Tag: Lumintop Review

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Lumintop Antman Review (World’s Smallest LEP Flashlight)

Today I have for you what Lumintop claims as the smallest Laser or LEP flashlight on the market. It runs on a 14500 battery and is a familiar form factor. Thanks to Lumintop for sending this to me to look at and share with you.

 

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Get a 22% discount on the Ant man by using coupon code “JANTM2” at Lumintoponline at https://lumintoplighting.com/products/lumintop-ant-man-thor-mini-165lm-590m-14500-lep-mini-flashlight-184

 

Packaging & Accessories

Standard Lumintop cardboard packaging here, the light is well protected with some foam. Mine came with very minimal accessories, the light itself with the clip preinstalled, a Lumintop 920mAh battery with onboard USB-C, and a manual. 

 

Construction & Design

You probably recognize this light, it looks a lot like the Lumintop Tool series of lights from Lumintop. I don’t have a recent AA model to compare it to but it looks similar in most ways. Machining is good, with corners nicely broken and soft. Anodizing is flawless and markings are minimal. The head and tail are removable, threads are square cut, smooth and lubricated. The tail cap features a forward clicky button, it has LED’s underneath that glow ever so slightly as a locator feature. 

Internally there is only a stiff spring in the tail cap, with a solid post in the front. I would recommend changing the battery through the front of the light, due to the tail cap holding the clip into place, I find it’s easier that way. The body has standard diamond knurling thats minimally aggressive. 

The head features a six sided anti roll ring built into its heat fins. The front has a glass lens, with a GITD insert below the lens, blue in my case. The light will stand on it’s head but not the tail. 

 

Retention

The light ships with the standard Lumintop dual direction clip that’s held in place with the tail cap. It’s not my favorite due to not being deep carry but it works and keeps the light secure. It’s pre drilled for a lanyard if you wish but one isn’t included in the package. 

 

Size & Weight

I measured the length at 100mm, head diameter at 22mm, body tube at 19mm.I measured the weight with the Lumintop battery and clip at 85g or 3oz. The light is IPX8 water rated

 

Emitter & Beam

The Antman is using a LEP or Laser Excited Phosphor the result is a very throwy beam with no spill. I have explained this technology in some of my other videoss if your curious to learn more about it. The beam here is a little more fuzzy then other LEP’s I have and doesn’t have the same sharpness of the beam pattern. Tint here is very hard to measure due to the intensity, but it’s very cold, and I measured no flicker since this is a direct drive light.

Official stats have this at making 165 lumens and 87,025 candela. I don’t think mine is producing that with a full battery. I don’t have a calibrated setup that I trust to measure LEP’s right now to really give scientific evidence of this but my night shots shows what the eye sees decently.

 

Night Shots

You can see from my night shots (Video version) that the performance isn’t quite what I expected here. I compared it to the Thrunite Catapult Mini which on paper is pretty closer, while different technologies my Antman doesn’t seem to be close to the rated numbers. 

 

Runtime & Heat

I did my runtime tests with the optional Lumintop 920mAh button top battery. Flat tops and button tops work here but longer protected cells are not recommended. You don’t need a high drain battery either because the current draw is pretty minimal at just at 1A. 

Some other reviewers reported high parasitic drains with the Antman when off, I wanted to test this further but didn’t see the same effects on my light. I had the battery in the light and noticed no noticeable drop in voltage. 

 

The driver is direct drive and thats apparent in my runtime graph, it’s a very linear decline in relative output from the begging to the end. It is able to hold near 100% output for just about 10 minutes before declining. During this time the hottest temps I saw was 35C. Total output was 42 minutes on the supplied 920mAh battery. One thing to note is there is no low voltage protection built in here and the light will stop operating around 1.1V. Below you will see the direct charging via the battery too. 

 

UI

This is a single mode light so not much to say on the UI. It does have a forward clicky switch that you can half press for momentary mode or full press to lock it on. This is a little disappointing for the price range, I would expect another mode here.

 

Final Thoughts

The Antman is an interesting light. It’s quite small and is in a familiar form factor we know. However, in my experience it’s performance leaves something to be desired. While it does throw a reasonably far distance with a fairly focused beam, it’s not quite at the level I expected based on the other LEP lights that I own. I feel like my night shots do a good job of showing that in the video. I paired it up next to my Thrunite Catapult Mini which is a similar size but with a larger head. The performance of the two are very similar throw wise on paper, but not so much in the real world. For the Antman your putting size and form factor above performance.

I don’t normally talk about pricing in my reviews because it varies so much based on where you are in the world, where you buy it, what promotions are ongoing and when you buy. But on this review I have to mention price. LEP’s are not inexpensive, but typically their throw performance is unmatched. However on the Antman, the performance just isn’t quite there. There are lights that are LED based, that are a similar size, that offer the same or more performance but for half the cost. 

 

I do hope that Lumintop continues to develop this small form factor LEP based lights so that the performance comes up to what we have come to expect from LEP lights and the price decreases. I think this will happen with time. Right now I would have strong reservations on recommending the Antman, it’s remarkable in terms of its size and its technology but it’s performance lags my expectations in this case.

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Lumintop Thor 3 Ragnarok Review (1.562 Million candela!)

Lumintop has a new addition to their Thor line of LEP flashlights with the Thor 3. The Thor 3 is the largest of the 3, and is powered by a 21700 battery, or optional 18650 with the included adapter. It’s a beast in terms of performance so I have to thank Lumintop for sending it to me to try and show you what it can do. 

 

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Get a 22% discount on the Thor 3 Ragnarok from Lumintop by using Coupon Code “JTHOR32” at https://lumintoplighting.com/products/lumintop-thor3-ragnarok-400-lumens-2500-meters-21700-lep-flashlight-183

 

Packaging & Accessories

Packaging is like may other recent Lumintop lights, a cardboard box with a basic slip cover and an outline drawing of the light. Inside the light is nicely protected in foam. You don’t get much in terms of accessories here for the price but you do get the light itself, a lanyard ring, 18650 adapter tube, and in my case an unlabeled 21700 battery. I believe you will get a battery with a branded lanyard if you choose that option. 

 

Construction

The light is made from aluminum, and anodized in a mat black. Fit and finish here is great. The rear button is a reverse clicky, and stands proud with the Lumintop bunny showing some small red LED’s underneath to help you locate the light in the dark. The tail also has 6 glow tubes in it. These do glow in the dark but it’s not the best glow material I have seen. 

The body tube tapers slightly as you go towards the head. It has a deep large diamond pattern milled into it that’s elegant yet gripy but the edges are a little sharp. I am glad they decided to do something different than the traditional knurling that we saw on the prototype version of this light. Internally there are small springs at both ends.

The head has large fins with milling for style primarily since this light doesn’t get hot. Branding is very minimal, it actually doesn’t say Thor 3 anywhere on it, only a largeish Lumintop logo and serial number. No laser warning is atypical too. The front bezel unscrews if you want to see inside. There is a thick glass lens thats spaced a bit away from the front convex lens that helps shape the beam here. There is what looks like glow material between the two on the edges, similar to what the Thor 2 had, expect here it doesn’t glow. 

 

Size & Weight

I measured the length at 164mm, the largest diameter in the head at 59.9mm, and the smallest on the body at 25.46mm. Weight with the battery and ring was 344g. The light is IPX8 water rated. 

 

Retention Options

The only included retention option with this light is the removable silver lanyard ring. There is a little more tolerance here then I would hope for, as it rattles around and rotates a bit too easily for my liking. The light feels good in the hand.

 

Emitter & Beam

Instead of a LED the Thor 3 uses a Laser Excited Phosphor (LEP) module. The Thor 3 is using the second generation of module where the laser sits behind a phosphor layer which has a silicone piece on top that focuses the light into a narrower beam. Lenses are then used to direct the light out of the front of the light into the beam we see. The benefit is this style of module is smaller typically but the lens assembly can be larger. The beam here over a long distance is very even, in some of my other LEP lights mainly the Jetbeam and Astrolux you can see a narrowing point (Focal Plain), but the Thor 3 seems more even like you see out of a traditional LED light. At short distances (2Ft) the beam has a hole in it, that in this case is blue/black, with a bright donut of light on the light. At 4+ feet this normalizes and just becomes a very intense beam with a few rings of intensity. The longer the distance the less this happens. Tint wise this is on the cooler side 6000-7000k I would guess. I have equipment on the way to give you a better answer to this question in my future reviews. 

 

Table of Outputs

 

ANSI/NEMA FL1 LOW HIGH
OUTPUT 40 Lumen 400 Lumen
Runtime 7H 20MIN 5M+ 4H+
INTENSITY 1562500cd (Max)
DISTANCE 2500m (Max)

 

Runtime & Heat

I ran my runtime tests with the included unlabeled button top protected battery that Lumintop sent with the light. I put it in my Vapcell S4 Plus charger to run an analysis cycle on it and came in with a capacity of 4987mAh. The Thor 3 claims to run for 5 minutes on high before step down and that’s exactly what my tests showed. Stepdown is about 37% of relative output for 5 hours at which point the light blinks once and goes to an ultra low mode for another 40 minutes. During this time the highest temp it saw was 31.5C, so not even warm.

 

In low mode only the light runs for what looks more like an unregulated 9 hours, Output slowly declines  but is above 50% relative output for the entire time. Impressive runtimes when your use to LED’s that typically run hot and for not as long.

 

UI

The UI on the Thor 3 is super simple. It has 2 steady mode and a strobe. The light turns on officially in low at the start, and you can half press the rear button to turn to high. Double half press quickly to go to the fast strobe. The light does have memory for the two low and high modes. It’s as simple as that.

 

Final Thoughts

The Thor 3 is my best performing LEP thrower light, and it’s also one of the largest single cell LEP lights I have. In terms of performance it’s a beast. 1,562,500 CD is nothing to sneeze at.  It’s amazing to think that you can get this much throwing performance out of a single cell light you can hold in one hand, and get that for 5 minutes before step down. You just can’t do that with current LED technology. 

 

I like the look here physically with the body milling and tail being my favorite parts. You get grip without the same or similar knurling that nearly every other flashlight has. Performance is good here too, it can sustain the high output for the better part of 5 minutes before step down. That equates to throwing performance of 2500 meters, well over 1 mile of performance. Pretty impressive for handheld. 

 

I still maintain I don’t have a ton of practical uses for LEP’s in my daily life other then to amaze people and have an awesome handheld spotlight to quiet the neighbors dog 3 houses down. 🙂 If you have land or just want a fun but somewhat impractical spotlight, this is a great option to pick. 

 

Pick up the Thor 3 Ragnarok from Lumintop at https://lumintoplighting.com/products/lumintop-thor3-ragnarok-400-lumens-2500-meters-21700-lep-flashlight-183

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Lumintop Thor II Review (LEP, 1800M, 18350, 769500 Candella, Turboglow)

Today I have a fun one, with a new LEP light from Lumintop with the THOR. It has a Turboglow ring in the head as well as little viewing windows and a tail cap with colored LED’s. Thanks to Lumintop for sending this to me to look at and review. I will have links to where you can pick it up from them in the description below as well as a coupon code where you can save 21% on this fun LEP light which is nice.

 

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Pickup the Lumintop Thor II (In Aluminum) at https://lumintoplighting.com/products/lumintop-thor-ii-1800-metersthrow-lep-flashlight-154 and use code TPOR2J to save 21% from Sept 30 2021.

 

Link to the Titanium Thor II and use code TPOR2J to save 21% from Sept 30 2021.

https://lumintoplighting.com/products/lumintop-thor-ii-titanium-1800-metersthrow-lep-flashlight-163

 

Packaging & Accessories

I received a retail package, that was Lumintops cardboard box with an oversleve. The outside showed the outline of the light, and the options that were inside on the side. Accessory wise mine was pretty basic, just the light, 18650 extension tube and the basic manual.


Construction

The Thor is available in a couple different material configurations. You have titanium options with 2 different finishes, and an aluminum model with 4 different color options (Black, Grey, Sand, Raw). I have the Grey color here which is the same as what the FW3A came in originally if you have one of those.

As usual let’s start at the tail cap, the light will tail stand, and it has a machined metal mechanical button with the “old” bunny logo. Surrounding it is a clear plastic ring. Under the ring are RGB LED’s that fade to Green, Yellow, Red, and Blue over about 30 seconds. It adds to the fun in my opinion. Below are some tear drop shapes, and a small place for a lanyard to attach. Inside there is a spring.

Depending on which configuration your running there may or may not be a body section. With the titanium version of the light, it includes the 18350 extension, with the aluminum version it’s an add on. If you do opt for it it allows you to run 18650 batteries too. There is a square knurling pattern milled into it for a little style and grip.

The head section is the rest of the light, You have an interesting add on style ring which on my light is gold in color. This features the name and serial number of the light. Fit on mine isn’t great so it spins freely but it’s also completely removable if you wish. The head has a little more of the square milled knurling and then grows for the emitter like a traditional flashlight shape.

 

What’s not so traditional are the little windows that are cut into the bezel, what looks to be preinstalled tritium is actually little vial sized pieces of Turboglow in Red and White. When the light is on, light leaks into these and charges them creating a neat effect that makes the light look really cool when in use and after for a little while. 

The front of the light has a glass lens, underneath is a glow ring around the outside edge of the same Turboglow material. Underneath is a biconvex lens made of plastic, and below that is the emitter. The front of the light comes apart easily, but I don’t recommend it as it’s very hard to get back together without getting dust inside.

Size and Weight

Minimum diameter is 25.6mm, Maximum diameter was 41.5mm. Length in the 18350 configuration is 116mm, with the 18650 extension it’s 148.4mm. Weight in 18350 configuration with a battery inside was 194.4g. Weight with the 18650 tube and battery came in at 233.6g. The light is impact resistant to 1m, and IPX8 water rated.

 

Retention

Not much to say here, the light has a lanyard attachment point in the tail cap. It’s too small for paracord to fit but fine for a split ring and then paracord. No lanyards or holsters come with the light in the box. 

 

Emitter & Beam

The THOR is using a LEP or Laser Excited Phosphor. It’s a technology I have covered in the past but it’s similar to a blue laser shining onto a piece of phosphor to produce white light. In the Thor the tint here is better then my Jetbeam and Astrolux LEP lights, in my opinion because it’s less cool white, and more neutral, almost slightly warm when you look at them side by side. The beam is pretty small with very little spill and this is exactly what you want out of a LEP. While not many lumens it makes up for it with extreme 769,500 Candella, and a 1800m max claimed distance. No PWM is visible during the use of the light. 

 

Heat & Runtime

I tested the light both with 18350 (Keeppower 1100mAh), and an 18650 (Sony VTC6 3000mAh) batteries. With the 18350 runtime at high mode was stable for right at 5 minutes, before taking a stepdown to about 30% relative output that was mostly flat out to 52minutes. Total runtime was 57 minutes, with maximum heat being found at 6 minutes at 42C .

 

With the 18650 it was a very similar story, Turbo lasted the same amount of time, the s tepdown roasted out to 2:45:00, and total runtime ended at 3:07:00. Temps were a a little higher at 51C and peaked near the end of the runtime here. 

https://i.imgur.com/2FqiLAc.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/mMfX5jQ.jpg

 

You don’t need a high amperage battery here, as max power draw is only 9W. You do get quite a bit more runtime with an 18650 battery so that’s worth doing if you want/need that. 

 

UI

The UI on the Thor is very simple, it’s an easy 3 mode light with a reverse clicky mechanical button and linear progression from Low to Medium, to High. The light will always turn on in the next mode. The button itself is quite easy to press and change modes by half clicking, almost too easy. There is no flashing or blinking modes, and I can’t find a way to disable to LED’s in the tail cap either if you wanted.

 

Conclusion

This is my favorite LEP light that I have so far, because it’s emitter is a more neutral, almost warm color and it’s performance is great, especially when your running the 18350. That said I would definitely recommend adding the 18650 extension it to your order if you decide to buy this light in aluminum. Really for this price it should be included.

 

I still maintain LEP lights are not super practical, but they are a lot of fun and great for specialized applications. This is a super compact thrower with great performance without the heat limitations that a lot of the smaller LED based throwers have. It’s a step above the other LEP lights that I have tested this year. While I love titanium the increased cost here is hard to justify, my recommendation is to choose aluminum and pick one up. 

 

Don’t forget that coupon code in the description below that Lumintop has given me to save 21% on this light through September 30th 2021. 

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Lumintop Gift G1 Review (A flashlight made from TurboGlow?)

What would happen if you took an AA Lumintop Tool and made the body out of TurboGlow instead of metal? Well that’s what we basically have here with the Lumintop Gift-G1 a flashlight where most of the light is made out of TurboGlow and copper. It’s available in a number of colors and has both Cree and Nichia emitter options too. Thanks to Lumintop for sending this to me to review. It’s a fun light so let’s take a closer look.

 

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Get 20% off the Gift G2 by using the coupon code 20G1GiftOFF at https://www.lumintoponline.com/lumintop-gift-g1-turbo-glow-600-lumens-edc-tactical-flashlight-p3430046.html

 

Packaging & Accessories

The Gift-G1 comes in a small cardboard box with minimal information on it, on the back you have the emitter chosen and the body color of the light. Inside accessories include the light itself, yellow lanyard, 2 spare orings. A glow ring and 14500 battery are both optional. No pocket clip is included with the light, more on that in a minute. 

Construction

The Gift-G1 is made from TuboGlow with an internal aluminum sleeve for electrical conductivity, and at the head, the pill is made from raw copper. TurboGlow if you don’t know is the premium solid glow in the dark material. It has a much longer glow life then normal glow in the dark material. While there are several color choices available, especially with the Gift-G1 such as Lava, Red, Rainbow, Pink, Purple, Blue, and Green, I went with green because it’s the brightest color that lasts the longest. 

 

The tail cap has a semi translucent black button inside and it has RGB LED’s underneath. These LED’s come on when you have a liion battery (14500) in the light, so you get a neat effect on the sides of the LED’s slowly fading between Red, Blue, and Green. 

Internally the parts are the same as the AA Tool, and interchangeable if you have both lights. There is an aluminum tube under the TurboGlow for conductivity. At the head of the light there is a exposed raw copper pill with light engraving of the Lumintop name, and model number. It’s a nice functional heat emitter too.

 

Lastly at the front the front bezel is TurboGlow and easily unscrews to expose the TIR style optic. This exposes the MCPCB. This makes the light very easily modded if you wanted to do an emitter swap. 

Size & Weight

I measured the length at 88mm, minimum width on the body at 19.21mm, diameter at the head at 21mm. Diameter of the glow ring is 30mm. Weight with the light, 800mAh Keeppower 14500, and Reylight Lan/Pineapple clip is 70g. The light is IP68 rated. 

 

Retention

The Gift-G1 comes with a yellow lanyard as the only factory supplied retention option, that can be attached via an optional anti roll ring/cigar grip ring. This works if that’s how you want to carry the light like this, but for me if I am going to EDC a light I need a pocket clip, so I went through my lights to see what I had that might work, and I found that the clip from my Reylight Lan/Pineapples V3+ work decently well here, You basically get the entire cap section sticking up out of your pocket (20.5mm) which is a bit much for me, especially when running a 14500 and having the tail cap light up but it’s still better than no pocket clip. 

I should note, with a clip like I had, I had more then one person stop me and said the light in my pocket was on when in fact it was just the tail cap LED’s or TurboGlow glowing. So it did draw some attention to itself.

 

LED & Beam Shots

The Gift G1 here is available with a Cree XP-G3 LED in cool white, or a Nichia 219C LED in Neutral white which is what I choose. It can be powered off of a AA or 14500 battery. I will include a chat here showing the claimed outputs for each emitter and battery combination. 

I found the beam pattern to be nice for EDC, It’s got a medium large hot center with a large dim spill, good for general shorter range and medium range tasks good for maybe 200ft max. One quick note about TurboGlow is it really lasts a lot longer than your traditional GITD material. With this light when you use it, you get light leakage around the front of the light so it continuously charges it. It makes for a lot of fun, kids love it. I found no visible PWM here to the eye or camera. 

 

Heat & Runtime

As mentioned before the light will run from 2 different power sources, either a AA 1.5v battery or a 14500 3.7V battery. You get the best performance and tail cap LED’s only if you run with the Liion 14500 but I did test both battery types.

 

With the 14500 the light stepped down from 100% relative output after 2 minutes and then ran at 55% relative output and declined in a slow manner. To me the curve looks unregulated. Total runtime was 1:10:00 but after this the light staid on in it’s firefly mode for about 2.5 additional hours. Maximum heat I saw was 48C at the 20 minute mark. The exposed copper does a nice job here with heat dissipation and adds some style points too. The light does have LVP. 

I did my AA test with a Amazon Basics High Capacity NiMH battery. These have proven to be good performance in the past, and here we saw a very flat output curve maintaining 98% relative output for 2:12 minutes. Heat here was minimal and I saw the peak being 36C at the end of the runtime. 

 

UI

The UI here is simple, it’s a 4 mode light, starting at the lowest mode. Once on, you can half press the mechanical button to go up in modes. There is a strobe mode, to access that, once the light is on, click give it a half press  6 times to get to strobe. 

 

There is memory when the light is off for 3 seconds this will memorize the setting and the light will come back on to that desired setting. That said my light has a firmware bug, and this only works with a 1.5v battery, if I use the 14500 Liion, memory mode doens’t work. Lumintop confirmed that they are aware and plan to fix it on the next batch of lights.

 

Pro’s

  • Fun
  • Choice of Body colors and Emitter options
  • Good beam profile for EDC

 

Con’s

  • No clip is included, but there are options on the market that fit.
  • The glow ring isn’t included and without it or a clip it leaves a gap on the body of the light.
  • Memory mode firmware bug.

 

Conclusion

The fun with the Gift-G1 is the TurboGlow body, it’s availability in several colors, and the LED’s in the tail cap that change color when using a 14500 battery. Inside it’s basically a Lumintop Tool which is a good EDC style light. For me the let down was no pocket clip, a must on a light this size if I am going to EDC it but luckily the clip from my Reylight Pineapple fit to make it more usable on a daily basis for me. 

I think this would make a great gift, a nice addition to a flasaholics collection since there are very few lights made from so much TurboGlow or a gift for a child (kind of expensive) to get a kid into the hobby if you like. 

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Lumintop FW4A Review (3600 Lumens, Quad LED, Anduril UI)

Today I have yet another version of the Lumintop FW3A, this time with the FW4A with 4 LED’s in the head instead of 3. Output increases from 2800 lumens to 3600 lumens depending on the LED thats chosen. 

 

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Packaging

Packaging here is the same box as the FW3 came in but only with FW4A on it. LED tint is still a sticker on the side of the box. Inside the light is protected with foam. Accessories is the same too with the FW4A including a silicon GITD  diffuser that fits over the head of the light. 

 

Construction

The Lumintop FW4A is basically an FW3A with a slightly larger head. The tail, clip, and body tube are identical to the FW3A. I have no issues with the machining or build quality*. There does seem to be less options at least from Lumintop direct in colors or materials for the FW4A, but since it’s reusing so many parts you can mix and match anything from the body or tail cap with other variants to make your own look. In it’s stock form it’s made of aluminium and anodized in a gray slightly blue color. One difference I have noticed is the serial number is laser engraved on the tail, and the clip color is now silver on the FW4A, where it was more of a dark gray on the FW3A I have.

*The FW3A had a lot of reliability issues early on, It’s far from a perfect design in that regard. That said retaining rings have been added to the tail cap to keep it’s contents in place better, and hopefully improve the button issues. The head also has things same retaining ring. The inner body tube is still subject to some movement so it’s still best practice to only open the light from the front. If you run into trouble the Budget light forums are still the best place to go for “how to fix your light”. Most issues are fixable from what I have seen if you want to trouble shoot. My light had no issues and continues to be reliable. 

 

Size & Weight

I measured the length at 92.8mm, Minimum diameter on the body at 21.5mm, and maximum diameter on the head at 28.5mm. This is only a 3mm increase in the diameter of the head over the FW3A. I measured the weight with the battery and clip at 110.8g. That’s only 12.7g heavier then the aluminum FW3A I have. It’s 

Retention

Retention is decent but I wish the clip was deeper carry from the factory myself. The increase in size with the FW4A is negligible from the FW3A, and it’s less than many of the “custom” triple emitter lights I carry on a regular basis.

LED & Beamshots

The FW4A is available with many different emitter options, like much of the FWXX series of lights. My light here is running the Cree XP-L HI LED in cool white at 6500k, and while 6500k isn’t my favorite tint, the XP-L HI LED’s are not bad for a non high CRI option. With the XPL-HI Lumintop says you can get 3600 Lumens vs the FW3A 2600. Other LED tints that are available are the Luminus SST20 4000k  90 CRI producing about 2100 lumens. Nichia 219C at 4000k, and a Cree XP-L HI in a neutral 5000k tint. All LED options are mounted on a copper PCB to help with heat dissipation.

The beam with the FW4A is floody with a more soft focused hotter center. Mine here has the clear optic, but frosted is also available. The center is fairly round and has a small amount of tint shift in the middle. The outer spill is rather square in shape, almost star-like. I don’t notice it outside but notice it instead more close up when really looking. 

 

Beam with the diffuser

 

Heat & Runtime

I received a comment on my HL3A review that I really should calibrate my FWXX series lights before I do a heat and runtime test. While I still firmly believe that if this is necessary it’s something the factory should do (Or be burned into the firmware) I decided I would do my heat and runtime tests both uncalibrated and then calibrated just to see what the difference was. 

 

So my first test with with the light uncalibrated and a Sony VTC6 and started in Turbo. Pretty much instantly the light starts decreasing in output, at the 30 second mark where the FL1 Standard is taken the light had declined about 400% from where it started. This sounds like a lot and it is but it’s still quite bright and to be expected. The light reaches equilibrium of about 60% relative output where irt runs for 2 hours and 35min, and eventually gets down to 10% output at 3 hours and 32 minutes of runtime. Maximum temperature I saw was 38.7C (101F) at the 13 minute mark, the bulk of the output was around the 36C mark. 

The calibrated runtime was a different story, what calibration does is sets the room temp of the light and then you can raise the ceiling. I raised it an extra 25 degrees if my memory is correct. I used the same battery and after and with everything cooled off I ran it again. What I saw here was an initial drop from turbo but much smaller and a bit of a step at the 20 second mark before decreasing again. At the 30 second market the calibrated light was putting out a bit more output, and was 2.8 C warmer. The next 11 minutes though output increased again slowly as temps were allowed to increase slightly. Total runtime was only 1 hour and 42 seconds but you ended up being able to run a big brighter without stepping down as far. Maximum temperature I saw was 57.2C (134F) at the 24 minute mark. While this is quite hot it was much later than the uncalibrated mark and it’s adjustable too if you don’t want to go as hot.  I would agree with the commenter, calibrate your lights, it’s worth a few minutes of your time.

 

UI

The UI here is standard Andruil, and it works well. I will link to my FW3A review in case this is your first time seeing Andruil and include the diagram below. It looks a little complicated but once you get a hang of it, it works pretty well. It doesn’t bother me that the flashing and special modes are a little hard to locate as I personally rarely use them. As mentioned before I did “calibrate” the temp sensor on this light and I ended up using a video I found on Youtube to do it rather than use the diagram. For me it just worked a little better. 

 

Conclusion

My conclusion is the FW4A is yet another nice light in the series. It’s a lot of output in a  very small package and quite a minimal increase in size. That said with an increase in output it’s a step up in heat too. The FW4A at least right now has less modding potential then the FW3, but if it catches on and becomes more popular you may see different optics, and tuboglow being offered too. 

 

A light like this is more aimed at the enthusiast market with the Andriul UI and somewhat dangerous nature of so much power in a small size and finicky nature that the FWXX series lights can be, that said it’s still alot of fun and pretty affordable too. 

Pickup the Lumintop FW4A at http://suo.im/6fm8lc and get a 20% discount by using code LMT204A

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Lumintop Glow I Review (Turboglow on a Keychain Light)

Lumintop has a new small keychain style light on the market that’s using using TurboGlow as part of the heads structure. It has a built in battery and microUSB recharging. Thanks to Lumintop for sending this to me to review. 


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Packaging & Accessories

The light comes in a small nicer cardboard box with foam holding it in place. It comes preinstalled with the non removable battery. Accessories include a short 5” USB-A to Micro USB cable and a split ring attached to a small chain and clip for attaching to your keys or other device.

 

Construction

The Glow I is made from aluminium and works off a twist design but is different from some other similar lights. First the tail cap is removable, and held in place with an internal neodymium magnet and indexing notches. Pull force to disconnect here I would guess is about 5-6 pounds. I think this is sufficiently strong for many scenarios but if you were concerned about it coming off accidentally a bit of superglue or JB Weld would make this more permanent. 

I found the magnet here to be actually really nice. It means the light could server as a short under the hood light in your car at night if needed etc. The body of the light has a hole in the side the body is twisted all the way to the left reveals the microUSB charging port. There is a small internal LED in the port that goes red when charging, green when charged.

To operate the light you screw it to the right until it turns on. The light has only 1 mode and no UI to speak of. The head is captured so you don’t have to worry about it getting loose or lost during charging which I know has been a minor issue with other similar lights. The internal 80mAh 10180 battery is sealed and not replaceable. 

 

The turbo glow barrel built into the head of this light, and serves as the walls of the reflector, meaning it’s directly exposed to the LED anytime it’s on. This means it gets charged up everytime the light is on, and since it’s turbo glow it’s much brighter and lasts significantly longer then standard glow in the dark material. It even does a pretty good job of charging and maintaining charge during normal exposure to room or sunlight.

Size & Weight

This is a small light, similar to the Olight i1R I reviewed a while back. It’s currently been my keychain light. I measured the length of the Lumintop Glow I at 45.3mm, maximum diameter around the turboglow at 15.6mm and minimum diameter on the body at 14mm. Weight was 16.4g without the keychain. It’s pretty comparable in size and diameter to the Olight i1R. See the photos below for other peers. 

 

LED & Beamshot

The Glow I uses an Osram LED. No specific model or temperature is given but no surprise here, it’s cool white. Lumintop lists the output officially has 40 lumens. This is more than sufficient with the size and application here. The light is using an optic with a built in diffuser. The result is a pretty standard beam, floody, good for short range which is what you would expect with this light. 

Runtime

Runtime here out of the 80mAh battery was better then I expected. My total runtime was around 80 minutes, with the first 60 of that being near the 40 lumen mark and declining. The light actually ran significantly longer but it doesn’t have low voltage protection so it would be best after you notice the decline in output to charge it. 

 

Recharging

Charging took 1 hour and 10 minutes and the fastest I observed was 0.12A via the microUSB port. While that’s pretty slow this is a very small battery so that’s what you would expect. 

 

Pro’s 

  • Turboglow from the Netherlands is integral to the design and is really pretty effective.
  • Captured head although in theory the tail could come loose unintentionally. 
  • Good size and construction

 

Con’s

  • No Low Voltage protection here, or removable battery means you need to be careful about running the light too long and keep the battery topped up. 
  • Non removable/replaceable battery 

 

Conclusion

This is a neat little keychain light. I like that it’s small and compact but still has a decent amount of output for its size and task. The addition of authentic TurboGlow (Seriously if you have not tried TurboGlow it’s significantly better then any other GITD material) separates this light from the competition for me. It’s a clever design making the TurboGlow an actual part of the light body vs just an insert. I wish the light did have LVP to protect the internal cell since it cant be changed. The magnetic connection here is a give and take, it’s handy but if your concerned about the light dropping off unintentionally it’s an easy fix with some superglue or JB Weld. I don’t think it will be an issue for me. Let me know what you think of the Lumintop Glow I in the comments below. 

 

Full Image Gallery: https://imgur.com/a/FU0HES3

Lumintop’s official website for the Glow I http://www.lumintop.com/glow1.html

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Lumintop ODL20C Review (26650 Thrower w/ USB-C Recharging)

Today I have the Lumintop ODL20-C. This is a Thrower style light using a 26650 battery and it has USB-C on it for recharging. This light is using a Cree XHP35 HI LED Emitter, is capable of upto 2000 Lumens meaning it can throw a beam 860 meters. Thanks to FastTech.com for sending this to me to review.

Full Image Gallery: https://imgur.com/a/V8DqyxV

YouTube Version of this Review:

Packaging
Packaging is similar to other Lumintops, with the light coming in a brown cardboard box that is tight fitting. A good amount of information is on the back of the box. Inside the light is well protected in black foam cut to fit.


The light does come with the light itself, lanyard, spare oring, USB to USB-C charging cable, 26650 to 18650 adapter, and manual, warranty card, etc. I like the addition of the battery adapter. It works pretty well and I think more 26650 lights should come with it. No 26650 battery was included but one is shown in some of the official marketing material. The manual is pretty good, with a diagram, runtime tables, and good directions.

Construction
Lumintop again has nice construction on this light. It’s pretty large for a single 26650 light, and is pretty heavy. Fit and finish is tight on this light. It’s made of aluminum and is hard anodized black with a mostly matt finish. The tail cap has a pretty deeply recessed center section, and a small hole for the lanyard. It features a large diamond pattern to help with grip. Inside the tail cap it features a heavy dual spring. The body tube features nicely greased orings on each end and threads that are ACME cut, they are anodized and smooth. The body tube is reversible. It features a trapezoid patterned grip on it. Each of the 4 trapezoids are parallel. 2 feature the large diamond grip pattern milled in and the other 2 are plain. It’s a different look to your traditional knurling and provide a medium/low amount of grip.



The head is decently sized and where a lot of the mass for this light comes from. Inside it features a button style contact and a large rubber ring to provide reverse polarity protection. Button top and flat top batteries as well as protected cells are all compatible with this arrangement. Heatsyncs are pretty deeply cut into the sides and around the reflector of the light. They are not sharp and work well. The bezel is smooth and may be glued, I could not remove it with my hands along, it does retain the iconic Lumintop red bezel oring. The glass is glass and anti reflective coated. It feels pretty thick. The reflector has just a slight orange peel, and to LED is nicely centered.

The button is fairly large and surrounded by a polished metal ring. The button itself has a little transparent area in it that allows the led’s underneath to act as a status indicator for power level. The button itself is pretty flat and has a nice snap to it. Ergonomics and balance are pretty good on this.

The silicone cover that protects the USB-C port on this light is quite large. It’s a tight fit and I find if you close up the light say to put a different battery in the cover has a tendency to pop open. The only thing I can figure is its air pressure but this doesn’t seem to affect the water resistance of the light. With the door closed it stays in place reasonably well but the little tab on it does get caught pretty easily. Not the best design here. I would like to see another included in the package like other brands do.

Size/Weight/Comparisons
This is not a small of light weight light. I found it to be on the heavy side. Weight with a battery measured in at 400 Grams. Length measured at 147.5mm, diameter at it’s widest was 59mm and 35mm at it’s narrowest.


LED/Beam/Runtime
This light uses a Cree XHP35 HI LED in a pretty neutral cool white. Being a thrower the beam pattern is mostly spot with a little spill. The Lumintop GT mini was even more focused. The reflector here has just a slight orange peel.

For my runtime test (Starting in Turbo mode until the light shuts off) I used a protected Keeppower 26650 cells that is rated for 5000mAh as it was one of the only 26650 batteries I had till recently. You do need a cell capable of at least 7A in order to activate Turbo. Total runtime I thought was a little short at about 105 minutes. However the bulk of this run time (about 95 minutes) was at about 1000 lumens which makes it pretty good. Turbo lasted about 5 minutes before the light started to take a major decline. Overall not a bad runtime in the big picture. One of the benefits of the weight of this light is that it’s able to handle heat pretty well. It gets warm but never hot during use.

Charging
This light has onboard USB-C for recharging and is capable of 2A. I didn’t see fast charging out of it but my USB-C meter is still on a boat in the Pacific somewhere. It does come with a USB-A to USB-C cable which is great since not everyone has USB-C cables laying around at this point. You do need a good charger to see 2A though, I had issue the first time I tried charging it getting less then 2A.

UI
UI is the same as the Lumintop ODF30 I reviewed last month. It features a single electronic switch mounted on the side. Ui is overly simple on this light. Low, medium, high in that order. When in high, double click to go to turbo. Eco mode (Still too high for my taste) is accessed when the light is off by long pressing the button till the light comes on. To shut it off while on requires a long press (2 seconds). Tho light also has Strobe but it can only be accessed from Eco Mode by double clicking to reach strobe. I like that strobe isn’t a part of the main group but this is a little awkward.

Lockout mode is also available. When the light is off long press for 4 seconds and the light will flash to enter lockout. To unlock requires unscrewing the tail cap. That’s certainly a different way to unlock and it’s not my favorite. Unscrewing the tail cap to mechanically lock it out seems more intuitive to me.

The light has low voltage reminder by flashing the LED under the button. This is a little hard to see if you don’t notice it. It comes on under 3V.

Pro

  • USB-C makes it to another light for recharging faster and easier. 2A charging was seen.
  • Good build and finish quality.
  • Ergonomics and balance are pretty good on this light.

Cons

  • Pretty beefy light and heavy but with good ergonomics
  • Only 2A maximum charging speed – 26650 batteries can safely accept higher speeds, and USB-C can deliver it.
  • No Neutral white option or cell included.

Conclusion
Another nice light in what I am calling 2018 the year of the thrower flashlight. While the weight is noticeable here it translates in the pretty decent runtimes and it deals with the heat pretty well. I would love to see neutral white be an option on this light but the cool white isn’t too cool which is good. I prefer the 26650 format for a thrower because it’s easier to bring with you and fit into a pocket or bag then a end over end 18650. The ergonomics on the ODL20C are good and I love that USB-C recharging options are becoming more and more common!

Link to this light on Fasttech https://www.fasttech.com/p/9659882 (non-affiliate)