Astrolux "MF04" discussion thread

I’ll see if there’ll be a 20% discount on 11/11 singles day, if there is i’ll make the purchase at 710rmb (usd 103) for the Mateminco MT35Plus. Fingers crossed! :smiley:
(auto discount would always be way easier than if i were to haggle on their aliwangwang chat platform, which is a fair bit more diffcult than bargaining in person when you are visiting China)

That looks like an awesome diy project. Do you have a build thread?

Oh yes, now that you reminded me…. i wanted to PM you initially but if the others don’t mind the OT here i’ll just share it here for a fun read. Apologies for the OT, well at least this one is a thrower thread. :slight_smile:

It’s not really a built thread per se. Note this is 2011’s tech, so it might look outdated when compared to current tech

Someone else also did a 100W swap after me. He got 2.6m lux with a 100W ballast but i am not sure what bulb was he using (100W bulb or 55W bulb?), and also fine-tuning the way how the bulb seats into the reflector is quite important as it is a small 3mm arc gap on a 11.5” reflector (host diameter is 13”) as initially i got only 1.8 million plus lux before getting 3.8M lux.

I remember that that were also quite a bit of variances in output between my 1 dozen or so 4300K 55W bulbs, such is the huge variances of low-cost China domestic quality components meant for the China market but conveniently shipped internationally as low cost aftermarket swaps. Same goes for the 35W bulbs, and to a limited degree the ballasts as well.

I made a mistake, it’s a 12V 5.5AH battery. After battery sag i guesstimate should be around 9V? I don’t know the current also, but i think it might be around 80W at most? These ballasts sometimes could vary quite a bit in power output as well.

But some years after 2011 I also tried on a 30A capable variable power supply with output at 24V just for fun, it’s visually significantly brighter than the above due to efficiency gain as I dialed up from 12V to 24V on the 12-24V 100W ballast (might be 80W on 9V, then on 24V it might be closer to 120-130W as i have read those figures on other 100W ballasts before). So if you don’t mind using some 4-6S RC pack and cables, i guesstimate it can hit 5 million lux easily if you have a decent 55W bulb and bulb seating is optimised.
But i think the bulbs won’t last more than an hour of total runtime even @ 1 min max burst each? :smiley:

OMG i cannot imagine that i paid usd 165 incld shipping last time in 2011, $100 for the light and usd65 shipping. Of course It can be done nowadays for ~ 3 times less money with my current methods, oh well….that’s the hobby for ya. :slight_smile:

PS. I know the hotspot looks yucky. But seriously such lights are really just for pure fun….no real practical usage. That’s why i was gunning the bulbs so much (good thing they are just a few dollars each), like how nowadays some would gun a XHP-70 to what, 7-8k lumens and 10k lumens on the bench?

I guess the Astrolux MF04 would get much more use, fingers crossed that i can get a better price on 11/11 so that i can make the dive. (no guarantees)

Nice! No doubt that these leds are more practical but no-limits with DIY is fun to. I’ll look into both options. First thing is to test the MF02S tomorrow when it arrives :slight_smile:

Have you seen anyone comparing MF04 to a HID lamp before? From all the videos I found of the MF04 it has pretty impressive performance. I really can’t imagine how anything can be that much brighter at the same distance :stuck_out_tongue:

I think currently HIDs are a bit dead? But here is a good thread about the Thrunite TN42vn vs Lemax LX70 SuperPower. The latter is a 4.5k usd light with a 219mm head, guns out 4.5m lux. The focusing of the bulb and reflector i suspect should be way better with a much much higher quality hotspot than that of mine, that is probably how they can do 4.5m lux with just a 219mm head non short arc.

edit - holy smokes, did a search on Taobao (china consumer ecommerce site), seems like nowadays they have 150W variable output power ballasts and even 220W variable power ballasts. Still need to measure to see if they are able to do 220W with a proper PSU.
edit - Holy smokes x 2, i saw a 12-18V input variable output power 300W ballast cum 18” smallish reflector and bulb combo for just rmb 190 (usd 28). No host, though it has mounting hardware for mounting onto a normal tripod. It’s a fishing light meant for the fishing market, you can even put in 30k kelvins bulb, or magenta bulbs and all that car rice stuff.
https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a230r.1.14.275.53ab77f94z6JT4&id=528039049306&ns=1&abbucket=12#detail

It should be interesting to gun with a 100W bulb (4-5mm arc?) but of course you’d get higher lumens. Only usd16 for such a 220 watt HID ballast. Shipping is pretty inexpensive to this part of the globe, just usd 3 per kilogram with a forwarder as part of a consolidated order (usd4 for the first kilogram).

I remember close to 10 years ago, there were still folks playing with such things and the hardcore ones going short arc like the Maxabeam (3-6 million cd for those generations) and tank lights like the short arc AN/VSS-1 etc, shelling out obscene amounts of money. Powerful lasers with large apertures (good for focusing) are nice, but monochromatic and you can’t even see much other than a dot even with a pair of 10 x 50 binos. :slight_smile:

I think and hope that 10 years later, we’d get a 150% or perhaps even 200% increase in surface brightness with LEDs. :slight_smile: That and a corresponding increase in efficiency, so that the heat management is still ok in our commonly sized aluminum hosts.
Imagine that and with a 130mm head like MF04 or BLF GT. Not sure if that is theorectically possible though.

You can see if the aliexpress chinese seller drops price from its 189usd current price (shipping included) when it’s nearer to 11th november? Quite a few sellers on aliexpress will drop their prices on this “singles day”.

On Taobao it’s usd 129 (rmb 888) so that gives you an idea, of course that is excluding international shipping, and i guess shipping to Norway is not gonna be cheap.
They might drop the price on 11/11.

This was pretty accurate. Today I got my MF02S and I get decent light out at 300-330meters but after that it’s to dim to be of any use. So the MF04 will give about 1000meters with the same light then if it’s similar?

You seem to prefer the 1/3 distance, like me. So the MF02S is rated to 1040 meters and 1/3 of that is 346 meters.

The MF04 is rated at 2400 meters, so 1/3 of that is 800 meters. That’s what I would call it’s usable distance.

Yes I should have said that it was my subjective obeservation. It did throw longer but then it got so dark that I couldn’t see much.

The ANSI-FL1 specs measure throw until it is at 1/4 lux. This brightness level is like a full moon on a clear night. It is pretty weak, but at least it’s a standard that most companies use.

I just divide by 3 (or convert meters to feet) to get what I call a realistic usable distance.

I realize that now. After reading up a bit on the Maxa Beam I see that they have rated it at 6925m (0.25lux) at that standard but they advertise 3500m (1 lux) since that’s more realistic usable distance. The MF04 is really tempting but those maxabeam numbers are just so crazy high :smiley:

Maxabeam is $2,000-$3,000. :open_mouth:

Recieved my MF04S CW yesterday. Measured 630k cd stock, 930k after dedoming. My luxmeter is more sensitive to cool white, so because of the tint shift I’m estimating the cd to be around 1M. Did anyone else dedome his MF04S and has some values to share?

P.S.: The beam shape is still phenomenal after dedoming.

Yeah but I know I would regret not doing that route. Got one in the mail now :slight_smile:

Welcome to the club!

PS. Check out LPF/Laserpointerforums. You’ll like it.

We can’t import lasers to Norway. They forbid it after kids where pointing at airplanes so now responsible people get fined $4-500 if they illegally import it :frowning: those that did it before are prolly finding a loophole to get one anyways…

Will there be a long tube to buy ?

The problem with a long tube is that they did not design the battery carriers to be stackable. If you took two carriers right now and put them end to end they simply will not work regardless of whether or not you have a long tube.

If demand were high enough, they could design a new set of battery carriers and a long tube to put them in.

Is this 12” HID spotlight still available for sale somewhere?

I think in terms of surface brightness (luminance) LEDs have come fairly near with the performance of HID bulbs already.