Review of Astrolux A01: Pics and Runtime

[KiwiMark]

Re: Review of Astrolux A01 - for subimission in the review Forum

I have just receive an Astrolux A01 from Banggood and I must say that for the US$10 (with free shipping) I paid I'm pretty impressed with it.
I've been using an L3 Illumination L08 light on a daily basis - it is also a Nichia 219 (Here's a thread - http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb...ichia-219-1xAAA)-Review-RUNTIMES-BEAMS-VIDEO) and it also has moonlight mode as its first mode.
The L08 does tail-stand easily so it wins on that.
But the A01 costs less and produces a fairly similar output - great value IMO.
My L08 has one obvious failing - the holes for a split ring are quite close to the edge and I had to stop using mine because it looked like it would wear through completely and I would lose the light off my key ring. The A01 definitely wont have that problem.

I think I'll put the A01 on my keyring and use it as my EDC - it does exactly what I want from my EDC light.

 

[markr6]

Re: Review of Astrolux A01 - for subimission in the review Forum

I have the Manker E01 version. Very nice little light. Warmer than I would like, but not bad. 4500 or 5000K would have been great.

 

[Sicnarf]

Thanks for the A01 review, just ordered one.
Be interesting to see if it lasts as long as my Led Lenser aaa P2.

 

[KiwiMark]

Has anyone else noticed a dimming & brightening of the output on firefly mode? Mine seems steady on medium and high but on the low mode I notice it going dimmer and brighter and dimmer again, I tried with 3 different batteries and it does the same on all of them.
I'm considering buying another one or two if this is unusual as these are cheap enough that I wouldn't sweat this one doing that and it is still usable anyway.
I've put a fresh charge on an Eneloop AAA and put my A01 on my main keyring, gonna try it out as my main EDC (I have other lights to supplement it for backup or when I need more light) for a while.

 

[GarageBoy]

I just got two when they were $8 a pop on bang good - one's pinker, one's warmer - guess I'll keep the warm one - replacing my single mode E05 for a little bit

 

[evgeniy]

received few A01.
Measured color temp:
Astrolux A01 1 (max.) : 5050 auto , 5000-5100 manual
Astrolux A01 2 (max.) : 5050 auto , 4800-4900 manual
Astrolux A01 3 (max.) : 4850 auto , 4800 manual.

sw50 LED instead of sw40 in early flashlights.

 

[KiwiMark]

Has anyone else noticed a dimming & brightening of the output on firefly mode? Mine seems steady on medium and high but on the low mode I notice it going dimmer and brighter and dimmer again, I tried with 3 different batteries and it does the same on all of them.
I'm considering buying another one or two if this is unusual as these are cheap enough that I wouldn't sweat this one doing that and it is still usable anyway.
I've put a fresh charge on an Eneloop AAA and put my A01 on my main keyring, gonna try it out as my main EDC (I have other lights to supplement it for backup or when I need more light) for a while.

Four months later and I'm still using it as a keyring EDC, the dimming & brightening has either stopped happening or I've stopped noticing. This light is working very well and considering the cost it is hard to not be impressed by the value for money.

 

[jon_slider]

PWM reported on the new driver:

EyeballFryer wrote:
Instead of resetting back to moon mode after x seconds, it always goes to the next mode
...
The driver in the head no longer says Manker.
...
the middle mode, … has PWM.

 

[KiwiMark]

Four months later and I'm still using it as a keyring EDC, the dimming & brightening has either stopped happening or I've stopped noticing. This light is working very well and considering the cost it is hard to not be impressed by the value for money.

Update:
On a motorcycle trip my Astrolux had a failure - the head became unscrewed and fell off, lost forever. The magnetic base of my tank bag 'caught' my AAA eneloop and the body of the light was still attached to my keyring - the driver and emitter were in the head though and they are gone.

I saw the Astrolux A01 lights on special at Banggood so I ordered 3 and I have them now - yay!
But all 3 have the new UI with the non-Manker drivers - boo!

I've been testing:
If I get the light onto medium and then turn it off, 2 hours later I turn it on and it I get high mode.
If I get the light onto medium and then turn it off, 3 hours later I turn it on and it I get low mode.
Somewhere between 2 and 3 hours this light resets.
I use the light each morning and it comes on in low mode as I want, that's good I suppose. But if I turn it off then I'll get medium mode unless I wait for more than 2-3 hours.

I bought a Manker E01 for $15.95 from Manker's site.
If I get the light onto medium and then turn it off, 5 seconds later I turn it on and it I get high mode.
If I get the light onto medium and then turn it off, 11 seconds later I turn it on and it I get low mode.
Manker says it resets after being off for 10 seconds, happily this information is correct.

If you don't want the new (completely rubbish) UI then I'd recommend buying the Manker E01 for a few more dollars and forget about the Astrolux.

 

[a16]

@KiwiMark:
Thank you so much for saving me throwing away a few quid, that I can now spend on chocolate instead. I placed an order for the BLF-348 Nichia on GearBest, and took a gander at BangGood to see what they had, and was going to take a punt on an Astrolux A01. I definitely don't fancy the inferior driver, and those off times to then come on and blind me - no thanks.
I recently bought my first 'proper' flashlight, Lumintop IYP-365 after creating a thread looking for advice to replace the 2AA incandescent Mini Maglite. I'm happy with the IYP365, turns off, comes on in medium pretty much every time, unless I'm pretty quick to turn back on. I guess the mode switch gap is about 1-2 seconds, so it's more predictable.
I might well take a look at Manker lights next.

Cheers!

 

[sbslider]

I purchased the Manker E01 a couple months ago. I struggled a bit with it for about 6 weeks, lots of mode skipping. The heatsink that screws into the head and holds the driver board was loose in the head, and would slowly unscrew as the light was turned on and off. Then the driver board disconnected from the heat sink. Yikes!! I managed to put it back together again with a bit of flowable silicone. Since I did this repair and reassembled the light, the driver heatsink stays put thanks to a bit of extra silicone on the side, and the light has only mode skipped once in over 100 tries. So I am now very pleased with this light. I did purchase it as an open box unit from Amazon, I suspect the previous owner had the same problems and returned it. For $9,not bad. It was a work to fix, but the sort of work I enjoy in general, especially when I am successful.

I will say I only use the light on firefly mode in the middle of the night, it excels for that task.

 

[Zorzi]

Update:
On a motorcycle trip my Astrolux had a failure - the head became unscrewed and fell off, lost forever. The magnetic base of my tank bag 'caught' my AAA eneloop and the body of the light was still attached to my keyring - the driver and emitter were in the head though and they are gone.

I saw the Astrolux A01 lights on special at Banggood so I ordered 3 and I have them now - yay!
But all 3 have the new UI with the non-Manker drivers - boo!

I've been testing:
If I get the light onto medium and then turn it off, 2 hours later I turn it on and it I get high mode.
If I get the light onto medium and then turn it off, 3 hours later I turn it on and it I get low mode.
Somewhere between 2 and 3 hours this light resets.
I use the light each morning and it comes on in low mode as I want, that's good I suppose. But if I turn it off then I'll get medium mode unless I wait for more than 2-3 hours.

I bought a Manker E01 for $15.95 from Manker's site.
If I get the light onto medium and then turn it off, 5 seconds later I turn it on and it I get high mode.
If I get the light onto medium and then turn it off, 11 seconds later I turn it on and it I get low mode.
Manker says it resets after being off for 10 seconds, happily this information is correct.

If you don't want the new (completely rubbish) UI then I'd recommend buying the Manker E01 for a few more dollars and forget about the Astrolux.

Hey KiwiMark, I just found this thread looking for any information about people that thought the Astrolux A01 had too short screws... That was the first thing that caught my attention when I got one of these in may hands. I thought the head would be easily lost as it is needed only a few turns to remove the head... That's a pity, I like this flashlight appart from this..

Cheers,

 

[AB8XL]

Is there a spring at the base of the tube for the battery at the (-) side?

 

[KiwiMark]

Is there a spring at the base of the tube for the battery at the (-) side?

Yes, definitely. The Manker and the Astrolux both have a spring at the base of the tube on the -ve side.