Lumintop FW1A discussion and review

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... :)

TK, that is exactly the route I just went. I dropped in a 4000k LH351D 90 cri led. Still has some throw, but the spill is very useful. BTW, I am also running the code mod that has autolock. Can be disabled or incremented in 1 minute intervals. I love both changes.

I tried the FW1A today for biking. It was pretty decent.

Normally I use a triple with 10510 optic, which makes an elliptical beam. It does a great job of showing me what’s directly in front of me and what’s to the side for turns, and it mostly keeps the worst of the beam out of people’s eyes. But it doesn’t really reach far enough forward. So a throwy light was a nice change.

The FW1A’s extra throw was nice when going fast in a straight line, but not so great when turning or going slow. So I’ll have to put in a different LED or add some DC-Fix, and try it again. I found an XP-L 3D (with dome), so maybe that will work a little better than this XP-L HI 1A.

Okay, I put a XP-L HD 3D into this FW1A to see how it looks. At the 1x7135 level, this is what I measured:

Before (XP-L HI 1A):

  • 138.2 lm
  • 3120 cd
  • 22.58 cd/lm

After (XP-L HD 3D V6):

  • 151.9 lm
  • 1648 cd
  • 10.85 cd/lm

So it increased lumens to about 110% and cut throw to about 53%. It’s still a spot+spill beam pattern, but the spot is bigger as expected. It also increased the Cree rainbow effect, so the hotspot is relatively warm and the spill area is relatively cold.

Due to the way throw works, the estimated throw in meters on turbo is now about 76% of where it was originally. It went down from ~336-ish meters to ~255 m… or ~28 kcd to ~16 kcd. That’s not a huge amount higher than the FW3A’s 12.5 kcd, but it accomplishes this with a fraction as much power.

How long does it work on the max output? I guess longer than FW3A, but how much longer?

Just received my FW1A and I like the beam, I don’t think is too narrow. It’s not a big spill but it doesn’t feel uncomfortable for walking. If I need flood I have the FW3A, I prefer the FW1A to throw as much as possible

Measured 1400lm and 368m (34000cd) with VTC6 battery, impressive!!

Which emitter did you get?

Ordered 3D but received CW so I think 1A. I was going to put in it a Hi V2 5D anyway

It’s still a FET light designed to be as light weight as possible. Without cooling and on full turbo all 3 of my FWxA lights have a drastic step down within the first minute, as expected.

The sustainable level should be pretty similar to FW3A, but it throws a lot farther at that level.

As for the initial ramp-down, it probably happens a bit later and a bit slower, but I expect it’ll still be less than a minute. I probably should have measured that before modding it…

Thank you for even doing all that you do for us. :slight_smile: It does make me think when I pick up a light what to do after clicking it on. I have bistro, ramping two versions and Anduril at least two versions. Thanks.
Chris

I should have said for me because I can’t speak for other than myself. THANK YOU

I got some DC-Fix like material from Boaz’s DC-Fix thread that should mimic an elliptical optic. I haven’t actually tried it yet, though. Might be an option:

I went to Lumintop’s Facebook page and asked them if they plan to make the FW1A in more colors.

They said “Hi, only grey color so far”

Yes Lumintop, I know that.

I guess they have no Idea either.

That’s a shame my FW3T needs a brother to match lol.

I for one like the gray aluminum. It allows for no guilt when carrying a light and it gets scratched, dropped or otherwise boogered up. I have several copper, brass and titanium lights that I don’t carry for fear of damaging them.

I hope the FW1A sticks around, because it’s a good design. But it doesn’t have a list of literally thousands of people waiting to buy it like the FW3A did, so I don’t expect it will be as popular or have as many flavors.

Plus, many of us now have quite a few FW3As so it’s difficult to justify buying more. I’m at the point where I have a whole line-up to choose from when I want a light… can be hard to decide between purple 3D, bare 3D, grey 219B, grey 5A, copper SST-20, purple 219C, and FW1A. Plus, of course, all the other lights on my desk…

I just got a response from Neal, and he said there will be a FW1T. He also mentioned a SS FW3A without knurling. That sounds interesting.

:smiley:

Is someone playing a game of how fried they can get their LEDs?