Astrolux S43 - New model (On Sale)

I would recommend the Olight S2R Baton II. It’s over a thousand lumens, great beam, uses Olight proprietary charging system which I personally love. It is reliable, has good run times, is comoact, has a proper warranty and customer service. For a non-Flashaholic it’s ideal.

Got one for my brother in law who’s a non-flashaholic and it is his favourite light. Not sure if you have a Olight dealer in your country though…

Otherwise clicky switch lights are very reliable and easy to repair in case of a rare failure.

OTR U18 checks most of your boxes.

For the record, the S43 driver is exactly the same efficiency as any other 7135 based driver, they all do exactly the same thing, using exactly the same components. That includes the D4 driver, The D4 is technically using a TA driver.

The only difference between the D4 and S43 driver is the pinout used for the MCU and the S43 has the add-on charging board.

Now the optic in the S43 is not the best and the bezel does reduce some of the light output lowing the OTF lumens and thus the efficiency of the light.

Just wanted to clear up that the efficiency drop is after the driver.

Oh and I am pretty sure that most of the low output that the S43 has in stock form is due to the springs, bypasses should bump the output up to close to if not the same as the D4 seeing as everything else between the lights is basically the same with the bin of the LED’s being a a possible exception. I warned them that the springs were sub-par but at this time I was not able to get them to fix it.

Wow. You really believe all that?

How does the D4 deliver 75% higher output when it uses the same leds, driver and battery? It makes you scratch your head and wonder “Hmmm, something doesn’t sound right”. Anyway, good luck on the search. :+1:

I actually did think about it and I don’t see the community measurements unbelievable.
Optical losses - we know that S43 has them high. Emisar likely has them lower, but obviously non-0.
Electrical resistance - Emisar is known to be superb in this regard, S43? Doesn’t seem bad, but it’s likely worse.
LEDs - Emisar uses the top bin for the CRI. How about Mateminco / Astrolux?

Due to the way a linear driver such as these in the D4 and S43 work, this has no effect on efficiency in the lower modes, technically it makes the driver itself more efficient if you want to get really picky.

What it does do though is limit the maximum output. This is where a fair amount of the lower max output on the S43 comes from.

Thank you both for recommendations. Frankly I believe that for this friend, both S2R Baton II and U18 may be technically inferior to EDC-C4, but they should be of a little higher quality. Local availability of Olight is a plus as well because that friend isn’t happy to wait for long holiday season shipping. Though the price with shipping within country is actually slightly above the budget.

I’ve been thinking about a range of clicky lights, frankly I believe that a $7 S2+ would be good enough for the actual needs of the friend. But I know too well that “want” often is more important than “need”. :slight_smile: I already asked how strict I should be at limiting size, maybe that will unlock some clicky options like BLF A6.

I’m really digging the new Sofirn SP33 with xhp50.2. It’s only $23. You can also buy it with a decent battery and simple charger for about $29.

Is the “hammer” made of carbide, or steel?

Thanks, though I really don’t think this size class is interesting for the friend. I haven’t heard back since yesterday, so I don’t know if any major size increase is on the cards, but SP33 next to shorty D4….not really comparable.

anyone tried to replace the leds with xplhi? could it be the same brightness as emisar d4?

Yes and no. The driver itself is the same design in both lights, I think the D4 just uses a better FET so it is slightly lower resistance.

The real reason the S43 has lower output is the optic is a fair amount less efficient then the D4, so not as many lumens make it out the front of the light.

Hm… I think about the real visible difference… Texas, do you think it would bé a big difference or just… Cos 500 lumens plus mínus… Ya know so many y People bought the emisar d4 that its still my nightmare. But ot not to buy, but i love the USB option… A little less lumens Sister of emisar would not kill mé…

I don’t have a D4 to test but I think others have tested both and noted how the S43 seems to have lower numbers. Those lower numbers are mostly caused by the optic. Most would not notice the difference unless they were side by side.

I keep trying to tell them to switch to using the carlco optics and they will gain free lumens and a better beam but not getting much traction.

I see that some have changed the 219C to 351D. How did you do that? I tried it, but it turned out that the silicone dome 351D is larger in diameter than the hole in the optics. I put a 351D with standard optics and twisted the bezel. the joy of good light was not long. When removing the optics, the silicone dome of the two 351D came off.

Also, opens up easy flexibility for customization of beam pattern. Floody, focused, narrow, wide, elliptical… I just started getting into this with an FW3A. Quite sad to hear that the S43 optic is not only proprietary but nearly 25% inefficient. That’s seriously disappointing. Anyway, based on Carclo quad optic designs, they’d have to use a different MCPCB and LED spacing.

Yeah, I have tried to get them to switch to Carclo optics for a long time now but the Boss just won’t do it for some reason. Sad since that is basically the only weak point to the light.

Yeah, it’s tempting to install a replacement sapphire glass without the optic and use it as a mule.

I recently received the copper version, the S43S with Nichia 219c emitters. I really like it. Having read most of this thread with people complaing how ugly this light was, I was pleastly surprised that it didn’t look bad at all. In fact, it’s hard to understand why people complained about the S43’s plain battery tube, when they didn’t complain about the D4’s BTW, I think they the too lights look strikingly similar.

My only problem with my light has been that I can’t seem to get it to work with the short tube and a KeepPower 1200 mah 18350 cell. In spite of cleaning all the contacts, the light intermittantly falsely reports a low voltage in the cell and won’t put out enough output and doesn’t go into turbo. Then if I play around with tightening the head or tail cap, it works correctly for a while. I suspect these cells aren’t compatible,since the light works perfectly with a VC6 18650. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Is there 18350 cell that works well with this light? Perhaps the LightPower ells can’t deliver enough amps?

I might be mistaken but it might be that you have to flip the head and tail switch. It could be the anodizing?