the light was supplied by Banggood (link is external), no compensation other than the light itself was received for this review
The light can be bought here (link is external)
The price can be lowered with Mad Max coupon here
This is my 2. light that was supplied by Banggood for a review, I am honest and will judge the light as it is with its pros and cons
Specification:
Product name: Astrolux K01 CU XP-L 1400LM EDC Mini LED Flashlight
Brand: Astrolux
Model: K01 CU
Emitter Type: XP-L
Circuit Driver: A17DD-L FET+1 Driver
Light Tint: 1A,3D,5A
Light Temperature: 6500K,5000K,4000K
Light Color: Cool white,Neutral white,Yellow light
Material: Copper
Mode: Group 1:Moon-Low-Med1-Med2-High1-High2-Turbo(Short press<0.5s)
Group 2: Low,Med,High,Turbo (Short press<0.5s)
+
Moon-Turbo-Tactical Strobe-Battcheck-Bike Flasher (Medium press 0.5s-1.5s)
Battery Configurations: 1 × 3.7v 14500 battery (not included)
Working Voltage: 2.8-4.35V
Switch Type: Clicky
Switch Location: Tail of the flashlight
Impact Resistant 1.5 meters
Max Output: 1400Lumens (max)
Lens: Toughened ultra-clear mineral glass with anti-reflective coating
Reflector: Orange Reflector
Waterproof: IPX-8 waterproof up to 2 meters
Color: Copper Color
Weight: 170g/pcs without battery
Size: 104mm x 26mm (length x head diameter)
for more product pictures go the the manufactors web site or a shopping site like Banggood (link is external)
the parcel arrived after 22 days shipping with to Germany which is a good time from China.
Package and content:
The light came packed well with a plenty wrap around and in a plastic bag
The light comes in a card box which is typical for Astrolux
The box has a compartment for the light and a battery
It comes with 2 spare o-rings, clip, lanyard and two half transparent switch covers one white and one copper colored
Comparism and teardown:
Size compared to other 14500 lights and a Convoy S2+ 18650 light
you can see that this copper light is really big for a 14500 light, I wish there would be a 18650 aluminum tube available
Beam color is neutral around 5000K for the 3D model, the XPL has a noticeable yellow tint shift in the hotspot
from left to right the lights get warmer, picture taken @5000K camera setting
left Astolux K01 XPL HD 3D 5000K, XML2 U3-3D 5000K, Nichia 5700K, XPL HD 1A 6500K
The Cree XPL-HD LED in this light is available in 1A, 3D and 5A tint
The light can be taken apart completely, nothing is glued
The light has the typical tail with 2 cutouts and one side with holes for the lanyard
The head has a standard 17mm driver with Attiny 13A and FET+7135*1
The driver can be pulled out, the leads are long enough and have a medium thickness, shorter ones with more gauge would have been nice
The threads are triangular cut, good quality but square cut would be nicer
The tail thread is a bit flat on the top, but no real square cut
The light can´t be locked out by twisting the tail cap
The Head
the reflector is a medium orange peel
the XPL HD LED is centered OK, but the centering ring is a bit larger than the LED so it's not perfect
the reflector is 22mm wide and 15mm deep
The Base of the reflector is taped to protect for shorts, I would put a 20mm star in the head, that fixes that problem
When pulling out the reflector I saw that the o-ring is placed between lens and it, but the top of the reflector is perfectly flat, so no force pushing the o-ring tight against the head like within my Eagle Eye X2R, where thereflector to is formed to push the o-ring outside when compressed
The thermal paste is applied in a moderate quantity and seems to be some silver compound, but when I removed it I noticed some harder parts that were not fluid, so the thickness assembled was too thick
The pattern and thickness shows that the pressure on the MCPCB also may be too weak, when measuring the head and middle section with uncompressed o-ring I get about 0.35mm that can compress the o-ring
So for the stock light the thermal resistance of the thermal paste will be increased
I checked the MCPCB to be a true copper DTP one 1.5mm thick, very nice, the back of it is gold plated
The MCPCBs back is perfectly flat
I did sand down the head part 0.5mm so the o-ring can be compressed more getting a higher force pressing on the MCPCB
I did a drawing to show, why there is almost no pressure on the star
The lens is AR coated glass
When opening the light I noticed the driver spring is soldered with very few solder paste, adding more tin is probably better
the tail cap has double springs, while the driver has one thicker spring
The driver and tail switch retaining rings are identical
The light is build for protected and unprotected batteries, flat top will fit
the tube inner diameter is 15mm, relatively long Keeppower protected button top cells fit
when using protected cells I would put an additional heat shrink tube on them as the inner tube surface is not isolated
The tail cap thread on the tube has an o-ring and is lubed for water tightness
Driver and Battery
The light has PWM in moon and medium/high modes, but it's really fast about 100kHz hard to photograph
The lights runs a decent time on highest level I can't see a significant drop in brightness
The light has a lot copper mass to absorb heat, but in turbo mode on a high drain cell it gets warm quickly, but far better than similar sized aluminum lights
tail cap current measurement on brightest level
stock light no driver spring bypass, long thin leads to star, switch and spring resistance simulated with a thin AWG28 15cm long lead:
- 3.06A with protected Keeppower 14500 800mAh
- 4.6A with a Samsung 18650-30Q and as I dont own high drain 14500
driver spring bypass and thicker shorter leads to star, 1.5mm² tail bypass wire:
- 3.32A with protected Keeppower 14500 800mAh
- 6.5A with a Samsung 18650-30Q and as I dont own high drain 14500
Modding:
I did solder the driver spring with more tin and added a spring bypasses to driver and tail springs
Cleaned the head and MCPCB from the old thermal paste
and added Arctic Silver 5
replaced wires with more gauge
replaced the no name switch with Omten 1288
added lighted tail cap parts and driver bleeder resistor
Did here some sort of Tritium illumination level using 4.7kOhms on driver and 20k Ohms on two blue tail cap LEDs, resulting in a parasitic drain of
119uA at 4.2V
26uA at 2.75V
Beam shots
about 2m from Light to ceiling
Astrolux K01 XPL-HD 3D
Jetbeam Jet-1 MK modded with Nichia 219C from a BLF348-2016
Utorch UT01 6500K
Nitecore P12 @1050 lumens modded with DTP star and XML U3-3D NW LED running at 3A
User Interface
Standard BLF A6 firmware
Conclusion
Positive:
- good production quality
- solid body
- LED has a nice neutral white
- relative big reflector for a 14500 light so decent throw
- AR coated glass lens
- good beam profile
- fits long very thick protected button tops as well as short flat top batteries
- tail switch board has pads for 2 LEDs with resistors for lighted tail cap and driver for bleeder
Neutral:
- very few solder paste to the springs, there have been issues with separated springs
- the light has a protective coating, but on the edges of knurling I can measure that the body is still conductive, so time will tell how it gets patina
- no Omten 1288 switch, similar size but no name
Negative:
- waterproofness might be an issue as the o-ring of the lens sits between the reflector and glass and the reflector has no shape to force the o-ring against the side, can be fixed by putting the o-ring between head and lens
- the heat paste on my light was not good, it contained old dried out parts together with the low force pressing the MCPCB down it has increased heat resistance
The light can be bought here (link is external)
The price can be lowered with Mad Max coupon here
This is my 2. light that was supplied by Banggood for a review, I am honest and will judge the light as it is with its pros and cons
Specification:
Product name: Astrolux K01 CU XP-L 1400LM EDC Mini LED Flashlight
Brand: Astrolux
Model: K01 CU
Emitter Type: XP-L
Circuit Driver: A17DD-L FET+1 Driver
Light Tint: 1A,3D,5A
Light Temperature: 6500K,5000K,4000K
Light Color: Cool white,Neutral white,Yellow light
Material: Copper
Mode: Group 1:Moon-Low-Med1-Med2-High1-High2-Turbo(Short press<0.5s)
Group 2: Low,Med,High,Turbo (Short press<0.5s)
+
Moon-Turbo-Tactical Strobe-Battcheck-Bike Flasher (Medium press 0.5s-1.5s)
Battery Configurations: 1 × 3.7v 14500 battery (not included)
Working Voltage: 2.8-4.35V
Switch Type: Clicky
Switch Location: Tail of the flashlight
Impact Resistant 1.5 meters
Max Output: 1400Lumens (max)
Lens: Toughened ultra-clear mineral glass with anti-reflective coating
Reflector: Orange Reflector
Waterproof: IPX-8 waterproof up to 2 meters
Color: Copper Color
Weight: 170g/pcs without battery
Size: 104mm x 26mm (length x head diameter)
for more product pictures go the the manufactors web site or a shopping site like Banggood (link is external)
the parcel arrived after 22 days shipping with to Germany which is a good time from China.
Package and content:
The light came packed well with a plenty wrap around and in a plastic bag
The light comes in a card box which is typical for Astrolux
The box has a compartment for the light and a battery
It comes with 2 spare o-rings, clip, lanyard and two half transparent switch covers one white and one copper colored
Comparism and teardown:
Size compared to other 14500 lights and a Convoy S2+ 18650 light
you can see that this copper light is really big for a 14500 light, I wish there would be a 18650 aluminum tube available
Beam color is neutral around 5000K for the 3D model, the XPL has a noticeable yellow tint shift in the hotspot
from left to right the lights get warmer, picture taken @5000K camera setting
left Astolux K01 XPL HD 3D 5000K, XML2 U3-3D 5000K, Nichia 5700K, XPL HD 1A 6500K
The Cree XPL-HD LED in this light is available in 1A, 3D and 5A tint
The light can be taken apart completely, nothing is glued
The light has the typical tail with 2 cutouts and one side with holes for the lanyard
The head has a standard 17mm driver with Attiny 13A and FET+7135*1
The driver can be pulled out, the leads are long enough and have a medium thickness, shorter ones with more gauge would have been nice
The threads are triangular cut, good quality but square cut would be nicer
The tail thread is a bit flat on the top, but no real square cut
The light can´t be locked out by twisting the tail cap
The Head
the reflector is a medium orange peel
the XPL HD LED is centered OK, but the centering ring is a bit larger than the LED so it's not perfect
the reflector is 22mm wide and 15mm deep
The Base of the reflector is taped to protect for shorts, I would put a 20mm star in the head, that fixes that problem
When pulling out the reflector I saw that the o-ring is placed between lens and it, but the top of the reflector is perfectly flat, so no force pushing the o-ring tight against the head like within my Eagle Eye X2R, where thereflector to is formed to push the o-ring outside when compressed
The thermal paste is applied in a moderate quantity and seems to be some silver compound, but when I removed it I noticed some harder parts that were not fluid, so the thickness assembled was too thick
The pattern and thickness shows that the pressure on the MCPCB also may be too weak, when measuring the head and middle section with uncompressed o-ring I get about 0.35mm that can compress the o-ring
So for the stock light the thermal resistance of the thermal paste will be increased
I checked the MCPCB to be a true copper DTP one 1.5mm thick, very nice, the back of it is gold plated
The MCPCBs back is perfectly flat
I did sand down the head part 0.5mm so the o-ring can be compressed more getting a higher force pressing on the MCPCB
I did a drawing to show, why there is almost no pressure on the star
The lens is AR coated glass
When opening the light I noticed the driver spring is soldered with very few solder paste, adding more tin is probably better
the tail cap has double springs, while the driver has one thicker spring
The driver and tail switch retaining rings are identical
The light is build for protected and unprotected batteries, flat top will fit
the tube inner diameter is 15mm, relatively long Keeppower protected button top cells fit
when using protected cells I would put an additional heat shrink tube on them as the inner tube surface is not isolated
The tail cap thread on the tube has an o-ring and is lubed for water tightness
Driver and Battery
The light has PWM in moon and medium/high modes, but it's really fast about 100kHz hard to photograph
The lights runs a decent time on highest level I can't see a significant drop in brightness
The light has a lot copper mass to absorb heat, but in turbo mode on a high drain cell it gets warm quickly, but far better than similar sized aluminum lights
tail cap current measurement on brightest level
stock light no driver spring bypass, long thin leads to star, switch and spring resistance simulated with a thin AWG28 15cm long lead:
- 3.06A with protected Keeppower 14500 800mAh
- 4.6A with a Samsung 18650-30Q and as I dont own high drain 14500
driver spring bypass and thicker shorter leads to star, 1.5mm² tail bypass wire:
- 3.32A with protected Keeppower 14500 800mAh
- 6.5A with a Samsung 18650-30Q and as I dont own high drain 14500
Modding:
I did solder the driver spring with more tin and added a spring bypasses to driver and tail springs
Cleaned the head and MCPCB from the old thermal paste
and added Arctic Silver 5
replaced wires with more gauge
replaced the no name switch with Omten 1288
added lighted tail cap parts and driver bleeder resistor
Did here some sort of Tritium illumination level using 4.7kOhms on driver and 20k Ohms on two blue tail cap LEDs, resulting in a parasitic drain of
119uA at 4.2V
26uA at 2.75V
Beam shots
about 2m from Light to ceiling
Astrolux K01 XPL-HD 3D
Jetbeam Jet-1 MK modded with Nichia 219C from a BLF348-2016
Utorch UT01 6500K
Nitecore P12 @1050 lumens modded with DTP star and XML U3-3D NW LED running at 3A
User Interface
Standard BLF A6 firmware
Conclusion
Positive:
- good production quality
- solid body
- LED has a nice neutral white
- relative big reflector for a 14500 light so decent throw
- AR coated glass lens
- good beam profile
- fits long very thick protected button tops as well as short flat top batteries
- tail switch board has pads for 2 LEDs with resistors for lighted tail cap and driver for bleeder
Neutral:
- very few solder paste to the springs, there have been issues with separated springs
- the light has a protective coating, but on the edges of knurling I can measure that the body is still conductive, so time will tell how it gets patina
- no Omten 1288 switch, similar size but no name
Negative:
- waterproofness might be an issue as the o-ring of the lens sits between the reflector and glass and the reflector has no shape to force the o-ring against the side, can be fixed by putting the o-ring between head and lens
- the heat paste on my light was not good, it contained old dried out parts together with the low force pressing the MCPCB down it has increased heat resistance
