AstroLux A01 AAA Nichia 219B Review - Winner winner, chicken dinner. An excellent, Neutral tint High CRI LED keychain light!

+1.
It’s now my favourite bedside light.
The super-low mode, the smooth beam pattern; makes this a winner for me !

Anyone tried to modding this flashlight for 1xAA ?
Cases + extenders ?

Would the 14.5mm boards they sell on KD fit in this without modification?

Seriously, why you do say “… chicken dinner…” when you could say “… chick and dinner…”?

Sounds waaay better to me.

Cheers ^:)

Be careful guys, lately those flashlights are shipped with different led and driver. 5000K and PWM.
Mike

Yeah, now that I have two on their way…….oh well. I’ve been shafted before.

You’d think I’d eventually get it through my head to buy nothing but premium brand name lights. :person_facepalming:

But where’s the fun in that?

Arrrrrrrrrgh.

HERE is the “origin” of the saying…

So if you venture a little money an get more back than you ventured, the saying “winner, winner, chicken dinner” fits…

Sad to hear the newer versions have visible PWM and a cooler emitter, but hopefully they are still good lights…

Got my A01 today, it does indeed have PWM but I don’t see it being an issue for 99.95% of people, no idea what the tint is but it’s good as far as I’m concerned.
Well worth the $7.99 I paid.

oooh, looks like it will be back at $7.99 later today so think I will grab a couple more for Xmas gifts

Interesting. I have the original A01 version (bought earlier this year) with the 4000K tint, and I can’t detect any sign of PWM with my dSLR on any of its modes. I’m glad I bought these when I did. It’s too bad they redesigned this light. 4000K tint is perfect for me, and I don’t like PWM.

I had two A01’s arrive yesterday, after a month long trip from China (and oddly enough, postmarked Vanuatu!).

They are exactly as described in the original post. Drivers are clearly marked ‘Manker’, strobe is well hidden, tint is < / > 4,000 k, and I’m not noticing any PWM (although I’m not very PWM sensitive).

One seemed to have a slight intermittent contact issue, but cleaning the threads and the contact surface at the front of the tube solved that.

The front of the tube appears to be either polished smooth after the ano is applied, or else protected so the ano doesn’t stick to it - I noticed a whitish waxy film on that surface that seemed to be preventing solid contact. A brisk wipe with alcohol on a paper towel removed it at once, and the light immediately worked properly.

All in all, I’m very pleased. They work as well as any other twistie (and I have a quite a few from several premium makers) - and of course, the tint is superior. I won’t be modding these two; they’re excellent just the way they are.

I finally got around to ordering the copper Blf A01 and while the aluminium ones were reduced I added an orange one on for my other half to put on her keys. The copper one is noticeably nicer/better. The head on the orange one seems very loose and wobbly and as someone said above, the pill isn’t branded ‘’Manker’. Still, it’s no problem for the price and the head is nothing some ptfe tape can’t fix!
The copper one is great, smooth threads and picking up a nice patina :slight_smile:

Just to vouch for the waterproofing on these. I gave one to my toddler to play with in the bath. It finally bit the dust last night after daily submersions for around a year maybe? Can’t knock that. I can reuse the lens in another lens-less one I have so all is good. Decent, robust little lights.

I concur, the sturdiness of these lights is impressive indeed.

I gave one to my wife for Christmas and she put it on her car keyring. A month later she dropped it in the snow. When the snow thawed (months later) we found it. Keyring all bent, probably run over by the car. The coloring of the light a bit scratched, but otherwise not dented at all and worked perfectly. Can’t beat that.

Off-topic, sorry, but stories like this always get me. I can’t imagine living in a place where you can lose your car keys right in your own driveway for months, because snow. :smiley:

The summers in Sweden are very nice. Typically around 25 degrees Celsius (77 Fahrenheit) and long days (in the northernmost part of the country even midnight sun).

In the winters we do need our flashlights though, when daylight is short (in the northernmost part of the country the sun doesn’t rise at all for a month).

My wife and I were married at the Ice Hotel in northern Sweden in January 2011. Kiruna/Jukkasjarvi is the coldest place I’ve ever been to. It got down to minus 37 celsius. My eyelashes stuck together with ice……

Stunning country, wonderfully warm people.

Snow is usually better than grass, when it comes to not losing stuff. The only downside to snow is that (if it’s fresh) an item dropped into snow can fall through quite a distance. But at long as the surface hasn’t been disturbed, it’s usually pretty easy to see the hole, and find the item that way. In the woods, it can be tricky, because lots of stuff drops off trees to make little holes everywhere.

I’ve lost way more stuff in the lawn during summer, than I have in the snow during winter.

I don’t much like cold winters, but it does have the nice effect of killing off all insects and most other pests.

The downside to winter, when it comes to flashlights, is that most flashlight buttons are designed to be used with bare hands. Thick gloves make it almost impossible to turn on some flashlights, and removing them when it’s –20 or –30 is not something I like to do (especially if the flashlight metal is also –20).

Ridiculous…… I went to have a look at the lanyard on my dead A01 to transfer it to something else…. It was actually on in moonlight mode…. All modes work, no problem. It just needed a few days to dry out. Cockroach torch.