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

[Minocc]

I got some gitd filament, made a diffuser with it.

Looks interesting with the lightning flashy.

Glow cone for FW3A

I should be getting a really nice red later this month.

[ToyKeeper]

@djozz

No SST-20 4000K 95 CRI I have ever seen in reality looks remotely so green.

It looks great if I turn it up high enough to activate the FET… in other words, 1000+ lumens. It makes an awesome 4000K white light. At the lower levels I actually use though, it’s not even close to white.

@PBWilson

That sand/oiled bronze/gold color is fantastic!

You mean the green one?

The color samples show olive green, blue, pinkish purple, and white.

It looks like it may be somewhere between “olive” and “olive drab”, somewhere between the food and the military color.

About the purple one, I’d ideally make it a bit darker… sort of a candy grape purple or midnight purple. But this pinkish purple is good too.

@SamHaLeKe

Surely hoping TK is getting one!

I hope so too!

I like purple, and I want a moonbeam button.

I hope the logo is okay. I think people were expecting me to put my avatar or “TK” or the button, but that just seems tacky. I’d rather have some sort of simple geometric design, so I made one. “Press here for moonbeams”

@SamHaLeKe

I think that here at BLF most just forget that this is a collaboration between TLF and BLF.

So there are efectively TWO comunities ACTIVE for this flashlight.

TLF is even holding a “official” poll on wich collor it should be! One can only choose two colors for fisrt run …

Seems that the communication is one direction these days?

It’s more that Bluzie at TLF is actively engaged in the ongoing FW3A process, and … I’m trying not to be. Now that it’s released, I mostly need to focus on other projects. And maybe a nap.

[teacher]

I think the ‘TK Moonbeam Button’ looks great on the ’FW3A-TK’….
.

[JasonWW]

I’m just not seeing the green. It looks more brown/bronze. Maybe it’s my screen colors deceiving me.

Is that other one white? I didn’t think you could do white anodization. I though it was a light silver that looked a bit whitish due to the camera.

[PBWilson]

I see more dark bronze.

And it DEFINITELY says “yanny” in turbo mode.

[Flying_Luminosity]

@ToyKeeper

[…] About the purple one, I’d ideally make it a bit darker… sort of a candy grape purple or midnight purple. But this pinkish purple is good too. […]

I completely agree, and I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not overly keen on the type of purple like the one pictured. We’ve already seen lights in thst shade of purple that looks almost like fuchsia (e.g. Astrolux A01 with its horrible next-mode memory). Personally, I prefer the darker tones with a higher blue component such as Cadbury’s Purple. Or if we stay with warmer tones, maybe a dark plum / wine red. There are so many shades of purple, so why stick with what is so common? That particular shade seems over-used to me - not just in flashlights but also in other products, which imho makes it look ‘cheap’. Let’s be a bit more adventurous!

[ToyKeeper]

@JasonWW

Is that other one white? I didn’t think you could do white anodization. I though it was a light silver that looked a bit whitish due to the camera.

If I understand correctly, white ano is made the same way as silver ano, or virtually any other color except “natural” — by adding dye. Natural ano is without dye, silver can technically be done without except it’s extremely thin, and the common type-II colors (including silver) just use different colors of dye.

With type-III ano, the natural color is strong enough to make lighter dye colors look bad… so those are usually natural or black or dark grey.

Anyway, it does seem to be white… or at least a pretty light grey. We should find out more soon.

[MyRants]

@Flying Luminosity

… Let’s be a bit more adventurous!

I agree. I hope they end up with something close to the Cadbury purple.

[teacher]

.
I never knew there were so many different shades of “Purple”… all with a different name.
And the ones below are just a small fraction of them….
.

.
Or…. ‘we’ could just go with ’Barney Purple’……
.

[Klayking]

Convoy’s violet S2+ is a gorgeous shade of purple. I’d love to see a shade very similar to this used on the FW3A.

[JasonWW]

@ToyKeeper

@JasonWW

Is that other one white? I didn’t think you could do white anodization. I though it was a light silver that looked a bit whitish due to the camera.

If I understand correctly, white ano is made the same way as silver ano, or virtually any other color except “natural” — by adding dye. Natural ano is without dye, silver can technically be done without except it’s extremely thin, and the common type-II colors (including silver) just use different colors of dye.

With type-III ano, the natural color is strong enough to make lighter dye colors look bad… so those are usually natural or black or dark grey.

Anyway, it does seem to be white… or at least a pretty light grey. We should find out more soon.

From what I remember, the white dye particles were too large to fit inside the etched surface you get with aluminum which is why we never see white anodization. Anyway, maybe they figured out a way to do it.

[RapidLux]

I like the plum color, would want even a bit more red/darkness added to give it some depth. And maybe marmorize it with a little bit black.

[Flying_Luminosity]

@Klayking

Convoy’s violet S2+ is a gorgeous shade of purple. I’d love to see a shade very similar to this used on the FW3A.

[Firelight2]

@JasonWW

@ToyKeeper

@JasonWW

Is that other one white? I didn’t think you could do white anodization. I though it was a light silver that looked a bit whitish due to the camera.

If I understand correctly, white ano is made the same way as silver ano, or virtually any other color except “natural” — by adding dye. Natural ano is without dye, silver can technically be done without except it’s extremely thin, and the common type-II colors (including silver) just use different colors of dye.

With type-III ano, the natural color is strong enough to make lighter dye colors look bad… so those are usually natural or black or dark grey.

Anyway, it does seem to be white… or at least a pretty light grey. We should find out more soon.

From what I remember, the white dye particles were too large to fit inside the etched surface you get with aluminum which is why we never see white anodization. Anyway, maybe they figured out a way to do it.

White anodization is definitely possible.

I have a white Emisar D4 that is quite nice. It has a grainy surface though. Not sure what the surface texture is on the white FW3A.

[JasonWW]

@Firelight2

@JasonWW

@ToyKeeper

@JasonWW

Is that other one white? I didn’t think you could do white anodization. I though it was a light silver that looked a bit whitish due to the camera.

If I understand correctly, white ano is made the same way as silver ano, or virtually any other color except “natural” — by adding dye. Natural ano is without dye, silver can technically be done without except it’s extremely thin, and the common type-II colors (including silver) just use different colors of dye.

With type-III ano, the natural color is strong enough to make lighter dye colors look bad… so those are usually natural or black or dark grey.

Anyway, it does seem to be white… or at least a pretty light grey. We should find out more soon.

From what I remember, the white dye particles were too large to fit inside the etched surface you get with aluminum which is why we never see white anodization. Anyway, maybe they figured out a way to do it.

White anodization is definitely possible.

I have a white Emisar D4 that is quite nice. It has a grainy surface though. Not sure what the surface texture is on the white FW3A.

I think on the Emisar products they might acid etch the surface, add the white dye then seal it. I’m not sure. The grainy surface is a key that they are doing something unique. It may not be true anodization like we see with other colors, though. Here’s an article on why there’s no white.

I wonder if we can get Lumintop to comment on the white finish.

[CLB]

@contactcr

People need to stop comparing to 219B, it’s too far under the BBL to make a good comparison for 99% of LEDs

Exactly. Many people prefer light with a negative Duv, but, objectively speaking, negative and positive Duv are equally deviant from the reference standard. (Of course, there is nothing sacred about the BBL, but it does represent the light, both natural and artificial, in which humans evolved and adapted.)

As a (subjective) aside, I see little or no green in the high CRI SST 20’s (of unknown bin) in my Emisar D4S, even at low levels, although I accept that, objectively, they are above BBL. And when I light up the ship half-model above my desk, which has blues, reds, and wood tones, the SST’s are significantly richer in color than the XP-L HI 3D’s in my FW3A.

An interesting question: why do humans prefer magenta light over green?

[xevious (Gary)]

I like the burgundy / maroon one on the left. The metallic purple 2nd from left looks a bit richer, less “lilac” than the 2nd from right.

Teal looks pretty nice too.

[ToyKeeper]

Original: I like the 3rd one best here, the pinkish purple.

Gotta go with the second one here, a darker purple. I like all of the colors though.

@Flying Luminosity

Gotta go with the second one here too, the darker more vivid magenta. The wine color on the left is nice, too.

@xevious

I don’t know what we’ll actually get, but I’m liking these darker and more vivid purples people made.

[Umpi2000]

I just love colorful lights! What about orange or to be different a neon type yellow? I’d LEGO a blue and yellow together for sure!

[Kingjohn]

Different body colours are perfect to distinguish between different led types…
Will the code also work for those lights? If so, I will wait for them and order once, they are available…