“REVIEW”: RovyVon Aurora A8 UV – 350 Lumens – Nichia 219C – Keychain Light

xevious · 2019-02-20T04:12:48.000Z

Just got mine, with blue/red/amber. Seeing the results of the UV version, I’m glad I passed on that. The A8 is little smaller than I was imagining. In the past, what I’d sometimes do is take some stiff paper or cardboard and cut out shapes to then assemble and get a feel for the sizing. I didn’t do that here. I’m amazed at how small it actually is. A good thing, though!

I like this whole concept of a translucent polycarbonate shell. It’s “skeleton” like without showing off too much. And then one polished side for the emitters to shine through. I’m curious to see how well it holds up over time when coming into contact with blunt metal objects.

The UI takes a little getting used to, but easy to adopt. As opposed to having a lockout with various challenges, I find the RovyVon approach of a double-click for ON to be quite workable. I do not mind long-press for off. It’s pretty brief. PLUS… if the light is on for more than 180 seconds, a single press will turn it off. A secondary safeguard in the rare case of accidental activation.

Just one oddity… upon close examination, I found something curious. At first I thought it was a small shaving of polycarbonite caught inside the plastic, but it was stuck to the inside of the polished surface.

I dropped the A8 on a hard wooden floor, and the particle disappeared. It must have been some random particle that lodged itself in just the right spot for me to notice it. It’s gone out of view now. Even still, it’s so small and doesn’t really obstruct the emitters, so if it comes back I probably won’t even notice it.

staticx57 · 2019-02-20T04:31:33.000Z

Agro:

If you take your Tool with ZWB2 filter and turn it on at Aurora - does the side white LED start to shine? If it does - the host passes the UV light which excites the phosphor. If it doesn’t - the host blocks UV.

You could also try to take ZWB2 filter and put in front of Aurora’s UV emitter and see how does it work…

Phosphor is primarily excited by blue light.

LightObsession · 2019-02-20T05:02:33.000Z

staticx57:

Agro:

If you take your Tool with ZWB2 filter and turn it on at Aurora - does the side white LED start to shine? If it does - the host passes the UV light which excites the phosphor. If it doesn’t - the host blocks UV.

You could also try to take ZWB2 filter and put in front of Aurora’s UV emitter and see how does it work…

Phosphor is primarily excited by blue light.

We use 172nm UV to excite phosphors in our excimer lamps, but longer UV wavelengths will love also excite phosphors.

Agro · 2019-02-20T06:11:40.000Z

Yeah, most phosphors are tuned for blue but UV excites them as well. An as that Tool had LZWB2 filter - it was mostly UV coming out.

staticx57 · 2019-02-21T03:04:13.000Z

If I understand your methodology correctly you are suggesting using the zwb2 filter to filter out everything BUT UV and still see if it excites the phosphor? Because the phosphor is also excited (primarily blue) by UV you need to cut everything that is not.

Agro · 2019-02-21T09:55:11.000Z

Yes.

BTW, here’s transmission curve for polycarbonate:

According to it - PC doesn’t realy pass UV.

Here’s ZWB2:

UltravioletPhotography

Filter Transmission Charts #1

Here in one location is a collection of transmission charts for the various UV-Pass filters and filter stacks we use. The Index is at the end of this first post. Note: Our UVIR Filters Sticky has more links to filter sellers, data and charts. If you...

Together there should be only small transmission around 400 nm. Is that enough to exite the phosphor? Maybe… or maybe the body is not PC or is some different type of PC?

alchemi · 2019-02-25T21:16:06.000Z

Mine arrived today

Here it is next to some AAA flashlights (top to bottom: Astrolux A01, Thrunite Ti3 (my EDC), Aurora A8, Sofirn C01, Manker E02). Diameter is same as Thrunite and Sofirn.

I like the UI (1 click for tactical, 2 cicks for moonlight then cycle L-M-H, 3 clicks for UV side light then cycle red-red flash-UV, 4 clicks for white/reading sidelight).

I got the Aurora because I wanted to try the white sidelight, as something I use on a desk without a diffuser.

MascaratumB · 2019-02-26T23:11:22.000Z

alchemi:

Mine arrived today

Here it is next to some AAA flashlights (top to bottom: Astrolux A01, Thrunite Ti3 (my EDC), Aurora A8, Sofirn C01, Manker E02). Diameter is same as Thrunite and Sofirn.

I like the UI (1 click for tactical, 2 cicks for moonlight then cycle L-M-H, 3 clicks for UV side light then cycle red-red flash-UV, 4 clicks for white/reading sidelight).

I got the Aurora because I wanted to try the white sidelight, as something I use on a desk without a diffuser.

Eheh, glad you like it It is a sweet little light How do you like the side (white) light ?! I’m carrying both the A5 and A8, love them

alchemi · 2019-02-27T06:10:24.000Z

It’s bright, I say that! I have only played a little with it, as it’s gone back in box until April (for my birthday!)

It is light-weight, and UI is good. Feels like a USB memory stick!

EDCba · 2019-02-27T08:00:56.000Z

Agro:

Yes.

BTW, here’s transmission curve for polycarbonate:

According to it - PC doesn’t realy pass UV.

Here’s ZWB2:
Filter Transmission Charts #1 - Filter Discussions & Tests - UltravioletPhotography
Together there should be only small transmission around 400 nm. Is that enough to exite the phosphor? Maybe… or maybe the body is not PC or is some different type of PC?

Yes polycarbonate blocks UV. That’s why it’s used to make sunglasses. Not a good material for a UV flashlight.

It’s appearing blue in some pictures because the camera’s UV filter isn’t filtering out all the UV, and the UV is being captured by the blue pixels. Same with infrared light.

EDCba · 2019-02-27T08:16:54.000Z

Rovyvon’s build quality is actually quite good, and their designs are innovative. It’s a shame their website and manual do a terrible job of explaining the modes and levels. It’s so simple, right? What modes do the side emitters in the A8 UV have?

UV
Constant red
Blinking red
White/reading light

This is 4. Four.

MascaratumB:

According to specs it uses a 365nm LED! But…it’s the specs. I have another UV light (SK68 clone) that uses a 395 nm LED and emits a more purple light. The one from the Aurora A8 seems closer to that and not from the Nichia UV :zipper_mouth_face:

Why the heck are there only 2 entries in the table:

365nm/1h
12Lm/3h

Not to mention the fact that the lumens/runtime specs are not available from them directly.

MascaratumB · 2019-02-27T08:34:09.000Z

EDCba:

Why the heck are there only 2 entries in the table:

365nm/1h

12Lm/3h

Not to mention the fact that the lumens/runtime specs are not available from them directly.

Hum, I hadn’t notice that the specs for the White LED were missing :person_facepalming:

You are right, the side white Led has no runtime on this table! Maybe it will be a little like the amber light? I don’t know if their level of battery consuming will be similar or not :zipper_mouth_face:

I guess I didn’t understand correctly your last sentence! What do you mean by not being available from them directly?
Maybe it is too early for my brain to understand

G’d morning

EDCba · 2019-02-27T13:32:26.000Z

MascaratumB:

I guess I didn’t understand correctly your last sentence! What do you mean by not being available from them directly?
Maybe it is too early for my brain to understand

G’d morning

My bad phrasing, I knew it sounded weird. Most brands put their instruction manual online. If Rovyvon doesn’t want to, fine. But at the bare minimum they should state the lumen levels of the main emitter, somewhere. They only put it on the website for some models, and we’re forced to turn to reviews for such basic information.

MascaratumB · 2019-02-27T14:09:52.000Z

EDCba:

My bad phrasing, I knew it sounded weird. Most brands put their instruction manual online. If Rovyvon doesn’t want to, fine. But at the bare minimum they should state the lumen levels of the main emitter, somewhere. They only put it on the website for some models, and we’re forced to turn to reviews for such basic information.

Eheh, no problem
Hum, they have the information about the main emitter output in all of their lights (as far as I perceived) and now with the Nichia versions they also added the output with those emitters.
However, the side emitters don’t have references in the site (not about the lumens, but about the runtimes), only in the user manuals.

As example, both the A5R and the A8U have Red emitters, but they have very different outputs as shown in the images above

So yeah, maybe RovyVon could include that data in the site!!

tundraotto · 2019-02-27T15:38:06.000Z

EDCba:

Agro:

Yes.

BTW, here’s transmission curve for polycarbonate:

According to it - PC doesn’t realy pass UV.

Here’s ZWB2:
Filter Transmission Charts #1 - Filter Discussions & Tests - UltravioletPhotography
Together there should be only small transmission around 400 nm. Is that enough to exite the phosphor? Maybe… or maybe the body is not PC or is some different type of PC?

Yes polycarbonate blocks UV. That’s why it’s used to make sunglasses. Not a good material for a UV flashlight.

It’s appearing blue in some pictures because the camera’s UV filter isn’t filtering out all the UV, and the UV is being captured by the blue pixels. Same with infrared light.

WOW! Thats a deal-killer right there, I mean frankly how asinine is that? Especially at the price - glad I held out. SMH

Thanks for the review MascaratumB!

pooptoast · 2019-02-27T15:42:04.000Z

xevious - Interesting, mine has the exact same issue. I’ve tried to get a photo of it but the particle keeps moving around. I’ve decided to just keep it as is since it doesn’t appear to have much of an effect on the light.

Bardo219 · 2019-08-13T21:58:20.000Z

Does anyone know if Rovyvon still has visible PWM? If so, is it bad?

I really want one of these but that would be a deal breaker.

xevious · 2019-12-16T17:29:44.000Z

I was hoping to review the latest release to see how it fares with PWM, but RovyVon hasn’t been responsive at all to my inquiries. I don’t see any recent reviews of their new model lights. Strange…

MascaratumB · 2019-12-16T18:49:32.000Z

Zeroair has a review of the A3x

ZeroAir Reviews – 18 Nov 19

RovyVon A3x Keychain Flashlight Review - ZeroAir Reviews

RovyVon has released the A3x Keychain flashlight to their very popular Aurora A2/A3 light, which addresses some issues. Read on!

Est. reading time: 10 minutes

And here’s the copper one:

jon_slider · 2019-12-16T19:24:45.000Z

MascaratumB:

Zeroair has a review of the A3x

thanks, sounds better

ZeroAir:

PWM is still present, but it’s greatly improved from the originals. I can’t even see this PWM by eye, and the older model had extremely evident PWM. So this is much better.

for those who dont mind PWM, there is now a Low CRI (primary LED) version for half the price… Nitecore Tiki

and fwiw, these lights are moddable, scroll down this link for full Rovy teardown photos