Fireflies E07 preview

I found out the mysterious reason why E07 drops in output overtime. The spring flattens out after being compressed and doesn’t return to the original length, which means it won’t push as hard on the cells. The weaker contact results in more resistance and lower output. I took some measurements with these fully charged cells. The 18650 cell uses a 21700 adapter, which makes them a good bit longer than the 21700 cells so the spring pushes harder on the 18650 cells.

Molicel P26A 18650: 6640 lumens
Molicel P28A 18650: 6300 lumens
Sony VTC5D 18650: 6300 lumens
Sony VTC6 18650: 5650 lumens
Molicel P42A 21700: 5600 lumens
Samsung 40T 21700: 5770 lumens
Samsung 30T 21700: 6500 lumens

This same E07 used to measure around 7,570 lumens with the same 30T and 7,017 lumens with the 40T. I swapped the tail cap with another E07 tail cap that is used less and the 40T measurements jumped from 5770 to 6000 lumens. There’s a possibility that I might have tried a 21700 protected cell which compressed the springs too hard causing permanent deformation, but I don’t remember. But now I know to never put protected cells in a flashlight not designed to accept protected cells.

These springs are not bad and all springs flatten out over time to a certain extent, but if Fireflies ever find any springs with better mechanical properties, they can sell them separately as an upgrade. There’s nothing we can do with the spring on the driver side but if Fireflies provide a longer tail cap spring, that will make up for the loss compression.

It's something we should all look out for on these high powered lights. I suppose good bypasses would solve that issue. Yet another good reason to add bypasses..

That’s the main reason I don’t like using BeCu C17500 45% IACS: while it does have better conductivity than BeCu C17530 38% IACS, its worse mechanical properties show up quite rapidly.

I tried to test a NCR18650GA button top and it crushed the springs further.
Now w/ P26A, it measures 5,820 lumens
Now w/ Samsung 30T 21700, it measures 5,840 lumens

This is significant considering the 30T used to measure 7,570 lumens when the springs were brand new. Lesson learned, be very careful what batteries you put in and twist the threads in slowly to make sure you are not forcing in a battery that is too long.

I would highly recommend to anyone with soldering skills to swap out the thermal paste in the Fireflies E07. I had 6500K SST20 inside and swapped them for Luxeon V2 4000K. I removed all the old thermal paste and replaced it with 10W/mk new paste. You have to unsolder all the wires because they are too short to be pulled out.

Before, the E07 got hot only slowly even if it was running on full turbo. It was barely warm at the outside and the heat would not transfer to the head as known from other hot-rods like the Emisar D4.

Now you can feel the heat at the outside already after a few seconds and it moves along the light until it is hot all along. That’s much better because if the heat is stored in the MCPCB the leds are more likely to fail. This leads me to the conclusion that Fireflies is using a much worse thermal paste than for example Emisar or Astrolux.

@Skylight Really? That’s the complete opposite for me, but I do have the V2 in which it has HY880 thermal paste.

The E07 gets hot insanely fast, even faster than my PL47, taking into account of course that the PL47 has a direct connection to the battery tube, so it doesn’t get as hot as fast, but the battery tube does get hot faster.

@SKV89, I would also agree. I advise anyone using any of Fireflies lights to not use protected/very long cells.

Like with Emisar/Amutorch lights, they use BeCu C17500 springs, so while they have some superb conductivity, their mechanical properties and resistance to plastic deformation(permanent) are bad.

I’m hesitant to say this because i dont want to start a thermal pastegate again but even on my Ti+Cu model only ~half of the MCPCB makes good contact with the shelf (FWIW my Emisar D18 was more or less the same). I added good thermal paste and it seems to transfer heat ok but obviously it could still be better.

My two early edition E07’s had virtually NO thermal paste

So if you have the skills - check

I wasn’t used protected cell, just standard length button top NCR18650GA with their 18650 adapter tube. Seems like it is only compatible with flat top 18650. I hope FF will increase the length of the tube slightly to avoid these issues and use the same springs you are using. That would result in the ultimate premium flashlight that should not degrade in performance over time.

On the Fireflies website it states this.

  • 7x CREE XPL HI V3 CW 6500K 6900 lumens Turbo brightness
  • 7x CREE XPL HI V3 3A NW 5000K 6900 lumens Turbo brightness

But isnt 5000K not as bright as 6500K?

If they are both V3 it wont be a huge difference. I think they have had v2, v3 and v4 in certain temps

It’s all about the flux bin. I’ve measured warmer temps brighter than cooler temps. If both of the lights are the same flux bin (V3), then their brightness should be the same. Though some lux meters seem to be more sensitive to cooler temps so they measure higher output with CW than WW even if the brightness should be the same.

Anyone familiar with replacing the button? My leds went out and I have a replacement but looks like the ring is press fit.

Mine is copper so I’m a little timid on being brute force on this, dont want to ruin the finish

I’m having trouble getting my aux lights to come on. I click 7 times from off and the switch lights change from 2 dots to 4 dots but my blue aux lights don’t come on. I click 7 times again and the switch changes from 4 dots to 2 dots. What am I doing wrong? How do I get my aux lights to come on? They used to work but I turned them off and haven’t used the light in quite in a while. Now I want to turn them back on.

Did you maybe open the bezel and turn them down with the pot screws when you did it the first time?

No, I don’t know enough to muck around with the internals.

Make sure your battery is charged? It could have drained it enough to allow the button/main LEDs to come on dimly but the aux board has its own low voltage protection so it will stay off.

Good idea, I’ll charge up the battery tonight. The light itself does come on and ramps up and down brightnesses as expected so I didn’t think about the battery since the light worked.

Is the light off or on or locked?
Locked is three clicks.
On is 7 clicks, but they need to be fast clicks.

He is doing that right because the button LEDs are changing. I’m betting it’s just a low battery