[New] Lumintop Tool AA 2.0 Ti

I have the black aluminum version (not the Ti) and I appreciate this well presented review.

Just to be clear: I didn't write the review myself, but Peter did. He found out about this problem!

It's a shame though, that you can't really use Turbo with 14500 for too long.

It really looks like a bad solder job, since my replacement (with good old leaded solder and resin flux) held up well.
Lumintop were happy that i pointed it out, and if they are reopening their business any soon, hopefully they will address this issue (and let’s hope for other LED options as well as a lower low mode)

id be insterested in how the voltage indicator works out

Ok, i did my first reflow ever and it turned out pretty good (except that i put the LED reversed, so plus and negative pads are exchanged now)

I have lost quite some lumens, but the high CRI 4000K SST20 make it a totally different light.

Very happy with it!

My regular (white) Tool AA 2.0 arrived today, and it has an illuminated tail switch. I’m worried about the drain of it though. Won’t it notably run down a 14500 in several days?

Not several days, but i have measured it 10mA, so please take that in mind

Okay, so more like 2 months to fully drain a typical 14500 battery. I take it this is a new feature for the non-Ti Tool AA 2.0 flashlights? I really do not like it and probably would not have selected/bought this light had I known about it. How is it a good idea to half-deplete your battery in a month without ever turning on your light

You can ofcourse disassemble the LED’s in the switch.

Or physically lock out the light by partially unscrewing the head or tailcap. Works for all tools except the Ti version.

I think it’s great they added the illuminated tailcap!

I would think that removing the LEDs would get rid of the parasitic drain, but I really won’t know until after I go through the trouble of doing it.

Yes, removing either the LEDs, the resistors, or all of them (should be two of each) would remove the drain.

I swapped mine for a custom LED tailcap and am only getting 0.08 mA drain, which on a 900mAh battery translates to 15+ months of standby… much more acceptable.

That does not work well with white aluminum that I rec’d earlier this week. I can go well past exposing the o-ring and still have the tailcap illuminated.

Now that is how to do it! I would totally be onboard with that, but not with what Lumintop did with their implementation.

Yeah, that (and an LED swap) were the done the day it arrived in the mail. Alongside the new tailcap board, I installed a very light green tailcap that lets much more light through so that you can run the LEDs with less power.

Just recharged the battery in the Ti Tool today after noticing the tail lights were either off or so dim that could not see in bright daylight and it was at 3.2 volts after about 1.5 months, it is an Efest.
Opus Charger read 543 Mah when charging complete.

Also mine will lock out with 1/4 turn of the head.

Thanks for the links with the details gchart.

For now I just removed the two surface mount resistors in the tail switch board. No more needless battery drain!

It seems every Tool Ti does that

Yes all Tool AA 2.0 models have lighted tail switches now — or at least that is what the manufacturer told me yesterday.

I got my Tool AA Ti today. It was an impulse buy and I never looked much into this thread or in Chibi’s review, but there are too many dumb features to leave this light unmodded:

  • 10mA parasitic drain is unworkable, drains the battery in 5 days !
  • golden clip is ugly, it gets my black clip from the alu one.
  • memory! :confounded:
  • XP-L2 :confounded:
  • 7400K :confounded:
  • but the worst thing: it is a shelf design with the shelf therefore being titanium, the ledboard is nice copper but the heat goes nowhere after that. I’m not surprised that ledwires unsolder themselves.

So: other driver, better led, aqua switch leds at lower current, I can not fix that shelf but I will craft a new copper board that will reach the very edge to bypass that shelf (the stock board stops short of the edge).

Things to do…