If you buy this Nichias for $4 each you can say you get a get bad host for $10 = $26 - $16
You’d be surprised …once the quirks get worked out it is actually a very nice light. Everybody I showed it to loved it. My box does say test. BG will send tube and cover when ready. I have gotten used to the UI after carrying it regularly. The switch does need to be lowered a bit to prevent accidental turn on. I have the XPG3 and turbo is like wow for such a small light. Aspire(s) work fine. I “adjusted the driver spring.” Keep the faith! BG is on top of it. I ordered another with Nichia and looking forward to the colored one!
leroycp, well I would not by the coloured / stainless steel, because I can’t lock out the lamp.
But the copper head on the black body would be nice.
banggood not really want to accept my return. Its clearly not customer’s fault.
They should accept my return request and bear the return cost that cause by them.
I will still support Banggood on other product.
Agreed, I’m not exactly a puritan, after 10 years in the Marines my language can get a little “salty” but I found myself using the rude button for the first time in this thread.
I save that sort of language for discussions involving umpires and referees 
Using same cells (Enercig IMR18350), I just compared the S42 (Nichia 219C) with the S41 (Nichia 219B). The hotspot is less well defined on the S42, so it appears less bright than the S41.
Then it hit me: the S42 is NOT an improved S41, the S42 is a BUDGET S41. No copper in the head, cheaper driver, not as good optics etc. means less costly; which I guess is OK, as it is cheaper to buy.
I’m really happy that you posted this. I was thinking this light would be relegated to a drawer or shelf. I was half thinking I’d return it but doubted that BG would just accept it because I didn’t like how it performed. I’ll try to be optimistic when the replacement tube arrives.
I think a lot of people are displeased because they were already familiar with the S41 and expected the S42 to be an S41 with 219Cs and an e-switch. Instead, it has a different driver with very poor performance, a battery tube that doesn’t fit, a USB cover that falls out and a broken UI.
They could have just built an S41 with 219Cs and an e-switch, used the S41/A6 driver and asked someone here for a firmware for it. The necessary components to do a good job were already in place.
Of course, no matter how hard you try, it is impossible to use, and I do not pay 29 $$ with a tube, of bad quality paint, to keep in the drawer, why it does not work, the idea was good, but it did not work , For not trying well before
I’ve said earlier I’m pretty happy with the light as is. The UI isn’t awesome but I’ve seen worse. But as a pocket megalight I like it in it’s smallest size. Here are the simple things I did to get it to work with a buttontop IMR. If I had gotten flats it would be an even easier fit. But this worked great.
Firstly I’m no great fan of this particular beer, just only thing I had around. Found it in the luggage. But notice the relative size of the light.
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I didn’t want to touch the spring located in the driver positive pole of the light. I don’t like cutting springs because it’s too easy to leave them sharp and they can cut into the battery wrappers.
Little neodymium magnet at bottom or negative pol of WindyFire IMR button top 18350.
Remove the tailcap spring with your fingers or small pliars. It might help if you give rotational pressure as you give it a pull. A small amout of Al foil was used to space up the gap on the tailcap of one of the lights. Tailcap with Al shim on the left. Also please note NO BATTERY DENTS! If you dent your batteries you most likely damage them permanently and possibly increase internal resistance. But that aside you might not get as good of output as you paid for. But most likely it’ll all be ok and nothing noticeable.
Notice there was a crack in the lens on the closest light in the pic at 1 to 3 O’clock position. It arrived this way. I didn’t contact BG about this.
Given the knowledge re: Tube & USB cover issues this is still pretty cool for $25. Since GB is fixing those my only remaining complaint is that the 4 level “muggle mode” doesn’t include turbo. This light will still get some use but it would be more frequent if it had more range w/o the blinky modes. I guess my point is basically that I couldn’t build anything this cool this cheap so I’m still OK with the light despite its faults.
I’ve got the light and it’s got issues. They can be fixed in Version 2. Aluminum head is too little for the heat on turbo - Copper. UI is a pain - use old UI. If we do a BLF style rendition. I’d be happy with the Manker E14 II with no charging port any where. It keeps the light small, simple and already using many existing parts. Bezel, tube and tail would still be an off the self item. My dislike of a charging port is that they tend to break first and destroy the water proofing.
This has probably been answered in the thread somewhere, but do aspire 18350s fit in this light okay?
Do people recommend cutting the tail cap spring a bit?
I bought 5 aspire with plans of using one in the S42 but I think I will wait till the updated short tube comes. Mine works fine with the 18650 tube w/unprotected flatop.
With my brain’s demented state the UI is more than a challenge…….
I bought 5 aspire batteries…answer is no.
You can make it work by adding a couple copper wire rings inside the tail cap. That way the body tube will make contact without being screwed all the way and you gain the 2-3mm needed to fit an unprotected flat top 18350.
Wait for the longer tube BG is going to send before unsoldering or cutting anything.
I got a mail from the Banggood customer service they send the replacements. The answer took 4 days.
Hi Martin - Think you need to be aware that people are trying and BG are not really interested.
I sent a very clear message I wanted to return for refund (paypal offer will cover the postage). I clearly explained I bought the light as a present, it doesn’t work, and the offer of spare parts to make it work is fine but no use to me as they don’t have stock till this week earliest and parts would arrive weeks later than the date present is needed.
Three times I have repeated myself to customer services these two points clearly, here is their latest answer today:
So probably people are getting wound up a bit about that?
(not me, will just dispute with paypal if they send me another reply like the above for 4th time ignoring points presented clearly)
This too.
I don’t have an S41, I assumed S42 was just adding USB to existing design that has rave reviews, I prefer to gift lights with USB to avoid people needing a dedicated charger if possible. Bought two, wish I hadn’t.
I understand and tend to agree, but I wouldn’t give a FET quad to someone who doesn’t already have Li-ion batteries and chargers, and I’d probably want such a light to ship with a battery. The whole thing strikes me as Astrolux having no clue about the market they’re serving. When they were just making full production runs of BLF special editions that were built to specs provided by flashlight geeks, that was fine. Their attempts at more original designs really aren’t going so well.
They’d do better to bring someone here on as a consultant. I imagine some of us would do it for minimal compensation - a few samples of the lights in question. Said consultant could then give useful input like “This UI makes no sense; imitate the one from the Thrunite Neutron instead”, “The efficiency of this driver is horrible; use the hardware from the BLF A6 or X6 instead” and “Nobody will ever buy this with the XP-G2; don’t bother offering it”. I’d volunteer for that.
I know you were using this as an example, but not sure if you are serious bout this. I was wondering about Maukka's poor efficiency measurement, whether it is equal to a PWM'ed FET driver, like the A6/ Bistro/Narsil based FET+1 drivers. Of course the modes operating on the FET and less than 100% are inefficient - goes with the territory, just wonder if the S2 driver is the same or worse. I suspect it was the same - doing the same thing we are doing, PWM'ing a FET so efficiency is not good, unlike a buck, boost or true PWM-less current controlled driver.
Of course down side of buck and boost drivers is they are complex and expensive, down side of current controlled is unable to do high amps as easy - again, complex, can be pricey, and amp limited.