TrustFire Minix impressions

Other Types of Lights Keychain / Pocket Flashlights
1

I recently won a TrustFire Minix and have been asked to show it, which I’ll gladly do.


Fig. above, left to right: Nitecore TIP CRI 2017, TrustFire Minix, Fitorch K3 lite

The Minix is a keychain light with a 300 mAh battery and up to 320 lm. It is available in two versions each with a white (5700 K) and either a red (620 nm) or an ultraviolet (365 nm) LED. I like both versions for their use value: The red LED can be used as a beacon while the UV LED has the right wavelength for testing bank notes and documents. So, you have to decide which one is the right one for you.

I got a grey one with UV aux light, and am happy with it. The UV light is really weak, so no headache when using it without protecting glasses (I’m really sensitive here).

Interestingly, the UV light has the blink mode of the red version, so the same firmware is used in both lights even if it doesn’t make any sense. But it doesn’t hurt either.

I’ve measured 5700K, CRI 70. The color rendition is good, I first thought it could be HCRI until I measured it. The beam has a range of 86 m on High, so it’s an all-purpose beam. The spot is not entirely round, also there are rings. Honestly, this doesn’t matter much in the wilderness™.

There’s no PWM in Moon and High. The Low and Mid modes are generated by means of PWM, but at about 15600 Hz I do not notice it.

The UI is very simple: A 0.5 s press brings up white light with mode memory, 1.5 s and you have the auxiliary LED activated. Subsequent clicks switch through the modes. I wish there were no mode memory since there’s no direct Low, but I guess switching it back to Low before switching it off does the job, too.

The light is locked by double-clicking from off. Another double-click unlocks and activates it at the same time. So, it is quite a fast action :+1: .

A single click from off shows the remaining battery capacity (RG-LED in the key, refer to the manual page pictured above).

The Minix features an intelligent temperature control, which is quite unique for small keychain lights. Also, the manual states there’s a low voltage warning. Not sure if it actually offers a LVP.
Charging (USB-C port, cable included) takes one hour. When I watched it, my USB meter showed a max of 410 mA. The Minix was nearly fully charged when it arrived. That makes sense as there’s no way to decouple the battery from the draining electronics, and stocked lights will discharge over time by necessity.

Runtime diagram on High:


Right axis show temperature in degree Celsius. Sorry, forgot it.

Yeah, runtime as stated, excellent temperature regulation. TrustFire can do it :+1: . After 75 Minutes, this thing still was on a good low level.

Love it.

Thanks for reading.

2

Reserved.

Just because.

3

Does it have any lockout feature?

4

Ah, I forgot - yes of course. Double clicking does the trick. Another double click unlocks it. It’s on after unlocking.

5

Awesome!

Thanks for your impressions.

I think I'll get one of these for myself.

6

Seems very similar to the Fenix E03R in shape and UI, though a little brighter and a little larger battery (and the choice of UV for the secondary light too, of course). Based on the numbers this reports though, the beam is a bit more focused. The Fenix is so floody that I tend to use the high mode just to get any intensity. If the price is right, this might replace the Fenix on my car keys.

7

Looks like the TrustFire Minix is $18 on eBay.com and $18.25 on AliExpress.

I'll wait until I get a coupon for one of those sites.

8

i’m supposed to be getting one any day, i won it also

will review

wle

9

hm i thought it would have both red and UV, now i do not know which one they are sending

or which i would have picked, uv probably///….

wle

10

Have a look at the first picture, top right keychain light:

That seems to be a Minix. Not sure if this image was later inserted. Posted 07/21/2021, edited 08/11/2021.

11

Thanks for your review and impressions Unheard :slight_smile: I guess I will receive mine in the next days too, let’s see what I’ll get :wink:

12

Hope you both will be happy!

Feel free to add you reviews here if you wish, but anyway, I’d love to read them.

13

I like the shape of this keychain light. It’s more sensible than a tube, which is why Nitecore went with this earlier on with their TIP. But Nitecore botched the UI. What a fiasco. It sounds like this UI solved the problem more sensibly. Press+hold 0.5 sec to turn on. Double-click for electronic lockout. Why couldn’t Nitecore do this? Unreal. I bought several TIP lights for family members. What a disaster. Battery problems. High parasitic drain. None of them are being used now. I don’t trust Nitecore for this type of flashlight any longer.

14

I would buy one of each if it had a clip

15

Yeah I’ve been skeptical of anything from Nitecore. I have a specific interest in one light (NU05) because of its unique form factor, but I’m not expecting much from it.

The rectangular light that made the most sense to me was the Surefire Sidekick, but Unheard mentions that it has had reliability problems, which seems unfortunate and un-Surefire-like. I hope they can get them sorted. I wonder whether the Sidekick is a “real Surefire” or is something they bought on Alibaba. They dropped the price drastically since introducing it. Before that, though, I’m sure they could have fixed any issues it had.

16

My runtime is way off their rating. I got 35min on High and 58 min on Med. Specs show 56min High, 136min Med. Still need to measure Low. I always state the ANSI spec though

17

Can you post your diagram here?

18

Room Temp - 20°C without cooling. To get their specified runtime it would of needed to be hotter than the ANSI testing allows of 22 ± 3 °C or perhaps my battery is a dud

19

It’s complicated open the case? Don’t see any screws
for Led access and swap it.

20

Fairly certain it’s glued. I would have loved a 4000-5000k white led