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

It still isn’t an excuse for shoddy QC, especially if they plan to charge the listed price.

Choombak,

How much QC you need on something that is just over $8? The high CRI LED alone in this light is $4 retail at Mtn Electronics, Illum, etc. The light has three modes and a strobe after two mode cycles. It is available in half a dozen colors… Please find and submit a link to a light with all of these features and output levels and runs on an AAA battery, then you can talk about shoddy QC if the one you find is better.

The dead one, of course Banggood should take a look, but you outline no attempted fixes like making sure the upper part of the tube is bare like it is supposed to be. It could just be this, but no sense making an attempt to fix something that traveled all the way from China. Also check the board in the head that there is not too much O ring lube on the contact there or something, I know Qtips are heavy, but try at least…

The Oring lube issue is about 2 seconds with a paper towel. Good thing it wasn’t corroded or worse yet, had no lube…

The no foam doughnut IS a spec change, they had more issues with it holding the battery off the board than rattling, so it was apparently eliminated… If you bother to read threads or do a search, you will find several members had this issue, it was addressed.

If you need papers these days to be able to figure out a twisty light, I do not know what to say… Its not like you would gift these to people and not be able to tell them the way to use them in a few seconds…

The non centered emitters is an easy fix, pointy tweezers in the holes in the back of the board, unscrew (counter clockwise) about 3/4 turn. Look in from the front and tap the side opposite where you want the LED to go, and tighten the pill back down. 2 minutes tops, on each light…

I get the fact that there are problems, I do not get the apparent TOTAL lack of motivation to mitigate the problems. Go back to CPF if you want to bash a light for less than $10

Yes, that’s the way they all seem to be produced now. I’m not sure if it’s an issue or not. Anyone want to try putting in a battery the wrong way and let us know? :wink:

Obviously a real issue. I had that with one of my light. Easy fix was to take out the spring and stretch it.

I didn’t even read mine. I don’t think it’s needed.

Okay, but easily wiped off, no?

That won’t affect the beam.

It must be very difficult for the manufacturer to apply these mitigations before the lights leave their facility, since now the buyer is expected to implement them. In my book, any mods to a “brand new” light to make it functional is a definite indication of lack of proper QC. So let’s see:

  1. Off-center emitter - little to no attention to the assembly process.
  2. Missing papers - little to no attention during packaging.
  3. Lube all over the light - little to no attention to how much lube is being squeezed.

Okay, so now let’s mop up the mess they created, because one cannot expect reasonable quality under $10 (something that I only heard in this thread). Looks like your worldview is way different from mine.

And why drag CPF into this thread? How is it even related? My remarks were not personal, I merely stated observations and expectations. I am firm on my opinion: Astrolux A01 from Banggoods is very poor in quality. You don’t have to agree with it. :slight_smile:

Yet you were not upset enough to return the lights, only bitch about QC to the forum…

There was nothing personal about the CPF comment, just that on that forum, they tend to act like you did here, and you have a presence there as well, thought you mixed up forums.

These lights are by no means perfect, but dollar for dollar, a hell of a deal, so I do disagree with you, and will leave it at that.

Actually, they have been dumped into trash. Not worth returning.

Quality seems good to me
I picked up an Orange one a few weeks back from BG and no probs with it.
My wife loves hers - it’s on bedside and handbag duties

I’m sure at some point they will raise the price
which means the quality will also improve.
The more you pay the more it’s worth.

Budget lights often take some tweaking brand new out of the box to work properly. If you aren’t ready for that, you aren’t ready for budget lights. Or maybe you are because with budget lights you can still throw away half of them and come out ahead. It’s just a shame not to take a few basic steps at fixing a light before you throw it away or try to return it. Fixing lights yourself is one of the main reasons BLF exists. Tightening a retaining ring, sanding the end of a tube, these are just basic. It feels great to bring a light to life like that.

Anyway, I’ve bought 4 A01’s and they’ve all worked fine.

Actually, they are to be no more… The Astrolux brand will have to find another manufacturer as Manker and Banggood will not be working together anymore. I do not know that this will happen, and with there could be some property rights issues to the designs anyway. Yes, even in China, there are some property rights in situations like this… I had a Stainless steel model in the works, and a “A02” AA version as well. Do not expect those anytime soon, if ever…

Members like choombak (a drug reference name, I am guessing?) and their disproportionate complaining here for what they have gotten for bottom dollar drive manufacturers away. They also drive members away from good lights and if they get one that needs an adjustment, perhaps their first foray into modding.

I knew next to nothing about LED lights when I joined here just over a year ago. I now do everything but firmware to my lights, and will get to that in time. It started with spring bypasses and swapping an emitter… With help from members here and the more positive attitude of the forum back then, I did this. Now we have members that have low post counts, long times lurking and the attitude that a budget light should have Ferrari QC. Then they spend more time complaining about what was, than they do fixing the issue, and end up throwing away the lights… Incredible…

@choombak, you are a knucklehead for throwing those away, I am sure plenty of members would have paid shipping and 50% of your cost to get those lights. I really doubt you did this anyway… You have more money than sense if you really did throw them out. As I said, the emitters alone would have gotten you $4 ea…

Say it ain’t so! I would love a SS and an AA version. I really hope Manker and BG can look past the Cometa fiasco and give the partnership another chance.

Doubtful. Razor Thin margins and three times the work. It is a shame because they would really listen to our ideas.

anyone tried to modding this flashlight??:slight_smile:

I’m new to this forum (and forums in general). Is there this much drama here?

Haha - welcome……

I’ve been here a little while and, aside from the occasional blip, I’ve found that things here couldn’t be more friendly.

I like the fact that we can talk here about things such as clone knives really freely yet on a knife forum I’m a member of I there would be hysterics a-plenty and I would probably be burned at the stake……

Does Ferrari even have good QC my mate works for them here they get a lot of returns maybe we should go with Honda! ReManG already copped me bitching about the led being out of center… I would 100% recommend this light! the LED is such a small issue but the DOA they would give you a refund for any ways? If you do want top quality AAA maybe go for the lumintop tool it is about double the price but you get what you pay for. hahaha i just looked at mine and the LED isn’t centered with the lumentop! bahahaha

Are we aloud to swear in the forum? fudge me silly i failed by saying this!
!

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This is the Astrolux! I think the Astrolux wins!
!

!

A light you buy for $10, likely was manufactured for less than $5. There’s not much room for extensive quality control on budget lights. Besides, most of the things you’re complaining about are irrelevant on a small floody light like this.

The only thing I really expect on a $10 light is that it works, or that it can be easily fixed to make it work (like I had to do by stretching the spring on one of mine).

IMO, the A01 was an excellent light for $9. The emitter is really what makes this light stand out. The quality isn’t perfect, but I have $100 lights for that. The A01 is a nice, simple light, that gives really nice tint, a good selection of output, and is inexpensive enough that it won’t freak me out if I lose it or break it.

Excellent review, thanks for all your effort providing the facts about the A01.
Im sold, bout time i upgraded my little aaa p2.

I agree that there’s little to complain about given the price point. Some people are extremely picky. Given what was covered in topics about this light and the fact that BLF gets an extra discount, it should be understood that the QC won’t be as solid as with more expensive lights. I had an issue with my copper A01, sent in a photo to show it, and BangGood followed up with a brand new light. They could have just mailed me a battery tube, which would have been fine as long as it worked.

If a US manufacturer was producing this light, we’d be paying at least 50% more. While it would feel good for some to buy that instead, supporting local jobs, the fact is that many people would still opt for the cheaper because of how people see the world (me first, everyone else after). So, with China still having a lower cost workforce, the job gets done there. And really, some of these lights are probably very close to margin, if only to help establish the brand and pave the way for more expensive models.

The flakiness/flickering on my two orange lights was solved by the usual ‘all of the above’ — cleaning threads, checking tightness of the driver (it can be too tight, it can be too loose, it can be just right, no idea what’s going on with that), smoothing every electrically conducting part, putting conductive lube on, and “wearing in” through lots of cycles of off, on/change mode.

Happy with them now. No surprise it took some time to get rid of the flickering. Still puzzled, I’ve never had other lights where the driver could be tightened down too much, but whatever that is, backing it off just a quarter turn or so gets rid of that part of the flickering.