✌ FREEME- ASTROLUX MF01 Mini 7*SST20 CRI95 26650 ANDÚRIL Flashlight Group Buy - $45.99

I unsoldered only 5 wires:
LEDs: thick black and white
AUX: red, black, blue

I don’t need to disassemble the button and I don’t want to do it. I usually scratch the flashlight…
Switch led - gray
Switch - yellow
“+” - white
green
”Ch” - orange (I guess it’s “Charging” indicator)
“St” - brown (dunno, but it seems to me that it could also be a charging indicator)
I also think this inductor is charging component. The basic driver on which Anduril doesn’t need such “gadgets”.

Ordered a second in green. :person_facepalming:

Okay, this makes sense.

So 4 of these lights came at the same time for me. I’ve had some time to mess with them tonight. So far initial impressions:

1) Build quality is definitely not as high as FF E07. I guess it makes sense since it’s got more features but is less expensive than the E07. E07 is actually one of the highest build quality lights I’ve handled so it’s hard to beat that. I was secretly hoping this would replace my three E07’s, not quite, this kinda makes me appreciate how well built they are. If anyone’s used a E07 you can feel how hydraulic the 21700 going into the tube is because it’s fit so snug in there. These MF01 minis don’t quite have that w/ the 26650’s.

Unfortunately I also feel the standard-sized MF01s’s have better build than these as well. My two MF01s were almost as good in terms of fit and finish than my D18.

2) 4000k tint seems to have some rosiness in it, and more white than FF’s equivalent in their E07’s and 5000k is still significantly green at low levels

3) I love the feel of the button, this is where it trumps E07’s equivalent for sure.

4) Optics are solid, good mix of throw + flood where it’s throwier than the E07 but floodier than D4s.

5) I put a Molicel P42 21700 in one, compared with a LiitoKala 5000mah 26650 in the other; from a pure visual aspect out at night, I can’t tell a difference (I know someone tested 21700 to have output than 26650, but not in my case visually). So… I think it’s moot to use the 21700 batteries in them. It did get hotter quickly though.
(Edit: compared these a few rounds and there seems to be a slight brightness increase w/ the 21700, an effect that’s so minor you’d have to really pay attention and not move the light around to see. It’s not worth the faster heat up rate)

This depends on how you look at it. Snug might seem better, but if you have a battery that is slightly fatter (there are no li-ion battery size standards) it may not fit. The battery tube on the mini being a bit bigger probably allows the fatter PLB 5500mah cells to fit.

If you use a smaller cell and it rattles, you can easily slip a strip of paper in the tube to make it not rattle.

The 26650 cell in question was a very weak, old cell (design wise) and not as good as the LiitoKala 5000mah. Still, that P42 should definitely outperform the LiitoKala black. Especially at higher amps like 20A. So the P42 should pull higher amps and get hotter, but the output increase is minimal. You’d see it on an integrating sphere, but probably not with your bare eyes.

Here is a comparison at 20A.

It’s actually a bigger gap that I thought. These Molicels are really good.

With the 6500K SST-20 a rough estimate between a battery pulling 14A and one pulling 20A is about 850-900 lumen extra. With a WW SST-20 the increase is about the same. Just to give a rough idea.

Well yeah I mean the snugness fitting isn’t the only aspect that tells me E07 has a better quality. I’m satisfied w/ the light overall but I don’t see any significant advantages over the E07 now that I’ve got it in hand. I have a Emisar D18 and that has the highest subjective quality of all of my multi-emitter lights. I’m sure the D4S is of the same; Maybe that’s why it’s much more popular than these. But it’s ok cuz these Mf01’s are $44 so they’re cheap, hence why I bought 7. Planning to give them out as gifts.

I’ll mostly use 26650’s in these lights but occasionally will put my P42a to impress my friends, although like I said you can barely see the difference, but the heat difference is easily noticeable in the first 30 seconds.

That just blows my mind. I got one of the FF PL47 lights and it was one of the worst designed and manufactured lights I’ve ever owned. I won’t buy any more of their products, but has FF really improved that much?

I cannot speak for the FF but this Astrolux (especially for the price) is great. I thought the FT03 was nice but this is even better. Hope it stays that way. The fit of the battery is not that bad either. My Shockli has a bit of wiggle room but some paper (as mentioned) is a cheap fix. BTW - that battery fits the same in the FT03. Didn’t add paper there and won’t here either.

Code please.

Intradested

FF sadly has lots of QA issues and i wouldnt go that far to say, i have a one ff 07 its a nice light, but quality wise compared to the astrolux lights i have i would say they are equal more or less…

I have a FF E07 and Astrolux MF01 Mini. What makes the FF a better quality light? They are both pieces of machined aluminum with a driver, MCPCB, optic, and stainless steel bezel. What can be “better” about the E07? It’s ultra thin tube around the clip mounting area?

I'm also interested in what constitutes 'build quality', maybe people have different definitions of what that means?

LED (and in the case of FW3X driver) centering, overall finishing/machining quality, thermal paste or other crap where it shouldn’t be, just well how the parts fit together (like threads especially), quality of soldering on the board, springs, etc. are just a few things to compare. I have owned lights that were absolutely more cheaply/quickly made by both sight and feel.

I think those are purely subjective issues. My MF01 Mini LED’s are centered really well, and the soldering is excellent. I dropped my E07 once while walking and the switch wire broke lose from the driver. I was so unimpressed by the soldering on the driver that I ordered a FET+6+1 driver from Lexel and installed it. Not to even mention the thermal paste on the MCPCB. As for the springs, I’m sure Astrolux would have put in other springs if they designed the light to take a very specific cell size like the E07. Besides, the dual springs handle 21A current well ENOUGH, and the light can easily take many different cells. Different horses, different courses in that aspect.

I’m not saying that Astrolux lacks in any of those areas (since I haven’t even bought or used an MF01S or Mini) but rather that those are pretty good metrics for “build quality” on any light. Not all of them are objective and quantitative, but some are.

The issues with many of the Fireflies lights (since remedied AFAIK) is a great example of lights that are obviously of a lower build quality, as was thermal paste on the board and emitters + boards so badly seated the light wouldn’t turn on in the first FW3As.

I have 3 E07’s (XPl, sst-4000k, sst-4000k copper, 1 E01 5000k) for quite a while now, and a PL47 and a ROT66 in the mail. I also have a D4v1, D18, 2 MF01S’s and 4 MF01 minis now.

Build quality is definitively as follows: E07>MF01S>MF01 MINI. Trust me on this. The astrolux feels light and flimsy, feels ‘hollow’, there’s nicks in the ano, the threads aren’t as well machined. For one of the lights the bezel ring can’t be screwed all the way down and leaves a gap.
The SST20 4000k, whatever bin they used, isn’t as rich and warm looking as the FD2 bins FF used in their E07’s. For indoor use I’ll definitely still use the E07 for the better beam pattern.
Although overall the best quality is the D18, there’s just something about the design and machining that is so solid. Waiting on the Gen2 FFs to make final decision.

I don’t mean to give an impression that the Mini is a bad light. No it’s great, for the price. It just didn’t whelm me as when I received my E07’s and my MF01S full size versions. It also gets hot fast and the 21700 batteries gives like 2x the heat for like 15% in output which is not noticeable which is also a bummer.

I didn’t study it in detail, it seams a decent flashlight for the price, but I hope they pay a bit more attention to those copper and brass limited editions.

My Grey 5000k light arrived thanks for the deal Freeme, now to test it out and see how it compares to the D4S 5000k XPL-Hi

Please let us know if it’s green at the lower levels. :question: