Hi, I received my prototype but did not yet have much time to examine it.
Some thoughts though:
Build quality is good, but there are some flaws in mine,
It is anodized in the same colour
I am also not 100% happy with the design. Currently it looks a little mixed up. Either there should be two chamfered parts or two sharp parts. We might make a small adjustment there,
The switching operation feels weird somehow. The driver responds with some delay for some reason,
The tailcap is glued to the body,
A transparent rubber ring prevents the clip from rotating, which is quite clever. I first want to have a look at the disassembled switch though before I make my final judgement,
It is very small and compact and the clip is really really good.
BTW, someone asked about dimensions, and someone asked about putting the FW3A next to a BLF A6 shorty.
FW3A proto1 dimensions:
Length: 92.9 mm
Bezel diameter: 25.6 mm
Tailcap narrowest diameter: 24.0 mm
Body narrowest diameter: 21.5 mm
I don’t have a BLF A6 shorty, but I have a Convoy S2+ shorty… pretty close.
Convoy S2+ 18350 dimensions:
Length: 85.9 mm
Diameter: 22.9 to 23.9 mm
So the full-sized FW3A is about 7 mm longer than a Convoy or BLF A6 “shorty”… and its grippable section is 2.4 mm narrower so it feels smaller. The FW3A head is 1.7 mm wider, which allows the entire optic to be exposed instead of having the edges blocked. A glass lens protects and holds in the optic.
The sizes are actually pretty close. The FW3A is almost shorty-sized, but has 3X-5X as much battery capacity.
It’s also shorter (and lighter) than both of my Brass Beauty lights, which are two of my favorites…
That doesn’t sound good. Looking at the design of the light, removing the tailcap is necessary to remove the clip. Does that mean we’re stuck with the stock clip and can never remove it or replace it unless we somehow break the glue?
Agree with the 45º step down to the tube on the Tool, I have all 3 versions (Brass, Copper and Titanium) and they did the 45º bevel on the step down to the tube on all of them and it looks nice, doesn’t take away from the clean lines and virtually eliminates snagging.
(Finding a picture online, this from outdoornerd, was easier than snapping a pic and uploading it)
Its funny how people have completely opposite ideas about the aesthetics of the old and new design.
I personally think the new design is a huge improvement.
I was not too crazy about the original, but functionally it sounded really cool. In my opinion the new design is much much better.
I dont like the luminitop Tool design at all, to me it just looks incredibly low effort and unimaginative. I have seen nicer looking spark plugs.
The first design is original (at least for me). The new design remember me the Nitecore Concept, remember the HDS lights……I not find the new design as improvement. Of course I like the Technical qualities, the interface, the switch…. but is a shame lost the original design.
I don’t know. I like both versions but the new tapered maybe will be better if it has a 45degree bevel at the tailcap too like Dale said and showed on Lumintop TOOL.
I’ve already managed to mess up my prototype a little. I replaced the 1x7135 chip with a different brand to see if it’d help, and it seems to have made the driver stick out a little so now I can’t thread the thing together quite as far. It still works, but I’ll have to fix it next time I take out the driver.
OTOH, I greatly improved the button debouncing. It’s not 100% yet, but it’s at least like 90% now.
Regardless of how the tapered section works out, whether it’s 5 degrees or 45 degrees or 90 degrees, the narrow middle area makes the light much more comfortable to hold. It fits comfortably between any two fingers, which isn’t something I can say for most of my 18650 lights.
This prototype has the wrong emitters (XP-G2), and there are some thin wires, and my main contact points are weak at the moment due to the replaced chip not fitting quite right, and my battery wasn’t full, but I did some quick output tests…
Moon: 0.24 lm (after swapping 1x7135 chip)
1x7135: 160 lm
8x7135: 1063 lm (highest regulated level)
FET: 2160 lm
The real thing should go significantly higher (though keep in mind the high modes are basically burst only, not for sustained use).
I also like the orignal the design better (even more with a 45 degree slope). But like ToyKeeper mentioned before, this way it gets a bit more thermal mass and that is (to my opinion) something this light could use very well. But I rather would have seen it in a different way (a thicker wall maybe). I still like the inside of this light so I would buy it anyway.
