[Review] Astrolux S42 4xNichia 219C Rechargeable Mini LED Flashlight supplied by Banggood

the 20.5mm base of the driver rests on a rim of the body, the slave board does not have physical contact to the head in any way

Ok- You all know I’m not the sharpest knife in the drawer. I just got my Astrolux S42 today and just now found out that no buttontops or protected cells work. And I contacted banggood right away to get the 40mm tube abd silicone cover. BUT- Just how are batteries orientated in this thing if both ends have springs? I always thought that the negative end of a battery went to the spring end of anything and the positive end the other way. I know I’m not stupid but I don’t even want to try the flashlight out with the smaller 18350/16340’s. Please help me as the springs on both ends make no sense to what I’m used to… Thanks onnha

the positive end goes to the head
there will be a new 18350 tube and USB cover
Banggood replied to the 18650 tube and say its the right one, only fitting unprotected flat tops

Thanks so much- I’m frustrated as banggood assured me before I purchased it that buttontops AND protected 18650’s both worked or I would not have purchased a light that I needed to go out and buy yet MORE 18650’s as mine as all protected. And I hope that they intend on still sending out the 40mm tubes. Thanks again

If you replace the driver spring with a brass button or a spring that collapse fully protected will fit

another for the time being fix, till new 18350 tube comes, is add a copper solid wire ring or washer in the tail cap, but then the O ring can get exposed

Thanks for the help !!

I’m thinking of doing that regardless…then I don’t need to do a spring bypass.

What’s a good way to bypass the tail spring?

So I am getting into modding this light with TA Narsil driver

the original FET is this one g16n03 with 22mOhms

its resistance is no where near top ones like SIR800 or PSMN3R0-30YLDX

VDS (V)
30V

Rds(on) @10V(Typ)
0.022Ω

IDS (A)
16A

So sorry I don’t know. I’m not mechanical enough to mess with flashlights. Sorry

SIR800DP, SIR404DP, or the high performance Infinity FET is the best way to go. The 800 and 404 stay cool at high amps, better than the 3R0.

Thanks for the teardown :+1:

So I am in the final stage of getting the electronics sorted out

there are basically 2 options to go:

- The charging circuit works without the old MCU, but no status indicator LEDs as they are controlled with the MCU

- Letting the old MCU active but disconnecting the switch, the light shows proper charging indication and is always in the breathing mode draining 1mA from the cell down to 2.38V, when the MCU shuts down, physical lockout needed like lighted tailcap

I'd scrap the charger, least that's what I'm gonna do. More room then - I plan on adding some copper under the shelf, least it's some added mass. Probably use thermal glue to hold it to the shelf.

I have thought about scrapping the charger

thought about it, but not about extending the shelf with a copper block from inside, you can easily double the heads thermal mass
yes adding some mass helps getting a longer turbo mode
The main issue with NarsilM is it does not support timed step down plus temperature, like v1.4 did, so I stick with v1.4

it is a lot easier to get it mechanical done scrapping the slave board with MCU and charger

Still can't figure why you would want both. Don't think I ever heard of any light using both. Are there? That's why I did away with it - could not figure a reason to have both active. Shame because there are bug fixes and enhancements in NarsilM.

I probably could get a compile switch in there to enable both modes somehow, just gotta figure out the UI for it the combined version. I got a ton of other things to do on NarsilM though, and haven't spent any time on it as of late at all.

nice review and pictures! :beer:

The charger is one thing that I liked about this light. Being that it’s powerful and uses 18350 cells, I’d rather be able to charge it without waiting to get home and fire up the charger. I guess I’m stuck with the light as is.

driver replacing without keeping the chargin circuit is easy, a 21mm driver fits with minor sanding

with AWG18 and SIR800 FET pulling 18.9A on cold start
instead the 9.95A with fresh Samsung 18650-30Q cell

I went with a solution I like, keeping the old drivers slave board electronics with charging

I did wire the old electronics with the LED+ wire on the star, so if I want deactivate the USB charger and breathing lighted sideswitch to get rid of the parasitic drain,
I can unsolder the thin wire on the star

The drivers contact board and TA 21mm LDO driver

trimed the board to fit easily

used my Dremel to get rid of unsoldering the leads to the switch board

trimmed the old driver contact board to fit inside the head, cut the bolts connecting both boards by 4mm and sanded it

Driver assembly before gluing the old board on top of the TA driver to fix the position USB slave board
I had to cut the USB opening a bit as I trimmed not enough leng of the bolts

The lead connecting the old slave board with the battery, can be easily disconnected

Thanks for showing.

Would it be possible to exchange only the MCU to a Attiny 13 / 25? Are the other driver parts compatible or at least the solder pads of the driver?

The contact board has pads for the FET and 2 7135, add one 7135 for dual channel firmware
the FET has already the 2 nessesary resistors

it is possible to add an attiny MCU with a small PCB with LVP resistors, capacitor and reverse protection diode

you could wire it with to the right spots and then glue it to the driver

then if you just remove the switch from old MCU board it is always in breathing mode

or if you unsolder the OLD MCU the charger works but not the LEDs showing it charging and when it is full