Lumintop EDC01

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Lumintop EDC01 specifications

Brand/model	Lumintop EDC01 v2
Flashlight category	EDC / keychain flashlight
LED	Osram?
Max. output	120 Lumens
Max. beam distance	40 meters
Max. beam intensity	553 cd
Battery config.	1*AAA
Onboard charging	N/A
Modes	3
Blinkies	N/A
Waterproof	IP68
Review date	October 2022

No, this is not a new flashlight in any way, but it’s one of those keychain flashlights you can find everywhere on the internet. I’m talking about the Lumintop EDC01.

A single-battery flashlight to use on your keys, or for EDC.

Lumintop has been making this particular model since 2018 or 2019, and upgraded the LED secretly along the way. Oh, you shouldn’t expect any significant differences though. It was originally launched with a CREE XPG3 and later changed to an ‘Osram’ LED. The specifications haven’t changed much. But when you visit the Lumintop website, and look for the manual, they call this the v2 version. But nowhere else is that mentioned. Also, the specs in the latest downloadable manual are different from the specs on the website. Go figure.

But since it’s such a popular keychain light, I just wanted to have it reviewed, even though it has been on the market for so long.

Package quality.

The packaging is typical for all small Lumintop flashlights. Just a simple cardboard box with the following inside:

• The flashlight: Lumintop EDC01
• Keyring
• O-rings
• Manual
• Glow in the dark diffuser

To keep the cost down, and keep the light as small as possible, many traditional keychain lights use a twisty UI. This means that you have to tighten the battery tube to turn it on, and loosen tighten loosen tighten to change modes.

And since I’ve been using these types of keychain lights, I’m 100% comfortable with this type of UI.

But at the same time, I can imagine that some people don’t like it, especially if they are new to flashlights, and only have used flashlights with side switches. But don’t worry, you can get the hang of it in no time. Because of this UI, you probably need some practice for it to use one-handed.

Inside the box, you’ll find a keyring with a carabiner clip, as well as a glow-in-the-dark diffuser. The former is used to carry the light on your keys, while the diffuser turns your light into a candle.

The rear end of the EDC01 is flat, so if you put it down onto a flat surface, and attach the diffuser, you get a nice and diffuse light. But, this diffuser is also great for your tent, since you can use it as a tent light hanging of a hook.

In normal use, you’d be using the keyring with a carabiner clip to attach the rear of the light to your keys. The carabiner clip can be quite useful if you remove the light from your keys regularly. I, on the other hand, don’t like using the carabiner clip, and just use the little keyring.

There isn’t much to talk about here. Like all Lumintops, the build quality is pretty good.

It has black anodization, with a unique machining pattern on the battery tube. This machining pattern was copied from Prometheus I believe. And that’s not the only light Lumintop copied.

Besides black, it is also available in the following colors: blue, pink, purple and golden. But most of the time, stores usually only have 1 or 2 choices. If you want a particular color, you’d have to shop around a bit.

Since the flashlight is so tiny, the threads are tiny and short as well. And with normal use, you shouldn’t end up cross-threading. But, if you are a bit rough, I can see this happening by accident. So be careful.

Warranty?

Here’s a summary from their website:

30-day free replacement: LUMINTOP will replace a new product within 30 days of purchase for any manufacturing defects if problems come into being in normal use; We will replace it with the same model. If the model has been discontinued, customers will receive a product with a similar or improved model.

Five-years free repairs: LUMINTOP will offer free repair within 60 months for lights from the date of purchase if the problem develops with normal use.

Lifetime warranty: If repair is required after guaranty period, we’ll charge for parts accordingly.

When Lumintop launced the EDC01 in 2018, they used the CREE XPG3. Now, they moved to an Osram LED without telling what type in particular.

Fortunately enough, that doesn’t matter as much as its performance. I rather have an unknown LED perform very well, than a known LED performing poorly.

Anyway, so I tested the LED with the Opple Light Master 3, at about 50cm distance, and got the following readings in High mode:

• CCT: 5832K
• CRI (Ra): 68.6

I also tested PWM/Flicker, and you can see it’s pretty good. There is definitely something going on, but it’s not visible by eye.

It doesn’t have a removable bezel, and the LED is hidden behind a honeycomb TIR optic. That makes it more difficult to see what light has been used.

This setup helps with creating a pleasantly looking smooth beam. No artifacts or any color shifts are noticeable. And that’s quite important.

Just in front of the optic is a glow-in-the-dark o-ring, which doesn’t really work, but hey.. it’s just something extra. It glows pretty poorly, and only for a very short time.

Dimensions: 

Lumintop EDC01 dimensions	Millimeters	Inches
Length	67 mm	2.643″
Head+body diameter	14.4 mm	0.568″

Weight: 

Lumintop EDC01 weight	Weight in grams	Weight in Oz.
Without battery:	11.5	0.40 oz.
With AAA battery	23.4	0.83 oz.

11 grams.. that’s even less than the Eneloop AAA battery. Pretty neat.

Lumintop EDC01 comparison

Size compared to other small flashlights

Image 1, from left to right: Eneloop AAA, Eneloop AA, Jetbeam Jet, Fenix LD01, Reylight Pineapple Mini.

The user interface is straightforward. We call them twisties. This means that you have to tighten the head to the body to activate the light. And to change modes, you have to tighten, loosen, tighten repeatedly to run through the 3 modes.

Available main modes:

• Low, Medium, High

Available special modes (blinkies):

• None

From OFF:

• Tighten: on (in memorized mode)

From ON:

• Loosen: turns off
• Lossen and tighten: next mode (going from High – Med – Low, and again High – Med etc.)

Shortcuts:

• There are no shortcuts

Mode memory:

• Yes, it does have memory, which may, or may not be great.

Blinky modes menu:

• None

Low battery warning:

• Nope, it just reduces output significantly.

Lock-out mode:

• No, just unscrew a few turns, and you’re safe.

PWM:

• Not really according to the Opple Light Master measurement. And definitely not visible

Firmware / UI Conclusion:

The UI is quite easy to understand. But you probably need 2 hands to get used to it.

The EDC01 doesn’t have any fancy charging capabilities. And this is fairly normal for AAA flashlights though. Unless the flashlight uses rechargeable lithium-ion batteries, most of AAA flashlights don’t have a built-in charger.

Since it’s an AAA sized flashlight, you can choose between using Alkaline AAA and rechargeable AAA batteries. And if you’d ask me, I’d recommend using rechargeable Panasonic Eneloop AAA batteries, since they can be charged hundreds of times. And Alkaline batteries are known to leak.

Also, the manual says you can’t use 10440 lithium batteries, that have the same dimensions, but a much higher voltage when fully charged (1.5V vs 4.2V). So, I don’t recommend trying.

Lumen measurements:

The output measurements in this review are based on my homemade integrating spheres, each equipped with an Extech SDL400 Lux Meter. For consistency and accuracy, a calibration light (Convoy S2+ with 249lm and a Convoy S2+ with 261lm) is measured prior to each set of lumen measurements.
For high-output lights, one of the lux meters uses an ND camera filter to prevent the lux meter to max out. This is either the Kenko PRO1D ND16 up till about 80,000 lumens or Gobe ND32 for anything above.

All of my readings were taken from a fully-charged Panasonic Eneloop AAA 750mAh.

The measurements were taken manually at turn on and 30 seconds. The 10 minute numbers are taken from the runtime graph.

Mode	Specs	turn on	30 seconds	10 minutes
Low	5	3.9 lm	3.9 lm	3.8 lm
Med	32	31 lm	31 lm	31 lm
High	120	111 lm	111 lm	113 lm

It’s interesting to see that High increases brightness instead of decreasing.

Lumintop EDC01 battery life and runtime graphs

The runtime tests were done in the 50cm home made integrating sphere, combined with the Extech SDL400 data logging Lux Meter.

Mode	Specified	Measured runtime (ANSI FL1)	Time till shut off
Low	32h	26h 38min	26h 38min
Med	4h 30min	3h 33 min	3h 35min
High	40 min	48 min 30 sec	53 min

I used the runtime specifications for NiMH, because that’s what I used for testing.

Only high mode was close to spec. Medium and Low weren’t. But still, 26 hours at 4 lumens isn’t bad. If you want the maximum runtime, you can use Alkaline batteries, but the output will be very very low. Also, after my runtime tests, the Eneloop battery was at around 0.9V.

ANSI FL1 standards: The runtime is measured until the light drops to 10% of its initial output (30 seconds after turn on). This does not mean that the flashlight is not usable anymore. The last column shows how long the light actually works till it shuts off. If there is a + symbol, it means that the test was stopped at that particular point, but the light was actually still running. This happens on certain occasions, with certain drivers, firmware, or batteries.

Lumintop EDC01 peak beam intensity and beam distance measurements

Measurements were taken indoors at 2 meters, after 30 seconds, with a Hagner E4-X Lux Meter.

Mode	Specs	Candelas	Meters	Yards
Low	–	16	8	9
Med	–	124	22	24
High	553 cd	500 cd	45	49

At first, I copied the specs from Lumintop’s website, which showed a candela of 510cd. Then I noticed that the manual showed a different number, namely 553 cd. That’s still higher than I could get. Also, the manual shows 553cd and 37 meters, but that’s impossible. 553cd is supposed to be 47 meters, not 37.

Extra info: Peak beam distance according to ANSI FL1 standards: The calculated value of distance in meters at which the flashlight produce a light intensity of 0.25 lux. (0.25 lux is about the brightness of a full moon shining on an object).

For the following beamshots I used a Canon EOS 5D Mk2 with a 50mm lens. Manual settings: ISO1600, 1/30sec , F4, 5000K

The wall is about 5 meters yards away, and the fence is about 4. 

I don’t have many AAA flashlights, so I added some 2AAA flashlights to the mix.

Beamshots comparisons between the following lights:

• Lumintop EDC01
• Olight i1R 2 PRO (small edc with built in lithium)
• Wurkkos WK02 (penlight with 2AAA)
• Acebeam PT10GT (penlight with 2AAA)
• Wuben E19 (penlight with 2AAA)
• Lumintop IYP365 (penlight with 2AAA)
• Reylight Pineapple Mini (AAA flashlight)

Disclaimer: I bought this flashlight with my own money. Nobody paid me to review this flashlight, nor have I been holding back on problems or defects.