FW3A Troubleshooting / FAQ

[Henk4U2]

@SIGShooter

@JasonWW

@Fubs261

I received my 2 FW3As this past Monday, the 20th. My Sanyo NCR18650GAs arrived yesterday, the 24th and I charged them over night. This morning is the first time I can test if they work.

One my FW3As is seeming to work fine. The other seems dead on arrival. It will not turn on. I swapped the head from the working FW3A and it works so the problem is with the head. I read through all these pages and I see that there are instructions to check the retaining ring. The retaining ring is pretty tight, I can’t even move it clockwise or counter clock wise. I can’t really tell if the notches on the board and the head line up. I’ve been trying to take off the retaining ring to see if I can adjust the board positioning, but the ring is on there so tight that my needle nose pliers are scratching/taking small pieces of the ring off.

When I tighten the faulty head, it doesn’t even blink indicating it’s receiving power. My functional FW3A head blinks regardless of which body I screw it on. I haven’t contacted Neal yet, but is there anything I can do? Any specific tool I can use on the retaining ring to stop scratching/taking small pieces of it off?

Edit: just realized I was damaging the nearby thread, not the retaining ring itself.

I can’t think of much except get some small cheap needle nose and maybe grind the ends to get a better grip.

Did you check under the optic? Are the led wires soldered? Is the positive wire getting voltage when screwed on to the body? You can try shorting the led negative wire to the head and it should be like Turbo. There might be a driver issue or maybe an led wire came loose on the driver. It’s hard to say.

I find pounding 2 nails through a piece of wood works better than needle nose pliers and cheap and easy to make. You just have to get the nails in the wood reasonably close to what’s needed and then bend them to fit in the notches.

Please take a look at THIS suggestion. The variant I use myself is a combination of a 2 inch SS nail and a small round pry bar (the handle of which can rest in the palm of my hand). The way you cross them depends on what you want to do (loosen or fasten retaining ring). The rubber band is not meant to apply force but to prevent things from flying around.