Lumintop FW1A discussion and review

Do you have any pictures of that mod? It’s almost certainly more floody than the production FW1A. Sounds like you need to put an LH351D in yours.

Anxiously waiting for mine. I am always a thrower person. Fw3a was never attractive to me just because it is multipla emitter light. Fw1a is perfect to me.

https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/56663/726
(I’ve actually swapped out the SMO for an OP since then)

I have thought about it and may do so. If I come across - or someone points me towards - a known good tint of the Samsung emitter then I’ll do that. For now, I’m mostly content. I have the stock FW3As if I need more flood.

Another emitter option I’ve been tossing around is a quad e21a with a heavy OP reflector.

I’m interested but not gray.

So it isn’t just me. I have two gray FW3As because I bought them both before the colors came out, now I don’t really want another gray one. The FW1A and FW3a share most of their anodized parts, seems like all they’d have to do is start making the same colors of the longer head.

I want the FW1A, but I know as soon I buy one the next day they’ll announce all the new colors.

Seems like the heads by themselves would sell for those that already have one of the FWXX lights.

The bezel and head are both modified, just the body and tail are shared.

I know. I guess I consider the bezel part of the head.

Got my FW1A today… all I can say is wow! I really like this body style, easy to hold and use. Mine is an SST-20 in 4000k and the tint is amazing! The tint on this one is very rosey, reminds me of a Nichia 4000k led! I can find no green in this one, I have really fallen for the SST-20 FD2 bin in the FW3A and this is a better tint or the reflector makes it better. I would love to know if this is an FD2, I suspect the FW3A lights were FD2 after I built a known FD2 for comparison.

I thought this would need a SMO reflector, but the beam is almost to tight with the OP reflector. Just found my new favorite single emitter EDC!

Interesting to hear that the tint is rosier than in the FW3A, which is not bad already. You can see if the tint difference is due to the optic vs reflector if you remove the optic and reflector and shine both the FW3A and FW1A against the wall so see if one is rosier than the other. However, I’m thinking the FW1A with one emitter is driven harder at the same level so it will run rosier than the FW3A.

That’s exactly it. The SST20 has so much tint shift vs If. Single emitter setups look great. Triples at reasonable power levels though are almost always green shifted.

Yeah, that’s my concern about the FW1A too. There’s a good chance I’ll change the LED in mine, since Neal sent me a cool white one… and I’m thinking maybe LH351D if I can get it in a good bin. That should really cut down on how throwy it is. Or perhaps an old XM-L2, since those were also reasonably decent in a reflector and can handle full FET power. Or I think I might have an original XP-L 3D in a parts tray somewhere…

SST-20 would definitely be too throwy, but at least it’d have better tint than in the FW3A.

I will buy a couple when different colours are available. If it doesn’t happen then oh well, plenty of other lights out there.

Looks like Neal/Lumintop just added a couple more emitter options: xpl HD-1A and HI-7A. Still no Nichia. Waiting for the SS bezel but will probably order at least one with 7A even though I just purchased some separate boards from Kaidomain with that emitter!

Glad to hear how throwy this one is, won’t be an issue for me.

At the bottom of the drop-down menu....

It is listed but not able to be purchased, same as 7A was previously.

I have some 80CRI XP-L HDs and a few random 80CRI XML2’s in the 3500-4500K range as well. Thought about those already. Tint shift across the beam is keeping them at bay. The sliced SST20 has very little tint variation to my eyes. I’m waiting to place an order with Clemence for a quad e21a… maybe I’ll just do that now

This. I would stock up on a few if they kept the price reasonable.

I suspect this is because the Nichia 219C is known to have difficulties when run direct-drive with a FET. In a triple or quad it’s not usually so bad, though Emisar still uses a reduced-power firmware for it because otherwise too many people report problems when used with high-amp cells. In a single-emitter light though, it’s much easier to damage the LED by giving it too much power.

So I think they’re probably wanting a way to reduce the maximum power before attempting to sell a Nichia version.

I have a FW3A firmware build for Nichia 219B, with the maximum power set to 100% on the 8x7135 chips plus 50% on the FET. This is pretty safe, but may be lower than necessary. For a FW1A with 219C, I’m not sure what power level would be safe. I’m guessing the 219B build would probably be fine, but again perhaps a little too safe.

As far as I’m aware, the same thing could be a risk for SST-20 4000K 95CRI, but I don’t know if anyone has really tested it yet to find out. So if you’re using one of those, it’d be a good idea to stick with relatively low-amp cells to avoid potentially damaging the LED. Or just avoid turbo and set the ceiling to at least ten steps below turbo.

I have ready 351D 5000K 90CRI from AeD GB. Perfect tint (not rosy but what a heck) and it fits better in reflector then in triples. Plus since there are complaints about narrow bean from SST and i presume XPL, this fatboy will be the best option

shipping says in a few days... :)