Lumintop EDC05 - Why nobody's modding it..

Lumintop EDC05 - What was I expecting.. :/

Soo.. some of my thoughts on the Lumintop EDC05 as a flasaholic and occasional moder.. Just got my second one today, this time in a NW tint in comparison to my first one that I've gifted not long before I've got it about a year ago and now I was missing for a good while. I don't know if I should've even bothered getting it for the second time actually.

Ok, before anything, I can say that I've welcomed the newer revision that I've got this time around and fixed the ugly pocket clip wiggle in it's groove - this time around the groove it's just as wide as the clip's retention "tabs" should I call them, or whatever.. thus, the clip is now sitting straight and flush, not at an angle and looking like it's hanging loosely on the body as it was the case with the previews iterations. Ok, so this was a welcome change. Along with the NW tint with almost no tint shift in the corona.

Now.. the little details, the bad and the ugly..

- Not a new thing with this revision, it was always like that, but the driver is glued to the head.. Ok, this is let's say.. passable. A bit of push from the switch hole and you're done - driver popped - that is by breaking the short emitter wires - which gets me to the next point..

- Press fit head/lens bezel - no threads, no threadlocker - just as bad though - No way to get the bezel out (actually just a retention press fit ring.. ) Not without damaging both the ring itself, the reflector, the glass and the head.. Maybe, if you're unlucky enough, the emitter itself..

- Aluminum MCPCB - small, thin, flimsy, not as thermally conductive as copper, obviously, thus one may argue that the emitter isn't driven too hard, so not an imperative feature and not locked to rotation by the retention screw - which is missing and for which there is actually a threaded hole in the head where it should've been screwed in - but.. I guess cutting corners makes perfect.

- Obviously, along with the aluminum MCPCB goes perfectly the cheap white thermal paste - because.. why not.. It's not like anybody's going to be able to take one of these lights apart and still get it back functional, in one piece after the deed was done..

- Side switch retention booth retention ring - also press fitted and also with the same burrs left behind (well, under.. ) the ring - because the low tolerances for the actual press fitting to be effective, but not so accurate fitting process - thus, while the ring gets pressed at the slightest angle, it will just cut it's way into the hole sides, instead of going straight in.. Whatever.. (well, even brands like Convoy and Thorfire and Sofirn, etc. budget brands basically, are doing a better job, using threads even for the side switches retention rings.. granted, bigger buttons, but if you want a press fit retention ring, at least do it.. "clean")

- Driver - looks the same size and build (double stacked) as the GT Micro's - reason why I intended to open the thing up in the first place and change it's driver - to make an EDC05 that was brighter and running Narsil and having a plethora more features.. including a batt. chk. and side switch indicator light.. - perfect 14500 EDC ('ish.. ) I guess I was too entusiastic tho

- OP reflector - Hate them with a passion.. - I see no need for OP other than for an ugly XHP50/70 that makes a hole in the center of the hot-spot or other crazy artifacts and there's no other way around it for the particular reflector's intended shape. Maybe a slight hybrid with the bottom part of the reflector being OP and the wider top part being SMO would be a decent practice at times.. but, I'm getting a bit outside this particular light's purpose as it was intended by Lumintop - Still would've liked an SMO tho.

- If I were to buy a third EDC05, it should have the GT Mini's driver running Narsil, (or even better, the latest Anduril.. ) an SMO reflector and the lens/head retention bezel/ring should be threaded, not glued and with cutouts for inserting a tool to open it up - just like on the Klarus G20 for ex. And not to forget - a driver retention ring..

Lumintop.. please, this ^ ^ and we have a deal - I bet others might find this light equally attractive as myself.

For now I'm too frustrated to write a nicer and more comprehensive story and take too many detailed pictures..

My few hours old EDC05 it's in bits and never to be of any use again.. Very ugly "closed box" design and I hate that.

Links to some pics that I've had the patience of taking, just for.. posterity..

20190710-212816 hosted at ImgBB — ImgBB

20190710-212823 hosted at ImgBB — ImgBB

20190710-212827 hosted at ImgBB — ImgBB

20190710-212832 hosted at ImgBB — ImgBB

20190710-212854 hosted at ImgBB — ImgBB

20190710-212859 hosted at ImgBB — ImgBB

20190710-212905 hosted at ImgBB — ImgBB

20190710-212911 hosted at ImgBB — ImgBB

20190710-212937 hosted at ImgBB — ImgBB

All the testing of OP vs smooth has shown that texturing only reduces throw by single digit %, but leads to a MUCH cleaner, smoother beam.

I just don't like how it's smoothing out the hot-spot area especially and makes it more of a progressive.. "spot" from the very center outwards mainly.

I'd much prefer a sharp transition between the hot-spot's edge and the spill and as uniform a surface area center to edge as it could possibly be.

It may not cut much throw, but it would narrow the diameter of the said throw effective area of coverage - I simply don't like that.

I'd take the hit in throw even, just to have the said clean, homogeneous and defined hot-spot. It's not even the case though, thus I don't like OP.

I really see not much benefit in having a smooth but less usable in my opinion beam pattern. I do hate artifacts of course, but I'd take a clean hot-spot first.

I could see that for a dedicated thrower, but I want as gradual a transition as I can get for EDC/around the house lights. Way less of that “tunnel vision” feeling then for me, but I prefer using DC Fix or TIRs when possible anyway so we’re definitely just looking for different things.

Can’t say I’ve seen OP vs smooth affect a beam that much though, it seems to just smooth the corona into the spill and hotspot which is a small portion of the total hotspot size.

I wouldn't mind a gradual transition, a very smooth one, as long as it's just in the corona and I can basically see the edge of my hot-spot

I'd just take some artifacts, as long as they're at least symmetric that is (otherwise I'd OCD about it.. ) in order to keep a hot-spot looking like the lens/zoomies I think it would be the easiest way to describe it.

Also, I don't mind a big, even huge hot-spot, I'm not particular about the small thrower ones, especially for a general purpose light, actually I do prefer a big to very big hot-spot, as long as it's lens like sharp and clean.

What's outside of the hot-spot, it's just usable light to avoid tunnel vision, as you were mentioning and I can take any type of smoothness in that area, no problem, just.. don't mess with the hot-spot. I want it perfect.

And an OP reflector, while it might smooth out the beam.. it does.. well, smooth out everything - and that's including the edges of my hot-spot, actually.. more than just the edges - and that.. I can't take. I'd rather leave it.

Let's say for ex. I do love my FF E07 for it's wide and quite "clean" hot-spot - I could've took a bit more sharpness on the hot-spot's edge, even as big as it is - basically you can't even tell the corona on that light - it's just a smooth transition, such that you can't really even tell where does it start and where does it end. And what saves it for me, it's that it's not too crazy wide of a transition compared to the hot-spot size, it's actually decent to say the least. Also, I do like a very smooth and long/wide transition at the edges of the spill itself - usually the area where most of the lights with AR coated glass are introducing the pink/magenta/purple rings (which I also hate.. ) and this light, the E07 seems to be getting it just right.

Yes, this is a bad made light. Not modding friendly and driver in new revision is just bad. Prolonged long clicks for turning it off, turning on memorized mode etc… Old version had great 0.5 seconds, now it is loooong 1 second. And hidden programming mode is gone too. If this light had olight UI (short click for on and short click for off) and ability to swap the emitter I would be super happy with this light.

I tried open the head in my old version cool white for emitter swap but failed hard and cracked the glass. Now I have second edc05 with nice neutral white, but the new driver driving me nuts. :frowning:

Oh, forgot about this thread.. You might find some of my newer posts here quite interesting though: https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/50451