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

Pull the tail spring, wrap some fine sandpaper around a pencil or dowel and polish the end of the tube with it where the spring goes.
There was some anodizing over spray in the purple one I had. This should fix your issue with that one. I cannot think why else removing and replacing a spring would be needed, except for bad contact surface where the spring is…

Just the comparison with the Tank 007 E09 makes this a not so good light? I do not think you can get a high CRI version of the Tank without moddding it yourself… The Nichia 219B V1 is $4 by itself… So you would have to add $8 to your total and mod it yourself to make the Tanks High CRI…

I agree the Tanks are good lights, but they do not make this one a bad purchase either… For what I want, these are my current favorite….

For my two Astrolux’s, I encountered two different problems that affected the UI.

First, overspray of the anodized finish onto the threaded end of the barrel. Easily taken care of by filing/sanding the edge.

Second, gunk or sludge-like residue on the flashlight head (positive node) plate that prevents the flashlight barrel from making a good, clean contact. You need to clean the plate off.

Once these problems were taken care of, the UI worked smoothly and reliably.

I had a problem with it not turning on. I somehow fixed it by messing around with the head (moving the pill clockwise a little bit). The head had problems, and it still does, the foam is not stiff enough, so as soon as I put on the head, it turns on. It was finicky and too loose with turning on. I put on another retaining ring, and it didn’t help. I eventually have it mostly working by pressing on the spring a few times so it would not press it so hard to the foam.

It works but feels very loose.

Try wrapping the threads in the teflon plumbing tape. A couple of wraps have tightened up my threads on another light and make it easier to keep from coming on accidentally. Neither of my A01’s heads are loose enough, but we all know that threading can vary…

ReManG, you contact with seller and manufacturer.
Can Astrolux create 1x AA flashlight with same LED, driver, but with button and slighlty bigger (AA size) heatsink in head (as in 1xAA Zebralight’s), for cooler work in 100lm mode ?

My second one arrived yesterday and the head wont screw all the way past the o ring . It works but mot waterproof at all. Its liker the threaded part of the body is too long or the pill isn’t screwed in far enough I cant get it to move any further in to the head. Anyone else had this problem?

Thanks

I’m interested in a nice orange

I have definitely fallen behind ReMan, You always have the best reviews, AND the GB I also just found for the Cu’s
I had wished these would come out in Cu and you have it done, fantastic, these little lights are great and really were a surprise when I got it back around Jan, from packaging on great light…

One caution — be wary of these coming on accidentally at the bottom of a pocket or purse.

My orange had the flicker problems mentioned earlier; I worked most of that out with disassembly and cleaning up, and now I just get a bright flash before the moon level, but not the jumping around and skipping.

But it’s twice now come on deep in a pocket. I have to turn the head WELL past the “off” position to avoid this happening.
The threads are wobbly enough, apparently, that a little pressure sideways on the light can cause it to bump on and bright.

Then it gets really hot fast if it’s down in some insulating material.

I’m putting a fat O-ring on the light that I can slip into the groove behind the head when the light is off, as a safety.

Could just be a mismatch between head and body if the threads are plus-or-minus the desired spec and I got the smallest body/largest head threads.
Anyone else noticed this?

I had not noticed the coming on of the light, but I can see it happening… I put a few wraps of plumbers Teflon tape on the threads on all my twisty lights to tighten them up… Give that a shot as well… I like the oring idea though…

I finally received the first of these lights I ordered, a green one. Nice!

I notice that mine has no foam ring over the driver on the + end of the light. I thought I read somewhere that these lights are supposed to have one, for reverse polarity protection. Is this a concern, or can I just ignore it as long as I’m careful to always insert the battery the correct way? The light seems to work fine, all modes are easily activated, so the lack of a foam pad doesn’t seem to affect the operation.

I would send a pic to Banggood and see what they say… They may have put in protection (diode) but see what they say…

If the battery is in right no issues, but the one time you pop one in backwards… That stinks when it happens…

Mine didn’t have the foam ring either.

Okay, well, it sounds like mine is not unique in missing the foam ring. I’m always careful with batteries, so it shouldn’t be a problem. I might ask Banggood, but I doubt their customer service would know how the lights are designed, so probably not much chance of getting a proper answer.

Anyone else with a recent color of light (green, orange), missing a foam ring? Anyone actually have one in a recent run of the lights? I’m wondering if it’s supposed to be without a ring, or if there’s a quality control issue.

When I get the rest of my order, I’ll see what they have.

In any case, I love the tint of the light. A nice somewhat-warm clean beam, free of any of the ugly green that Cree is so famous for.

Not on mine. WAs it supposed to have one?
And, DO these have reverse polarity protection?

I will ask Neal about this issue as well. Once I get an answer I will post it here…. This seems like either something forgotten (foam ring) or something changed (reverse polarity protection) ether way w we need to find out…

I got my A01 today and played around a little. Soon I noticed heavy flickering issues when changing modes. ANNOYING! After a close look I noticed that the inner edge of the body tube was ever so slightly elevated and felt sharp! If this little burr made a wobbly “ground” contact first it would maybe explain the uncertain switch behavior…

So I cautiously deburred the body tube inner opening with a countersink. Voila: The flickering is gone and mode changes work perfectly fine!!
At least for the moment :slight_smile:

Got my 2nd orange A01 in the mail today.
Awful flickers, not just a little bit, quite unusable — with a couple of minutes of use with a NiMH cell

I’ll try the usual everything. It will probably get better.

Arrrrrrr…. This stinks Hank. One member had a burr on the tube, chamfered it away and it worked well it seems…

Sorry to hear this Hank…

Let us know what the resolution is from Banggood…

The first one cleaned up to ‘good enough’ by doing “all of the above” so I’m going to do the same with the second light.
Odds are it’ll be the same sort of problems and clear up with enough fiddling.
Just posting for the record, basically, at this point, so I don’t forget what I noticed when.