TLF/BLF/Lumintop FW3A review (18650, 3x XP-L HI cool white)

The_Flashaholic · August 1, 2019, 12:53pm

Banggood.com have just sent me 2 XPL HI 5000K for review, I’m not sure why they sent me 2 but they are very very different

One has a frosted optic and Nichia Like tint the other has a clear optic and yellowish typical XPL 5000k tint.
The frosted one gets anywhere from 2800 to 3700 at turn on and the clear optic one gets 2600 every time.

The Frosted one is also temperamental in muggle mode, often doubling it’s power to 600ish lumens.

d_t_a · August 1, 2019, 3:06pm

How do the optics look like?

Below is a sample of the “plastic optic”, Carclo 10511, and Carclo 10507 optic on the FW3A.

The_Flashaholic · August 1, 2019, 3:30pm

The frosted one looks like the middle light but my clear optic is different from the clear one in the pic, mine doesn’t have the 3 spokes in the middle.

DB_Custom · August 7, 2019, 1:31pm

It’s likely your clear one has the copied optics made in China. It’s supposed to have lower lumens and yours exhibits that behavior. Replace it with a factory Carclo 10507 and you should see a pretty nice lumens increase.

The_Flashaholic · August 7, 2019, 4:37pm

Cheers. Lumintop contacted me asking why banggood was all over the review, I forgot they’d also sent me one, oops.

cabfrank · August 7, 2019, 4:44pm

I had no idea there were clone 10507s out there. Thanks Dale, i will check mine.

DB_Custom · August 8, 2019, 1:01am

I was not in the group buy but have recently been looking at the Titanium variant. I noticed an alert on Neal’s pages about lower numbers out of a cloned, made in China, optic. I still haven’t bought one but was looking at the sapphire lens to go with the Ti/Cu FW3A and as I already have clear spot optics that part wasn’t a concern for me… a little surprising but not really a big deal as they are so easily changed out.

The polished copper has an appeal to me as well … always something, isn’t it?

monkeyman77 · August 25, 2019, 3:25am

anyone got a link to the runtimes in steped mode?

JasonWW · August 25, 2019, 3:53am

It will vary based on the battery and leds. I think this is all we have.

ToyKeeper:

I’ve been meaning to make a table for that… and there’s no time like the present.

This is only an estimate, generated by plugging the firmware’s PWM values into a script with some guesses about the power draw and lumen output… but it should give people a rough idea what to expect.

All 150 ramp levels with a 3000 mAh cell:

  1:    0.2 lm,     2 mA, 74 days
  2:    0.2 lm,     2 mA, 74 days
  3:    0.8 lm,     3 mA, 41 days
  4:    0.8 lm,     3 mA, 41 days
  5:    1.5 lm,     4 mA, 28 days
  6:    1.5 lm,     4 mA, 28 days
  7:    2.1 lm,     7 mA, 17 days
  8:    2.1 lm,     7 mA, 17 days
  9:    2.7 lm,     9 mA, 14 days
 10:    3.3 lm,    10 mA, 12 days
 11:    4.0 lm,    11 mA, 11 days
 12:    4.6 lm,    13 mA, 10 days
 13:    5.2 lm,    14 mA, 9 days
 14:    5.9 lm,    16 mA, 8 days
 15:    7.1 lm,    18 mA, 7 days
 16:    7.7 lm,    22 mA, 6 days
 17:    8.4 lm,    24 mA, 5 days
 18:    9.0 lm,    25 mA, 5 days
 19:   10.3 lm,    28 mA, 5 days
 20:   11.5 lm,    30 mA, 4 days
 21:   12.2 lm,    32 mA, 94 hours
 22:   13.4 lm,    35 mA, 87 hours
 23:   14.7 lm,    37 mA, 80 hours
 24:   15.9 lm,    40 mA, 75 hours
 25:   17.8 lm,    44 mA, 68 hours
 26:   19.1 lm,    47 mA, 64 hours
 27:   21.0 lm,    51 mA, 59 hours
 28:   22.2 lm,    54 mA, 56 hours
 29:   24.1 lm,    58 mA, 52 hours
 30:   26.0 lm,    62 mA, 48 hours
 31:   27.9 lm,    66 mA, 45 hours
 32:   29.8 lm,    70 mA, 43 hours
 33:   31.7 lm,    74 mA, 40 hours
 34:   34.2 lm,    80 mA, 38 hours
 35:   36.7 lm,    85 mA, 35 hours
 36:   38.6 lm,    90 mA, 33 hours
 37:   41.1 lm,    95 mA, 32 hours
 38:   43.6 lm,   101 mA, 30 hours
 39:   46.8 lm,   107 mA, 28 hours
 40:   49.3 lm,   113 mA, 27 hours
 41:   52.4 lm,   120 mA, 25 hours
 42:   55.6 lm,   127 mA, 24 hours
 43:   58.1 lm,   132 mA, 23 hours
 44:   61.9 lm,   140 mA, 21 hours
 45:   65.0 lm,   147 mA, 20 hours
 46:   68.8 lm,   156 mA, 19 hours
 47:   71.9 lm,   162 mA, 18 hours
 48:   75.7 lm,   171 mA, 18 hours
 49:   79.5 lm,   179 mA, 17 hours
 50:   83.9 lm,   189 mA, 16 hours
 51:   87.6 lm,   197 mA, 15 hours
 52:   92.1 lm,   206 mA, 15 hours
 53:   96.5 lm,   216 mA, 14 hours
 54:  100.9 lm,   226 mA, 13 hours
 55:  105.3 lm,   235 mA, 13 hours
 56:  110.3 lm,   246 mA, 12 hours
 57:  115.3 lm,   257 mA, 12 hours
 58:  120.4 lm,   268 mA, 11 hours
 59:  125.4 lm,   279 mA, 11 hours
 60:  131.1 lm,   292 mA, 10 hours
 61:  136.1 lm,   303 mA, 10 hours
 62:  141.8 lm,   315 mA, 10 hours
 63:  148.0 lm,   329 mA, 9 hours
 64:  153.7 lm,   341 mA, 9 hours
 65:  160.0 lm,   355 mA, 8 hours
 66:  164.7 lm,   370 mA, 8 hours
 67:  172.1 lm,   389 mA, 8 hours
 68:  179.5 lm,   408 mA, 7 hours
 69:  186.9 lm,   427 mA, 7 hours
 70:  194.3 lm,   447 mA, 7 hours
 71:  205.4 lm,   476 mA, 6 hours
 72:  212.8 lm,   495 mA, 6 hours
 73:  220.1 lm,   514 mA, 6 hours
 74:  227.5 lm,   533 mA, 6 hours
 75:  238.6 lm,   562 mA, 5 hours
 76:  246.0 lm,   581 mA, 5 hours
 77:  253.4 lm,   596 mA, 5 hours
 78:  264.5 lm,   625 mA, 5 hours
 79:  271.9 lm,   644 mA, 5 hours
 80:  283.0 lm,   673 mA, 4 hours
 81:  294.1 lm,   702 mA, 4 hours
 82:  301.5 lm,   721 mA, 4 hours
 83:  312.6 lm,   750 mA, 4 hours
 84:  323.7 lm,   779 mA, 231 minutes
 85:  334.8 lm,   807 mA, 223 minutes
 86:  345.8 lm,   836 mA, 215 minutes
 87:  356.9 lm,   865 mA, 208 minutes
 88:  368.0 lm,   894 mA, 201 minutes
 89:  379.1 lm,   923 mA, 195 minutes
 90:  393.9 lm,   961 mA, 187 minutes
 91:  405.0 lm,   990 mA, 182 minutes
 92:  416.1 lm,  1019 mA, 177 minutes
 93:  430.9 lm,  1058 mA, 170 minutes
 94:  442.0 lm,  1087 mA, 166 minutes
 95:  456.7 lm,  1125 mA, 160 minutes
 96:  471.5 lm,  1164 mA, 155 minutes
 97:  482.6 lm,  1192 mA, 151 minutes
 98:  497.4 lm,  1231 mA, 146 minutes
 99:  512.2 lm,  1269 mA, 142 minutes
100:  527.0 lm,  1308 mA, 138 minutes
101:  541.8 lm,  1346 mA, 134 minutes
102:  556.6 lm,  1385 mA, 130 minutes
103:  571.4 lm,  1423 mA, 126 minutes
104:  586.1 lm,  1462 mA, 123 minutes
105:  604.6 lm,  1510 mA, 119 minutes
106:  619.4 lm,  1549 mA, 116 minutes
107:  637.9 lm,  1597 mA, 113 minutes
108:  652.7 lm,  1635 mA, 110 minutes
109:  671.2 lm,  1683 mA, 107 minutes
110:  686.0 lm,  1722 mA, 105 minutes
111:  704.4 lm,  1770 mA, 102 minutes
112:  722.9 lm,  1818 mA, 99 minutes
113:  741.4 lm,  1866 mA, 96 minutes
114:  759.9 lm,  1914 mA, 94 minutes
115:  778.4 lm,  1963 mA, 92 minutes
116:  796.9 lm,  2011 mA, 90 minutes
117:  819.0 lm,  2068 mA, 87 minutes
118:  837.5 lm,  2117 mA, 85 minutes
119:  856.0 lm,  2165 mA, 83 minutes
120:  878.2 lm,  2222 mA, 81 minutes
121:  900.4 lm,  2280 mA, 79 minutes
122:  918.9 lm,  2328 mA, 77 minutes
123:  941.0 lm,  2386 mA, 75 minutes
124:  963.2 lm,  2444 mA, 74 minutes
125:  985.4 lm,  2502 mA, 72 minutes
126: 1007.6 lm,  2559 mA, 70 minutes
127: 1029.8 lm,  2617 mA, 69 minutes
128: 1055.6 lm,  2684 mA, 67 minutes
129: 1077.8 lm,  2742 mA, 66 minutes
130: 1100.0 lm,  2800 mA, 64 minutes
131: 1157.9 lm,  3053 mA, 59 minutes
132: 1239.9 lm,  3451 mA, 52 minutes
133: 1329.4 lm,  3886 mA, 46 minutes
134: 1418.9 lm,  4320 mA, 42 minutes
135: 1508.4 lm,  4755 mA, 38 minutes
136: 1597.9 lm,  5190 mA, 35 minutes
137: 1687.4 lm,  5625 mA, 32 minutes
138: 1776.9 lm,  6059 mA, 30 minutes
139: 1873.9 lm,  6530 mA, 28 minutes
140: 1970.8 lm,  7001 mA, 26 minutes
141: 2067.8 lm,  7472 mA, 24 minutes
142: 2164.7 lm,  7943 mA, 23 minutes
143: 2269.1 lm,  8450 mA, 21 minutes
144: 2366.1 lm,  8921 mA, 20 minutes
145: 2470.5 lm,  9428 mA, 19 minutes
146: 2574.9 lm,  9935 mA, 18 minutes
147: 2679.3 lm, 10442 mA, 17 minutes
148: 2783.7 lm, 10949 mA, 16 minutes
149: 2888.1 lm, 11457 mA, 16 minutes
150: 3000.0 lm, 12000 mA, 15 minutes

Chinaheart · August 25, 2019, 8:26pm

What is the rechargeable battery used in this test or any recommended rechargeable baterries…Thank You

BOO5TED · August 25, 2019, 10:47pm

Most people have been using the Samsung 30Q. I’ve been using 18650s recovered from an old laptop battery, they are only 1800mAh but I’ve got 8 of them lol. I’ll get some better ones when my FW3T comes in.

JasonWW · August 25, 2019, 10:45pm

It was a high drain 3,000mah like a 30Q.

There are a lot of battery choices as long as it it not button top and no protection circuit. These add length and the max length that fits is about 66mm.

Here are some top cells in 3000mah to 3500mah:
Samsung 30Q or 35E.
LG HG2 or MJ1
Panasonic NCR18650GA
Sony VTC6

Chinaheart · August 29, 2019, 2:22am

Hi BOO5TED

You have a lot of 1800mAh and never run out of stocks, Thank you for the info,

BOO5TED · August 29, 2019, 12:12am

No problem, many cordless power tools have 18650s in the battery packs also.

Chinaheart · August 29, 2019, 2:25am

Thank you very much…. JasonWW

FoxAdriano · October 7, 2019, 9:43pm

Hey, do you know if Lumintop FW3A can use the 18650 protected batteries (with the same length)? I need a precise info please because I alredy have four 18650 protected batteries with the same length as those used by Lumintop FW3A. THANKS

BOO5TED · October 7, 2019, 9:48pm

Max battery length is 66mm, if you can find a protected cell that length or shorter I don’t see why it wouldn’t work. That being said, I’ve never seen a protected 18650 even close to 66mm.

JasonWW · October 8, 2019, 4:11am

Plus you’d need the protection circuit to handle at least 10 amps or so. Anything less would probably trip the circuit. The light would turn off if going to Turbo. That would be a pain in the rear.

mikekoz · December 23, 2019, 9:35pm

I got one of these a few weeks ago, and I really want to like it, but it has a few things I cannot get past. First of all, the switch is a bit too easy to trip, and even though I see there is a mod to fix it, I am still not sure it would work for me. The second and main issue I have with it the heat this things pours out of the front! Even at 760 lumens before I go to turbo, the light warms up real quickly and it will burn skin and anything else that gets close to the head. I do not own another light that does this, even ones that put out 1000 plus lumens. There are a few ways to lock the light out, but one can always forget to do so. I am afraid it will start a fire. It seems to me this light is trying to put out too much lumens than it was designed to do. Something this bright should have a better heat sink at the head, and be made of thicker steel. The EDC18 may be this light, and may be something I will try if I see a good deal on it. I would like to see this FW3A format in a single AA design. I think it would be better suited for something like this, instead of trying to be a miniature spotlight. I love the way the light looks! Fortunately, Amazon has given me a generous amount of time to return the light, so I have a while to play with it. It I see the EDC18 price go down, I may swap it for that!

JasonWW · December 23, 2019, 9:46pm

mikekoz:

I got one of these a few weeks ago, and I really want to like it, but it has a few things I cannot get past. First of all, the switch is a bit too easy to trip, and even though I see there is a mod to fix it, I am still not sure it would work for me. The second and main issue I have with it the heat this things pours out of the front! Even at 760 lumens before I go to turbo, the light warms up real quickly and it will burn skin and anything else that gets close to the head. I do not own another light that does this, even ones that put out 1000 plus lumens. There are a few ways to lock the light out, but one can always forget to do so. I am afraid it will start a fire. It seems to me this light is trying to put out too much lumens than it was designed to do. Something this bright should have a better heat sink at the head, and be made of thicker steel. The EDC18 may be this light, and may be something I will try if I see a good deal on it. I would like to see this FW3A format in a single AA design. I think it would be better suited for something like this, instead of trying to be a miniature spotlight. I love the way the light looks! Fortunately, Amazon has given me a generous amount of time to return the light, so I have a while to play with it. It I see the EDC18 price go down, I may swap it for that!

You should be able to limit how hot it gets.