Hello y’all,
I need a little advice from you experts (I didn’t follow very close the new models in the market!)
to make a little gift for a person with exactly 0 flashlight in the house.
serious must have:
- Anduril (for candle light mode)
- Usb Charge (microusb or type-c, no difference)
Only 1 Battery (18650, 26650 or 21700, no difference)
nice to have but not indispensable:
- Green body
High CRI (like sst20 4000k, nichia, etc)
But the most important thing would be = The least hotrod possible with those 3 requirements!
I don’t want the person to burn down the curtains with this flashlight left on turbo!
So for now, I was watching at:
- Astrolux EC01
- Astrolux MF01 Mini
Astrolux HL01
The 4000k MF01 Mini in green = almost perfection, just a little big, and just a little “hotrod”, but with attention I think it could be ok.
So my question now is: there are other options around that I’m forgetting about?
I don’t know of any other options that meet your requirements, robertino, but are you aware of the Astrolux Mini (and possibly all Astrolux) thermal issues?
Because of its lack of heat dissipation, it steps down from Turbo or the highest ramping mode immediately. So never really gets a chance to heat up, from my own experience with the pair I have.
Fortunately man of light here offers a fix:
A bit pricey but the Mini is on sale right now for about the same amount off. Haven’t yet received the copper heatsink cover plates I ordered so cannot personally vouch to their efficacy but others here have been very impressed.
Of course, once installed, the copper cover plate should make the flashlight heat up a lot more. But still I wouldn’t worry about it burning down the house. Well, at least not in candle mode!
Really like the smooth beam from the seven TIR lenses, and the 4000K 95CRI NW light is the absolute best I’ve seen from any LED, including the expensive GE Reveal bulbs throughout my own home. 26650 cells are available up to 5500mAh for decent runtime and the overall size of the flashlight itself I find ideal to hold and operate, much better than the skinny 18650 cell models which don’t offer as much grip. Beautiful shape and finish, my favorite flashlight of all I own despite the current thermal flaw.
Ordered my pair of Astrolux MF01 Minis from Lighting Market Store and they got to me in the USA in just ten days.
I would suggest to NOT gift an Anduril equipped flashlight to someone with no other flashlights (=no flashlight experience).
Anduril is an UI for flashlight enthusiasts, not for beginners. Of course I don't know the person you are intending to gift the light to, but Anduril can easily overwhelm someone who has no experience with "complicated" UIs.
- Agro: exactly right, if I could use Candlelight mode + Bike flasher in muggle mode = perfection… always leaving in muggle mode!
- andychrist: Thank you for the very comprehensive message, with even the great pictures! Wonderful rig you have made there, both on turbo you produce more light than some old cars!! Well, my experience with hotrods is very limited: Emisar D4V2 and Astrolux MF01S both in sst20 5000k! Now, the Astro has some mass, but the Emisar is exactly what I DON’T want to gift! So now that you tell me that it steps down almost immediately, without a chance to heat up to red glowing temperature… that for me is a very good news! I guess I can limit the max high temp for stepdown on Anduril on a very low settings (like 40C) and there shouldn’t be a lot of risks to ruin this person’s home.
Thanks, I think you pushed me toward the final decision… MF01 Mini it is…
- Valynor: very very very good point. I tought a lot about that, and I searched a lot online: basically I found no trace of something simple like a Convoy S2 with 3 levels + candlelight mode! Now, the person receiving the gift is a Girl Under 30 with a very smart brain, speaking 5 language (including chinese) that did fall in love with my Emisar D4V2… she is gonna use the light only for 4 things: moonlight mode / basic illumination on bike / Candlelight mode / maybe Bike Flasher. I’m gonna make a simple enough “Cheat Sheet”, to explain only those mode, without going on the settings temp and other “deep stuff”… I think she could manage. Sure, high risk of using only 3 times, and then hide it in a drawer…
Actually I think it’s not as bad as many folks think. The mf01 mini runs on FET for turbo. Just use a low current output battery. That limits turbo, usually gets higher run times too. Some of the old keeppower 26650 protected cells actually don’t cut power but limits current draw to 10A for example. Not sure if true for newer ones. The nice part about the mini is that it’s USB-c charging is fast at around 2A. It also allows use of 26650, 18650, or 21700 batteries too. Comes with the spacers. Do get the aluminum ones. The copper and brass are really heavy. If you want to reduce output more, remove\replace the double springs with steel springs. Creates more resistance :). You get all the cool features and won’t burn up your hands.
@Robertino: I’d still recommend getting the copper heatsink as a means of protecting the emitters so that they will last their rated lifespan, otherwise they could deteriorate sooner than expected. Reason the body doesn’t get hot is because the heat gets trapped inside rather than dissipated through the fins.
@ML: the mounts are called something like 360º Rotational Flashlight Holder and are marketed under many various brand names. On Amazon USA they are now really cheap, I just ordered another pair for only $7.97 USD.
But don’t know how much they’d be where you are. AE has them as well, you have to shop the various stores on their site to find the best deal with shipping to Finland. Here’s one:
To make it fit the Astrolux MF01 Mini, you need to remove the default, click-in spacers and insert the thinner pair that come loose in the box. These don’t click in so tend to fall out every time you open the clamps; I recommend applying something like 3M VHB Doublestick tape to the inside surface so they will adhere. Bonus is that the tape is like 1mm thick and has great compression, adds some spring to the clamps which makes the QR levers work a lot better.
@ML problem isn’t so much that the 360º Rotational Bicycle Clamps are flimsy, but that they’re too rigid. Got to spin the QR levers round and round and round to open and close the clamps around your flashlight. And closing them too tightly will crush the inside spacers, so you must exercise caution. Also they have a channel lock mechanism to adjust for varying diameters of body tubes, but again, if set to the most narrow or middle position and then closed too tightly, will suddenly and quite loudly snap to the larger opening. But with a 26650 flashlight like the Astrolux MF01 Mini or Sofirn SP33, pretty sure the channel has to be opened all the way to fit correctly, so no possibility of snapping any further wider around the flashlights, just around the handle bars where the narrowest opening might be required. Still will need to insert the correct spacers in either case, but should end up with a good fit.
Sorry but no, a single 26650 cell flashlight is the largest these 360º rotational clamps will accommodate. For three cell lights I jerry-rigged my own swivel clamps, but they weigh almost as much as the flashlights they’re supposed to hold so are not for every one.
Don’t want to derail this thread any further than I already have so if you’d like any more info on the clamps just PM me.
io ti consiglio EC01 5000k con batteria liitokala 4000mAh 40A che ti offre buona autonomia e anche senza spingere al massimo il led (e quindi la torcia che comincia a bruciare al tatto) ti fa molta luce….poi vabbè la metti in moggle se proprio è troppo
You can set the maximum temperature in Anduril to anything from 31 to 70°C. With around 40°C you will not burn anything. Just advice your friend not to point the flashlight at any flammable objects. If you use only the highest ramp it is not dangerous either.
The MF01 mini does not get hot because the driver is overheating on the highest ramp and steps down. The leds are fine, the current they get is reduced, that’s why they don’t heat much. If you add the copper heatsink from man of light the driver has a better thermal connection to the flashlight body and the flashlight will get much hotter.
- Andrx: Grazie mille per il consiglio, la EC01 è da tanto nella mia wishlist, ormai per il regalo mi son fissato sulla MF01 Mini Verde… ma mi sa che farò proprio l’ordine combinato e ci inserisco pure la EC01 per me!
- Skylight: thank you, I think I will go exactly with the route you suggested: 4000k MF01 Mini, Highest ramp setting pretty low, and max Temp around 35 or 40C… and it should be only a “lovely gift” and not a “widow-maker/house burner”!
Be careful when you’ve mounted things on the fork of the bike. I once had a generator light come loose and rotate into the spokes, jamming the wheel. I did a forward somersault tuck-and-roll, landed on my butt, and reached up and caught the bike as it came down toward my head. Got a round of applause from witnesses.
But I wouldn’t rely on reflexes to handle that sort of snafu. Better to keep the spokes clear of any chance of interference.
