You would need to measure the emitter current. I don’t think Astrolux sells drivers. Freeme might know better than me if they are available. I still have not heard any official news of the change, just people measuring the latest lights and noticing its 2.5A to 3A.
Lexels drivers are better regardless. If I bought an MF02, I would use his driver in it.
Just the opposite, they first claimed 3,000 lumen and 1697 meters. When the light actually came out it was about 2A and 1400 meters and the drivers kept burning up. They eventually fixed reliability, but they were still well below the ratings. Banggood then changed the distance from 1697 to 1587 meters. They still say 3,000 lumen, though.
But then again the latest ones seem to have more current applied, correct? So, I would have also assumed they increased the MF02’s output with later production batches.
One of the comments I keep getting on my MF02 is that it is such a great looking light. The well crafted ss bezel makes a huge difference appearance wise. Would be nice if someone could photoshop the mf02 bezel including the two laser etched rings onto the mf04 to see how it would look.
Think of the weight. It’s a huge chunk of metal and it’s right at the big end. It would really throw off the weight distribution. Plus I’m sure it would raise the cost of the light quite a bit.
Chinese flashlight manufacturers are always trying to lower production costs as much as possible. If they can save a nickel here or a penny there they will because it adds up in the long run as higher profit. I don’t know how much extra it would cost them to make it in stainless over aluminum, but I would guess at least a few dollars. Then again, the sheer size of the raw material that they need to get to make it, plus the extra time it takes to machine the harder metal may increase the price $10 to $20. There are so many factors involved we may never know all of them.
I think the only way to get them to do the stainless steel ring is convinced them that enough people are willing to pay extra for it. The last thing they want to happen is they do a small run of stainless rings at great expense and then nobody buys them.