FW3A Troubleshooting / FAQ

BLF Special Edition Products
541

I noticed that removing the head and putting it back, the ramp resets to another value. Is it the normal behavior?

542

What if we print in the manual?

Factory Reset

With light turned On, click 4 times to enter ramp config mode. At the prompts (fluttering light), respectively, click 1 time, then 21 times. If there is a 3rd prompt, click 7 times (this is seen when in stepped ramping mode).

The alternative is to design in a special reset code that is maybe shorter/simpler that resets not only ramp levels and number of steps, but also thermal settings. This would be a lot more work for ToyKeeper and would not make it into the FW3A for many months.

I think for right now maybe she can just put instructions, like above, into post #1 of this thread and the main thread so it’s easy to find.

543

With the FW3A, the driver gets power well before the switch does, so I don’t think this would work.

544

Yes, it always resets to the max 1 x 7135 level which is about 125-130 lumen.

545

My dark gray anodizing is actually bluish or cyanish. Has anybody had this color variation? It’s not a complaint, just an observation.

546

Neal wouldn’t lie to you so there must be some miscommunication or error somewhere. If one of your LEDs was not working I would imagine he would send you a replacement head. How did you talk to him in the past? Usually I just stick with the BLF PM system. I would not bombard him on multiple platforms. It’s easy to get confused if the user names are all different for each platform.

Make sure to include your order number and what exactly happened in the past. It’s possible he did send a new head, but mistakenly gave you your old tracking number.

Hopefully he will contact you soon with an update.

547

I started by email, then Reddit, then on Reddit I was advised to switch to BLF forum, he responded first and then stopped responding again. He responds only after I start whining in one of the forum threads, like just now. Said “already shipped”, no tracking number provided though. I guess I’m on the mercy of the shipping company now.

548

Nice, he responded to you. :+1: A tracking number would have been nice, but he may not have one, it depends on how it was shipped. Shipping from China is very complicated.

He may not have responded earlier because he already sent it and it might arrive anytime now.

Depending on the country it’s going to, he seems to ship new lights DHL in just a few days (like USA) because this cost is already figured into the price.

Other countries may go whatever route is cheaper to avoid customs fees and make it cheapest for the customer.

Replacement heads/lights also go the cheapest route (even USA) simply because this extra cost comes out of Neal’s pocket. It goes through a 3rd party shipper that has to supply Neal with the tracking number.

Didn’t he say he sent it about 2 weeks ago, (when he sent you the wrong tracking number)? It might be showing up soon. I have no idea how fast shipping would be to Bulgaria. I’m guessing a minimum of 2 weeks and likely 3 or 4.

There’s also a chance it could be in customs right now. We just have to be patient.

549

He’s been responding to me in a timely manner.

550

/\ 
 +1 
 :+1:

551

Neal responded to my PM, but not an email. I’d guess he’s got a TON of correspondence lately with the new emitters, copper model, add-ons and the optic switcheroo. I don’t envy him.

552

Yes, I should be more precise, that is what TK said for general AndĂșril firmware.

The FW3A is special with the rear switch and it won’t work.
As far I remember the reset function is in her light saber firmware.

553

The factory reset function is already included on one of my other FSM-based interfaces. The way it works is:

  1. Disconnect power.
  2. Press and hold the button.
  3. Connect power (like, by screwing on the tailcap).
  4. The light flashes a warning for 3 seconds, with increasing intensity.
  5. If the user lets go of the button, the reset gets cancelled. It just gently fades away. Otherwise, if they hold it for the full time period, it flashes really bright then fades out. The config has been reset to factory defaults.

In terms of how it’s actually implemented
 the boot-up code checks to see if the button is being held. If it is, it displays a warning pattern and waits. Then after 3 seconds, it saves settings to eeprom and displays a fade-out pattern. And then at the very end, after the user releases the button, it finally loads the eeprom data. So this all happens before anything is loaded, meaning all the values are automatically at their default values.

Of course, if they’re not holding the button, it just loads the data normally and does its regular “battery is connected” blink.

So it’s definitely possible. And in Anduril, it should have an extra step where it auto-calibrates the thermal sensor. But on the FW3A there’s a bit of a problem
 power gets connected before the button. So the user can’t hold the button while connecting power. Or if they do, the driver won’t be able to sense it.

Because of the FW3A’s switch design, it would need a different solution. Probably a button sequence which would force the MCU to reboot, so it could do its usual boot-time stuff again, but with the button held down this time. It’s just a little tricky to force an AVR chip to reboot
 there’s no reset command.

554

Okay, okay already. As long as we’re all thinking about it, I took a stab at implementing factory reset.

It’s now uploaded to the fsm branch in the code repository.

For most lights, this means “hold button then connect power”, but for the FW3A I gave it a special button press sequence instead: Click 13 times, and hold the final click for about 5 seconds until the reset is complete. (thirteen seemed like an appropriate number for this)

To make the chip reboot, I configured the watchdog timer to hard-reset everything if it doesn’t get a response, and then put the chip into an infinite null loop to make sure it won’t respond to anything. Then when the timer activates, it detects an error and it forces a reboot.

So, it’ll do its self-destruct sequence thing, ending either in a whimper or a bang, depending on whether the user cancelled the reset early or kept holding until ignition.

Oh, and it also auto-calibrates the temperature during reset. It pretends the user configured the current temperature for 21 C (70 F). And the bit where it displays a warning of increasing severity for a few seconds before the reset? That’s actually required to give the sensor enough time for a useful temperature reading.

555

Very nice! Thanks.

Now I wonder how many months it will be before Lumintop orders another batch of drivers and tells them to load the “reset” version of Anduril on it. Then they will recieve the drivers and start using them. 2 months? 6 months?

Maybe Lumintop can reflash their existing drivers (before assembly)? I know they did it on the GT.

556

Are these numbers approx correct? It is for FW3A XP-L HI 3D, unmodded with a 35E battery at 4.1V,

Stepped Ramping.

Step Level Lm Amp

T 150 2800 12A

7 130 760 3A (Nx7135)

6 108 400 2A

5 87 240 1A

4 65 120 400mA (1x7135)

3 50 70 260mA

2 35 25 120mA

1 20 3,6 30mA

(M 1 0.3 1.5mA)

Edit: I put in some approx theoretical Amp draws. They are probably pretty inaccurate. Feel free to correct the values.

557

Looks pretty good. I got about 1000 and 132 lumen at Nx7135 and 1x7135, but that was using a 30Q. So seems about right. I did not measure the 7 steps, though.

Are you trying to fill in the question marks or verify the step spacing?

558


 ish? But also kinda not ish?

FWIW, the default stepped ramp values are:

  1. 20 / 150
  2. 38 / 150
  3. 56 / 150
  4. 75 / 150
  5. 93 / 150
  6. 111 / 150
  7. 130 / 150


 and the no-PWM levels are 65, 130, and 150. (1x7135, 8x7135, FET)

At a guess, with some napkin math, the approximate power draw and runtimes with a 3500 mAh cell should be (approximately):

  1. 20: 11 lm / 26 mA / 5.7 days
  2. 38: 42 lm / 97 mA / 36 hours
  3. 56: 103 lm / 242 mA / 14.5 hours
  4. 75: 196 lm / 561 mA / 6.2 hours
  5. 93: 349 lm / 1.06 A / 3.3 hours
  6. 111: 574 lm / 1.76 A / 2.0 hours
  7. 130: 900 lm / 2.80 A / 1.25 hours

But I haven’t measured with a light box or power meter to check these. It’s just an estimate based on 130 lm for the 1x7135 level and 900 lm for the 8x7135 level, with 350 mA per chip. It used the actual PWM levels from the source code, multiplied by the power for each chip involved. So it assumes a linear response curve from the hardware, which isn’t quite true, but it should at least be reasonably close.

Edit: Measuring an actual XP-L HI 3D FW3A, what I got was:

  1. 6 lm
  2. 33 lm
  3. 88 lm
  4. 177 lm
  5. 351 lm
  6. 598 lm
  7. 927 lm

So
 reasonably close to what the calculator guessed. Just a bit lower on the low end and higher on the high end.

559

I tried looking but didn’t find what I was looking for.
Is there a How To guide to show you how to install the glow gasket?

560

i. Unscrew the bezel
2. Remove it & lens
3. Remove Carclo optic being careful not to break the leg(s) if it is stuck
4. Put Glow Gasket on underside of optic, around legs
5. Re-install optic
6. Re-install bezel and lens
7. Tighten, make sure MCPCB does not twist as you tighten

That’s about it.