“REVIEW”: Lumintop FWAA – 14500 – Anduril 2 – Triple Nichia 4000K & 5000K [Pic Heavy]

LED Flashlights – General Info 1 x AA / 1 x 14500 Flashlights
81

Although I’m not expert on these things, I will try to give some answers to your questions :wink:

According to some reports, and even my latest reports, on the batteries that work in the FWAA (even if it bends the spring) the unprotected button top Vapcells will work on both flashlights, as example. The Tool AA needs button top cells, and the FWAA might work with those too, even if not advised.

The Tool AA doesn’t need a high drain cell, so a Vapcell Gold would be enough for it. A black & yellow Shockli would also work. Both need button tops!

Shorter button top cells, such as the Sofirn 900mAh or even the Lumintop USB rechargeable (blue and white) won’t work in the Tool AA as they are shorter. They work in the FWAA, even if conditioned to the drain rate or protection circuit.
Other longer flat top cells also won’t work on the Tool AA as they don’t make contact in the + of the driver (ex: Efest IMR, Sanyo UR14500P, Vapcell H10, Shockli, ….).

Made 2 tests:

  1. used a charged Sofirn 900mAh (unprotected, not “high drain) on turbo in the FWAA. It still got hot enough to make a hole in a pocket.

2) used a Lumintop 750mAh (USB rechargeable, protected, not high drain). Tried to reach turbo through 2H from OFF, and the light didn’t enter turbo, as the protection tripped. Turned the flashlight OFF, unscrewed and screwed the head back again, ramped from the bottom and it went to the configured ceiling, tried to double click for turbo and it didn’t work again. Unscrewed and screwed the head back again and let it stay on in the ceiling for a while and it still got hot.

Picking the test with the LT cell from a above, yes, it is probable that a protected cell (if it fits the FWAA) gets the protection tripped while trying to access turbo. And then happens, you need to remove and put the head back again.

And also true, it is recommended to use unprotected cells and high drain cells on the FWAA, once it will “suck” the juice out of them.

I am not sure (can’t remember) about having LVP or not, but I guess it you are correct and it doesn’t have it.
The ring is what provides reverse polarity protection, but I would easily use an unprotected button top high drain or non high drain battery on the Tool AA.

I am not sure if this 100% correct because - if I can recall correctly - there are some protected cells that are made to some relative high drain, whether they are or not button top.
Maybe here we are talking about bigger cells, I can’t recall any 14500 in that situation, although they may exist.
These are normally custom made batteries by request of flashlight manufacturers.
Also, you have flat top cells which are not high drain, ex: Sanyo UR14500P.

82

thank you very much!

you did an excellent job of narrowing down my choices
I edited your post to include a purchase link to the buttontop vapcell gold.

83

Here are the links for Vapcell Gold ICR in the AliExpress store:
Flat top: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32954962083.html
Button top: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000533323376.html

The H10 (you can chose button of flat top):
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000595042850.html

84

Thanks for the beamashot comparison pinkpanda3310 :wink:
I’m not sure if I envy more the beam diversity or your flashlight collection :heart_eyes:
BTW, the last photo seems to have some rosy on the sides (of the 4000K), but maybe I am seeing it wrong :stuck_out_tongue:

85

How I take photos on my iPhone8 with Auto White balance
to capture pink tint

1. Include a cool white in the photo
2. use a piece of printer paper folded 90 degrees
3. I take the photo during the day, near window

here is an example of a photo setup I do not recommend:

the auto white balance makes the sw45k the reference light, and sets it to look white, which imo is not helpful. Now the sw30 looks yellow, which it is not… it has a nice orange tone actually

by including a cool white light, I get better results:

the added Cool White light convinces the phone to use that as the white reference… and can now reveal the lovely pink tint of the sw45k, and the orange warmth of the sw30

86

Hum, I did the same now, except I did it in a dark room, as there is no daylight here already.
Tested it with 2 other flahshlights (both w/ cool white emitters) and Auto Balance.
If this is not ideal I will try again with natural light
FWAA 4000K > 5000K vs OTR M3 Pro XP-L HD Cool White w/ TIR

FWAA 4000K > 5000K vs Convoy S2+ XML2 U2 1A 6500K w/ OP Reflector

87

Thanks for the tips jon_slider I’ll try remember that for future :beer:

The point of my pics was to highlight the different tints despite being labelled as the same led. This is highlighted in my second pic, all of them are sst20 4000k quads except the one on the far right which is a triple. However you could be forgiven for thinking they might be different LEDs.

Later today I’ll try get a pic of nichia , xpg , xpl hi together.

@MascaratumB yes the nichia 4000k is slightly rosy next to an sst20 4000k

88

I purchased (2) FWAAs. One in Nichia 219C 4000k and one SST-20 4000k.

I can confirm that some 219C lights have that nice “pink” tint.

Although many 219C LEDs have a positive duv, I’ve found a few that are near 0 or even negative. This FWAA is one of them!
The tint looks much better than the SST-20 on low outputs.
It looks very close to the SST-20 tint on high outputs.

The 219C FWAA I received is not as “rosy” as SW45k 219b emitters but it very closely matches some 4000k 219b emitters I have.
It falls in between SW40 emitters from a Clemence group buy and SW40 emitters from a azhu group buy. Both of these emitters were tested at very close to duv of 0.

FB

89

Thanks for your report and “tested” information FBsLights! :wink:

90

congratulations and thanks for the tint comments

what are your impressions regarding the beam differences… do you have a preference?
any chance you can post a photo of the two beams?

91

Beams are similar and both floody and relatively smooth. SST-20 is a little narrower and brighter.

Not set up to take and post photos. Not sure what it would show that hasn’t already been shown? The differences are subtle other than the known “green” shift of SST-20 at low current.

I prefer the slightly narrower beam profile of the SST-20, but haven’t found a SST-20 yet that I like at low current drive. I prefer the 219c for the tint at low output, and this wins out over the beam profile in a light like this (floody beam with limited high output/thermal capability).

I usually modifying any light that doesn’t have a nice LED. Nice keeps getting better and better.
Lately, my favorite LEDs have been shaved LH351Ds. The shave drops the CCT and tint, and narrows the beam profile. The trick is finding good not-too-green to start with LEDs, and then shaving the dome to ~1mm. My first batch was from the AEDe group buy a while back. Now I think I found a good source from DigiKey.

My plan for the FWAAs was to buy these two lights, keep my favorite one as is and mod the other with LH351Ds. I’ll be modding the SST-20.

The FWAA 219C is much nicer than the version I got with my FW3A. On my FW3A, I ended up modifying the 219C and keeping the SST-20 stock. Still looking for the best LH351D tint mix on that light. Currently using (2) shaved 5700k and (1) shaved 3500k in an attempt to get ~4500k. Looking for a better 5700k because they started a bit too green. Still looks better than the SST20 to my eyes!

Now you have me nerding out on LEDs. I guess this is the place to do it!

FB

92

very helpful
great to hear the tint of the 219c 4000k is a keeper

much appreciate all the LED details
I have 5000k, 3500k and 2700k LH351d that are shaved, I like them.
imo the LH351d 2700k is nice even UnShaved.

93

Only today I was able to take a look at the diagram and configure my flashlights.

I confirm what you say: in the FWAA, in the Advanced UI, after battery check (3C from OFF) with a double click (2C) you enter beacon (configurable in speed, that uses the last used brightness); another 2C takes you to Temp Check, and from this you can configure 1) current temperature and 2) temperature limit with 7clicks&hold the last (7H).

However, from temp check another 2C takes me back to battery check and not to SOS, in both flashlights. I don’t have SOS mode in my lights (not that I care…).

Also, sometime along the way, I was having an intermediate blink count of…something that didn’t make sense. I made a factory reset and that count disappeared. Only after that I configures my lights:

- temp limit: 46ºC

- 4 stepped modes, the lower being level 20, the ceiling being level 100

  • ramping, the lower being level 1, the ceiling being level 100

Also, I was tempeted to calibrate the voltage readings, by measuring the cells voltage through multimeter and then adjusting the calibration, but I concluded that it was reading –0.1V less than what the battery had, so I thought it would be better as I have a slight margin of juice bot to use and to charge when needed.

Things I didn’t configure at all were: sunset timer and manual memory! I think that manual memory may become useful at some time, but I don’t think I will add that to remember now concerning this UI.

After this time using these lights, I do aknowledge that it is sometimes weird not having a “turbo” to jump to when ON (except of being on the ceiling level) but I don’t care that much about it as I can configure ceiling to higher levels. I find it good to have Momentary Turbo.

94

I just received two FWAA 219C 4000k and sad to say it is not rosy. At low modes it is about spot on the BBL but on higher levels it gets increasingly above DUV. Compared with SST-20 4000k that Fireflies uses, especially at top of ramp modes, the 219C is much greener. I will post more detailed test reports when I have some time.

95

Thanks for the report and further information on this SKV89!!
Will be looking forward to some more details. :+1:

96

Finally recieved my FWAA Nichia 4000k…No issues with light coming on without any button pressed as some have reported. I had a hard time getting it to advanced UI, but finally succeeded. I do like this little light, but still like the lumintop AA 2.0 better. For a small edc light sometimes simple is better. The 3 led setup also gets very hot very fast on higher settings. In fact all three lights I have in the. FW series get too hot, too quickly. I have this FWAA, FW3a, and FW 21pro. I have 6 Lumintop tool aa, 3 gt micro modified with the osram led, 2 gt nano, 3 gt mini, 3 standard gt micro as well. There is a reason I only get 1 of the FW series of lights. Just not my favorite in the lumintop inventory at all.

97

Poll
Which Fancy Metal for your FWAA?

98

Received my 4000K SST-20 FWAA.

Initial impressions:

  • works perfectly. No issues with build quality or operation.
  • tint at higher brightness settings is noticeably more rosy than the 4000K 219C version FWAA. I haven’t checked tint at lower brightness settings yet.
  • beam pattern is still very floody, but has a bit more punch than the Nichia version. As expected for such tiny optics.
  • extremely bright for such a tiny light.

I still can’t get over how tiny the FWAA is. Anyone remember the old Eagletac (now Eagtac) D25C? That light was a small 16340 light. The FWAA is even smaller. It’s the same width, but a few mm shorter than the D25C.

99

I think your wish is about to come true :+1:

Fancy FWAA Announced

100

I am having troubles with configuring the temp limit. I was able to set an accurate temp for the sitting light, Followed the click map and ended up with the flash/buzz and entered the correct temp, but have been unable to figure out how to get from that setting to the limit setting. What click pattern advances to that mode?