Lume1-FW3X: Constant Current Buck-Boost & FET Driver with Anduril1/2 + RGB Aux

Hello all,

Thanks so much for your patience! The Lume1 driver timeline was delayed a little more than I was hoping due to shipping delays across the world due to the current situation. However, I'm glad to say that thanks to Neal and his team at Nealgadgets, they were able to produce the first few factory prototype Lume1 drivers for production. I just received them in the mail.

In the following pictures, I'm comparing them with my copper FW3C and Lume1 driver.

Both flashlights with Lume1 driver, with my build on the left, and the prototype directly from Nealsgadgets. We have here the standard FW3A with XPL-HI LEDs.

Neal also provided the RGB AUX LED board. The tri-LED board provides so many options that it may be difficult for Neal to customize individually... but I'm not sure yet. If you're interested, do drop a message to Neal about it.

In this prototype build, I'm please to say that all functions checks out Ok!

As we know, R+G+B = white

And here's how the RGB AUX LED board looks like. Neal originally populated the RGB resistors to be too low a value and they were extremely bright! I have revised the resistor values for Neal to take note of in future builds.

And here's the raw Lume1 driver from Neal.

Overall I was pretty happy with how the functionality turned out - all functions were verified, and it's pretty cool to see the FW3A with a factory-made Lume1 driver!

There were some issues in the prototype that I need to sort out, though most of them are cosmetic. For example, while electrically the PCB is good, I wasn't pleased with the overall finish of the PCB soldermask, HASL, and silkscreen. Likewise, there were some component swaps that Neal's team made to reduce BOM cost, the most obvious is the sense resistor (confusingly a slightly higher value was used). I'm in the process of discussing these with Neal so hopefully we can get an excellent product to everyone. I'm suggesting to Neal to have a matte black soldermask with ENIG gold finish, or at least the same as the stock driver (purple with ENIG) - if you have other opinions please drop a message to Neal as well.

At the moment, I'm not exactly sure what Neal's plans are but it appears he plans to release the Lume1 driver in some special edition FW3 flashlights first, and then proceed with a driver sale. I've communicated to Neal about the community's interest in individual driver sales, especially to those who signed up on the original GB list!

Thanks and stay safe everyone!

Looking good :D. I do hope he makes the aux boards available also

Cannot wait to use my FWshelfqueens again… Thanks for the effort!

Please don’t make black soldermask on PCB driver board. Any other color different from standart green will be fine. If you need to trace track on PCB for repair black traces are difficult to see. Original purple colour or red will be good choise. For AUX board I think black will be fine.

Pretty keen for both of these. I’ll obviously need to do some reading as to setting up custom Anduril builds (eg. 65% FET + RGB), but looking very nice.

Is gloss white an option? Black is good, purple is fine, green seems not ‘special’ enough… but really I’ll accept any color as long as it has the right components.

Aux board though should definitely be white or black IMO

This modification is beautiful! Like having a smaller Emisar D4S. I wish I had the equipment & time to do this, but life is in a bit of a mess right now (preparing for a move). But I’m hopeful this will eventually make it to production lights as an option!

Thanks for the information. I’m surprised to read that. The resistor is still 20 mΩ? Would a different FET bring noteworthy improvements?

Honestly I’m not sure. Performance is critical, especially in the voltage range that I use the most (3.9-4.1V) with low Vf emitters.
At the same time aux LEDs are a must. So I didn’t buy any FW* light yet. Lume1 makes me think a lot about whether to get one.
Overall I have mixed feelings and considering it’s quite expensive light I think I’ll pass for now. But I’ll keep looking at it because even though it doesn’t exactly match my needs for secondary light I still consider it to one of the finest drivers ever made available. Thank you for that loneoceans!

And I’m looking forward to see it being available in other formats - my Skilhunt H03 has been waiting for a couple of years for a good driver. I almost bought a driver from tamagotchi at some point but UI just didn’t cut it.

Field test - I went for a long bike adventure and I used the FW3A with the factory Lume1 driver as my main bike headlight.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000741932429.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.0.0.559a6b53k0UCgw

I used a bike computer mount with integrated flashlight holder like the one above.

For the test, ran the light at various brightness for about 6 hours through the night across a variety of terrain. Not anywhere close to a scientific test by any means, but the flashlight held up with no issues, and I wanted to test the durability of the driver in high vibration conditions. I was happy with how the flashlight performed. Obviously though, the beam pattern is far from ideal as a bike light since a tighter hotspot would be better suited for the purpose (a triple Carclo is a little too floody for this), but that wasn't what I was testing for. As a side note, I've used the Convoy S2+ which works better, as well as the Sofirn SP31 which is a little better as a bike headlamp.

Neal has agreed to look into improving the PCB quality of the Lume1 driver, so I hope this will be in final production soon. Thanks!

Perfect!

Thx for update.

I think to use FW3A with same mount on my bike helmet. I think it is perfect for that of use with flood light and low weight.

Before I lose my idea, I think it would be nice for the next Rev. (should only FWx variations of the Lume1 will be available for the time being) to have 2 solder pads for an independent/discrete e-switch along with the FWx inner e-switch contact ring on the driver being connected via a split-pad (as the ones currently not in use) thus, user "configurable" in case the driver ends up in a host with no inner tube for the tail e-switch like the FWx host features the ring could then be disconnected electrically from the host's body tube and the discrete e-switch could be used instead.

Looking forward to install one of these in my Manker U22 II (Osram Flat White 1mm) Not sure what's the driver diameter though as of yet as the body is glued to the head.. :|

(eh, scrap that.. A bit of heat and 5 minutes later, revealed that the driver is actually a 23mm Diameter - haven't gotten much further though, as I suspect the bezel as also glued and for now I really do not want to mess with the centering and everything emitter side)

Aaand.. other lights ofc.. D4SV2 comes to mind, GT Mini, etc.

[EDIT]

Factory Reset - Maybe configure one of the split-pads as enable-disable "standard" Factory Reset if the driver is not used in a FWx host ?

[/EDIT]

Cheers!

Are there any updates?! When are these shipping from Neal?

Im interested in one lume1 CC please.

The drivers are currently being fabricated for production as of a week ago. Unfortunately I haven't really been able to get much details from Neal since it appears that Lumintop is the one actually manufacturing the driver with their partner fabrication houses. I've been trying to get a detailed timeline from Neal but as mentioned, it looks like the initial offering is to have the Lume1 driver as part of some special edition FW3 flashlights, and I'm strongly suggesting to Neal to offer the drivers for sale as individual drivers ASAP. If you contact Neal directly, it can help us let him know the interest everyone has for the driver :).

I'll continue to give more updates as I receive them. In the event the drivers take a little too long, I will reconsider another separate group order.

Thank you!

Man i want some of these drivers so bad.
Ive got something like 12 FWxA lights now with every LED you can think of.
Would love to increase the efficiency on some of them.
I really dont want to have to buy a new $200 light though from Neal…

Yes that would not be acceptable, so I'm really trying to make sure Neal will be offering bare drivers at least for sale to members, and hopefully RGB Aux PCBs. It's not very likely that Neal can offer tri-LED aux boards because there are too many possible LED colour combinations, so for those, it's probably best to order the board yourself and assemble it with the LEDs of your choice.

I sure hope Neal or Lumintop doesn’t have any funny ideas here. The driver sure as heck better be made publicly available. .

Another quick update - just got a message from Neal that the drivers are in preparation for sale and Lumintop / Neal will be expecting to begin having them on sale in about 2 weeks or so.

I'm not exactly sure what their plans are for drivers in flashlights, but Neal confirmed that he will definitely be offering standalone drivers for sale.

Thanks for your patience everyone!