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

Wow, that is off center! I did that with one I had removed the pill and I put it back in. The insulator/spacer for the LED is flat on one side, and an inverted cone on the other. The inverted cone side goes toward the reflector, it has to be flat on the MCPCB or it seems to cock over easily. I fixed I by backing it off and tapping until centered and re tightening. It took two or three attempts.

I still think the foam donut is too firm… Perhaps a few dozen squish downs with the back of a marker or something will work. The donut is just a reverse polarity protection, so it would work without it, or shaved down… Otherwise there may be something wrong with the driver…

ReManG wrote:

If you take the pill out, you can shave the foam doughnut down a bit, it is pretty stiff EVA foam. I did not have any that were stronger than the spring, but I can see that may be an issue. The other thing would be if you pulled the spring out and put a small bit of foam or other squishy material under the spring to make it stronger...

Good suggestions. I was also thinking of just pre compressing the foam a bit to break it in. I forgot to mention, I really like the tint on these lights.

Got mine in today. No problems with mine. My first neutral tint. It’s different but not sure tint is going to be that important to me.

The neutral tints will grow on you…. Use it side by side with a CW tint light of about the same power… it is one more part of the addiction here…

The tint is great. I guess I was comparing it to output of other lights. The claim is 102 lumens on high. Comparing it to my other lights seems about as bright as an 70 or 80. Will have to run down a full battery and time it. If I get the runtime of a 70 that would be great. Heard neutral is less bright. Don’t know if that means the runtime of a 102 lumen and brightness of a 70?

High CRI LEDs are usually less efficient than low-CRI LEDs (such as standard cool white). The Nichia 219 is a high CRI LED, and also neutral white. This requires a different phosphor mix on the LED to achieve a more balanced spectrum of light, and that allows you to see colours much better.

There’s also less glare and reflection from humidity from warmer tints.

Generally, you can see better using a high CRI neutral white light, than you can with a low-CRI cool white light, at the same intensity of light. So, the lower efficiency is somewhat made up for the fact you don’t have to use it as brightly.

If you want to impress your friends, get a high-output cool-white Cree LED. If you want to see better, get a high CRI neutral white LED.

Arow55,

The visual brightness is what you perceive, the technical brightness is the measured lumen. There are issues measuring brightness that give me a “that’s it?” feeling with the warmer tints when comparing the light to the output numbers on paper… The thing is, they may not appear as bright, but they do not have as much glare and are easier on my eyes than the CW versions, I just like the light better. My throwers are all CW, just because of the absolute amount of lumen they put out, but lights like the A01 are just nicer with a warmer/neutral tint… I had thought about swapping out an XPL V6 3D into one to just see the difference… I just don’t have one of this sitting around, and then I have to build another light for the 219B… Lol

Well the less glare from humidity should come in real useful in the summertime here in Mississippi. Also might help with the dust as I live on a gravel road and when it’s dry the cars can stir up a lot of dust.

ReMan and ImA,
I finally got around to playing with this a little more. Shaved the donut (reduced thickness by about half), and while I didn’t think this was possible, it got even weirder. Now it’s a 1-mode light! Really - it doesn’t cycle through modes any more. It actually turns on a little more easily, and at least it’s consistent - the twisty does feel more “normal” and less finicky. But where did the modes go? It still turns off when I tighten the head all the way, but I have to tighten pretty hard for this to happen now - it doesn’t turn off with a normal finger-pressure tightening, only when I grip it harder and actually try.
Overall I have to say it’s improved, but I was hoping for a light with modes…
Is there someone here who represents BangGood that I can PM to hopefully get a replacement? Or would I be better off emailing their general CS contact?
Thanks!
Andy

Is it just me, or is this just poor quality control? I know the price is great, but this seems like sloppy workmanship.
When I carry a light, I like to feel confident it will work when I need it.

Zeet! Welcome to BLF!

People around here seem to like finicky lights. It gives them a reason to take them apart and put them back together. So much more satisfying than boring lights that just work right out of the box.

Ahhh. Now I understand. I thought there was something like that going on when someone seemed gleeful when referred to a tutorial on how to “reflow an LED”.
So if I get one of these little beauties, can I count on you all to help me get it to work right?

People live for that. They run out of lights to fix, so the next best thing is helping other people fix lights.

Andyman,

Sounds like a bad driver to me if that did not fix it…

Any light can have quality issues, this one too, so I hope these get fixed, it is a nice little light…

Well, I haven’t got mine yet (it’s in the mail), but I don’t expect high quality on a sub $10 light. I do expect it to work, but if it has a few glitches occasionally that’s what I expect from a cheap light. I would certainly never use a cheap light like this as a primary light where I really needed it (like a nighttime walk in the woods or something like that). So I’ll use mine around the house, or carry it when I don’t really think I’ll need a light (but where a light might come in handy).

It is a cheap light for the features, but not being able to use it when you want to, or if it is your back up light, kind of negates the reason for it…

I don’t know how many have been sold, but so far one scratched emitter and two possible bad drivers are not that bad, especially if Banggood makes good on them…

To turn a cheap light into a reliable expensive light, just carry two of them. One of them is bound to work when you need it, and it will still cost much less than a reliable expensive light.

I like the way you think!

Could this use 10440 li-ons?

It can and it’s brighter with 10440, but gets hot quickly. 10440s are not supported officially, so I can not tell whether it will damage the light in long term or not. I will use it with AAAs.