fireflies X4 stellar first impressions

m03da · 2024-10-31T18:17:07.500Z

Loose thoughts, too tired to write an article.

my first LumeX1. Like. HOLY FK SERIOUSLY. Whoa. The low is so low and so stable. I do special LED lighting for a living and would kill for a driver with this dynamic range, controllable with 32bit DMX, that would be a game changer.
3700K is not my temperature turns out, it’s much closer to 4000K than i’d hoped, 2700K is my sweetspot and that one’s not available. I could get behind 1800K but strictly for night time use and i was looking for a daily EDC replacement. I’m also not a fan of tint mixing- multicolour shadows are yucky when they’re not serving an artistic purpose.
beam pattern with the factory preinstalled optics (brilliant that the light comes with a set as standard) is quite good though not a flat flood, there is a considerable hotspot. I’ve yet to test other optics.
desert tan looks alright, goes well with coyote gear
custom yellow button backlight is too dim, almost invisible, aux is also about half Hank brightness level on high. Turns out i periodically subconsciously check the light on my hip, bright button= present and operative. Aux beam pattern is quite a prominent cross-like figure, not the even spill of frosted optics. Sometimes i use green aux as night vision augmenting light for night hiking, this is not suitable but moonlight mains work perfectly fine.
mechanical engineering goodies- the way clips are attached and magnet is made removable is superb. The magnet clicks in place a bit and tends to attract the clip but the former is easily fixed with some gaffers’ tape and the latter is only an issue when replacing the clip or the magnet and that’s not a frequent operation anyway. Captive clip independent of tube threading so it stays locked when replacing the cell is great. Threaded bezel plus the lantern attachment, again, superb, this should be a lot more common. The lantern itself is well executed with a convex mirror in the (machined aluminium) top to get all the light out the sides. Kudos on this one. Silicone lantern shade folds inside the lantern attachment. Very good.
The magnetic USB flap is cool, works well but under no circumstances is it IP68. If the light really is IP68 it’s using a correctly implemented waterproof type C connector and i have no way of checking that.
Knurling pattern is giving original DM11 if you’re into that.
There seem to be some contact issues with my light BUT i’m using an 18650 adaptor for now, only 18650s in this household, and new Molicels from NKON are yet to come, and the adaptor might easily be the cause. Even though i ordered post-modification that had to do with the spring coming into contact with some bottom side components when used with longer cells i added some kapton tape out of abundance of caution. The spring does seem quite long and bendy.

ETA1:

swapping optics is reasonably easy but it’s not someting i would be doing in the field
head appears to be able to be reassembled in mule mode- without optics- without loss of waterproofing but the emitters are pretty deep so the output has a profound cloverleaf pattern
the emitters are placed at offset angles presumably to give the quad a rounder beam profile- very cool!
the FFL emitters combined with the default 30° optics do produce a CCT gradient- cooler centre (more blue), warmer periphery (less blue)

ETA2

contact issues still present with a Molicel P45B, ugh. The light sometimes loses power when off, requiring head removal, sometimes it’ll go into a weird strobing state

zoulas · 2024-10-31T18:57:57.808Z

Good write up. Put it on my short list.

zoulas · 2024-10-31T21:13:02.869Z

My imagination or are there many similarities with Emisar/Hank web site.

m03da · 2024-10-31T21:14:47.765Z

Wouldn’t say so, are you on firefly-outdoor.com?

zoulas · 2024-10-31T21:22:26.060Z

Yes, you dont see similarities in the URL with Emisar/Hank site.

m03da · 2024-10-31T21:55:56.905Z

Well they both have -outdoor in the address, true, on the other hand Hank’s does not include any of the 2 brand names and the websites’ design is vastly different…

Oh and i can confirm both companies’ lights work outdoors flawlessly! Just this tuesday i took some coworkers visiting from abroad night hiking the hills around our hometown. Handed some of my collection out and they had a blast experiencing night woods with a high power flashlight for the first time.

zoulas · 2024-10-31T23:16:05.114Z

Sounds cool.

dmenezes · 2025-01-15T09:27:12.057Z

Have you tested its powerbank (aka “USB OTG”) functionality? How well does it work, eg for charging a phone in the field?

m03da · 2025-01-15T22:09:16.701Z

I’ve yet to actually need to resort to that, my primary and standby powerbanks would have to run out first

Just testing it out now with a type-C PD tester, using a proper type-C cable, even in momentary mode my phone will just end up charging the light, at 1.6A at that so yeah apparently an OTG->type A->type C contraption is needed. With that my phone is taking 6W in, not stellar but will get you out of a pickle.

Oh and getting out of momentary takes fully removing the head as threads are sporadically conductive, PITA.

dmenezes · 2025-01-16T00:11:25.287Z

Thanks for the detailed response! A few comments:

m03da:

I’ve yet to actually need to resort to that, my primary and standby powerbanks would have to run out first

Heh my Wurkkos FC13 + 3xLGMJ1 is actually my main powerbank, and on long hikes I carry a Fenix ARE-D1 + another 3xLGMJ1 as my backup powerbank. I’m so done with conventional, pouch-battery-based, dedicated powerbanks that I sometimes get the urge to buy a new one just to immediately ~~throw it in the trash~~ discard it responsibly all over again

Just testing it out now with a type-C PD tester, using a proper type-C cable, even in momentary mode my phone will just end up charging the light, at 1.6A at that

Crap! Exactly the same issue I was getting with my FC13! I was able to avoid it by (strangely) always recharging the phone while it still had 10% or more of charge.

so yeah apparently an OTG->type A->type C contraption is needed. With that my phone is taking 6W in, not stellar but will get you out of a pickle.

Same with the FC13. I actually like that slow charging, helps extend the life of both cells (the one in the flashlight which is replaceable, and more importantly the one built into the phone because it is not).

Oh and getting out of momentary takes fully removing the head as threads are sporadically conductive, PITA.

That sucks! And also makes it impossible to hard-lock the light, which doubly sucks.

Never seen a light with that problem, sounds like a quality control issue to me, if not FFL would do well to try and fix it.

m03da · 2025-01-16T09:16:19.750Z

dmenezes:

conventional, pouch-battery-based, dedicated powerbanks

I get ya, with me it’s the case of being lazy in my electronic designs, i never bother with charging and protective circuitry and just pop in a type-C port for power, so i have plenty laying around. That and rechargeable hand warmers for where i live, that double as pretty juicy powerbanks themselves.

dmenezes:

I actually like that slow charging,

I slow charge overnight at home but in the field the faster the better for the sake of minimising time dealing with a cable. When i sleep outdoors i keep my phone inside the sleeping bag so a fast charge to 100% before sleep is the way to go, and last year i had an incident abroad- had a bank and my phone in pocket with a loop of cable hanging out. Snagged on some scaffolding, fortunately only ripped the cable, not the port in my precious phone or in the scary little box full of fiery joules.

dmenezes:

sounds like a quality control issue to me,

Feels like it too, the whole unscrewing experience is somewhat grindy, unpleasant and the light flashes intermittently throughout.

ebastler · 2025-01-16T12:10:30.756Z

This sounds like the USB-C controller of the light advertises itself as a “preferred sink” dual role port. Smartphone should be “preferred sink” when almost empty (hence why it works there) and probably “dual role” (no preference) otherwise (in which case the phone tries charging the light).

It’s a bit tricky - if you make the light a “preferred source” it may end up trying to charge USB-C powerbanks instead of being charged by them. There’s only so many options for power direction flow you have

dmenezes · 2025-01-16T12:16:07.002Z

m03da:

dmenezes:

sounds like a quality control issue to me,

Feels like it too, the whole unscrewing experience is somewhat grindy, unpleasant and the light flashes intermittently throughout.

Have you tried contacting FFL? Even if you don’t want a replacement/fix, it would be good to hear what they have to say about it…

dmenezes · 2025-01-16T12:38:12.318Z

Thanks for the detailed explanation, I’ve never heard of “preferred sinks” or “preferred sources” until now. Much appreciated!

ebastler:

Smartphone should be “preferred sink” when almost empty (hence why it works there) and probably “dual role” (no preference) otherwise (in which case the phone tries charging the light).

My experience with the Wurkkos FC13 and my Xiaomi Redmi Note 9S aka Curtana running LineageOS was exactly the opposite: it works great (with the light charging the phone) unless the phone was under about 10% charge: then the phone starts paradoxically charging the light…

Looks like someone (possibly the phone hardware or firmware developer, or the LineageOS folks) messed up. But at least it could easily been avoided by just not waiting for the phone to reach less than 10% charge before starting to recharge it (which is good practice re: extending its battery life anyway).

The sad thing about the X4S is, in its case it could have easily been avoided: as it needs “OTG mode” (ie powerbank / reverse charging) to be explicitly activated by putting the light in momentary mode, unless I’m missing something it would mean putting the USB port in “preferred source” mode, and avoiding the issue all together. That would have been a distinct improvement over the FC13, which just starts doing its thing (ie, direct or reverse charging) automatically a couple of seconds after plugged – would, because it seems it doesn’t actually work

BTW, FFL calling its reverse charging / powerbank mode “OTG”: isn’t that actually a misnomer? AFAIK “OTG” in USB parlance means the data part of the connection operating both in “host” or “peripheral” mode, not the power part…

ebastler · 2025-01-16T16:30:10.682Z

dmenezes:

unless the phone was under about 10% charge: then the phone starts paradoxically charging the light…

Wtf lol. This is new.

m03da · 2025-01-16T16:36:31.863Z

That sounds about right but the light needs to be put in momentary for the PB feature to work and if the controller can switch roles it would make sense for it to be told as much when PB mode is selected. How to test? Don’t have a logic analyser, scope i do have.

m03da · 2025-01-16T16:37:00.495Z

I’ve talked to Ivy re/ btn backlight being too dim, not the threads, but it feels that this is unfortunately a result of cost optimisation to be aware of, not a one off situation.

dmenezes · 2025-01-16T18:59:32.148Z

ebastler:

Wtf lol. This is new.

yeah, wasn’t a pleasant surprise in the middle of a long wilderness hike and the phone dead… which I depended on for offline maps and GPS

Fortunately I had a backup powerbank and it saved the day. Wisest proverb ever is, “He who has two, has one”…

dmenezes · 2025-01-16T19:05:06.640Z

m03da:

I’ve talked to Ivy re/ btn backlight being too dim, not the threads, but it feels that this is unfortunately a result of cost optimisation to be aware of, not a one off situation.

“Cost optimization” on a $67 flashlight, with something as basic as tube anodization, which other manufacturers like Wurkkos and Sofirn manage to get right every time in flashlights costing 3 times less?!

That would be really tragic…

m03da · 2025-09-07T21:42:36.224Z

That threaded bezel is fantastic though and should quite frankly be the norm.

Printables.com