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

Depending on the final price, and coloring options, I’d take at least 2.
This could be a replacement for my current keychain light.

Probably get one to see what’s all the fuss is about regarding nichia tint.

Hello!

Just saw this while wandering over Banggood store. How cute!
A couple of years ago I ended up modifying a Saik SA-9 by replacing its XR-E with one of those 219B’s. Despite a (to my eyes) somewhat lackluster beam divergence, in no time I had to sell it to one of my friends who got fancied by. Tint and colour rendering were amazing… :heart_eyes:
I’d really like to know more about this being driven with li-ion 10440s, mind you.

Cheers

Manufacturer says it is not 10440 capable, I did run one of them on a 3.2V LiFePO4 for a few minutes with no apparent issues, but have no button top 10440’s to try it out.

It is quite sufficient with just alkaline, I am not going to run anything else, but NiMh, alkaline or 1.8V lithium primaries (L92). Hope this helps…

If appreciably less than $10, I’ll be in for a few.

Voilà:

Looks like a nice well built light. I’d like one in orange and camo. Anyone other than BG selling this?

Any thought whether it’d work to swap in an amber emitter on these?

If it’s a current limited driver it should work OK. But “should” fools me often.

100 lumen on a Nichia 219B should be in the 600-700ma range… So it “should” work, but I have been bit by that word as well. It would be interesting to see about color LEDs…

Guesstimation battery to driver current load for alkalines? :quest: Well, that should mean about 800+mA of load for NiMH/NiCD class batteries, better suited for sustained high output operation.
How hot does this thing gets after a good while on HIGH? :evil:

Cheers

Warm, but not hot… As it heats, the voltage drops due to resistance and the battery depleting. Perhaps ten minutes in it is warm, but no where near enough to call hot, at least for me.

The 600-700ma was speculated by me, at the emitter. As it will be a boost driver, expect about 1500ma at the tail, which would equate to a 30 minute runtime, which is about accurate on high.

Really? That would be a pretty poor lumens/watt ratio.
Nichia 219B datasheet

Manufacturer claims above 100 lumens of output for 350mA driving current (optimistic if specced at 25º operational temperature, of course). For 400mA at the emitter (at about 3Vf), that would mean no more than 1’2A at the tail for a 1’2V battery, unless the driver efficiency sucks big time. :frowning: Is there any other sort of drawback I don’t know of?

Cheers

I am guessing, since you have more knowledge about this, we will go with your view.

I guess in the worst case scenario, anything better is better. The driver seems to be good, but feel free to buy one and test it fully, I do not have the means for a full test…

The only drawback is you took my totally wild guess and ran with it like I tested it. Really…

Got my two A01’s today. Nice color rendering and natural warmish white tint. Changing the modes is a bit flimsy and the light flickers a bit while turning the head.

Here’s some measurements. The Astrolux A01 has a true high CRI Nichia unlike the Rayus C01.


Wow, you are going to be an asset here on BLF! Thanks for this update, really useful information…

LOL! :bigsmile:

Just checked out some boost driver reviews at lygte-info.dk, just to find out most of them are underwhelmingly efficient, to say the least. It is, thereforely, perfectly possible for the led to be getting the driver output current I presumed (≈400mA) while sucking up those 1’5A of input from the battery you presumed. Corollary: those driver designers should be summarily executed, for fuck’s sake. :Sp

Cheers

[quote=ReManG]

Thanks! Here’s an album with some more measurements.

Here’s a runtime test on high with an Eneloop. Battery voltage was under 1 volts in the end. Fan was used to cool the light.

Maximum temp was 33°C @ 10-20 minutes. After that it dropped gradually.

Appreciated information, maukka.
What was the ambient temperature during measurement?
Seems to operate pretty cool, good news for those of us who live in places of 40+° summers… 8)

Cheers

Ambient temp was 25°C. I will do another test without a fan later.