Lumintop FW1A discussion and review

Check out the Fireflies E01.
It is a single emitter. Not a flood, not a thrower, but the single emitter with the (TIR?) optic has a nice narrow beam that throws very well. And handles heat a lot better than the FW3 design.
I ran a test last night and put the E01 into turbo for 90 seconds. Never stepped down, temp was 46 C.

Totally different light. A 34 mm head is a bit large for EDC, and it’s 20% longer than the FW1A. Really it’s pushing the boundaries of an EDC, and closer in size to the Dobermann Pro - not to mention that I don’t trust their build quality one bit.
Also, saying a FET light ‘never stepped down’ doesn’t really jive with me - of course it did. It stepped down just as fast as the cell voltage did which, on turbo, is not insignificant.
It’s pretty clear from Maukka’s review that the fireflies lights are in a different size class altogether.

That is an EO7 in the pic.
I do not pocket carry lights, these work will in a small belt holster.
The E01 is a bit bigger than the FW, but it also uses a 21700 5000 Mah battery, so you get longer run times.
Always lit switch
If you can’t see it step down, it didn’t step down.

And I don’t know how you can say “build quality” with a straight face.
I have 4 of the FW3, and not one of them worked out of the box (they all work now after reading like 2000 posts about how to get them to work).

A quad or triple TIR could work still if the optic is made for a very narrow beam. Smaller die size emitters, like the “White Flat” can make a very intense hot spot with plenty of throw in a triple or quad TIR.

Still, this isn’t that. Single emitter reflector lights can be nice too. And for some people, they hit the sweet spot for EDC. It’s good to see the FW1A being developed. I wonder what Fritz thinks of this.

I wonder what Fritz thinks of a lot of things. Has anyone heard from him?

Interesting points.
At this point, I wouldn’t trust the “build quality” on a Fireflies or Lumintop light if I haven’t dis- and re-assembled them myself, checking everything. Honestly, my Zebralight SC62 is the only light that I both carry regularly and haven’t completely broken down and re-assembled. I guess my Olight S1, but I almost never carry it.

To me, 21700 is too large for EDC. 26650 as well. I’ll barely carry S2+, and less and less often the more I have gotten used to my smaller lights. So it’s mostly “compact 18650 or smaller” for my pocket. If I’m specifically going “outdoors” for something, that’s another matter, and I’ll gladly carry larger lights. If you’re carrying with a holster, that definitely changes the equation though. I can see the E01 being a lot more appealing then.

As far as “seeing” step-down, I don’t think that’s fair. Zebralights are able to step down gradually enough to not really be noticed, especially when factoring in how your eyes adjust. My SC62 can’t maintain it’s highest mode for very long for thermal reasons, but I never notice it dimming.

For me, the FW3A, FW1A, and EDC18 all miss the mark. The FW3A is too floody for use outdoors… my D4 is too, but it holds a higher output better (and has more power to begin with) to brute-force the throw to around a small parking lot distance. But even my 10250 light will be more useful at range than triples/quads. I think even my E2L generally out-throws my FW3A, come to think of it, though it does have the narrower optic if memory serves.
The EDC18 is just a worse D4 IMO. The switch still protrudes, it’s not as bright… It’s cheaper? It’s even uglier.
And the FW1A, for all its Anduril loveliness, will still lose EDC privileges in my pocket to either an SC62 or a simple 3-mode with a tail switch. One is smaller, and the other both won’t activate accidentally and is simpler to use, which I find myself preferring more and more in my EDC.

Fritz Works…really ? When the 2 most important aspects of Fritz’ design were dropped early. :person_facepalming:
I’m disappointed to see that Lumintop and Neal are continuing to make further declinaisons/changes to the FW3A without consideration for people who signed for THIS.

I totally agree, in non dedicated throwers I always prefer an OP reflector, it smoothes the beam a lot and difference in throw isn’t appreciable by sight

I have been looking for the thread about different optics for the FW3. I think you can narrow the beam. I agree, for the same approximate output the FW is very very floody and the E01 gives a pretty nice throw, without a real defined hotspot. Does anyone know where I can find the differences in the optics for the FW3?

I don’t pocket carry because my pockets are full with gun, shield case, change, car fob etc. The FW3 in a small case is almost idea for EDC. The E01 does carry slightly bigger, but I find it to be a much better all around light.

This will likely be my primary EDC for the foreseeable future. That will be in a nylon horizontal belt pouch-holster with a velcro closure.

I imagine the beam on this will be similar to a BLF A6, depending on the emitter. I hope they go a little more throwy, maybe an XPL-HI, or something else throwy. I don’t think it will be bright enough (for me) with a SST-20, unless it isn’t a high CRI bin, and then it wouldn’t make sense anyway.
I hope they don’t make a reflector AND single TIR version, because then I will have to buy both.

Well, that certainly sounds interesting. Not sure if I’d buy one but if the price is right I might consider it.
Personally I prefer a (narrow-ish) TIR over a reflector in an EDC so looking forward to some more information.

My FW3A measures 92.2mm long and the drawing shows the FW1A as being 100.7mm long > they’ve added ~8.5mm.
Carclo’s triples are 6mm so that’s ~14.5mm total.
At least there should be plenty of space for a TIR but it might end up needing a thicker lens or something to compensate.

Another yay for the OP reflector. Small SMO reflectors tend to have a weird spot in the center of the hotspot, and/or excess rings around the beam. For larger SMO reflectors like the C8 the beam looks fine, so it just seems to be smaller ones.

I believe OP is better for a small light like this.

https://www.reddit.com/r/flashlight/comments/7v1sri/carclo_optic_comparison/

The biggest problem with FW1A is their emitter choices assuming they stick with the same driver. Not having LH351D is going to limit them to (probably) XP-L HI, and XP-L HD - boring.

SST-20 will be pushing it into overcurrent with not very good lumen output
Nichia cant be driven DD

This flashlight would be a great gift. Therefor they should also find a solution to the retention ring issue.

This is why I’ve been looking into limiting turbo on my A6 drivers, haven’t got very far though as I keep getting distracted by new lights!

The same thing could possibly be done in Anduril, I’m guessing by changing the values in fsm-ramping.h. This would be a rather crude implementation though.

I’ve mentioned limiting turbo once before. Not sure if TK considered it at the time or if it’s even desirable or feasible. Who know’s, maybe it’s already been implemented and is waiting for the FW1A to be built!

I have an E01, since I made the firmware for it. It’s roughly the same size as an E07, and both are significantly larger than a FW3A. However, the E01 does have particularly good thermal performance. Here’s what I measured while testing its thermal regulation:

I don’t end up using it much though, since the beam is cool white and generally more throwy than I usually want. So I mostly use neutral white lights instead, with wider beams.

If you can’t see it step down, it simply has a smooth regulation algorithm. Most thermally-regulated lights these days adjust in steps too small to see by eye, so they need to be measured by a lux meter to determine whether they have stepped down. The E01 definitely falls into that category. It’s very difficult for a human to see a 50% change in output when it takes more than a minute to happen.

Maukka gave very detailed info about the performance of different optics in the FW3A: TLF/BLF/Lumintop FW3A review (18650, 3x XP-L HI cool white)

I thought we had resolved this already… Lumintop didn’t change the FW3A design away from what Fritz wanted. Fritz changed the design himself, and it’s still his.

Neale has a voting in his FB group about FW1A options and SS bezel is on top.
It would be nice if only heatsink/driver and bezel reflector in different materials could be offered to match current hosts