Tag: Keychain Flashlight

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Nitecore Tiki & Tiki LE Review (Keychain light with auxiliary LED’s)

Today I am taking a look at the Nitecore Tiki and Tiki LE keychain lights. These are small, multicolor lights with built USB recharging and a sealed battery. Thanks for Nitecore Store for sending these two keychain lights out for me to take a look at. Links to them will be in the description.

 

YouTube Version of this Review: https://youtu.be/5_gcMlMnMSk 

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Packaging

Packaging on these are simple retail hangers with a try it feature on the clear see through bubble. The Tiki features a primary white LED, and then a high CRI white emitter and UV led as a an auxiliary. The LE version swaps the UV and High CRI aux emitters for red and blue. On the back the package goes through the simple models. The only included accessory is the keychain attachment point. 

Construction

Both lights are made from polycarbonate plastic. The Tiki is made from a simi translucent plastic allowing you to see the internals pretty well. This also diffuses the side auxiliary LED’s. Up front there is a stainless steel bezel, the light is using a TIR style optic and a small glass lens. The hoop at the back is fairly thick and may not fit every key chain naively without the included small chain. The LE version is a black plastic thats semi transparent on the side LED’s. The front bezel is black colored here. On both the button is in a logical place on the barrel and takes a fairly firm press to actuate. The USB recharging port on the back is nicely flush fit with the body too. 

 

Size & Weight

Overall length is 54mm on both lights, and the diameter as measured is 15mm at the head. This puts these lights a bit smaller then your average AAA keychain light and just a little longer then the Olight i1R and Lumintop Glow I recently reviewed. The light is IPX66 rated.

This review wouldn’t be complete without mentioning how close these look to the RoyVon A5 both in looks and operation. The USB ports are a little different but that’s about it. I asked Nitecore about this and they declined to comment on if there was any collaboration or licensing here.

LED & Beam & PWM

The primary LED being used on both lights is the Osram P8 LED in cool white. The beam pattern out the TIR optic is pretty decent for what this is but it does have very small artifacts. For a light like this it’s not something I am going to fault it on too much. 

I am not that sensitive to PWM myself but I can see it on the lowest mode, my oscilloscope sees it in the higher modes as well. It’s fairly bad on the scope in at least the lights i have tested this year. 

Not much data on the auxiliary LED’s is given. The UV LED is said to be 500mw and at 365nm. In practice this is really weak, you can use it to help point out the security features on a card or dollar bill but that’s about it, things need to be very close range. The high CRI LED is warm tint and decently bright. No data is given on the red or blue LED options on the LE version.

 

Runtime 

Runtimes on the main LED are identical on this light. The highest mode is good for 300 lumens for about 1 minute before stepping down and running at about 40% output where it runs till the 30 minute mark and where it then steps down and runs for another 20 minutes or so before LVP kicks in. This is pretty respectable for a light of this size. It’s not something you will hike with but more then enough to find something you dropped on the ground, get the mail, or find your key hole.

UI

UI is fairly straight forward here and the same on each light. A slow double press turns the light on in Low mode, with single presses going up in output (4 total modes). Long press to turn off. When off a long press turns it on in maximum output in momentary mode. 

 

To get to the auxiliary modes triple click from off, single click changes modes. The Tiki has the UV on by default, single click again and it goes to high CRI which is warmer and much brighter. Single click again and it goes to high cri blinking. The Tiki LE default is the Red LED, click again and it goes blue, then again and you red/blue cycling option.

 

Recharging

From 100% depleted the light took 1 hour and 15 minutes to fully charge. It does have a little red/blue LED in the body to tell you when it’s done. Charging is quite slow at 0.14A at the maximum but that’s what you want for the health of such a small battery. I am ok with this. 

 

Pro’s

  • The UV/High CRI side lights on the Tiki make for a more useful overall light.
  • Good form factor but not an original design.

 

Con’s

  • Significant PWM in lower modes
  • Seems to be a copy of other lights on the market in this segment
  • UV is limited in what it can do due to the low power and wave length used here.

 

Conclusion

The keychain market has gotten hotter here in the last year or so, and there are lots of good options on the market. I am not that sensitive to PWM personally but can see it on these lights in the lower modes easily. For me that makes it hard to recommend them when there are other lights that don’t have that problem. That said I like the form factor and they produce a good amount of light on the highest output mode. Other then the UV mode I can’t find a ton of practical use for the side LED’s here especially the LE’s Red and blue outputs. That said these make fun zipper pulls and that’s where the are going on a couple of my jackets.

 

Purchase the Nitecore Tiki https://bit.ly/2J9A7uJ 

Purchase the Nitecore Tiki LE https://bit.ly/2xgVuYe 

Full Image Gallery https://imgur.com/a/18lCemW

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Lumintop Glow I Review (Turboglow on a Keychain Light)

Lumintop has a new small keychain style light on the market that’s using using TurboGlow as part of the heads structure. It has a built in battery and microUSB recharging. Thanks to Lumintop for sending this to me to review. 


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Packaging & Accessories

The light comes in a small nicer cardboard box with foam holding it in place. It comes preinstalled with the non removable battery. Accessories include a short 5” USB-A to Micro USB cable and a split ring attached to a small chain and clip for attaching to your keys or other device.

 

Construction

The Glow I is made from aluminium and works off a twist design but is different from some other similar lights. First the tail cap is removable, and held in place with an internal neodymium magnet and indexing notches. Pull force to disconnect here I would guess is about 5-6 pounds. I think this is sufficiently strong for many scenarios but if you were concerned about it coming off accidentally a bit of superglue or JB Weld would make this more permanent. 

I found the magnet here to be actually really nice. It means the light could server as a short under the hood light in your car at night if needed etc. The body of the light has a hole in the side the body is twisted all the way to the left reveals the microUSB charging port. There is a small internal LED in the port that goes red when charging, green when charged.

To operate the light you screw it to the right until it turns on. The light has only 1 mode and no UI to speak of. The head is captured so you don’t have to worry about it getting loose or lost during charging which I know has been a minor issue with other similar lights. The internal 80mAh 10180 battery is sealed and not replaceable. 

 

The turbo glow barrel built into the head of this light, and serves as the walls of the reflector, meaning it’s directly exposed to the LED anytime it’s on. This means it gets charged up everytime the light is on, and since it’s turbo glow it’s much brighter and lasts significantly longer then standard glow in the dark material. It even does a pretty good job of charging and maintaining charge during normal exposure to room or sunlight.

Size & Weight

This is a small light, similar to the Olight i1R I reviewed a while back. It’s currently been my keychain light. I measured the length of the Lumintop Glow I at 45.3mm, maximum diameter around the turboglow at 15.6mm and minimum diameter on the body at 14mm. Weight was 16.4g without the keychain. It’s pretty comparable in size and diameter to the Olight i1R. See the photos below for other peers. 

 

LED & Beamshot

The Glow I uses an Osram LED. No specific model or temperature is given but no surprise here, it’s cool white. Lumintop lists the output officially has 40 lumens. This is more than sufficient with the size and application here. The light is using an optic with a built in diffuser. The result is a pretty standard beam, floody, good for short range which is what you would expect with this light. 

Runtime

Runtime here out of the 80mAh battery was better then I expected. My total runtime was around 80 minutes, with the first 60 of that being near the 40 lumen mark and declining. The light actually ran significantly longer but it doesn’t have low voltage protection so it would be best after you notice the decline in output to charge it. 

 

Recharging

Charging took 1 hour and 10 minutes and the fastest I observed was 0.12A via the microUSB port. While that’s pretty slow this is a very small battery so that’s what you would expect. 

 

Pro’s 

  • Turboglow from the Netherlands is integral to the design and is really pretty effective.
  • Captured head although in theory the tail could come loose unintentionally. 
  • Good size and construction

 

Con’s

  • No Low Voltage protection here, or removable battery means you need to be careful about running the light too long and keep the battery topped up. 
  • Non removable/replaceable battery 

 

Conclusion

This is a neat little keychain light. I like that it’s small and compact but still has a decent amount of output for its size and task. The addition of authentic TurboGlow (Seriously if you have not tried TurboGlow it’s significantly better then any other GITD material) separates this light from the competition for me. It’s a clever design making the TurboGlow an actual part of the light body vs just an insert. I wish the light did have LVP to protect the internal cell since it cant be changed. The magnetic connection here is a give and take, it’s handy but if your concerned about the light dropping off unintentionally it’s an easy fix with some superglue or JB Weld. I don’t think it will be an issue for me. Let me know what you think of the Lumintop Glow I in the comments below. 

 

Full Image Gallery: https://imgur.com/a/FU0HES3

Lumintop’s official website for the Glow I http://www.lumintop.com/glow1.html

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Astrolux K1 USB Rechargeable Keychain light

The Astrolux K1 is a new keychain style light with 3 different LED options onboard. https://i.imgur.com/UU4tHfW.jpg You have the main centered Cree XP G3 LED in a cool white, on one side you then have a small 365 nanometer UV LED and on the other side you have a small red LED. This light is actually made by Mateminco as the CSF02 and rebranded for Banggood as the Astrolux K1. As far as I can tell it’s the exact same between the two even down to the box design. Thanks for Banggood for sending this light out for me to take a look at.

Full Image Gallery: https://imgur.com/a/rjMh7
Youtube Review:

Size and Build Quality
Size wise this is nearly identical to the Nitecore TIP I review several months ago. https://i.imgur.com/prTmREi.jpg https://i.imgur.com/RRXqv8S.jpg https://i.imgur.com/mFVO7JM.jpg The only real difference is in the tail is. Construction seems to be on par with the TIP. It has a metalized body, I can’t quite tell if it’s 100% metal or a metalized plastic. The K1 is held together with 8 T5 Torx screws, 4 on each side. https://i.imgur.com/JeoIcge.jpg The buttons require a quite firm press to activate and a longer press as well to come on from off. I have carried this in my pocket for the last 2 weeks and had no issues with it turning on by accident.

I choose the rainbow finish to have something different. https://i.imgur.com/xggkJ3u.jpg It’s a glossy finish that fingerprints very easily which I am ok with. I don’t have it on my keys so I have not had too many scratches. It’s a painted on type finish it seems as it’s not a true chameleon paint. It’s available in other colors, Blue, Black, Silver and Rainbow like I have. It is IP65 moisture and dust rated.

Astrolux Length = 60.75mm | Nitecore Length = 60.96mm
Astrolux Width = 25.38mm | Nitecore Width = 24.38mm
Astrolux Height = 12.93mm | Nitecore Height = 11.85mm
Astrolux Weight = 1.39oz | Nitecore Weight = 0.83oz

LED+ Battery
The version I have uses a Cree XP G3 LED in cool white (6000-7000k) as its main emitter. https://i.imgur.com/UU4tHfW.jpg It’s not the best tint in my opinion and has an undesirable green tint.https://i.imgur.com/S2NaTvU.jpg Granted this isn’t going to be your main light. Output is listed as 250Lm, 210Lm, 150Lm, and 40Lm. This light also uses a small UV LED that is claimed to be 365nm and a Red LED. The UV emitter is pretty weak and seems to work fine with the $20 bills I tried it on in dim conditions. It’s a bit dim for use in a hotel or something like that. The red LED is quite a bit brighter than the UV but no lumen number is given. It has distortion thought in the beam pattern https://i.imgur.com/DDfOEJu.jpg. I do wish the Red LED had 2 output modes.

I see Astrolux and Banggood are making a Nichia version of this light and it’s on preorder. Personally that would be the one I would want. Heat isn’t an issue with this light, it barely gets warm to the touch.

Battery and Runtime
The battery is listed at 500mAh and is rechargeable via a built in micro USB port on the side of the light. There is a pretty nice rubber cover over the port on this that fits flush and stays in place. https://i.imgur.com/6z4IudW.jpg When recharging there is an LED under the buttons that turns red when charging and green when charged. I measured recharging speed at 4.92V at 0.51A.

Here is a runtime graph I made. https://i.imgur.com/yJ6cxWW.png As you can see it doesn’t take very long for the light to decrease output from max down to about 78% of the max light output. This is where the light is the most comfortable to run at long term, averaging about 65 minutes before dropping again to about 5% of the original output until the battery is exhausted.

Table and night shots https://youtu.be/PXP0CgFI_C0?t=5m51s
https://i.imgur.com/S2NaTvU.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/DDfOEJu.jpg

UI
UI on this isn’t my favorite for a few reasons but most of all it always starts on high/turbo with no memory. The square button on this light with the power button doesn’t turn on the main LED like you would think instead it turns on the UV and Red LED. The smaller Triangle button is for the main LED. You can long press on the triangle button to shortcut to turbo then step down each additional press. Single click when off doesn’t turn anything on, you must long press to start it. UV and Red modes also require long presses to turn on or off, short press to switch between modes. You can’t have 2 LED’s on at the same time.

Packaging
Is a simple Red and Yellow retail style box. https://i.imgur.com/gOmuALs.jpg https://i.imgur.com/hsMLgeX.jpg https://i.imgur.com/EGmnW1U.jpgThe light comes packed in a plastic pack. There are no accessories, no charging cable, and no instructions other than what is listed on the box.

Conclusion
This is a direct competitor to the Nitecore TIP but with extra LED’s. I don’t use red or UV often enough in an EDC situation, so I am mainly judging off the main beam and tint and in that arena the Nitecore TIP CRI, that I have wins. However, I like the physical design of the Astrolux K1 a little better especially with a cover for the USB port and how they are doing the key ring loop. The UI on the Astrolux K1 isn’t great in my opinion. For an EDC situation you don’t want all the lumens right away, it would be better to come on in low and let the user decide if they need more light. I don’t like the longer presses needed to do most things on the light. No instructions are in or on the package too. Make sure to get those from the Banggood listing.

My recommendation would be to order the Nichia version of this light if you want all 3 colored LED options in one small keychain style light. That will improve the tint of the main LED. When priced right I think this makes a decent competitor to the Nitecore TIP, hopefully they will revise the firmware so future versions won’t start on high.

Save 20% off the Astrolux K1 during Nov 11-13th using code: 4fdb18 at https://goo.gl/74MCnC