Astrolux FT03

I missed this one and when I visited the Banggood web the price was back up to approx $50,— …………bummer.
.
Then, couple of weeks ago it was on sale again so I purchased on with SST40 in 5700K (although a little too cold for me still acceptable).
I fired it up with one of my Keeppower IMR26650 / 6000 (the good ones, almost impossible to find now).

WOW! Nice light!
Looks great
Ano is great
Has a good feel to it
Lens is coated
Reflector is ok. Not the best, but ok.
Led is perfectly centered.

So I measured the throw with my cheap lux meter and got (on turbo, i.e. double click) 275Kcd.
Wait, what? That much? I thought they were being promoted to have 190Kcd. Lux meter ok?

Today Djoz came over to collect a light I bought for him of the German flashlight channel and he took some
measurements as well. Conclusion:

286Kcd at startup
277Kcd after 30 seconds.
I haven’t checked but perhaps the 190Kcd is highest setting at normal ramp-up?
Anyway, 277Kcd translates into 1050 meter viewrange.
Excellent performance and value!

My conclusion: unbelievable value for money, absolute winner!

Cheers,
Nico

PS: due to this unexpected high performance this will be one on the very few lights I own that will not be modded………

I just got one also, great thrower for the money. I got mine for $32 shipped

Update and small correction: Djozz used a lux meter that exaggerates CW a little more than we thought.

Throw ater 30 seconds = 266Kcd.

And that is with the dome on, still thinking about dedoming it and reaching (wel over) 400Kcd.

Cheers
Nico

Make sure you share some beam shots if you do, please! :slight_smile:

Cool… I have a clean de-domed 7500k SST-40 in my FT03, I got Lucky and 3 out of 4 de-domed clean… that one to this day will not give up it’s Dome? :person_facepalming:

for 30$ it beats almost the mf02 which is super heavy. Dont think there is a competitor at this price range…

Like I stated: this light is crazy value for money.

Great design
Great ano
Great UI
Great performance out of the box (266Kcd @ 30 seconds)
Fantastic price.

Con: accessories

With properly dedomed SST-40 is should go over 400Kcd, indeed beating more expensive and bigger lights.
These lights however, can keep up max performance for a much longer period of time whereas the FT03 only
reaches those throw numbers on the - ever dwindling - turbo setting.

That said: if it reaches 190Kcd at normal (highest ramping) setting, the dedomed version should reach around
285 - 300 at max ramping……….not bad at all!

Cheers,
Nico

Ha Nico, I attempted to dedome the SST-40 in my FT03 last night, it went far from perfect but I posted about it here: FREEME ✌ ASTROLUX FT03S SFH55 9300lm & FT03 SFT40 2200lm 1300m NarsilM v1.3 USB-C - ALIVE - #2696 by djozz

I don’t understand one thing.
I compiled a number of FT03 performance measurements here.
4 people got between 199 and 206 kcd.
5 got 235-266 kcd.
There was no result in between.

Any explanation?

(mine was in between, I measured 230 kcd for a 5700K SST-40 version)
Two reasons:

1) variation between cheap luxmeters. See my luxmeter tests for an idea how much variation to expect.

2) bad centering and focussing of the led, the FT03 has no provision for adequate centering, the centering piece has a too large hole which even does not fix against the led (it slides over it when too off-center). De SST-40 die is fairly big so the beam does not look distastrous with the led slightly acentric or out of focus, but you can certainly measure it.

HI,

What dedoming method did YOU use?

Cheers,
Nico

Effect 2 should cause Gaussian distribution of measurements. Yeah, I know that 10 is a small group size but the distribution is totally different, enough to make me curious if there’s some actual reason.
Effect 1 - depends. F.e. if there was 1 very popular luxmeter model that measured this light completely off - that would be an explanation.

I measured 230kCd on my NW FT03 with a UNI-T UT-383S

But what Jos said is quite important, this luxmeter has an accuracy of ±5% beyond ≥100,000Lux
Calculating with 5%, 230 kCd differs from 230 * 0,05 = 11,5 kCd,
so in reality it will be something between 215 ~ 245 kCd, where 215 is more likely :slight_smile:

Keep in mind that this light uses a FET driver so output varies based on the battery used, unlike a boost driven light. Also, people might be measuring from different distances and some at turn on and some at 30 seconds. So there are a lot of variables.

I always measure at 10 meters and 30 seconds. Did everyone do the same? Did they say what battery they used?

I measure throw (always at 30 seconds) at 7 meter but usually the beam is pretty well formed from 5 meter upwards, even from this 50?mm reflector.
My 230 kcd is from a black Liitokale 5000mAh, which is not the highest drain 26650 around.

i have used a 30Q at different distances, all my readings were quite consistent
usually i place the light on a chair or something and then walk with my luxmeter to the wall, to measure at several spots and angles in the hotspot, so almost all my readings are at 30s.

the spreadsheet doesn’t work for me, also, is there still a discount gb price link some where? is this still the best budget thrower?

What spreadsheet?
I think it is the best budget thrower. Both the SST-40 and xhp50.2 depending on your needs. Freeme has deals on both.

I read on reddit this light turbo doesn’t last long and heat soak will keep the thermal throttle to output low for a while. The hunt continues for the holy grail.

You can turn off the thermal stepdown off if you want. What is the “holy grail”?