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

I’m going to go out on a limb and be a skeptic

I think they claim no next mode memory, but imo, it is no longer accurate, they probably did not change the website ad copy. I have seen people buy Astrolux A01 in the past year, and despite what I warned them, and despite what the website said, they got a light w NMM.

the Astrolux A01 is no longer the same as the Manker E01, the driver is different in the Astrolux now

you can tell because the Astrolux driver is now a different color, and does not have the word Manker on it anymore

If I am mistaken, please update my knowledge base with photos of the drivers in the actual lights you receive, and please confirm if they do not have NMM :slight_smile:

I just ordered a A01 from…….nuts, I forget where. It was advertised as a 219B but I would reckon to say it isn’t. I don’t know the exact CRI of the light but I would hazard a guess of around 80 or so and the tint being around 5700K or so. The next mode memory sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t. You also, sometimes get to strobe and sometimes you don’t. It’s a crap shoot really. I don’t care, it’s not worth it to send it back. I look at is as every time I use the light I know it’s going to be a surprise. If I really want a laugh I give it to the wife to try and figure out. Drives her crazy. :slight_smile:

When the Astrolux A01 (and CPF Italia A01) were on deep discounted sale the year before (Dec 2017), I got a few pieces of them. The CPF Italia A01 came with Nichia 219B and the Manker driver (no NMM and NoPWM in any modes), whereas the Astrolux A01 also came with Nichia 219B but with the newer (unmarked) driver, which has PWM in medium mode.

Later, I ordered another Astrolux A01 (about 4-6 months ago), the A01 now comes with Nichia 219C (instead of 219B), and the unmarked driver (has PWM on medium mode).

Both the CPF Italia A01 nor the BLF A01 copper (which also has the Manker driver and NoPWM) doesn’t seem to be listed in BG’s website anymore, so I would think that the recent Astrolux A01 now has the driver with PWM in medium brightness levels.

I stand corrected, I was only sharing what I saw in print. I don’t have plans at this time to purchase one, but it sounds like toddcshoe did and it was false advertising.

Back to your regularly scheduled programming . . .

The mods should edit the first post… I also was hunting for a 219b version and mistakenly bought two of those due to false advertising on a certain chinese website… With Next Mode Memory these are basically junk and not worth your money. You can get other more practical 219c lights (or other high CRI emitters) for the same or less money. So as of 2018/2019 the Astrolux A01 advertised as 219b is basically fraud and should be called as such.

Noone is gonna read all the pages in this thread. Maybe only the first and the last.

So: The Astrolux A01 is not 219b anymore and has Next Mode Memory. Don’t buy it.

Similar with the BLF348 that still is advertised on another site as 219b. But there was at least no UI that could have been changed to the worse, so this would still be the better option for an inexpensive 219c light at least.

Just to make sure I’ve understood: the BLF-348 with Nichia 219C is no longer high CRI?

Is there a driver that could be modded into the currently degraded A01, to make it more like it was originally?

Like the Zeusray, the A01 has become a poster child for how lights are slowly degraded by corner-cutting over time.

Make it good, make it popular, make it cheaper, sell more based on the good reputation, make more money. Sigh.

https://www.google.com/search?q=quality+fade

My buddies fell into boiling water in his smoker for like 15 minutes. Still going strong 1 year later.

It’s still high CRI. Just not as nice a tint.

BLF-348 was never as nice a tint as the original A01. The 348 tint and CCT was all over the place, depending on the unit (I have several). The A01 tint was very consistent, and a very pleasant 4000K high CRI (I have several of those too).

Pity the new A01 is so bad, now.

My only gripe with the A01’s is the weak lens. I’ve had a few crack/break on me and it isn’t easy to find inexpensive replacements. With my latest replacement for my copper A01, I’ve used Sellotape on either side of the lens to give a little protection to it.

for those who want to get rid of the NMM
The Pencil Mod is here

but the Pencil Mod wont get rid of the PWM
nor the 219c …

the Astrolux A01 is on my Do Not Buy list

More in the other thread at Astrolux A01 about fixing the mode bouncing
(fished out the spring, put conductive lube on its wide end, pushed it back down the tube)

I think it only goes to “next mode” if you’re in a hurry to turn it back on.
Otherwise mine consistently start in low mode.
Haven’t timed it to figure out the delay, which would be set by that capacitor the pencil mod discharges.
But I haven’t tried getting the driver out of mine.

Thank you :+1:

I cant find the post atm, but somebody said that before the pencil mod it took a few hours for the NMM to reset to low…

maybe do a test
try turning the light on and off after 1 hour… 2 hours… etc

how many hours did you have to wait, so that the light turned on at minimum every time?

Several hours or overnight. And I didn’t get “next mode” I got “some other mode” - quite unpredictable, jumping from low to high or low to strobe to medium. As someone else described a few pages back in this thread.

Definitely needs the “pencil mod”or a resistor added over the capacitor.

I’d like to speak to the purchasing agent who saved a couple of pennies per light by dumping the good Manker driver and replacing it with a cheaper one.

Strange — on one of the currently sold A01s with the pencil mod done:

I get this pattern: L-M-H, L-M-H, L-strobe, L-M-H …

So it still has one unanticipated strobe level.

I wonder if adding a resistor would get around that.

There are some lights (Jetbeams?) that will do that. Ie, they’re nicely hidden that you’d have to cycle through at least twice to get to ’em.

Come to think of it, it might be the A01s. Just recall it was a twisty I got that does that.

Mine doesn’t have NMM, though, so no “pencil trick” required.

Yep, both the original Manker driver and the current crappy “some other mode” driver for the Astrolux A01 has you cycle through L-M-H twice before it starts strobing.

It’s the added low-level before it starts strobing that strikes me as peculiar. It’s not supposed to do that.