New Astrolux MF06 flashlight; SBT90.2, 46950 battery, Buck Driver(!) and (supposedly) 2126 meters of throw.

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I just noticed on Banggood that there is a (new) Astrolux MF06 listed. There has been a MF06 (many) years ago, but there not much comparison with this new one.

Based on some of the (interesting) specs, I’m really curious how this new MF06 will perform.

Some of the specs, according to the listing:
-Constant Current Buck Driver (65A max on turbo)
-SBT90.2 with up to 6800 lumen (doubtful number)
-2126 meters of throw (100mm head size, maybe close to 2000m?!)
-Included 46950 battery (32.000mAh)
-Included shoulder strap
-Connection to an Android app via bluetooth

It’s currently listed for € 126,34 (with free shipping). There currently is a 20% off coupon (‘BGCMP738’) on flashlights, that doesn’t work with the current ‘flash deal’, but after I applied it, it did bring the price back down to € 118,49 for me anyway.

It’s not the cheapest SBT90.2 thrower out there, but it does come with a 46950 battery, which offers a substancially bigger capacity than (for example) 3x 21700 and also should easily be able to handle the max 65A current draw. The 100mm diameter head (and therefore also big reflector) should give the MF06 a serious amount of throw. (For comparison: the Convoy 3X21D has a 90.5mm head.)

I’m curious to see some real world performance and figures, but it could be an interesting/impressive thrower!

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Nice looking light.

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I have it inbound for review. On paper it looks awesome and a pretty insane value. I’m guessing it’s nearly identical to the MF07 internally (buck driver) same battery, Bluetooth function. Different head and of course 1 led vs 7.

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Very nice analysis! A lot of the specs raise serious eyebrows, and this test of the SBT90.2 gives everyone enough information to see what is off.

(1) 65A turbo. The test shows the SBT90.2 completely maxxed out by 30A (under optimal thermal conditions!), so I’m curious to see how the hell they can push double that through the emitter, and what happens to the emitter when that is done.

(2) 6800lm. The bare emitter doesn’t even touch 6000lm; factoring in a typical optical loss of 15% in a reflector light, 5000lm is all one can reasonably hope for.

(3) 2126m of throw. This is not even theoretically feasible. Using the 3x21D as a reference, 1800-2000m is a much more probable estimate, depending on whether you want turn-on vs 30s intensity, and whether you use tgreviews or 1lumen reviews as a reference. A simple upper bound for intensity (lux) at 1m of a Lambertian emitter is given by Lr^2/A, where L is the output, r the radius of the optic, and A the LES of the emitter. Taking L=5000 lm, r=45mm (still overestimating reflector size), A=9.6mm^2 gives an upper bound of 1.05M lux at 1m, or 2054m ANSI throw.

All in all, I don’t think this light offers any meaningful improvement over the 3x21D, especially given the price tag, and the difference in quality of customer service. The 3x21700 configuration is more than enough to comfortably drive a single SBT90.2 (no meaningful gains above 20A), and can be used in other lights, as well as being more easily replaceable. In the event of battery failure, I shudder to consider what a 46950 can do.

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What lights to buy to upgrade older S21A and M21B?
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You gotta take the decimal point out of that throw rating. :wink:

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I fully agree with your arguments.

(1) I also checked out @koef3 his test of the SBT90.2 and saw that it absolutely maxxed out at 30A. That 65A statement already sounded like BS to me, but I just copied it for now, since it was listed on BG.

(2) In terms of that 6800lm claim; Astrolux have done that already with other SBT90.2 lights, like the EC01X, which had exactly the same 6800lm claim.
5000 is indeed more or less the best (realistic) number you can hope for. Highest number I remember I’ve seen (and comfirmed by some tests) was something like 5500lm in a slightly higher budget segment flashlight. (Acebeam or another more ‘premium’ brand; I don’t remember exactly.)

(3) I already deemed that throw number also too high, but I am hoping for exactly for that estimate you gave: 1800-2000m. I checked @PiercingTheDarkness his review of the 3X21D and he ended up around 1600m of throw for that one. Therefore, with the (presumably) slightly bigger reflector, the MF06 could possibly nudge out a few more meters.

I fully agree with you that it that it’s not a meaningful/substantial improvement over the 3X21D, given that one, even with 3 great high drain 21700 included, it’s still substantially cheaper. On the other hand; I think that it’s possibly the first/next (albeit slight) step up in throw (in a SBT90.2 light) that is at least still, more or less, in the same ballpark in terms of price and what I could personally consider as “stil affordable/attainable”. (DISCLAIMER: I’m probably forgetting a SBT90.2 thrower that also fits these criteria, but I couldn’t come up with an example right now.)

And if someone does want the 3X21D with a 46950 (for the substantially bigger capacity for example), there always is the Pioneman 46950 battery tube that fits the 3X21D, but that, together with a 46950, would be the price close to the MF06 though.

For me, the price is currently more than I would like to spend on it, knowing the 3X21D exists, but that doesn’t mean that I’m not interested to see if it can (slightly) outperform it in absolute throw!

You’re right, I was hastly putting that post together and that made for some stupid mistakes.

And last:

It’s not much, but it is all I could find for now; a promotional video by Banggood for the MF06 with a couple of quick beamshots. For now it’s better than nothing:

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I had a feeling that I knew another (“affordable”) big SBT90.2 thrower and last night I suddenly remembered it: the Wildtrail WT90! But besides the fact that it isn’t being produced anymore (I believe), it was also quite a bit more expensive than the MF06 is.

Lumintop has the ‘Power’; also a SBT90.2 flashlight powered by a 46950 and with an even more ridiculous lumen claim of 7000. (Smaller head diameter though, than both the 3X21D and the MF06 and way more expensive than both.)

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It’s Astrolux, so take those specs with a grain of salt. I think the driver is lifted from the MF07. It’s buck driver and actually works fine! The MF07 performed fantastic for a light coating leas than $150. The driver won’t ask the SBT90.2 for 65 amps. My guess is that’s for turbo and it is a direct drive channel so whatever the led can take it will get.

6800 lumens is theorietical and we all know not correct. I’ve seen nearly 6200 Lumens from a sbt90.2 in the Amutorch DM90. Throw will probably be close to 1 Mcd and maybe 1500 or so meters. This is a 100 mm head.

I also tested the WT90. I think this will perform similarly, but that light didn’t have a buck driver so the MF06 will beat it there (oh, and much more runtime with 32 Ah on tap).

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Having tested many 46950 lights in the last two years, i can say this about the 46950 platform.

For a big flashlight with high power demands (in watts) you can’t beat the 46950 for output, charging, and power bank capabilities. Current drivers aren’t fully utilizing the potential of these batteries.

They can deliver very high sustained output (with a regulated driver) and pretty much match the highests ampacity 21700s out there, in parallel or series, without overheating.

You need 5 or 6 21700s to match one 46950. Go check my comparison review of the Lumintop Mach (3x21700) and Mach 46950, and the Ripsshine (which has a regulated driver) for reference.

You really can’t go wrong with these other than recharging is really slow and I’m still waiting for someone to figure out 12 volt 4 amp charging or 5 volt 10 amp charging for these big cells. Plus they’re heavy, but then again, big lights usually are.

Also, 46950 are becoming cheaper and easy to find. Usually sound $30 US for one or so. Figure that after shipping 3 or 4 Vapcell S50s or Molicel P50B are around $40-$50 or more.

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I agree, you dont understand how big this battery is until you hold one in your hands.

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Good catch

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I absolutely do not doubt the performance and power density of the 46950 cell. What I tried to articulate is that a couple smaller cells can be more versatile than a single giant one, which cannot be split to be used in other lights that do not have 46950 compatibility.

On top of that, failure from a 46950 would be absolutely devastating. A single exploded 18650 is already scary enough, I don’t want to risk the equivalent of 10 of them going off at once. But of course someone with a different risk aversion threshold could consider the performance worth the tradeoff.

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They have (currently) dropped the price a bit already; it is now on sale(?) for € 106,01, instead of the € 126,34 it was before.

Still no new photos/videos or review/quick impression to be found online, as far as I can tell.

There are also 2 other new Astrolux lights listed right now, including a thrower with the SFT-90 LED:

The TM01 has the SFT-90 LED, while the TM03 has (unfortunately) 3 SST-40 LED’s, which feels a bit outdated compared to some of the available alternative LED options right now.

The 15000mAh capacity of the included 33140 battery is nice, but finding a replacement battery in the future, might be even more of a nightmare than for the 46950 battery.

The TM03 might be a good/fun option for swapping in 3 LHP531’s from Convoy, but at this price point it’s a bit too expensive just as a ‘mod project’ or ‘host’, in my opinion.

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I compared the MF06 to the TD01 and Lumintop Rainbow. The MF06 is brighter than both of these other flashlights combined on turbo modes. I would estimate 4,600 lumens based on the brightness (which is more than the 3,600 lumens reported by 1lumen.com). I also estimate the throw at 1,800 meters based on the beam diameter versus the brightness. Overall not 100% of the specs, but better than 1lumen.com reports.

Final Rating: B (4 stars)

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What is weird is that they report that 3600lm while they measured 19,5A. Now is there a difference between lumen ‘out the front’ and purely a LED test, but in @koef3 his test of the SBT90.2 it did around 5000lm at the 19,5A mark. Sure, there might be some losses when actually used in a flashlight, but I can’t think of an explanation for such a big difference.

The 4600 lumens you estimate should be achievable (at least for a FET driven SBT90.2, but also with a buck driver, it should be able to at least pass 4000lm). The estimated throw could indeed be around 1800 meters, given that the Convoy 3X21D is pretty close in reflector size and lumen output and also reaches those numbers (more or less).

If it would really max out at 3600lm like 1lumen stated, then there would be something in the flashlight that is (seriously) holding that SBT90.2 back.

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Did you test that? I’m waiting for someone else to actually test this thing. Maybe I’ll revisit some parameters or test it in the lumen tube (which favors throwers like this). I doubt that will make much of a difference though. It’s not being driven that hard.

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Amperage vs output is sometimes arbitrary in flashlight testing because of test methods, measuring equipment, etc. The MF06 isn’t being driven that hard and I have no idea what bin this sbt90.2 is. I expect a high output sbt90.2 to be around 23-25 amps to achieve 4500-5500 lumens. With this led, a small increase in drive current results in a large increase in output (up to a point). Fet driven lights mostly trend higher (Wurkkos TS30S Pro, WT90). The Amutorch DM90 I tested a while back, with the buck driver did awesome in my testing.

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TM01 looks cool.

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Throwers’ candela can be kind of hard to measure do to their beam profile. If a thrower has 80 mm lens, for instance, and its full-angle divergence is 0.1 rad, then 1 meter away the beam will be 180 mm wide. The 80 mm width of the original beam may have been ignored in the calculation. For this extreme example, let’s say that 1,000 lumens are in the hotspot. The hotspot would have an intensity of 39,308 lux (using d = 180 mm). However, if we account for the original width of the beam, then the intensity would be 127,339 (using d = 100 mm). This discrepancy is larger the greater percentage the lens is of the hotspot. The reviewer from 1lumen should measure from a really far distance (like 30 meters) in order to minimize this effect.

Likewise, the lumens of throwers can be hard to measure as well. Because their light is so concentrated, it has to bounce off the inside of the integrating sphere multiple times before getting picked up by the light sensor. Each bounce results in a loss, so the cumulative loss reduces the lumen value. For instance, if the inside of the integrating sphere reflects 85% of light (which is at the upper end of styrofoam, a common material for DIY integrating spheres), then the loss would be nearly 28% after just two bounces. Professional integrating spheres use materials like barium sulfate and spectraflect, which only absorbs 2-3% of the light that hits them.

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The fact that many reviewers may use an inappropriately short distance for thrower intensity measurements is a good point–I’ve built one whose beam does not fully converge until 60 meters out.

I can see this holding for lasers/LEPs in comparison to LED lights of similar total flux, but I don’t think it holds for comparisons among LED-based throwers. As you’ve reasoned above: given the same emitter, the more focused/throwy a light is, the larger reflector it has, and therefore less intense it is at point-blank! The distribution of emission on the interior surface of the sphere would not be much different from that of a less throwy light.