The little FWAA is growing on me. Yesterday I took it out hiking, clipped to my back pocket, not locked out. There were no Runaway Ramping problems. I use an H10 battery.
I have set the ceiling to 90/150, set memory to the lowest 0.1 lumens, (with a 5 minute last mode memory), and I carry in Simple Mode, which does not allow Turbo. I also bent the clip so it is tighter.
When I got home and removed the light from my pocket, it was ON at 0.5 lumens (second step in the ramp). The battery was still above 4v.
I think I need to do the O ring mod to the switch.
(I still refuse to click 4x to lock and unlock)
I’m not sure which thread to post this in, so if I should move it please let me know.
I’m at the end of ideas, and I’m quite frustrated. My FWAA has worked flawlessly until yesterday. It seems to have just lost its mind. Every time I take it apart and put it back together, it acts differently. You name it, it does it: Goes to turbo, then two seconds later won’t go to turbo. Seems to switch between ramping and stepped after only turning it off. Sometimes flickers, sometimes won’t turn off. Sometimes it ramps, and other times it doesn’t do anything - just stays at current brightness as I hold the switch down. Countless other odd behaviors. I’ve read all I can and tried all the fixes I could find: Cleaned all contacts, factory reset, different batteries, tighten switch end first- then install battery and then head, tighten (and loosen) retaining rings, adjust o-ring on black tube. It seems the light works fine for the first 3 seconds after I reassemble and then the odd behavior starts. I just don’t know what to do now. If you have any suggestions, I’m all ears. Thanks.
I had a problem where the light wouldn’t turn off. I could ramp up and down just fine but it was flickering. Even when I turned it off it continued to flicker. Little bit like a candle mode. I fixed it by changing led wires and reflowing emitters. Tried every other trick associated with these lights before that. Tricky buggers.
good… just to check… I clean with a paper towel and isopropyl alcohol. The goal is to have No lubricant in the head, especially on the pill and threads. Same for the body threads at both ends and also the inner tube… No Lube on any of it (to eliminate any electrical issue related to lube)… after we solve the problem, you can put a SMALL amount of lube back on the threads and O rings …
> tighten (and loosen) retaining rings
my guess is there is a loose retaining ring at the tailswitch… it should be tight… do not loosen it. Same for the retaining ring on the pill…
once those things are done… do the following steps
install tailcap, nice and tight so the inner tube gets pushed all the way down.
install fully charged battery, and tighten head
Turn the light on, and assuming all works… celebrate!
Did you disassemble the tail? (taking out the retaining ring, switch, rubber and metal buttons and the golden thin spring that sits in the groove around the button)
^ This is an advanced hobbyist flashlight. Not for the average consumer. This electronic tail switch body design is inherently prone to suffering faults, but for the most part it works. I had slightly finicky issues with my first FW3A. The tips Jon_Slider provided here worked perfectly. No problems since. I’ve had ZERO problems with my FWAA. And I always unscrew from the front to access the battery. There is a reason why Lumintop includes a special warning tag to change batteries this way.
So yeah, this doesn’t measure up to the reliability & QA levels you get with mainstream brands like Olight, Fenix, Imalent, Jetbeam… But then, this is a BLF/Lumintop project light. EDC18 is the way to go for eliminating this problem and those who seem prone to make it happen should go with that, if Anduril in this form factor is still desirable to them.
All of the above, and it sounds like you've already done most of it. I'd be looking around the switch first, but since most of these seem to have been assembled in a hurry and/or by new people on the production line (right after CNY), take a peek under the optic if you haven't already. Bezel comes off easily and the optic is held in place by legs on the board, so no risk of twisting off domes. Look at where the wires come up through the hole in the center of the board where they bend and are soldered onto the pads. Seems like a few had those wires cut a bit too short and/or too much insulation was stripped, so there was bare wire contacting the copper part of the board in the hole/below the mask...creating a short. Could be some solder spatter that worked loose and is touching something, too.
So far mine is still flawless (other than ugly soldering)...fingers crossed.
Thank you for these suggestions, I will start with them tomorrow and update here with progress. I do notice that the o-ring on the inner black tube seems to be shredding. I think it’s from disassembling the light so many times in the past few days. It appears to be thinner than the extra o-rings supplied, so I don’t have a back-up. Does anyone know the exact size it is so I can order a replacement?
