Upcoming Astrolux S42 18350/18650 quad w side button and usb charging

Ok, definitely crushed the cell a bit, opened a ticket with banggood, lets see what they say.

I was stupid to assume this is a S41 with charging…

The driver spring is the main problem.
But it’s not the only problem.
The tail spring is too tall and rather stiff.
it should be replaced by a shorter one or made shorter by cutting off a coil or two.

Why would that be better?
You’re not gonna use protected cells in this light anyway, because it’s a high current light.

That UI sounds ridiculously bad. What the hell were they thinking?

Something makes me think that if somebody from Banggood/Mateminco/Manker/etc… came to one of the resident firmware experts like ToyKeeper or Tom E and said “We’re making an e-switch 219C FET quad, will you write a firmware for it?”, the answer would have been yes and the result would have been awesome.

On the other hand, credit for being the first light on the market with a 5000K, 90 CRI 219C.

I'm quoting myself here to clarify this. There is more metal to the housing of the S41 than the S42. Comparing them, it seems like the much smaller driver accounts for a lot of it. The 17 mm driver the S41 has means the housing in that area of the driver mount is much thicker and the inner pill area much narrower, where the 20-21 mm wide driver in the S42 pushed the width out, combined with the sandwich 2 board design to accommodate the USB connector, there is no room at all to make the shelf any thicker than it is already (~1 mm).

Tested the integrated charger. Took 6 hours 13 minutes to charge a 3000 mAh VTC6 at 0.4-0.6 A (measured from the usb socket, not the battery). End voltage 4.16 V. Discharging at 8 watts produced a total energy of 10.56 Wh, which is about 97.7 % of a completely filled cell charged in an MC3000. Not bad, albeit too slow for me.

Charge curve

Discharge curve.
Blue: after charging in the S42
Pale blue: after charging in the SkyRC MC3000

Tom, checked this with a simple cable between housing edge and battery bottom, it worked alright: for the first time, I saw the light :crown: !
So inner dimension of head and tail (too long) vs screw parts dimension of classic A6 tube (too short) is clearly the issue …
Thanks for the advice!

how about removing the anodizing from the threads and removing the tail spring?

……………………………………
My Keeppower 18350 end voltage was 4.11v.
My Samsung 30q 18650 end voltage was 4.12v
Is anyone having the same result when using the USB charger?
Thanks

Hello Dear friends,

Sorry for the delay, now we give a solution for S42 problems:

After Verified by the manufacturer,the length of the tube is too short and it can’t compatible with most length of 18350 and 16340 protection cells and button top cell, the manufacturer adjusted the tube length and they verified the 40 mm tube will solve the problem and allow most cells to be used without the danger to damage it, including the 18350 and 16340 cells. At the same time, they also modified the design of the USB silicone cover.

Any problems, please contact our CS, we will send you a free 40mm tube and USB silicone cover, you can replace it yourself. Please send E-mail to cservice@banggood.com, don’t forget to include your order number, thank you.

By the way.S42 and s42s will use 40 mm tube and the latest USB silicone cover. The s42 now has been sent back to the factory repair, thank you for your understanding and support, we will try our best to do well in the after-sales service.

Best Regards,
Banggood Flashlights Team

:+1:

Hello all,
I have just received mine today, exactly one month after purchase. While I was able to get it working with the shortest 16340 battery I have, mine has a different problem. After turn on, long pressing for turbo makes it flash quickly and then disconnect from voltage. Breathe light turns off. Unscrewing and re-tightening tube restores function. It displays the same behavior when short clicking. Once it reaches turbo the same short flash and voltage disconnect happens. Very disappointing. Battery is fully charged efest purple flattop.

Maybe the cell has too much voltage drop on turbo, bringing it below LVC?

That may possibly be the issue, but the #$^$ short tube won’t let me try any other 18350’s or 16340’s I have!

Yeah, it was a pretty horrible execution on what I was really hoping was going to be an awesome light

Thank you for the fast response Banggood. :+1:

dont forget the 18650 tube, I ordered this one and it is too short as well
and it dented the cell so I cut the spring a bit shorter

Is there any way to change/fix the UI?

Was your 18650 cell protected or unprotected?

unprotected with 3mm thick brass button

This battery length/tube issue reminds me of the UT01 where i almost broke the light and dented the button of a cell… One easy way to alleviate the problem, at least temporarily is to add a couple copper ‘rings’ inside the tail cap, where the tube connects. The oring will likely be exposed though.

Such ‘rings’ can be made of a short section of copper wire wrapped around something about the same diameter. You can use tin foil too but it would likely not stand the high current on the S42.

Paper clips actually works pretty well too.