Fascinating. Despite the disturbing artifacts of FT02S, I was pretty impressed with the performance of the SST40 versions. The lack of external light pollution really illustrates the definition of the beam characteristics and throw capabilities. Nice work. Liked the background music, too. 
Thank you! The charts are great and useful!
I second that.
Could you show us or elaborate how it is horrible? Is it the tint shift? Shape of the beam? I have SST 5000k FT02S and I would say they are acceptable at higher levels. But then I do not have other versions to compare.
I love the big TIR? optic in the EA01, it really focusses that xhp50.2 led. One of my favourite little lights. I’m undecided on which emitter to go with when buying the MT04/EA01s in Funtastic’s beam shot review the sst really did well hitting the sheds in the distance while giving off a decent spill. The xhp just blasted out lumens everywhere which is also pretty fun for such a small light. Would have been interesting to see the small battery setups & how they performed but it was a great ‘beamshot’ video with plenty of the good stuff an none of the bs counting Orings and discussing the quality of the box it came in lol.
Yeah, I’m really impressed with both versions of the EA01. The SST40 is a nice thrower though.
Since I’m a store and lumens sell better than anything else, the EA01S XHP50.2 version is what I’m going for. Great walking light as well, it just lights up everything around you like daylight.
The biggest issue is that a high drain 26350 battery is very hard to find. Flashaholic (Matt Gill) used a 20350 for this very reason. I can’t get either in New Zealand otherwise I would have done something. I do have a Keeppower 18350 which fits, but the spacer shakes around a lot.
Imalent sell a 15A 26350, but it’s protected making it too long. I couldn’t find anything else apart from the Vapcell 6A
Everyone has their own definition of what a bad beam profile looks like. I absolutely hate the FT02S SST40, it hurts to look at, but glad you’re finding it okay.
The rings of light and dark throughout the beam is an eye sore. The Sofirn SP36 Pro is similar, but the FT02S is worse.
Totally agree with that! Very nice review, thank you. You helped me decide which model to choose. (EA01 with XHP)
I got the FT02S XHP50.2. Was thinking of modding it with SFT-40's because the reflector is so unique - never saw a multi-reflector with such wide cups, LED's so tight together - this thing should really throw! But... those major artifacts of the SST-40's in the vid. I'm thinking they might even be amplified worse with a flat LED.
It seems like a trade-off of overlap vs. the less walls of separation. In general I'm thinking the overlap and wide cups should throw better, but now wonder if the artifacts are a result of this radical overlap design. What's strange is even with the XHP50.2, the hot spot is small and tight - looks very throwy compared to other triple XHP50.2 reflector lights I got, like the Amutorch X9 and EC03.
If the FT02S had a conventional quad reflector design like the HK4S or even a Q8 but to scale, the SST-40's would probably look much better.
I’ve just bought the EA01s xhp50.2 and am interested in the runtime graphs as I’ve not had chance to use mine yet. If I’m understanding this correctly if I start at level 5 (1280 lumen) it will run at this until around the 7 minute mark where it will start to step down and by 9 mins it’s at 352 lumens? That seems quite a hefty drop and a low lumen level if you want to use it for extended use? I assume if I use the stepless ramping I could (in theory) set it to say 1000 lumen and likely get a more extended runtime at this level?
I’ve been looking at other similar sized flashlights (nitecore p20ix and Olight Seeker 3 pro to name a couple) and they appear to be able to run 800-1200 lumen for extended periods of time (2 hours +) so I’m assuming they can somehow dissipate heat more easily/not produce as much heat?
They all get warm to hot. However the EA01s has a thermal sensor that can be set too low. Two ways around that for higher sustained outputs. Program the chip for a higher temp threshold. Or the quick and easy let the light warm a little then unscrew the tail a fraction. With the button pressed tighten the tail. Light will start speeding up a strobe then flash. Light is now rest and the thermal sensor should now think that warmer temp is the new but not accurate base temp. This method is also used when you’ve pushed too many triple, quad, etc. combos and can’t get the light in the program you want. It’s the default reset.
Thanks, I’ll give that a go when I eventually use it. The clocks change here in the UK at the end of October so when I ordered the flashlight it was dark in the morning when walking the dog but it’s not now, however give it another week or so and it will be dark again around 7am.
My tests in this review had every model calibrated and set to 50°C. The flashlight drops to 3XX lumens on every level once X temp is reached, it later increases to something it can sustain.
The ATR on the P20IX is set to 60°C and so it’s able to sustain higher lumens. You can do the same for the EA01S
Thanks, the EA01s already gets hot enough for me. The P20ix doesn’t seem to get as hot as quickly though, and will stay at 800 lumens for quite some time.
Different LEDs will run hotter than others so a fair comparison can’t be made. These are geared towards compact hot rods for enthusiasts, while Nitecore are designed for the general public where higher sustainable output is more important, they also cost more.
One other thing is that FET drivers are much less efficient than buck or boost drivers, so more heat is generated
Thanks. Yeah I appreciate that, and it’s not a complaint I’m just trying to figure out how to get the best runtimes at a decent lumen level on the EA01s :+1: I much prefer the beam profile on the Astrolux, I don’t know how to describe it but the Nitecore isn’t an even beam. I appreciate both have a slight hotspot, but outside of this the nitecore is uneven which can be seen when you’re moving the light around, therefore I’d prefer to use the Astrolux if I can sort the runtimes out. I don’t need it super bright, but if I can get it to stay at say 800 lumens for 30 mins + that’d be great. I’m currently trying to figure out how to increase the number of steps so that there’s not so much of a jump between level 4 (350 lumens) and 5 (1500 lumens) and hoping that it will add a step around 800 lumens. I’ve actually started another thread on this in the general section.
Here’s my video on the UI. At 11:35 is what you’re after
Cool, thanks very much for that. I’ll watch it later when I can have volume on.