FW3A, a TLF/BLF EDC flashlight - SST-20 available, coupon codes public

Less heat, greater output, great tint.

It’s not less heat unless they did something to the firmware to limit output in which case it would be less output at the cost of less heat.

Higher max output, better efficiency, for very cool or warm CCT, and potentially for better tint.

Eh, the 3Ds my light came with looked pretty gross TBH. Almost more green than the sliced 90CRI LH351Ds I compared them to. No clue what the 7A tint was like but the 3D were very disappointing with what I’ve seen from XPL HIs up to this point.

Oh yeah, I forgot that the 3Ds sourced for the FW3A didn’t turn out to be as good as expected. I got the 3300K 7A emitters and they’re gorgeous, with a slight hint of rosiness. I’ve also got the 5D 4000K emitters in a few other flashlights, which are just about perfect in my eyes, as well as 3A 5000K, which looks absolutely pure white to my eyes.

Shame we didn’t get 3A in the FW3A. The name is kind of asking for it.

Normally, I prefer XPL HI over SST-20, because of the extra output and better tint. And that’s using XPL HI emitters I’ve modded in… not the stock XPL HI emitters.

But in the case of the FW3A, the SST20s it comes with are the best I’ve ever seen. Not greenish at all. Holding it up side-by-side next to my puke-green Emisar D4 SST-20, the beams are night and day. And I prefer these SST-20 over any XPL HI I’ve tried.

I’ve got a triple board of 5Ds on the way for mine, I’m stoked.

My FW3C SST-20 just shipped today. I’m quite excited to get my hands on it now! I’ve ordered a clear optic with it, and I can also swap it with my FW3A’s frosted optic too, in addition to trying the even floodier Lumintop optic.

Will the new SST-20 emitter version be delivered with the latest/fixed anduril? (to manually set the memorized level)?

Which one has better tint subjective?

Nichia 219c 4000k or SST20 4000k.

SST-20 4000k.

I can tell you that I’ve got another Lumintop light with a 4000K 219C in it and it’s absolutely gorgeous. A real golden glow with a hint of rosiness. Admittedly I’d prefer a slightly more neutral temperature with a high CRI emitter, but I’m not about to complain. I’ve got some 5000K 219Cs in an Emisar D4 and they’re very green in comparison. Lumintop’s stock seems to be a very good bin.

I thought brass is significantly worse than aluminum

Brass is 65-90% copper.

(Source)

You are correct.

Just because Brass is mostly copper does NOT mean it has the thermal characteristics of pure copper.

From a quick Google search: Thermal Conductivity of different materials.

Material …………………… Thermal Conductivity (W/m K)
Silver ……………………… 406
Copper ……………………. 385
Aluminum ………………. 204 (but can be much lower depending on alloy chosen)
Brass ………………………. 109-125
Stainless Steel …………. 16.3
Titanium …………………… 22.5 (or lower depending on alloy)

For materials found in typical flashlights, in general Copper has the best thermal conductivity followed by aluminum and then brass. Titanium and stainless steel are in a distant last place.

Thanks for that information and for making me smarter! :student:

Thx from my side as well!
Every day you learn something new

EDIT: but i need to agree with Doug also, my custom brass torch is getting warmer than alu torch with the same Cu light engine. Maker confirmed it has high quantity of copper so it would be ok to check with Lumintop about the brass they are about to release…

Thanks to you and bigtrav261 for confirming the tint on the SST-20 4000K. I just bought two!

There are multiple factors involved:

  • Thermal Conductivity - how fast heat conducts through the material - a copper light with high thermal conductivity will probably heat up over the entire light. While a titanium light with low thermal conductivity will heat up mostly at the head, with the body and tailcap remaining relatively cool. The head might end up quite a bit hotter than the head in an all copper light, because the heat isn’t able to get out of the head quickly.
  • Thermal Capacity - how much heat energy the material can store. My understanding is that copper holds more heat than aluminum by volume, but aluminum is much lighter and can hold more heat more by mass.
  • Emissivity - this how fast heat is able to exit the material by being radiated away. In general higher emissivity is best. Dark anodized aluminum has good emissivity. Polished metal tends to have less.

The most practical setup for a flashlight is probably a pure copper pill combined with dark anodized aluminum body. This gives you maximum thermal conductivity right at the point of heat generation (the LED), while maintaining good emissivity and overall light weight (all copper lights are very heavy which is not very practical. Plus if they heat up too uniformly you may need gloves to hold the light).

HOLY CRAP… Another favorite light got hot after shorting and smells of burned plastic right out of the blue… I had a scary incident last month with the Imalent DX80 nearly exploding in my hands, and now this FW3A emitted burning smell and stopped working after just falling off a 20 inch high night table…

I picked it up and noticed it had turned on on its own and began ramping through its stepped modes to turbo, and could not turn it off with thew switch! i quickly unscrewed the head to revel a smell of burning similar to what i experienced in the DX80 failure and an extremely hot head section. so i got up and threaddded it back together as normal, but it did not turn on at first, but when i took the head off again and put it back on it turned on instantly and began to ram up to its turbo mode and could not turn it off with the switch… :person_facepalming:

so i got out of bed, went to my desk to inspect it, and found what appeared to be a burn spot on the switch MCPCB, along with the smell of burned plastic all to reminiscent to the scary moment my DX80 went into melt down.

below is the photo of the spot on the board that don’t look normal:

i know the 30Q was in correctly as i used it earlier a hour ago to take the dog out to pee before bed, then suddenly when it fell off the night table it did this…

Here is the video after i got out of bed to show what happened to this FW3A. I only had this light for a couple weeks and it did this… Its becoming hard to feel safe anymore around flashlights after experiencing to major failures of this kind with burned components and over heating due to a short… :weary: