought maybe adds some blue, but who knows. It might depend a lot on the particular led as well as the type of AR coatings. Some reflect white light back as green and some as blue or purple (FW3A is purple) and these different types of AR coatings definitely effect the tint shift of light going through them. I have not dealt with any green style AR coatings.

All these tint shifts are quite small in my experience. Not a dramatic change.

11114

Looks like it’s a tarnish remover. I have some silver polish paste… and wondering if that may do the trick. Did you do both sides of the glass? I’m a little puzzled… wouldn’t removal of the coating increase lumens?

11115

Well mine just arrived (3D) and I immediately realized that I hate the emitter tint (especially compared side by side with the 219c in my manker eo3h, I love absolutely everything else about the flashlight, just not cool white,
Any chance of it growing on me…
:confounded:

11116

I received my order. Ordered a 3000k XPL HI 7A and a Sony VTC cell. Shipping was quick, got it much sooner than expected!

I’ve spent the better part of two evenings now playing with the light.

The Andúril‎ UI makes the light. Seriously, it is awesome. I’ve only used lights with a qlite guppydrv prior to this.

Pros:
The bonus features like candle mode and lightning are on point, I dig them. Party strobe for freezing objects is just ridiculous! Lots of time went into the Andúril‎ UI.
My two favorite parts about the light are the Andúril‎ program and the small size.
The threads feel nice and the machining looks pretty good. The button is just a tad proud of the tail though, and I think it should have been sub-flush.

Cons:
The delay from clicking to the light turning off is too long. Sporez isn’t the only one to notice. I understand it was programmed to allow the light to sense multiple clicks, but I think it is longer than it needs to be.

The blink to indicate 1 or 7 FET when ramping the brightness up and down almost looks like a glitch — it seems unintentional as if the light cut out for a split second. I like the idea but I wonder if a tweak can be made to make it seem intentional.

The tailcap switch feels mushy. It cams to the side even with normal use, I wish it moved vertically only. I see under the rubber pad the contact nub is only a few mm in diameter so this probably doesn’t help. I think it should be a large disk instead. You can also push on the edge with your thumb and it cams and feels bad and is inconsistent and is rattly sometimes. The S2+ tailcap click is much sharper and has a shorter throw. I know the FW3A is an e switch, but I would have liked to see this metal button design be far better mechanically. I might try and improve it.

I’m not seeing the benefit of the triple setup. Compared to a S2+ 219C 4000k 90CRI with 45 deg TIR, the FW3A beam pattern is far worse and the light runs hotter at what appears to be the same brightness. I don’t understand the benefit of the triple, especially when the turbo mode heats up the head very hot in mere seconds. It seems to be hotter with less light output… The smooth ramp ceiling of 130 at 760lm is no better than a single LED so I don’t understand.

3000k tint is OK but a tad too warm for my taste and 70 CRI is low, really hoping for a 4000k 90+ CRI LH351D option. I still think it was a better choice over 5000k though, I would not like 3D.

Came with two spare black o-rings but no white ones. Would be nice if it included both.

As someone earlier pointed out, I wish the pocket clip ring was flush with the body and did not protrude. The clip color and design are fine though.

Based on the above I’m on the fence about buying another. It needs to have the right emitter and I don’t want to pay $36 and then buy a $15 LH351D triple and then throw away the XPL HIs.
I wish I could have the Andúril‎ software in a S2+ or M1 host or single emitter FW1A but I understand it needs an e-switch and I don’t know what other hosts have one…
Edit: I just see some Anduril software updates were submitted by TK. I think a lot of users would appreciate knowing the version number being ordered.

I think the light would be great with a single LH351D and 45 deg TIR. Can I put in a single emitter with a new MCPCB?

11117

I would totally buy a single emitter FW1A with either a TIR or reflector.

11118

You don’t have to “throw away” those XP-L HI’s, you can throw them to me. :beer:
I’ll take either flavor… but that beautiful 3D tint is my favorite of the three.

If you do it let me know & let’s see if we can work out a deal. :+1:

11119

Too long a delay on shut-off? Man, tough crowd. It’s a fraction of a second. I don’t see any reason to be bothered about it.

Sounds like your tail cap isn’t locked down tight enough. Did you remove and reattach the tail cap? Nothing is glued down, so if something shifted it may be a problem. The button on my FW3A has no lateral movement. This light was released with no glue or potting, for the benefit of modders. Must keep that in mind. And because of this, QC wasn’t as thorough as with normal Lumintop production. Some people found debris in their lights. Many have had loose retainer rings in the head (easy to tighten though).

Calibrate your thermal config and that should help a bit with the heating.

This is not meant to be a massive thrower for many minutes. It’s too small & too thin for that. It’s a “micro-18650”… think about that. Can’t make big thrower demands on this form factor. Completely unrealistic.

Triple emitters means more efficiency. Which means you’ll get longer runtime for the same output than with a single emitter.

11120

The light is very nice, I was just giving some critical feedback after some time with it.

I did disassemble and reassemble the tailcap because it was not always responding to button presses, and that seems OK now. I will also check the head retainer ring.

Teacher, good to know others are interested in the XPL HI triple if I remove it. I’ll keep that in mind depending on whether a LH351D is offered soon.