I got two mini's: an alum one I bought early on, and recent purchased brass. I found the alum one has an optics problem - the optic is not sitting all the way down, resulting in a clear and obvious difference in the beam. The brass one has a well formed center hot spot while the alum one has a wider fuzzy defined one. This results in a much lower throw # in the alum one. I did some swapping and measurements - it's not the optic, but clearly the alum one has about a 0.2 mm, maybe more, lower profile and you can feel it - the optic kind of floats, not a tight fit at all.
Anyone else notice this? I took pics of the two and you can see the differences in the top view down on the LED's.
If I got time, my best option would be to add a thin copper shim under the MCPCB, then I'd have to change out the LED wires - tricky in this light. Plus risky - may crush the LED's if not done precisely, I'd suspect, based on other issues of height differences between SST20's vs. XPL HI's.
Fake dessicant in box. Whoever their supplier is, is sticking sand in the dessicant packs instead if the labeled ‘silicagel’ scuffed up the finish on my recently received mf01 mini Copper pretty good. Was barely punctured in my Aluminum version, so no scuffs on that one. I’d rather them not include it. Buffed out the copper and put real dessicant packs in the box. Copper doesn’t look coated.
I will take a look at the lens and LED gaps while I have them open to insert the copper I got from man of light. The beam pattern on both of mine looks the same. Except one is 4000k 95cri and the other is 6000k xpl-hi.
Tom E - do you mind posting the photo of your beam shots?
I don't have beamshots but in these pics, you can see the difference. Alum (green) on left, brass on right:
Notice the gray colored, blobs around the LEDs? The brass one has some of the same effect but much smaller. This seems to be caused on the optic not being fully seated. Here's another pair of pics:
Stock MCPCB/LED's:
What's this? Oh, it's a 5K (5000K) SST20 board. This pic was taken after cleaning with isopropyl - it originally was darker magic marker writing :FACEPALM: . It came off easy enough with sanding.
To me it looks, and measures like the alum one has the optic sitting higher above the LEDs than the brass version, but the top of the optic is dead even between the two:
I ordered an MF01 Mini without having studied this thread in detail, thankfully I was able to cancel the order before it shipped. Feel bad for the people who got stuck with one. Surprised the reviewers didn’t seem to pick up on it apart from Zozz lights. I guess because they just did a short term test and mostly ran it on turbo for some quick photos or footage they wouldn’t have encountered the problems of sustained output at lower brightness. I guess they say we learn more from our failures than our successes.
Yeah I tend to agree with JasonWW. I ordered the copper heat sync before I received the lights. After testing, I believe they aren’t as necessary but a nice to have. The lights themselves works well. Form factor along with battery choices and built in charging makes it versatile. No regrets buying it.
i think about this flashlight and compare it even with older model Amutorch x9…i guess people here are satisfied with this astrolux right? cant choose still…
Hi,
has anyone measured the output of this light in XPL 5000K version and/or compared it with other known lights with the same emitter?
I’m not sure if I have the voltage measurement bug, or some other problem.The voltage bug should influence only when LVP kicks in but not the output with a fully charged cell right?
A fully charged cell in this light shows 3,9V. But I’m not sure if it’s because of this bug; could it instead be due to abnormally high resistance of the light itself? But would it show in the voltage measurement if that were the case?
I’ve tried cleaning all the threads, nothing changes.
The thing is, I get consistently LESS turbo output than with the FireFlies E07 with the same leds, using the same batteries. Like 10-15% less.
Only with a fully charged Samsung 30T the MF01 comes closer, but still 5% lower.
The fact that the output is more similar the higher the current the battery can pump makes me think there is actually something wrong with my light.
Hmm, ghey changed som ecomponents in Lexels design which resorted in different volage drop across a diode and a mosfet. The voltage measurement only influences LVP and the voltage blinkout. How did you measure the turbo output?
Well, I did not really measure it in a reliable way… I do not have a sphere so I just use my phone lux meter against a wall. So I don’t have absolute values but I can make comparisons. Comparisons should be reliable with similarly shaped beams, although the E07 has a wider hotspot and less spill which could influence the result
EDIT
As a side note, the E07 too has the same “bug” with the termal stepdown kicking in at top ramp even while the light is just barely warm or still cold. It is easily circumvented by using the stepped ramp, as soon as it steps down just kick it back up once or twice and then it will stay at that level.
Well, you said it, there are differences in beam profile and shape and you did not choose the most reliable mothod of measuring. You can try measuring the voltage and current and calculate the output power like that. I am not surprise if that measurement method would show that type of difference even in flashlight with spot on power output.
My green alum MF01 mini doesn't focus well - the optics are not all the way down. The brass one I have focuses way better, and can tell the optics are fully down. If yours has the problem, your measurements may be effected.
Just wondering if you ever got around to this? Just curious. Also how would removing and stacking on the other 7135 affect the output when ramping? Wouldn’t it cause ramping to jump on the stacked 7135? And would the flash light go dark when it hits the the blank spaces that got the 7135 removed?
One of mine has a dead aux LED. I’ll have to get a magnifier and check this out. If It’s crushed, well, it’s blessedly tiny but at least I know what the problem is.
Is this a new light? You might want to verify its voltage is high enough. They are already just barely running so a slight tolerance on one led might cause it to not light up. If you bump up the power and it still doesnt come on it might be soldered crooked or actually broken.
Hi
I dropped my MFO1 mini, a few days later I switched it on and it will not turn on.
Checked the battery and found it was completely drained.
After recharging the battery it still did not work.
When I found the flashlight was getting warmer I left it for 15 minutes and measured the temperature of the flashlight and voltage of the battery.
The voltage had decreased and the temperature increased
Can anyone help?
I went to use my MF01 mini today after not using it for 3-4 months, and found that the battery (Keeppower 5500) was dead. I tried to charge it as usual but my charger refused, so I tested the battery’s voltage and found it was drained to 1.5 volts.
Did I make a mistake leaving the light sitting that long unused? I read that AUX leds could drain a battery to damaging levels while sitting idle, but the MF01 mini specs say that the AUX leds on the board shut off before they drain the battery too much, so it doesn’t seem like it would be because of that.
