AardvarkSagus
Flashlight Enthusiast
Sunwayman R01A - Sumbitted for consideration for the review forum.
The mighty keychain light. It has truthfully been said that the best light for any situation is the one that you have with you. What better way to have a handy illumination than to attach one to your keys? Even though there are a number of well known contenders here, is there still room for another at the top?
Sunwayman R01A
When it comes to keychain lights, the obvious winner by way of universal adoption has been the Fenix E01 for some time. When you take a look at the specs for the new Sunwayman R01A it would be negligent of me NOT to make that comparison. One mode at 10 lumens. 11 hours of "sun mode" regulation with a 10 hour dwindling "moon mode" tail. Powered by a single AAA cell and running a Nichia 5mm LED in an aluminum reflector without an external window. On the surface these two lights are virtually identical. Thus far as I have been carrying it, the similarities really run more than just skin deep.
The R01A ascribes to the philosophy of "just enough to get the job done". It is a simple light that is very adept at the proverbial finding a keyhole in the dark, or navigating to the restroom in a dark campground. Quite often it really is just the amount of light that you need. It might not pack as much punch as you might want but, as was shown by a recent challenge on the Candlepower Forums, 10 lumens is quite adequate for more tasks than you might think.
Sunwayman R01A
Feeling right at home with the operation and use of the R01A (I've been keychain carrying my E01 for years now) I had to stretch myself to make sure I grabbed pictures before I found it a new home where it can be beat up and mangled by various lock openers and car starters. How the dark anodizing will hold up to such an abuse, long term, I don't know. It does appear to be of typical Sunwayman caliber however in that regard, so this is really going to be a good test for a whole compliment of torches. Thankfully, in a light of this type, dings and scratches are more a sign of being broken in, than of being broken.
Beam quality is, unfortunately, exactly what you would expect from this type of emitter/reflector setup and has a number of small rings and artifacts, as well as a definitively more purple cast to the center of the beam. It is however noticeably whiter than my E01 so improvements have been made. I just recently took some very fine steel wool to the emitter in the Fenix to soften and diffuse the hotspot even more and I expect I will eventually do the same with the Sunwayman, but as of yet, I cannot bear to intentionally mar the pristine condition. I'll let a few marks happen naturally first since it is by no means unusable.
Sunwayman R01A
There are a couple of fundamental differences between the R01A and the E01 though, most notably the tail lug on the Sunwayman that basically negates any tailstanding ability. This is a little surprising when it comes to a light like this. One would think that would almost be a requirement rather than an optional suggestion. Also, the head of the R01A does not have any knurling like the Fenix counterpart. Instead it has a hexagonal anti-roll ridge that gives more torque to your twist than the simple round head. Unfortunately, this actually has seemed a tad slicker and less easy to activate one handedly than quality knurling would be, but this is really a very minor gripe.
As things stand as of this writing, the R01A is only available packaged with the Sunwayman V20C as kind of a "Customer Appreciation" gift, but I have heard rumors of a potential standalone release happening eventually. If that ends up being the case I know that there will be a lot of happy customers lining up for yet another inexpensive value light like this.
Tagalong R01A
Simple and useful, it says what it does and it does what it says. The type of light that has the best potential to save the day, simply because it's so darn easy to carry.
Fenix and Sunwayman
Provided for review by the kind folks at Sunwayman.
UPDATE 9/14/2011:
Well, I don't know how else to call it, except just come out with the raw data. I've been carrying this light on my keychain ever since I received it. It has always worked perfectly. Exactly how I would expect it to and then a little even. However I am a key flipper. I play with my keychain incessantly, which results in quite an effective drop test regimen for lights such as this. Unfortunately after only a few short months of this, the R01A is no longer up to the task. Sometime during the last week or so, my R01A ceased to function. I don't have any idea what would have caused it, because none of the falls have been anything out of the norm for my E01 over the last 3 years.
I honestly believe that Sunwayman would be a standup company and take care of this for me with little to no question, but instead I chose to disassemble the head of the light to see if there was anything obvious wrong with it. I'm sorry to say that my extremely limited electronics knowledge was unable to diagnose anything out of the norm. There were no broken solder joints or charred electronics anywhere. My only information is that it has been Killed in Action.
While I have no doubt that Sunwayman would have taken care of this problem for me, I wanted to survey the damage for myself to see if it said anything extraordinary. I fully accept the fact that this means I now have no light to show for it. It is quite possible that this was simply a fluke rather than the norm.
The mighty keychain light. It has truthfully been said that the best light for any situation is the one that you have with you. What better way to have a handy illumination than to attach one to your keys? Even though there are a number of well known contenders here, is there still room for another at the top?
Sunwayman R01A
When it comes to keychain lights, the obvious winner by way of universal adoption has been the Fenix E01 for some time. When you take a look at the specs for the new Sunwayman R01A it would be negligent of me NOT to make that comparison. One mode at 10 lumens. 11 hours of "sun mode" regulation with a 10 hour dwindling "moon mode" tail. Powered by a single AAA cell and running a Nichia 5mm LED in an aluminum reflector without an external window. On the surface these two lights are virtually identical. Thus far as I have been carrying it, the similarities really run more than just skin deep.
The R01A ascribes to the philosophy of "just enough to get the job done". It is a simple light that is very adept at the proverbial finding a keyhole in the dark, or navigating to the restroom in a dark campground. Quite often it really is just the amount of light that you need. It might not pack as much punch as you might want but, as was shown by a recent challenge on the Candlepower Forums, 10 lumens is quite adequate for more tasks than you might think.
Sunwayman R01A
Feeling right at home with the operation and use of the R01A (I've been keychain carrying my E01 for years now) I had to stretch myself to make sure I grabbed pictures before I found it a new home where it can be beat up and mangled by various lock openers and car starters. How the dark anodizing will hold up to such an abuse, long term, I don't know. It does appear to be of typical Sunwayman caliber however in that regard, so this is really going to be a good test for a whole compliment of torches. Thankfully, in a light of this type, dings and scratches are more a sign of being broken in, than of being broken.
Beam quality is, unfortunately, exactly what you would expect from this type of emitter/reflector setup and has a number of small rings and artifacts, as well as a definitively more purple cast to the center of the beam. It is however noticeably whiter than my E01 so improvements have been made. I just recently took some very fine steel wool to the emitter in the Fenix to soften and diffuse the hotspot even more and I expect I will eventually do the same with the Sunwayman, but as of yet, I cannot bear to intentionally mar the pristine condition. I'll let a few marks happen naturally first since it is by no means unusable.
Sunwayman R01A
There are a couple of fundamental differences between the R01A and the E01 though, most notably the tail lug on the Sunwayman that basically negates any tailstanding ability. This is a little surprising when it comes to a light like this. One would think that would almost be a requirement rather than an optional suggestion. Also, the head of the R01A does not have any knurling like the Fenix counterpart. Instead it has a hexagonal anti-roll ridge that gives more torque to your twist than the simple round head. Unfortunately, this actually has seemed a tad slicker and less easy to activate one handedly than quality knurling would be, but this is really a very minor gripe.
As things stand as of this writing, the R01A is only available packaged with the Sunwayman V20C as kind of a "Customer Appreciation" gift, but I have heard rumors of a potential standalone release happening eventually. If that ends up being the case I know that there will be a lot of happy customers lining up for yet another inexpensive value light like this.
Tagalong R01A
Simple and useful, it says what it does and it does what it says. The type of light that has the best potential to save the day, simply because it's so darn easy to carry.
Fenix and Sunwayman
Provided for review by the kind folks at Sunwayman.
UPDATE 9/14/2011:
Well, I don't know how else to call it, except just come out with the raw data. I've been carrying this light on my keychain ever since I received it. It has always worked perfectly. Exactly how I would expect it to and then a little even. However I am a key flipper. I play with my keychain incessantly, which results in quite an effective drop test regimen for lights such as this. Unfortunately after only a few short months of this, the R01A is no longer up to the task. Sometime during the last week or so, my R01A ceased to function. I don't have any idea what would have caused it, because none of the falls have been anything out of the norm for my E01 over the last 3 years.
I honestly believe that Sunwayman would be a standup company and take care of this for me with little to no question, but instead I chose to disassemble the head of the light to see if there was anything obvious wrong with it. I'm sorry to say that my extremely limited electronics knowledge was unable to diagnose anything out of the norm. There were no broken solder joints or charred electronics anywhere. My only information is that it has been Killed in Action.
While I have no doubt that Sunwayman would have taken care of this problem for me, I wanted to survey the damage for myself to see if it said anything extraordinary. I fully accept the fact that this means I now have no light to show for it. It is quite possible that this was simply a fluke rather than the norm.
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