Mine does it too!
Ahhh, oh boy....
Made a stock factory default setup turbo stepdown measurement on my NW FT03 with temperature measuring.
I noticed that my almost same output Luxeon V L2 keep itself cool for much longer. So I measured head mass. The FT03 has bigger reflector but 45g less weight than L2 head. And L2 head doesn’t contain charging circuit, switch… Not saying FT03 is bad. I like it very much but head around reflector has very thin wall. Where the L2 is much thicker and has useful fins. I think FT03 will be better If Astrolux use same design as the MF02 just smaller.
Here is the measurements. The L2 heating up much later so it has more sustainable output. It not a lot what the FT03 is missing but it counts.
Everybody pay attention these are Zozz lumens! Not real! I only measured around 300 lights so who knows.
You can see the difference. L2 is smaller reflector but around led shelf it has more mass where it matters.
uh ohhh,that may be the norm! :person_facepalming:
It is a $30 light,maybe I will get lucky!Then again, if not I will have no choice but to have it fixed and improved. 
Is there room to add more copper heat sinking to compensate for lack of mass and fins?
Someone here at work I showed this too said: oh, a HD2010 but nicer!
Had me think'n - the HD2010 deal was like $30 at the time, so for the same price to get a light of this quality and performance so many years later is pretty crazy.
Compared to the L2, yes it's lighter, smaller diam around the pill/switch are, but I do like that it's lighter as well - pros and cons.
ZozzV6 - do you know what amps are being drawn between the 2 lights compared? Dunno off hand what the Luxeon V is pushed at. My Luxeon V lights drop in amps and output over time - permanently. Will end up replacing them all I'm sure.
There is no room for that. I’don’t say it is bad just heats up quicker. You can still run in turbo for 4 minutes or ramp max forever. I like it just compared the two.
Thanks,UNLESS you are a lunatic like me!!! :smiling_imp: I was able to use max for 8 minutes in the summer,then low for 3 minutes, then max again!
20 minutes later when I got home from the trail! TN42vn 90 :sunglasses:
Amazing flashlight !! I am beginner, a lot of light for the money. Got mine Today, I love it.
ZozzV6,
You put an SST-40 in a Convoy L2 at some point , and it drew 9.5A in your testing. Did you use this light often, make another swap, or sit it on the shelf? I realize that modders keep on modding, but thought I’d ask anyway 
.
I’m wondering how well the emitter might hold up over time with a 9A+ turbo mode and thought that you might have some experience with this. An L2 with SST-40 swap is actually somewhat similar to the FT03, at least in Turbo. The L2 shows 830m while the FT03 shows 907m with tail amps of 9.5A and 8.8A respectively.
Thanks!
Is it possible that Luminus has made the gold wires thicker to handle higher current, or that they switched from gold to gold plated copper wires?
Because that is quite the increase in terms of current.
Why? I hit 9.1A on the best cell, a 30T. 9.4A and 9.5A were the levels of the melt down, but I'n not sure if the failures occurred after running a while or not. Think others reported 9.1A at best. Also I didn't confirm 9.1 amps was being drawn form the cell when I took the lumens/throw measurments because I take them with the light's tailcap on.
We don't know the voltage bin either, and that could make a big difference. Also I'm using the NW version while the LED tests (failures) were with a CW.
Does anyone have an idea why the NW SST-40 was(and still is) so hard to get?
Because it was just released. I’m sure they will be everywhere in a few months.
MCPCB size, 28mm:
Really big MCPCB traces you can see here. Basically, the + and - traces are the full surface:
They mimicked a Manker MCPCB, but the traces and finish are different:
Mounted, stock:
Liquidy grease and a contaminant near the black wire on the left. It showed on the MCPCB side as well:
After cleaned up. Did you ever see copper with a wood grain finish? Hard to get the grease out of the channels:
That mark was some gunk that I could scrape off:
So, I don't think it's a good thing to have a wood grain finish on the backside of an MCPCB, no, don't think so. Fortunately it can be eliminated by a good amount of flat surface sanding.
Between the rough surface, the contaminant, and the liquefied grease, I'm sure that explains the cracking/popping sounds. I do want to replace the LED wires too, and for that, I'll need to get the driver out - gotta wait for tomorrow.
MCPCB Pros:
- good amount of grease
- really like the insulated screws securing it down
- LED wires look heavy gauge, guess at 20 AWG
- nice size MCPCB, nicely done traces
MCPCB Cons:
- crud, gunk thing in there - not good, this contact area needs to be 100% clean
- poor looking grease, dunno what it is
- absolutely ridiculous finish on the backside of the MCPCB - what were they think'n? Not much on this...
- copied a Manker 28 mm MCPCB, but wait - ohh, not the backside gold smooth finish, hhmm......
Thanks for the pictures Tom E, guess I have some work to do on my light.
…. wow that’s a bad MCPCB. Well, the back of it anyway. Looks like I’m busting out the sandpaper kit up to 2000 or so.
It looks like the screw holes need to be chamfered as well. A slightly larger drill bit should do the job.
Hi,
Very happy with the FT03, Ive tried 18650 LGHG2, Sanyo 18650 GA and 18650 Samsung 30Q, I have also tried 26650 Xtar 4000mah black, all seem to work similar to the eye but the 18650 soon start to drop in voltage after about 10 mins, would it be worth investing in another cell or would I not notice and throw/brightness to the eye. Link to Xtar review below
Yesterday,banggood change status to shipped…. again but instead of April 4th,it gone to april 12th 2019.
After paying on paypal 2 months ago for ft03…still have no flashlight in hand.
Banggood…good job.