“REVIEW”: RovyVon Aurora A8 UV – 350 Lumens – Nichia 219C – Keychain Light

I guess that if the brim was thinner, it would go further into the clip, but this a thick one and I don’t have a thinner cap around! Still, you can have a notion on how it fits :wink:

Thanks for the thorough photo comparison, Mascaratum!

My Aurora A8 likely arrives on Tuesday. Tint looks very nice. I’d rather have that with slightly lower output. Very much looking forward to it! I had to return my Nitecore TIP CRI (2 of them failed on me) and I wasn’t going to chance it a 3rd time. While I like that form factor, the sad thing is that Nitecore made it a 2-piece shell, while other brands have done a similar design with a one piece main body (and separate piece for tail cap). It was worth an extra $10 to step up to the RovyVon A8.

We both missed the 20% off deal over the Chinese New Year. But there’s still a 10% off coupon floating around somewhere.

Thanks for your words :wink:
Now that you talk about it, here’s a photo comparing both!
I do like the TIP (mine is the CW version), I always carry it in my backpack, and it also has a 2mm “paracord” lanyard to be put in the neck if needed! That clip is handy to use it as a “mouth” light :smiley:

The greatest difference we may get between these lights is the runtime as the TIP has a bigger battery! But if you use the light for short bursts on max, it will do great!

I guess you won’t regret those extra $ ! This is a sweet light :wink:

Is the UV emitter on the A8 effective for showing security markings on paper currency? If I buy a light with UV, that’s what I’d most likely use it for.

Thanks.

Hum, I guess the following pictures will answer your question, but in general, NO! The light doesn’t seem suitable for that!
This is a comparison between the A8U (left) vs Lumintop Tool AA with Nichia UV 365nm ZWB2 UV filter (right)+ .

Thanks for checking the UV for me!

What is the mAh of the battery?

Maybe the housing blocks UV and it ends up as very cool blue?…

No problem mate :wink:

In the OP, under general specifications :wink:

Battery: 130mAh Li-polymer – 4.2V

Hum, it is not blue, it is like purple. But I’m not sure if it is due to the host. The other UV light I showed, when used without the UV filter produces a different type of “light” but we can still check those marks un currency. The UV filter only “filters” the more visible light.
So I believe it has to do with the type of emitter used and not the host itself ! Can it be :question:

If you take your Tool with ZWB2 filter and turn it on at Aurora - does the side white LED start to shine? If it does - the host passes the UV light which excites the phosphor. If it doesn’t - the host blocks UV.

You could also try to take ZWB2 filter and put in front of Aurora’s UV emitter and see how does it work…

I tried that in a photo from the OP! I guess this is what you mean, right? The Tool AA was shining above the A8U and this was the result!

Hum, I did it but it didn’t change much! I put the filter in front if the A8m but there was no change in the way I was seeing the marks in the 5€ bill! It never appeared as the Tool AA, the marks were never “revealed” with the A8 :weary:

I forgot about the OP pic. :slight_smile:
Yeah, seems like the body is not the culprit. It surely absorbs some of the light and reemits it but seems that some gets transmitted.
I don’t know about banknotes….

When I look at this:

I see that it shows some marks but very poorly. So maybe the issue is that it generates a lot of visible light (luminous body doesn’t help) relatively to amount of UV?
Then ZWB2 should help….but it didn’t…I don’t know.

Yup, there are only 2 or 3 small marks that could be seen, but nothing like the the other UV led form the Tool AA!
This A8 doesn’t have the luminous body, that one is the A5 :wink: So that part of glowing doesn’t interfere with that! The body is transparent, but even with the UV filter it doesn’t get different if front of it! Later today I will try to show it on a picture!
I guess it has to do with the UV LED used :zipper_mouth_face:

When I look at the picture when you light it up with UV - it seems to be glowing blue. Not much and surely not nearly as much as A5 - but seems to be glowing.

Maybe EU banknotes only reacts to 365nm and the A8 uses a 405nm ?

Hum, I guess that the blue is somehow a reflex of the UV in the polycarbonate fiber, but it surely doesn’t glow :wink:
Actually, recently I added a stripe of GITD tape to locate in darkness, as it doesn’t absorb any light, at least not to the point of glowing.

According to specs it uses a 365nm LED! But…it’s the specs. I have another UV light (SK68 clone) that uses a 395 nm LED and emits a more purple light. The one from the Aurora A8 seems closer to that and not from the Nichia UV :zipper_mouth_face:

Just got mine, with blue/red/amber. Seeing the results of the UV version, I’m glad I passed on that. The A8 is little smaller than I was imagining. In the past, what I’d sometimes do is take some stiff paper or cardboard and cut out shapes to then assemble and get a feel for the sizing. I didn’t do that here. I’m amazed at how small it actually is. A good thing, though!

I like this whole concept of a translucent polycarbonate shell. It’s “skeleton” like without showing off too much. And then one polished side for the emitters to shine through. I’m curious to see how well it holds up over time when coming into contact with blunt metal objects.

The UI takes a little getting used to, but easy to adopt. As opposed to having a lockout with various challenges, I find the RovyVon approach of a double-click for ON to be quite workable. I do not mind long-press for off. It’s pretty brief. PLUS… if the light is on for more than 180 seconds, a single press will turn it off. A secondary safeguard in the rare case of accidental activation.

Just one oddity… upon close examination, I found something curious. At first I thought it was a small shaving of polycarbonite caught inside the plastic, but it was stuck to the inside of the polished surface.

I dropped the A8 on a hard wooden floor, and the particle disappeared. It must have been some random particle that lodged itself in just the right spot for me to notice it. It’s gone out of view now. Even still, it’s so small and doesn’t really obstruct the emitters, so if it comes back I probably won’t even notice it.

Phosphor is primarily excited by blue light.

We use 172nm UV to excite phosphors in our excimer lamps, but longer UV wavelengths will love also excite phosphors.