FW3A mod thread. Post yours!

contactcr · 2019-06-13T01:37:15.000Z

Use a 3500mAh cell and don’t worry about it

trailhunter · 2019-06-13T01:39:02.000Z

contactcr:

Use a 3500mAh cell and don’t worry about it

Thanks, isn’t more about amperage or capacity?

contactcr · 2019-06-13T01:43:59.000Z

The 3500 mAh cells won’t pull enough amps to cause a problem and you get the best runtime.

trailhunter · 2019-06-13T01:46:39.000Z

Ah interesting, I’ll pick up a efest 3500mah 20A bat for this then. Thanks for the protip

BlueSwordM · 2019-06-13T03:40:03.000Z

BTW, the 3500mAh Efests aren’t 20A cells.

They are real 3500mAh 10A 18650s.

Geuzzz · 2019-06-13T13:26:10.000Z

CRX:

Install tritium in the glow ring to make it glow. Might turn out good though.

It did the job .

Full glow:

Just trits:

Geuzzz · 2019-06-13T13:34:52.000Z

CRX:

CRX Powder Gaskets vs ICE Filaments printed ABS GITD version.

So I did a little comparison test over the course of 20 minutes or so with these.

From left to right, CRX Aqua Blue, CRX Green, ICE Filament printed and then CRX Red.

Quite a difference.
That printed one looks pretty useless.

djozz · 2019-06-13T13:53:28.000Z

Firelight2:

trailhunter:

Hi all, a little lost, what do I need to do to reflow 219b emitters?

Here’s what I do for reflows:

Tools needed:

Soldering Iron

Tweezers

A small pick (like a dental pick) may be helpful

A small table vise

1 wooden clothes pin

Thermal grease (arctic silver 5 recommended)

QTips recommended

Needle nose pliers recommended.

Solder paste

Instructions:

Unscrew and remove the bezel and lens.

The optic will be visible but is flush with the top of the head of the light. Take your dental pick (or tip of tweezers) and insert it into the gap and lift slightly. Then move your tool a few degrees and repeat. Walk your lifting tool around the optic until the optic pops off.

Place your light in your vise face-up to hold it still. If using a metal vise, put thick tape or wood in the jaws to protect the anodizing.

Apply the soldering iron to the bondpads where the wires are connected to the star. Use the pick to gently lift as you hold the iron. Once the solder melts the wires should life right off.

Use the pick to lift of the star. Insert it into the gaps in the star where the wires pass through to get behind the star so you can lift.

Once the star is removed use QTips to clean off all thermal grease from the bottom of the star and the top of the shelf in the head.

Place wooden clothespin in your table vise. Then place the star face-up into the clothespin. the jaws of the clothes pin should grip the side of the star leaving all LEDs exposed.

Using your left hand touch the soldering iron to the bottom of the star and hold it there (or if you have a soldering station use a hot air gun). In your right hand gently grip the sides of an LED with tweezers. When the soldering iron heats the entire star up enough to melt all the solder all the LEDs should lift right off with tweezers.

After removing the LEDs check to see that there is enough solder on the pads. If not, apply more solder paste with a toothpick.

Use tweezers to place new LEDs onto the bondpads on the star.

Heat up star again with soldering iron until solder melts. You can see when it is done because the LEDs will “jump” into position.

Let the star cool and remove it from the vise.

(Optional): I test the star at this point using a 14500 battery inside a small battery holder with wires coming out. Touch the wires to the bondpads on the star. If it lights up you did it right. If not, try reversing the wires… maybe you got the LEDs rotated the wrong way.

If you used a soldering iron on the bottom of the star give the bottom a few swipes with a small hand file to remove any solder.

Apply a thin layer of fresh thermal grease to the shelf.

Reinsert the star into the light.

Connect the wires from the driver to the star. I use a tweezers to hold them in position while I solder. Then I take a flat toothpick with the end filed flat with a “V” shaped notch in it and use that as a tool to press the wire against the star for final soldering.

Test the light to see that it works.

If it works, then insert the optic, lens and bezel.

If you buy a star with LEDs already installed, you can swap stars. That’s faster since it means skipping many of the above steps.

Once you get the hang of it, reflowing is easy. However, do not rush. In my experience, A slow and methodical approach works best for flashlight modding.

Nice extensive tutorial Firelight2. Because I can’t stick to minding my own business, here are some additions:
*the solder iron for this purpose (unsoldering led wires and reflowing leds by heating the board with an iron) must be clean and hot, and for this purpose the tip must be preferably of the chisel type. A 18W pointy solder iron is fine for soldering components on boards but not enough for this.
*when heating the underside of the board for reflowing leds, first load the tip with a blob of solder, to help the thermal contact between board an iron
*even if there is enough solder left on the pads of the board, I still apply a bit of solder paste on all the pads, the flux in the paste will help wetting the fresh solder pads on the new leds and the metal will bond better, it will prevent eventual cold solder joints.
*after reflow and seeing the leds jump into position I gently tap the top of the dome of the leds with a tooth pick, some solder may squeeze out under the leds and the solder layer will be thinner (better heat path)
*I found a cheap led tester very convenient to test reflows, I have this one, but I swapped the momentary switch for a clicky switch to have both hands free.

TrueRMS · 2019-06-13T17:16:34.000Z

djozz:

mrheosuper:

can you flash new firmware so you can config aux leds ?

I guess no, there must be hardware support for the aux leds too, I guess a free pin onnthe MCU to regulate them. On my FW3A the aux leds make no use of the driver.

Pin 7 is free. That’s what I did on mine (posted a few weeks ago).

xevious · 2019-06-13T22:58:42.000Z

Geuzzz:

CRX:

Install tritium in the glow ring to make it glow. Might turn out good though.

It did the job .

Full glow:

Just trits:

That looks great! So how long did you wait for the GITD ring to “fade off” from light exposure before taking that photo? If the tritium is strong “just” enough to cause some illumination of the GITD ring, that’s really cool. And innovative — haven’t seen anything like this before. I may end up not waiting and getting a GITD insert to do this mod.

Geuzzz · 2019-06-13T19:56:43.000Z

xevious:

That looks great! So how long did you wait for the GITD ring to “fade off” from light exposure before taking that photo? If the tritium is strong “just” enough to cause some illumination of the GITD ring, that’s really cool. And innovative — haven’t seen anything like this before. I may end up not waiting and getting a GITD insert to do this mod.

The full glow is after around 5sec turbo.

The trits only shot I took after an hour. But it looks fairly similar after half an hour.

contactcr · 2019-06-13T20:59:48.000Z

Kawi and others,

For those who stripped the anno did you disassemble or rely on waterproofing?

Since I don’t think any threads are anodized I guess we can do it either way so i’m looking to see what others did.

fluke · 2019-06-13T21:26:54.000Z

Anyone know where I could get a 10507 Carclo optic here in the UK.

They are about £2.50GBP but $20 shipping.

Google lists some outlets as UK but once you get to shipping its listed as International.

KawiBoy1428 · 2019-06-13T21:32:58.000Z

contactcr:

Kawi and others,

For those who stripped the anno did you disassemble or rely on waterproofing?

Since I don’t think any threads are anodized I guess we can do it either way so i’m looking to see what others did.

I bead blasted mine ( completely stripped the light first) so I don’t really know what caustic solutions will do to the threads. I would do what you can to protect the threads. Bead blasting is hard on the threads, you will lose the smoothness and have to polish them to gain the smoothness back. So I keep the light together with the o-rings and seal the open ends.

This is kind of different…

xevious · 2019-06-13T22:53:39.000Z

djozz:

Nice extensive tutorial Firelight2. Because I can’t stick to minding my own business, here are some additions:
*the solder iron for this purpose (unsoldering led wires and reflowing leds by heating the board with an iron) must be clean and hot, and for this purpose the tip must be preferably of the chisel type. A 18W pointy solder iron is fine for soldering components on boards but not enough for this.
*when heating the underside of the board for reflowing leds, first load the tip with a blob of solder, to help the thermal contact between board an iron
*even if there is enough solder left on the pads of the board, I still apply a bit of solder paste on all the pads, the flux in the paste will help wetting the fresh solder pads on the new leds and the metal will bond better, it will prevent eventual cold solder joints.
*after reflow and seeing the leds jump into position I gently tap the top of the dome of the leds with a tooth pick, some solder may squeeze out under the leds and the solder layer will be thinner (better heat path)
*I found a cheap led tester very convenient to test reflows, I have this one, but I swapped the momentary switch for a clicky switch to have both hands free.

Thanks Firelight2 & djozz for putting this together. I’ve assembled this into a PDF for convenience. LINK.

xevious · 2019-06-13T22:56:29.000Z

KawiBoy1428:

p. This is kind of different…

Neat! Neo from The Matrix would buy that from you in a second (assuming he got his normal eyesight restored, of course).

xevious · 2019-06-13T23:01:25.000Z

Geuzzz:

The full glow is after around 5sec turbo.

The trits only shot I took after an hour. But it looks fairly similar after half an hour.

OK… so the trits actually might not have any noticeable influence. An hour later isn’t long enough to know if the GITD has totally worn off. I find that my Tec Accessories GITD key fob will be slightly glowing like 7 hours after exposure to a bright flashlight.

KawiBoy1428 · 2019-06-13T23:10:49.000Z

xevious:

KawiBoy1428:

p. This is kind of different…

Neat! Neo from The Matrix would buy that from you in a second (assuming he got his normal eyesight restored, of course).

Just been messing around, you know what excites TRIT’s?

UV lite… maybe a couple really small UV emitters on a board under optics full of Trits…UV even excites the phosphorous of the main triple emitters…

Gives an eery cast to the optics as well…. very different INDEED!

Need a very small board and UV emitter placed directly in the middle of the main triple board with a resistor added….

xevious · 2019-06-13T23:14:51.000Z

KawiBoy1428:

Just been messing around, you know what excites TRIT’s?

UV lite… maybe a couple really small UV emitters on a board under optics full of Trits…UV even excites the phosphorous of the main triple emitters…

Gives an eery cast to the optics as well…. very different INDEED!

Need a very small board and UV emitter placed directly in the middle of the main triple board with a resistor added….

Ah yes, I’d heard about that. Well they do make UV emitters, but AFAIK they’re all the large 3mm and 5mm dome pin type. It would be cool if there was a micro SMD mounted LED that touches into the UV spectrum. And you wouldn’t need much power either. Maybe have them run at 20% of capacity? That would create quite the tritium light show.

Does UV exposure accelerate the half-life of tritium?

KawiBoy1428 · 2019-06-13T23:29:48.000Z

xevious:

KawiBoy1428:

Just been messing around, you know what excites TRIT’s?

UV lite… maybe a couple really small UV emitters on a board under optics full of Trits…UV even excites the phosphorous of the main triple emitters…

Gives an eery cast to the optics as well…. very different INDEED!

Need a very small board and UV emitter placed directly in the middle of the main triple board with a resistor added….

Ah yes, I’d heard about that. Well they do make UV emitters, but AFAIK they’re all the large 3mm and 5mm dome pin type. It would be cool if there was a micro SMD mounted LED that touches into the UV spectrum. And you wouldn’t need much power either. Maybe have them run at 20% of capacity? That would create quite the tritium light show.

Does UV exposure accelerate the half-life of tritium?

Good question… if I can find something small enough to fit, I’d give it a shot……