Cool, thanks for the info!
Mostly the FW3-series lights.
- To begin with, the FW3A was never produced to the manufacturing standards the FW3A team wanted. Hence the issues common to every version.
- Lumintop made a few minor changes to the FW3A over time, then eventually some major unpopular changes: added a bunch of tacky-looking branding, and recently moved to a cheaper crappier driver
- The FW1A used to be amazing, then they cheaped out on the reflector and it sucks now. Note that it appears they just used the FW1A Pro reflector (designed for XHP50.2 3V iirc) for all FW1As eventually. It's pretty bad with normal 3535 emitters
- The 21700-series FW lights are reportedly, um, oddly designed and don't really fit 21700s very well. I don't own one, and I never will.
- Early on they tried to bait-and-switch the optics (Carclo triple + glass lens) for something else that lacked the glass lens entirely. Backlash was bad enough that they switched back, at least for a while. Not sure if they ever went back to the cheap optics.
- They continued to never get the tolerances right for the tail switch so they also made a version that relies on a proprietary battery instead, lol
- With Loneocean's Lume1 project, they at some point just made it without his final revisions. Actually, I think that's kind of how the FW3A project went: the team still wasn't happy with the latest version they got, and then Lumintop started production.
That's all I can think of right now.
I order mine from the Sofirn website because they are ~$10 cheaper, for me at least and, I always get the most recent revision.
I should also note I get the Orange LT1 which is hard to source from anywhere but, Sofirn. I live in the USA and Sofirn ships out of China as fast as some of my shipments from Amazon. Seriously, I average under 2 weeks from order to having it in my hands after shipping all the way from China to Texas.
I would encourage you to look on Aliexpress at the "web-store" and at the Sofirn website.
Who wants to start a group buy?
If you don’t need the powerbank feature, I think it’s best to go with the original LT1. For a while, Sofirn had them on sale to move old inventory. This Nov 11th, there could be another sale.
Firstly, the Anduril version in the LT1 v1 is excellent. Anduril v2 introduced minor improvements. Second, Sofirn started messing with the mcpcb and the LED indicators. I simply do not like the button glowing green when on. That’s meant for charge completion indication. The original glows orange, which is a proper color. Frankly, if it was green I’d be wincing every time I look at the damned thing. OCD? Maybe… but I’m grateful to give up the powerbank feature for orange.
With reshipping and other overhead, not much of a savings there for the work involved IMHO. If you shop carefully, you can come close to that price on singles. Seems like my last one was a little over $60USD at my door.
Personally, I really like the bright Green power button on my LT1's. On my SP36 I dimmed it and quickly restored it to full power. My Astrolux FT03 is also Green which suits me just fine.
True. Just scored one for under $50 with batteries.
That is a really good price!
I grabbed a new powerbank LT1 driver with the intent of upgrading my first-run LT1. Had anyone else done this?
No, but I also have a new driver and an original LT1. At first glance I could not see a marking on the ground wires regarding which connects to the warm and which to the cool LEDs. Or does not not matter, as i ramps both ways anyway?
I prefer my original as the low is lower and I use the lowest setting a lot I find when camping or using it as a night light for kids.
Thank you for this information! That decides it for me, lower low is much more important than power bank functionality.
No problem, the newer driver board has no pads to configure the drivers in use, your fixed with whatever they used. Side by side I find the original (on default 5 drivers I think it is) to be lower.
The usb power bank model does seem to go brighter, and hotter!
What’s the difference between the 3 versions Sofirn has on their official store?
I believe #3 is the newest with the power bank function. The difference between #1 and #2 is #2 has Anduril 2?
I lost count, but there are at least 5 versions of the original lexel pcp, these all have the pads to add the extra drivers if you want to add more output. The latest one, that is marketed as a power bank, is the sofirn driver the at has no pads, but you can use as a power bank.
The ones in the middle had small revisions to allow usb-c to usb-c charging and some other small increments I believe.
My two are the original first group buy, and the power bank one which I ordered without knowing it was a new driver as they had just switched over.
How did you manage that price?
11.11 sale, new user, and checked out with PayPal. $50-$60. I forgot which one of the 3 I ordered.
Yeah, when all is said and done, ordering from the AX store with discounts (11.11 sale, store coupon, AX coupon, PayPal payment discount) is cheaper than the Sofirnlight store or Amazon.
I ordered the newest version with Anduril 2.0 and power bank function, plus the case, for a total of $66 and change. Without the case, it would have been $60 and change.
Sofirnlight store would have been $67, sans the case.
Amazon, no better, due to the higher item pricing, and the wonkiness involving two different sellers/coupon codes, depending on color desired. The colored versions bundled with the case are $90, and the (now expired) 17% coupon would have knocked it down to $74. The other store had a 20% 11.11 code, but only listed the black version, with no case for $85, so $68 total.
Buying through AMZ provides other benefits, but not better value. And the split stores, with different discounts is something Sofirn would have to explain. Seems nonsensical to me, unnecessarily complicated, and confusing for shoppers.
I can attest that the lowest mode of the LT1 v1 is good. Go to the ramp menu and select “1” for the bottom end. If the v2 is brighter, I’d not be happy about that.
I ordered mine from the Sofirn website when they had an earlier sale. $51 shipped with batteries. Nice to see they repeated it for 11.11. So, it could happen again for Black Friday, if they still have stock.