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

Update again,

We suggest you don't open the head optionally so as not to damage the lamp or other head accessories, by the way, if you have ordered 2 stainless steel material S42, but have not shipped, we will ship the newest to you, without any problems.

Please wait more patiently, we will reply your mails one by one and the factory need sometime to produce the new items, thank you for your understanding!

Best Regards,

Swi

Hi Swi,
Apart from the new needed parts, a much bigger problem that people have is the user interface, the S42 is almost unusable because of the way it is operated. Even people who are used to complicated flashlights have the immediate problem that when the light is switched on, it can not be switched off again and instead of off it goes to TURBO. Please try it yourself.

Is the factory also working on a new user interface so that the flashlight can actually be used?
djozz

+1

So far we have focused on the mechanical issues - battery tube and usb cover, but now that some of us managed to get the light working, the user interface appears to be an even bigger issue. Almost everything about it is wrong!

So I wish BG would also produce a new version of the driver with a new firmware and either send it for free to the actual owners who ask for it or make it available as a separate part we can buy…

A couple other comments on the S42:

- Although it seems to have the same head/optics design as the S41, the beam contains far more artifacts - you can clearly see them while rotating the light

- Long click from off to lock/unlock the light is very unpractical and probably unsafe. This combined with the long click to turn off, which itself can only occur from the second mode, makes it incredibly complicated to use the light for a short burst: Two seconds long click to unlock, one click to turn on in moon, one other click to move to the next mode, two seconds click to turn off and another two seconds click to lock again - 3 long clicks (6 seconds) and 2 short click!!! :person_facepalming: :weary:

But not only that.
The current consumption in the “breathing light” mode is 1 mA. This means 1 month in this mode and 16340 / 18350 battery will be discharged completely. However, the button’s indicator will blinking green optimistically.

I'm not a fan of long clicks to shut off the light, but many e-switch lights use it and I don't see lots of complaints about it - Lumintop, On The Road, Manker. However this S42's hold time is excessively long. Lights I have that single click ON/OFF have to be long clicked to change modes, such as Sunwayman, DQG, Olight. Of these, some change modes too slowly, others maybe too quickly.

The Manker and OTR lights I find annoying that a simple click when OFF does nothing. At least the Lumintop turns the light on to last mode.

The Manker, OTR, and Lumintop change modes on simple clicks, but if you click fast, you will get strobed on the Manker and OTR - easy to get very annoying undesired actions. The Lumintop at least avoids that by not supporting double clicks at all.

Models I'm discussing are the Lumintop SDMini, OTR M3, Manker GODMES T01, Sunwayman C20C, DQG Tiny 26650 3rd, Olight S1.

Could they run the Q8 firmware on the S42? Narsil is it?
Somehow, the S42 is a pico Q8…

That's what I'l be doing for sure, but it's a driver replacement.

S42 with Nichias is necessary to put a spacer 0.8mm under the mcpcb, if not - no good focusing and a lot of horrible artefacts in light beam. And aluminium shelf under mcpcb is only 1.5-2mm, very thin. UI with double click to change strange modes and long-press to turn it off is terrible. Dislike this flashlight.

@martinoss88
Oh, have you beamshoots before and after?

I did notice small speckels in the beam of the stock light.

Before



After



It would be awesome if you decided to post how you did it when you’re done with it!

My 40mm 18350 battery tube just arrived, by domestic (US) mail from City of Industry, CA. The threads are longer on both ends, solving both of my original battery problems (front threads too short to reach the driver board, rear threads too short to screw onto battery without damage). I was able to use an AW 16340 as well.

Presumably the USB port cover is coming next month.

So now it works reliably, but the design issues remain:

  • Horrible UI; including the inability to turn off directly from moonlight mode.
  • Uneven/non-useful spacing of brightness levels
  • Skin-singing heat in turbo mode
  • TIR optic assembly causes artifacts in beam

Still for the low pre-production price paid, I will rationalize a use for it.

I did ceiling bounce tests today with a S41 219b and my S42 219c in 18350 configuration… and the S41 is consistently 25% brighter! I expected the opposite.

Did i miss something?

That is my experience too.

+1 here.

S41 has copper head.

@freeme
the optics is said out of focus by 0.8 mm ?
The copper shouldn’t make a difference at the start.

I’m still scratching my head over this low performance with 219c… If i understand correctly what i read about 219c vs 219b, the former (S42) should outperform the latter on DD - more light and less heat?

Could it be the whole electrical path through the body - springs, tube contacts…? It should be better without the tail switch though.

The S42 is advertised with a higher output then the S41.
Yet another disappointment with this light. :frowning:

if you are bored by the bad UI I finally made a driver that can use the USB charging slave boad

Astrolux S42 driver designed

If you remove the small MCU on slave board you can use charging without the parasitic drain from breathing sideswitch LED

Running NarsilM
FET+6+1

Existing LEDs can be kept, just to eliminate 1mA parasitic drain disconnect original MCU on the slave board

sale topic

Hurray!