Review: Astrolux S43 2600 Lumen Flashlight

@jintian, since the light draws a lot of power on turbo, your protected Sanyo NCR18650BF detects the very high power draw, and shuts itself down.

The 18650 you want is this:

I have exactly the same problem with protected cells. It's due to the protection circuit in the cell itself cutting the power.

Thanks all for your replies. I first thought about a S43 protection because i believed the protection circuit in the cell limit the power without cutting it but if it detect a dead short, it make sense. I don’t know if it’s possible with NarsilM 1.3 but i’ll try to disable turbo. Full power is enough for my use.
I like in this flashlight: wide flood beam, Neutral White, USB recharge, 18650 or 18350, side switch, the price and Narsil firmware (i don’t understand the user manual yet but seems very flexible)
Cons: switch very soft and sensitive, could be place deeper in the head to prevent unwanted activation.

The Acebeam protected 18650 works with a double click to turbo in case you wanted a cell wit a PCB.

All 3 of my Acebeam protected 18650 3100mah are rewrapped Samsung 30Q's

Yeah, that’s a good point to make. If you’re carrying this in a bag or even a pocket where the switch might get pressed, either put it into lockout mode (4 clicks) or (better) just twist the tail cap a touch to cut all power.

This light gets really hot, really fast, on turbo. Even with the thermal step-down, it could cause a safety concern if accidentally turned on if you didn’t know.

…with a Protection circuit board added. Many PCBs can’t handle close to what this torch pulls… most of mine are limited to around 8A and cannot trigger turbo so it’s a good PCB for those who want one.

They run my Acebeam L16, GT Mini, Astrolux S43, Rofis MR30 and MR70 with no trip.

My Klarus 3600mah which are rewrapped LG MJ1's with protection added cant.

thanx!

so i want to buy finally this one…great output,usb,cheap……which 18350 is recommended? or do we have anything better in this cathegory? rpice,size,lumens,usb?

check for Keeppower\ Enerzig 18350
they are good

yes.ok.i want to replace leds with xplhi…

question-the christmas coloured versions are also copper or just alluminium? i heard that the copper head is suitable for longer runtime on turbo…so i wonder what can be the turbo on the non copper versions.thanks a lot:)

The Christmas versions are aluminium.

S41 gets HOT real quick on 6 up, of the 7 ranges.

Running on 4 to 5 it a nice walkabout light.
Copper head. or the Stainless, makes a nice fistful to “dissuade” anybody.
The short battery tube hasn’t much time running. the 18650 is much better.

I prefer ’em both to the S42-43.
It’s a niice light.

I decided to program the thermal controls to “off” on the S43. This means that you have to be very careful when running the light on high outputs, but it’s worth it IMO. I just don’t like how the built-in thermal controls ramp down so far, and well past the point where the light is no longer hot.

I’m okay with running the light hot when I do 500 lumens steady. It seems to be fine.

as i know,turbo is recommended max.to 45 sec or so……then is it really hot…but i want to reflow nichias with xpl hi,so who knows.maybe it will survive:)

OK - dumb question of the day time…

How hard is it to get the driver out?
Is said driver flashable to Anduril?

Not too hard.

Yes.

There are no dumb questions. Only dumb answers.

I know this is an old review, but I thought I’d add what happens if you insert a cell the wrong-way around. I tried this, today.

Well, it’s not good. There is no reverse polarity protection, and the light will really heat up fast. You won’t notice this unless you’re holding it, because the light remains off. I only noticed it because it very quickly got very hot right after I inserted the battery the wrong way.

The good news is it didn’t appear to damage the electronics. The light still works, at least for now. I’m not sure what’s going on internally, but be aware to make sure you insert a battery with the negative end at the tail. While it doesn’t short the battery (and cause an explosion), it does drain it at a significant current to generate that much heat. It’s similar to operating the light on turbo, but without getting any light out of it.

Or, maybe you can use it as a hand-warmer feature during cold winter days.