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

I really like the A01, for the colors, sturdiness, moon, high output and the high-CRI Nichia.

But the next-mode-memory of the later versions makes them rather stupid. (In over 66% of the time they don’t start in the mode you want and you need to cycle. Which is not a big problem during daylight but VERY annoying at night, when you want to preserve night-vision and don’t want to disturb others !)

Gladly, I finally found the “pencil mod” which eliminates the NMM perfectly !!

Now, I am happy again. :laughing:

Before, I modded two of my A01 into 1-mode by shorting the two connectors between the PCB. By this, you get a VERY bright AAA (even brighter than the high mode in the original setup). They then draw 2.2 amps from a fully charged eneloop. :smiling_imp:

Welcome to BLF!
& I’m so glad you mentioned this. I’m going to grab my NMM A01 out of the drawer & try to make it a 1 mode too. I actually didn’t bother with trying the pencil trick to get rid of the NMM b/c the mode changing on my A01 seems too inconsistent (modes periodically change whilst turning the twisty.) By making it a 1 mode at least this light can be of some use as a keychain light. The other EDC on me can be the light to serve lower levels. Thanks again!

So does that completely bypass the driver and make it direct drive? So it gets dimmer as the battery voltage drops?

Can it direct drive on a 1.2v battery? There’s got to still be a boost circuit in the chain, doesn’t there?

Good point. I don’t understand which two connectors are being short-circuited on the driver PCB.
Can you take a picture?

I’d given up hope about buying more of these when they cheapened them, but this might be worth looking into.

I got a few of each (2-3pcs each kind) of the Astrolux A01 / CPF Italia A01 / BLF A01 copper during BG’s Christmas sale, which just arrived recently.

All of them definitely use the Nichia 219B LED (none of them used 219C).

But other than that similarity, there are differences:

1) driver:
The Astrolux A01 aluminum uses a non-Manker driver, and has PWM (tested using digital camera and also shining light through rotating fan blades of a small portable fan — PWM shows as some kind of pattern). I haven’t completely checked if it uses the dreaded NMM (Next-Mode-Memory).
(Nothing is labeled on the head)

The CPF Italia A01 aluminum uses the Manker driver (NoPWM). (“Manker” is labeled on the head)

The BLF A01 copper also use the Manker driver (NoPWM). (“Manker is labeled on the head)

2) tints:

Now this seems to be where they really differ. While all use Nichia 219B (supposed to be 90CRI — but I don’t know of a quick way to check 90CRI), the tints differ noticeably.

The Astrolux A01 aluminum ones have neutral white tint (almost similar to the Astrolux S41S, which also use Nichia 219B).

The CPF Italia A01 aluminum ones have slightly warmer white (is that called 4500K?), but has a slight yellowish tint.

The BLF A01 copper ones seem to be a tint lottery — there’s a neutral-white (almost similar or just slightly less warm than the Astrolux A01 aluminum), and there’s another that’s warm (with a very slight rosy tint), plus there’s one that has a noticeably rosy tint (is this called 4000K?)

Here’s a picture of them:

Again, I don’t have a way of measuring color temperature, so I’m guessing the neutral white is 5000K, while the rosy one is 4000K, and the warm white in between is 4500K?

To add two more I like:

The CPF Italia A01 Copper has original Manker non-PWM driver high CRI 219B and of them all mentioned above has warmest CCT bellow 4000K IMHO nicest tint of all A01/E01 versions.

Manker E01 Aluminium sold now by Mankerlight has non-PWM original driver, has 219B high CRI and neutral tint about 5000K (similar to CCT of neutral copper BLF A01). Its body has the best quality and never flickers when turning on-off skipping modes like many Astrolux versions. Manker claims (in included paper manual) it has the 219C like E02h, but while mine E02h really has 219C, E01 is definitively 219B.

I went crazy :stuck_out_tongue: last year and bought every possible version (except the Astrolux fiasco) of this light I could find anywhere, before the 219B versions are replaced with 219C like in recent Lumintop Tool AAA and Lumintop IYP365 :person_facepalming: And fortunately the Aluminium CPF versions with original Manker driver on Banggood were just US$3.97 during December, that was basically less than buying the emitters alone :slight_smile: And at US$8.66, the copper CPF version was cheaper than Aluminium Manker E01 (US$ 9.89 on Aliexpress last month), but all of them are nice and nothing like the dreaded Astrolux A01 version.

I got a copper BLF edition in the BG xmas sale, just arrived.

To be honest it does not look ‘new’, the outer plastic packaging is very scratched/dirty, the inner cardboard was torn (as though light had been removed many times) and the light itself was scratched a lot in several places. The barcode label says Test so I am wondering if it was a review model.

For €7.40 I don’t complain …. but I would prefer if BG were honest about selling returns/grade B products.

The Copper A01 has been my keychain light since the group buy and is still going strong!

A word of warning. The lanyard broke the 4th time I used it. Fortunately the torch fell on my dog’s head so it was not damaged.

Hi, I’m looking for some clarification.

I’ve read through the thread, and as far as I understand, the Astrolux A01, as it is being sold on

Banggood now, is no longer the “winner winner chicken dinner “ that it used to be?

Thanks. :D

I used to like a lot this light but got bitten with a recent (well that was last year) batch of A01 which had cold tint, PWM and NMM.
I grabbed a copper CPF Italia end of last year for an insanely low price, but i wish i could still get the fancy color Al versions to gift away.
Does anyone know if the ‘old’ or ‘classic’ A01 can still be bought?

PS: i’ve edc’ed a copper BLF Special Edition for a few years now… Love it with a leather lanyard and custom wood bead. :slight_smile:

you can still buy the Manker E01 in colors

afaik
Astrolux A01, NO!
Manker E01, YES!

Manker no longer makes the Astrolux A01, and now the A01 has NextModeMemory (NMM), because it no longer has the Manker driver

this post explains more details

for those interested in the rundown on the Copper models (I hope Im remembering correctly):
the BLF A01 and the CPFitalia A01 have the good Manker driver… neither is available afaict
the Old-Lumens A01 and the Astrolux A01 have the bad Astrolux driver… the Old-Lumens model is available on banggood

The dog or the light?

time for a new photo?:slight_smile:

That one (previous post) was just out of the crushed hard boiled egg bag where it developed these colors and texture. I gave it away and did the same to another one i’m still carrying. Unfortunately it does not last. Depending on usage it just get some sort of even patina… and some scratches. Here it is now, almost polished daily in my jeans pocket:

Yes, patina rubs off my carried lights also. And builds up when not in use.
Ive been carrying the one on the left, while the one on the right has been sitting on my desk

Another way to add patina is to put dish soap on the light. Plant food is even stronger, and can produce some nice green colors,

which unfortunately also rubs off…

here are a few more variations in patina

Do Manker, or anybody else still make\sell the original drivers?.
It’s a nice little light (Astrolux) . Or. Maybe.
Somebody could knock up a basic On\Off, or L\M\H one?.

yes, afaik the non copper Manker model currently available

still has the original driver that the early Astrolux used (because Astrolux were made by Manker then, and no longer are)

for those interested in the rundown on the Copper models (I hope Im remembering correctly):
the BLF A01 and the CPFitalia A01 have the good Manker driver… neither is available afaict
the Old-Lumens A01 and the Astrolux A01 have the bad Astrolux driver… both are now sold out also

Not sold out anymore. Some colors are.

Still the best for a AAA light. 3 mode, with a pencil mod it loses the next mode memory. Its PWM also gives it way longer runtime and the 219c also gives it way better energy efficiency.

Its better to some people I'm sure!