For what it’s worth, my Amazon purchase took 3 weeks for the tracking number to work. Then, it suddenly said it had hit a checkpoint in China 3-4 days earlier and now it’s due to be delivered on Monday according to USPS.
Same thing happened to me !
Black & very sticky.
Now all OK. Working my way through the user manual. Should know all about lamp in about 4 months time.
Those looks like they might use the same parts. I have a set of them in my cart, but with a stack of GAs on hand, I can’t quite bring myself to spend $13 ($5 shipping) to test batteries I don’t need - or particularly want.
The Meteor M43 says it wants 10A or greater button or tall flat tops. Button top 30Q are good for that. The ZL2 (assuming they are really tall flat tops) and GAs are both rated at 10A max. IMHO, they will work, UNLESS you like to keep your light on high or Turbo all the time. If you intend to push it, get something with a higher rating like the button top version 30Q.
10A should be good for the FW3a. At 2800-ish lumens it should max around 6-7A.
For the lantern, maximum current is almost completely irrelevant - particularly if you’re going to use more than one 18650. The maximum draw is relatively low. As long as you have 4-5A (or more) total capacity the lantern should be perfectly happy.
On the basis of just preliminary playing around it works great and looks like a keeper.
I would like to share yet another experience regarding the driver bridge pads though. My understanding was that AMC bridges 3+4+5 were supposed to come bridged standard from the factory. In my case only the pads under “NW were bridged. Under the ”WW” section none of the pads were bridged.
I confirmed the configuration with Current ratings. Current at Max on all Warm was 1.87A (or 5x7135) and Max on all Cool was 1.08 (or 3x7135). I’m not sure whether this was done intentionally to balance the perceived lumen levels between Warm and Cool or whether this was unintentional.
I will probably just bridge them all anyway and use Anduril to configure the limits but for anyone who is planning to only perform partial bridging, On my copy of the LT1, the “NW” pads control the Neutral White (or the warmer of the two color temperatures) while “WW” control the cooler color temperature (contrary to my incorrect assumption that “WW” stood for Warm White.) Sharing FWIW.
Great job Team LT1 and thanks for all the hard work.
Edit - FWIW, the bail handle is now aligned with switch.
Maybe it will help to think of WW as being Winter White.
There were some units shipped with the bridges left open by mistake… i am surprised to see a batch-#2 arrive with that mistake though… as i can see in your photo above all of the W/W chips are definitely open… (let Sofirn know you have received one with that issue) The correct factory config. was to have 5-7135s bridged on each channel, and the last two, (6 & 7) left open for those who wish to bridge them for more light output (but less run times overall)
Which version do I have?
And is the bridging correct?
I also have a question about charging, using the onboard charger, vs. removing the batteries and charging them with something like a xtar vp4 plus dragon. Is one safer or better for the batteries than another?
What portable solar charger would be the high quality, efficient, sturdy, and reliable choices to buy for charging this lantern?
Also what top quality protected button top rechargeable 18650 batteries with a high capacity (3500mAh) range would best match the lantern based on current requirements during output and recharge?
I wondered if anyone has looked at the specs and power usage of the LT1 during use and compared them to 18650 battery output and recharge specs, and if there are batteries matched better to the application than others.
regarding battery charging and selection, the on board max current to charge the batteries is 1.5A. With 4 installed, you can’t charge any battery too quickly. The max output current I have seen measured is 2.5A, so again pretty much any set of 4 batteries will have no problem.
bridging looks fine, a bit messy but fine. The bridging was done by hand it appears, at least on the WW side.