ALIVE: Astrolux S42 groupbuy: US$ 25.95

There is actually a spare 18350 inside, under the S42. This Manker holster also fastens on your belt with Velcro, and adjusts to fit the 18650 tube configuration.

(Tho you can’t have a battery in the bottom then!) :laughing:

I got mine today, and gosh darnit, the dang cell dont want to fit!

At least I was expecting it. I took one of my older 18350s that just happened to be the shortest, and it didnt take much effort to get it screwed back together. pushed the bottom in a hair. I dont like to do that, but way better than some of my ecigs did to cells before.

My bezel was not glued… What would be awesome was if they made a driver that did away with the USB charging, and instead used the USB to program the driver. Would be cool to open an app and set what button presses did what. Set short presses, long presses, double clicks, triple clicks, short click long click…. you get the idea. I probably will never actually charge it with the USB.

Got the xpg3 and the 219c versions today. I have to say I’m actually pretty happy with them. I was really thinking they were going to be as bad as some of the stuff I’ve read but that’s not the case.
I ordered 4 of the buttontop windyfire IMRs from MTN.

First I thought great these are never going to fit, should have gotten the flats. But that’s what I have running in them now. Simple nondestructive fix was to pop out the cap spring and put one small neomag on the bottom of the battery. The magnets fit quite well in the negative recess where the spring was. Although on the the one i did add a small bit of Al foil to shim it up in the recess. The 219c certainly is more neutral than the CW xpg3, but to my eyes the 219c seems brighter. Can’t wait till dark to try them outdoors.

Not thrilled with the UI but I do like the lockout feature. The flimsy rubber cover seems to stay in place pretty well if you don’t mess with it and press it in well. But pretty blown away by the output of these things for their size. It reminds me quite a bit of the impression i got when I first got my Noctogon 43s.

I sent two emails to that stated email address and no reply back, wow, just wow.

ion reality if they change the UI from long press off to be short press off it would be much better. still not makes the UI good and great but at least you can turn on and off the light in every mode and intuitive as it is now its insane top say the least

Got my two 219c today. They work with Aspire flat top 18350 without modification. No damage to battery either. Twist the tail cap to turn off when in moon light mode and it’s not that bad. Gets hot fast. Just need the updated cover and it’ll be worth the $25 bucks.

Edit. The other light, not so good. It seems like a dome on one of the LEDs is damaged and giving off a horrible purple tint. May have to reflow some new LEDs as I am not confident on warranty claims. I’ll file one anyway. 50% is not a good start for my first Astrolux purchase.

to be very honest
iffn I had my druthers, I’d rather waited and let everyone else work this shit out
and it has changed my buying habits on new, untested models

I hope that Banggood/Astrolux realize that there are repercussions to releasing shoddy shit

butt, in retrospect, they already made their expected quota of money, so why give-a-shit?

the future is not here….yet

me guinea pig, money bag….no more!!

I’m not quick, butt I remember good.

Update again,

We suggest you don't open the head optionally so as not to damage the lamp or other head accessories, by the way, if you have ordered 2 stainless steel material S42, but have not shipped, we will ship the newest to you, without any problems.

Please wait more patiently, we will reply your mails one by one and the factory need sometime to produce the new items, thank you for your understanding!

Best Regards,

Swi

Well I asked for return number and address for mine, but having just read the T&C’s this morning (customer services yet to reply) I am not sure what to expect!

Bought them as a gift, no good to me now as replacement parts needed to make them work are not available yet and will not arrive in time.

Imgur
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S42 works with S41 and Solarforce tailcaps with 18350 Purple Efest.

S41 works with S42 tailcap and becomes a twisty.

Finally got mine.

Looks a lovely little thing - nice and matte and dinky. Shame about the USB cover but the fix should resolve that. I may take a craft knife and shave the leading edge off it so it is flush with the tube and therefore less prone to getting caught and popping open. I agree with others that the switch sticks out too far - makes it look cheap somehow.

I haven’t been able to make it work yet. Tried an Efest 18350, a 16340 and also (using my Rainbow S41 18650 tube) an 18650 but nowt will make it shine. Put a nice big dent in the head of my 18650 though. Great……

Never mind, hope the new tube does the trick with my current batteries as I CBA to be having to buy new ones……

I do like the gunmetal-ish clip. The survival hammer? Hmmmmm, we’ll see. The lanyard has been made with lasses in mind. I don’t have anything like a large hand, not even medium really, but I struggle to get it onto my wrist.

Obviously haven’t even tried the almost universally disdained UI yet. Can’t wait for that particular joy.

SP

I received my Nichia S42 yesterday and got it working by coiling a length of copper wire inside the tail cap to allow the battery tube to connect without screwing it all the way.

I do like the small size and light weight - compared to the copper S41, and spectacular turbo output.

However, the UI is killing this otherwise nice light. I can’t find anything good about it. It’s almost unusable!

Who designed that non sense!? Who approved it?! Did anyone test it? :person_facepalming:

You can’t even rely on the lockout to carry it! Who on Earth managed to imagine a long press to unlock would be safe inside a pocket or a bag? Seriously?

@Banggood: now that the mechanical issues are being addressed, please let us know what you intend to do about the driver.

Well kinda hard to do anything about the driver from BG side.

Isnt Astrolux a BG house brand?

What diffrence would that make?

Only way for them to fix it is send out a new light.

Don’t think they’ll send out a new light. Maybe a solution is the roll out a S43 with all the fixes and a new UI, and give us a really good price.

Or just a new, PROPER, head of the light… or at least a proper driver that those of us that know how could install… The light is basically unusable.

The UI is clearly explained in the product details on the banggood site. I agree the UI is stupid but the UI was listed for us to look at before we ordered the light.
Not like they tricked us saying the UI would be any different

I actually found the UI diagram really unclear. What’s a dotted line? What’s a solid line? The only thing that was clear is the long-press that says “long press” next to it.

I’m sure there are several people here who would be willing to consult on and beta test new light ideas just for a couple free samples. I’m one of them. The low efficiency of the driver, battery crushing problem and ridiculously bad UI could all have been easily avoided.

I agree they could of explained the lines better.
There’s only one line going back to off. Which should be a long press not a short press.