No that would not make sense… They send Freeme a sample knowing the audience so knowing there is a 99,9% chance of us wanting to see the inner parts.
Idk but the glue was mentioned before and so was another manufacturer and if they wanted to do it sneaky it would have been much easier not to glue and use a ledboard and driver without branding. So with what we now know it seems pretty straight forward and honest.
This light looks beautiful. I’m soooOOOOO tempted.
Biggest downside for me would be the weight. I already find the copper-aluminum S-41 to be too heavy for comfortable pocket EDC. I hesitate to purchase an even heavier steel one no matter how pretty is is.
If I’m not mistaken, on the photo of the LED board, the black wire going to the + on the board means they addressed the concerns from the S41/E14. Does that seem right?
Sorry, I'm new here and haven't done this before. How will I know when to order?
FYI, I have seen just the optic for sale (for Manker e14, same thing) on amazon for under $5, so probably even less on BangGood if they stock it.
Re: PVD vs. Flame, pretty sure this is flame. I think it would be difficult (if it's even possible) to achieve such an effect via PVD - plasma vapor deposits are usually (always? maybe?) a single substance or alloy, depositing a single colored layer onto an electrically conductive substance. The thickness is measured in microns, so flaming would be deeper as well, but there is no additional material as in PVD. Think of titanium nitride (TiN) coatings, commonly on motorcycle shock shafts, tooling bits, knives, gun barrels and bolt carriers, etc. - it's a solid gold or grey (titanium carbo-nitride) color usually, or black if it's diamond-like carbon PVD. There are a lot of other colors achieved by altering the substance that gets plasma vaporized, but I've only ever seen one at a time. Masking would leave a much more definite line. Of course I could be completely wrong, however, this is just my experience with it.
also, here is a pic of the inside of my fairly new E14 for comparison with the new astrolux pics: https://scontent-atl3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/t31.0-8/14241560_1010069449118926_8542273863078284397_o.jpg
I used a sharp pen knife to scrape off the excess glue around the edge first, then I swapped to 1.5mm straight bit screwdriver to pop out the lens. I approached from the rough surface edges (marked with white arrows in picture) for good grip and to avoid damaging the optics by accident.