Lumintop FW1A discussion and review

O-ring #008, your local hardware store should have them. 3/16” ID, 5/16” OD, 1/16” Width is the spec.

Thank you very much for that. I had a pair of snap ring pliers and they didn’t work for this however the binder clip did! I was very nervous to do this mod and worried about ruining the threads. I think going slow and easy is the key. I did the mod and I must say the light is now amazing. So far no accidental activations. This is how the light should’ve came from the factory. IMO the light out of the box is dangerous and shouldn’t be carried without this mod or locking it out. Locking it out is a pain and if you use the light a lot so I’m glad I found this mod. A member on here hooked me up with some o rings. This is a great community!

3300k 7A has been on my belt since Sept 2019 when it came out. It’s been dropped on concrete and other hard surfaces. I finally put an o-ring in the tail cap. I like it even more.

No problem. :+1:

Finally bought a FW1A and gotta say I’m disappointed. What’s up with the artifacty reflector/beam?

Also with everyone raving about how much better the FD2 was compared to the FB4 I can’t see why. Maybe I just lost out in the tint lottery again.

I’m pretty sure the reflector has changed from the first run. The artifacts are disappointing.

I think it’s designed for XP-L HI, so SST-20 doesn’t look quite right. Also, SST-20 generally looks even more green when used in a reflector, and the tint bin probably isn’t better enough to fix that. Even the “good” bins look green at low levels, and a reflector makes the effect even stronger.

Of course, given how many times the FW3A has been changed, the FW1A also could have changed since the initial release.

Here is a comparison photo.

On the right is my original FW1A (with SS bezel).

The left is a photo I requested from Craig/Illumn of his latest batch.

My FW1A SST-20 is green tinted and artifacty too. I might try an sw40 in it. Mine has the thick plastic ring as pictured on the left.

Wow that’s drastic

Yep. Has me a bit concerned about the FW1T.

Holy crap, that’s bad.

The pic on the left looks like the Pro reflector imo.

These are my two FW1A lights. The pro is on the left, regular model on the right.

I had wondered if they decided to just use one reflector for both models.

I bet that’s it, only need one reflector now instead of two.

Yes, and given all that went into the design and production of these lights, free to Lumintop, this is very disappointing, to say the least.

So, is there anything that can be done about this new reflector? Anybody know of a better one that would fit?

I don’t know how the FW1A differs from the FW3A in the MCPCB shelf/cavity, but I used the Convoy S21A reflector. I was probably one of, if not the very first to convert an FW3A into a single emitter. . Currently with a sliced 4000k SST20 —Tiny, tiny hotspot. Looking to try a 3500k LH351 from Digikey next… Very happy with it overall.

Just received a Nichia FW1A, must be from new batch because can confirm has new reflector with wide spacing, a little disappointing to be honest.

Disappointed to learn of the reflector issue. Lumintop are total cheapskates who have no pride in the quality of their products.