Short Review of Lumintop ODF30

JasonWW · 2018-06-06T03:49:12.000Z

Newlumen:

Pete7874:

Newlumen:

Turbo step down after 30 seconds… 1827 lumen

Wow… that’s much sooner than what was indicated in earlier reviews.

I think lumintop program that way so the light will not be overheat…

1800 lumen is still bright, but I wish turbo last 2 minutes…

Turbo should be way more than 30 seconds. A simple test is to bypass the tail cap and use some heavy wire to ground the battery to the battery tube. If this makes it run for way more than 30 seconds then your battery might not be compressed tightly enough.

My light is not even warm at 30 seconds. At 1 minute it’s getting pretty warm. At 1:30 it’s starting to get hot. I turned it down after 3 minutes. I think it gradually stepped down before 3 minutes as it was quite hot, but I didn’t notice it with my eyes.

I’ll cool it down and run the test again using the light meter to see if it steps down.

JasonWW · 2018-06-06T04:27:22.000Z

Okay, I tried again. My battery is not fully charged, but is still over 4 volts.

Start was 3000 lumen and held steady for 1m 10s then slowly dropped to 1870 at the 1m 45s mark. It stabilized shortly then went down to 1700 at 2m. Then dropped to 1680 at 2m 15s. It held steady for a while then dropped to 1600 at the 3m mark. I turned it off as it was really hot.

So I got full Turbo for 1m 10s, then I got a series of smooth ramp downs.

Locks review showed the light staying above 2600 lumen (my lumen number, not his) for about 3 minutes before steeply dropping in output. Mine drooped to that level in half the time.

His test says it was a 22°C room with no cooling.

Mine was a 23°C with no cooling except my 2 fingers holding the light.

My light was probably started off a bit warmer since it had just cooled down from another run on turbo about 10 mins earlier. Still, this is a pretty big difference in turbo stepdown times.

Newlumen · 2018-06-06T04:28:48.000Z

Do you think we get longer turbo runtime in colder climate??

JasonWW · 2018-06-06T04:37:45.000Z

Newlumen:

Do you think we get longer turbo runtime in colder climate??

Yes, Lumintop says this light has intelligent temperature control which means it probably goes up and down based on the internal temperature as opposed to a step down after a certain time.

If you blew cold air or ran it in an ice bath, I’m sure the turbo would last a lot longer. I have not tried to do this test, though.

mortuus · 2018-06-06T11:29:19.000Z

ok 30 seconds stepdown is a joke too me… if the host is that weak or whatever reason then its just lame and misleading that it does the not even 3500 lumens for not even a minute… lumintop has a thing or two to learn from olight.

Lumintop if they read this should improve the light for newer batch… Because for this price they ask its not worth it imo.

JasonWW how about some video of outdoor beamshots?

komeko · 2018-06-06T11:36:23.000Z

Thrunite TC20 operates in turbo for 150 seconds. I guess it’s a better option than lumintop.
The turbo reaches 3,855 lumens. In high 1800 and it keeps practically all the time.

JasonWW · 2018-06-07T01:20:02.000Z

mortuus:

ok 30 seconds stepdown is a joke too me… if the host is that weak or whatever reason then its just lame and misleading that it does the not even 3500 lumens for not even a minute… lumintop has a thing or two to learn from olight.

Lumintop if they read this should improve the light for newer batch… Because for this price they ask its not worth it imo.

JasonWW how about some video of outdoor beamshots?

Did you stop reading at post #11?

If you look at post #15 I did a step down test and got 1 minute and 10 seconds before it slowly started ramping down. My light was already a bit hot, though. Reviewers like Lock got about 3 minutes before a big ramp down. You should read his review. He’s got all kinds of charts and graphs and pretty pictures.

Also, ChibiM did a review here. He has some nice outdoor video.

My only video camera is my Note 4 phone and the video is always too dark. I’m new to doing reviews, this is my first, so I’m lucky to pack as much info as I can here.

JasonWW · 2018-06-07T03:22:16.000Z

komeko:

Thrunite TC20 operates in turbo for 150 seconds. I guess it’s a better option than lumintop.
The turbo reaches 3,855 lumens. In high 1800 and it keeps practically all the time.

The TC20 does not put out the rated turbo amount either. Newlumen has the same TA Lumen Tube I do and we both use the same 0.7 correction factor. It puts out the same turbo lumens as the ODF30 (I actually measured 3150 @ 30 secs). So if you like the turbo brightness of the TC20, then you will also like the turbo brightness of the ODF30 as they are the same regardless of who’s integrating sphere is measuring it.

Newlumen:

Hey i have a thrunite tc20 and lumen tube (using 0.7 correction factor) … I tested it shockli imr… 3.98 v at the time of testing.

3164 lumen @ turn on

3087 lumen @ 30 seconds

About how long it runs in turbo is still a bit confusing to me. On Totobel’s TC20 thread some say 2.5 minutes and some say 3 minutes. Some even said 30 seconds, but I think that was due to the Thrunite protected battery.

My personal ODF30 started to ramp down at 1m and 10s and it wasn’t all that hot yet.

Locks ODF30 started to ramp down after about 2.5 minutes.

So I don’t know about actual turbo run time. This was never an issue to me as I don’t ever run turbo more than 15 to 30 seconds at a time anyway. If I need long run time at high outputs I have bigger lights to use.

On the High level Lock measured the ODF30 running about 20 minutes before stepping down due to heat. Lumintop rates it at 1800 lumen, I measure it at 1500 lumen. I think maybe this is pretty close to the TC20. I asked Newlumen to measure his TC20 on high using is TA tube with a .70 correction factor. ~~I will report back what he measures.~~ He says it’s 1550 lumen. So pretty much the same as the ODF30.

Overall, I’d say these 2 lights are pretty equally matched in overall performance on High and Turbo.

JasonWW · 2018-06-07T03:17:42.000Z

I just did another Turbo run time test on my light since it was completely at room temperature (23° Celsius). This time I got one minute and 37 seconds before it started to ramp down. It was quite hot to hold, so I think it was stepping down at about the right time so as not to burn your hand.

I think Turbo run time could be directly influenced by the battery that is being used.

Lock was using an unprotected black KeepPower 5200 mAh battery which has quite a bit more voltage sag at 10 amp compared to the battery I’m using which is the Liitokala cyan 5000 mAH.

My light might be heating up at a faster rate than Locks which activates the thermal step down sooner then on his light. This is just a theory at the moment.

steel_1024 · 2018-06-07T06:57:53.000Z

My ODF30

Texas Ace Lumen Tube with a .70 correction factor

Brightness levels are roughly:
Turbo 3045
High 1519
Med 485
Low 134
Eco 7

JasonWW · 2018-06-07T08:38:53.000Z

steel_1024:

My ODF30

Texas Ace Lumen Tube with a .70 correction factor

Brightness levels are roughly:
Turbo 3045
High 1519
Med 485
Low 134
Eco 7

Pretty darn close to mine. What battery are you using?

Since this uses a boost driver it seems to maintain steady output by increasing current.

Check out Martin’s (M4dm4x) video.

steel_1024 · 2018-06-07T08:45:35.000Z

JasonWW:

Pretty darn close to mine. What battery are you using?

JasonWW · 2018-06-08T07:34:17.000Z

steel_1024:

JasonWW:

Pretty darn close to mine. What battery are you using?

Ah, so your probably getting some amp draws over 10A with that battery due to the protection circuitry.

Do you get a big drop in lumens from turn on to 30 secs in Turbo? I’ve heard people with other lights say they get a 500 lumen drop due to the protection circuitry.

steel_1024 · 2018-06-08T07:17:53.000Z

I tried it
No drop in one minute
It becomes very hot after more than a minute

JasonWW · 2018-06-08T07:41:41.000Z

steel_1024:

I tried it
No drop in one minute
It becomes very hot after more than a minute

That’s good to know. It seems the Lumintop protected 26650 can handle more amps/has less resistance than the Thrunite protected 26650.

These little lights do get pretty hot on turbo. I held mine for 1m 37s before it started to ramp down. It was really hot! This is laws of physics. Lol

If turbo were reduced 500 lumen it would last longer before stepdown. Do people prefer that?

Do people prefer a bigger and heavier light to get longer turbo runtime? I don’t know.

I think this light has a pretty good balance between small size, light weight and still packs over 3,000 lumen.

I haven’t tried any of its more expensive competitors, though. The MR70 looks pretty interesting. I built my own compact light with 2 x 26350 and FET driver with NarsilM. It is almost perfect for me. Hopefully Lexel can get NarsilM working on his boost drivers soon, then we will see real 3500 to 4000 lumen compact lights. :partying_face:

mortuus · 2018-06-08T07:57:16.000Z

I would say if u want to shine 3000+ lumens for more then a minute then u better of with an l6 ican use highest mode for several minutes it doesnt get that warm really. But some prefer smaller hosts even tho u can only run a minute its already very hot so yea u have to chose.

ChibiM · 2018-06-08T08:26:05.000Z

Mine does step down a little before 2:00 minutes. It used to step down within 10 seconds.. sometimes even within 3 seconds. Until Jason came to the rescue.. now its doing the step down correctly. But still not at 3 minutes.

JasonWW · 2018-07-19T09:41:13.000Z

Here is a world exclusive. I got the battery tube apart. Yay! I used a leather welding glove and a vice being careful not to distort the battery tube. Then I used a hot air gun to heat the light up. I eventually worked my way up to a rubber strap wrench and then just barely got it to break loose. They use some pretty wicked blue looking threadlocker that dries to a white finish.

I suspect this is the same driver and switch design as the Lumintop GT Mini.

MRsDNF · 2018-07-19T10:46:58.000Z

That is some nice work you have done there Jason. :+1:

JasonWW · 2018-09-28T18:15:43.000Z

I updated the lumen levels based on my TA Lumen Tube calibrated with one of Maukka’s calibration lights.

Brightness levels are roughly:
Turbo ~~3150~~ 2660 @20s
High ~~1500~~ 1330
Med ~~500~~ 425
Low ~~140~~ 120
Eco 5 2

I also bypassed the driver and tail springs.

Using a heavy jumper wire from battery to battery tube gained me 70 lumen, so the tail cap spring bypass is working great. Plus I’ve got more compliance for different battery lengths than stock.