Astrolux K1

I got yesterday the light for review

So far the heatsinking of the main LED is not good
The UV LED is very dim compared to any other UV light I know, because most of the light gets absorbed by the platic housing, but it lights up 365nm colors on bank notes

It figures. Glad I bought two of them. Oh well…

I have this light for over 1 month. It is in my jeans pocket all day riding bike,driving car and no accidental activation or usb cover opening.
But UI is horrible! It always start on high or turbo and no memory mode.

Think positive. It still is an amazing key chain light for this money. Great tint, great output. I mean, the 6D maglite incan puts out less lumens than this thing, haha! Just enjoy the light and hunt for the next one!

I'm not sure how I triple posted, but I swear I only posted once! No idea. Sorry, though.

The forum software isn't perfect.

Sometimes I double post, but then I delete the duplicate post.

By the way, the delete button is between the Edit and Quote buttons.

Thanks.

i would got this but already have the manker lad and nitecore tip and this only gives 250 lumens so i pass.

Every time I put my Nitecore Tip in my pocket without locking it out first, I eventually notice my pocket is glowing. This has no lockout and it starts in turbo by default? No thanks. Seems like it would be nice if not for the UI.

really? i feel that its hard to get it turned on if u have it in your pocket or whatever… yea i agree that starting in turbo is a bit strange, no lockout is no bigdeal perhaps but keychains should always start in lowest mode first so there both the manker and nitecore are better and brighter.

The only reason to buy is the 365nm UV light
The UI is not good for flashlight enthusiasts, but for normal user acceptable

The light even if it gets activated by accident does not get hot, the XPG3 does not consume too much power like a pocket rocket with DD driver and 18350

UI is horrible. Atleast the other light mode group should start from low. I was looking forward to get these but didn’t really pay attention to UI while ordered. Oh well, might as well to give these to my kids to play with.

I’ll keep the Nitecore TIP in my keychains.

There will be a new UI for K1 and K1 CRI soon.


a little bump in the max lumens wouldnt hurt, 250 is a bit low compared to manker lad and nitecore tip/tini.

Just received another e-mail with new version.

350lm, direct mods group (but not hidden strobe?), IP65.
Has anyone scratched old version up to bare material? I wonder how did they made coating over stainless steel.

interesting, now i could buy one, the stone version looks cool but i refuse to buy from banggood so i buy next year from ebay i guess after all holidays…

I reviewed this light and the LED had almost no heat path to the body, guess cranking up the current without any mechanical improvement might be not good

ah so they didnt fix that from the first version ? since they cranked up the lumens doesnt sound good :frowning:

Haven’t posted in a while, but here’s a K1 update. Mine normally rode clipped to my Red Rock Gear sling pack. I tried to charge it the other day and the red charge indicator flashes and the light works as long as it’s plugged in, but as soon as it’s unplugged, it goes off, so for all intents and purposes, it’s dead. Didn’t really last for very many charging cycles. Oh well. I still really like this form factor and I’ll probably replace it with another “matchbox style” light. Manker, Mecarmy, something. YMMV.

I had a Nitecore TIP CRI. I really liked the light for a few reasons — tint is excellent, modes are very useful (nice low), and it has a lockout. However, that was the first edition, which was plagued with a parasitic drain problem… not an issue for all lights, though. Mine didn’t suffer parasitic drain, but it had a very weird problem of simply refusing to turn on. Even with a fully charged battery. Plugging it in to USB power would “reset” it, but eventually that stopped working and then the light was just totally dead (except for charging indicator lights). The other issue was the fitment of the 2 halves of the body, where an edge was pronounced at the front, with sharp corners that felt terrible (not sharp enough to cut, but sharp enough to annoy). I had to return it. That was my 2nd one. The first one arrived DOA.

The 2017 edition changed a few things, apparently solving the known parasitic drain issue by simply removing the lockout feature and including a clip that protects the buttons from accidental pressing. Say, what? FAIL. They should have revisited the driver programming and just fixed the issue. The “bandage” approach with a cover is just ridiculous.

When I saw the Astrolux K1 I was hopeful this would be a worthy replacement. But the UI has some issues, no lockout (ouch!), and thermal path is weak. Oh well. I guess I’ll have to wait until Nitecore improves the TIP in V3, or Astrolux comes out with a K2 addressing issues. I really get on with the overall design, just can’t take a chance on another lemon.