Smiling Shark SS-5039 1 x AAA size flashlight, modification notes, Now 3 x 7135 with modes, on a BLF Tiny 10 board.

I think it is unlikely that I could get a 17 mm. driver to work cut down to 12.3 mm. When I worked with electronics before, the parts either had BNC connectors or wire leads.
I’ll try to take pictures again of the next mods. I have three still in their boxes. I am thinking of giving most of them away with Energizer (Eveready) lithium cells. I think one of my brothers can use a direct drive one.

I use a spot of duct tape to protect the led when it is already mounted when I file down the star. I clean it off with mineral spirits.

> this driver in Post 10

Wait — it says 3 to 5 watts, out of a single AA cell — how?

Fritz t. Cat wrote:

I think it is unlikely that I could get a 17 mm. driver to work cut down to 12.3 mm.

I wasn't thinking. Forgot these are AAA lights. Sorry for the confusion.

The old 10 mm. star.

An original driver without either of its components.
The hand vise belonged to the same grandfather who taught me to solder.

The reflector and wires crowd each other.
The reflector is filed to fit.

Compared to a stock C8 on high.

The Noctigon star seems harder and yellower than the SinkPAD star.
I lost two XP-G2s in the process. They don’t seem as rugged as XM-L2s.
I ended up with an R5 1A, I think. I measured 1.8 A. There is less droop, so either the new star helps or else the conduction paths increase resistance with heat less. It has the same spring but the fit is different.

Sweet pill and reflector set up. Is the beam on the left the C8 beam?

It must be a special feeling to use tools that you know were used by your grandfather.

My Deal Alert 5049s arrived. They are very similar to the 5039 and 5038 in shape and finish. The threads match.

The driver is different. No boost, but it appears to regulate the otherwise direct drive current I read the resistor as 51 ohms, yellow brown black gold. (Bad boys rape our young girls, but Violet gives willingly.) That is too high to be in line, so it must control the other thing which looks like a transistor.
I read 0.2 A with half charged Eneloops. Again, the board is cut down from a surplus or large production larger and more complicated one.

Yes, if you look below, the lights are in the picture.

Apparently the three terminal thing is a PNP NPN (p channel?) junction field effect transistor or an old fashioned junction transistor. The resistor is connected from + in to the gate or base. The emitter or whatever is also connected to + in. The collector or whatever (plate) goes to + out. - goes straight through to -. To first approximation, the output current is proportional to the current in the resistor, so it should act electrically like a resistor. I get from battery charge state and tail cap current:
2.66 V 0.22 A 12.0 Ohms
3.14 V 0.28 A 11.2 Ohms
3.21 V 0.31 A 11.5 Ohms
So it starts regulating somewhere around 3 V. The apparent slight increase in effective resistance between the last two might be explained by the drop in voltage of Advanced Lithiums under load.
The obvious mod seems to be a lower value resistor and Lithium primary cells, if the transistor can take it. Or if one wants long run time, it is good as is.
0.22 A at 2.66 V is close to the chart for an XM-L2, so the led has a nice low forward voltage.

Fritz t. Cat wrote:

Yes, if you look below, the lights are in the picture.

OK, so is the light on the left the C8?

jk. Sorry, didn't see them down there. Ever since Ouchyfoot posted that one beam shot, it's an effort to look down.

I hate to say this, but Post 60 went straight over my head. Sounds like something someone with electronic knowledge would understand.

Hooking up one of the Nanjg 102s with broken flange on the core to an SS-5039 led, I get 0.22 A to the led ( at 3.7 V)(?). With two half charged Eneloops I read 0.43 A at the led tail (?), compared to 0.22 at the tail of the 5049 with these cells. So, at least with low cell voltages, the boost driver gives a substantial increase in current, assuming the 5039 led does not have lower forward voltage than the 5049 led and that the meter averages the fluctuating current in a reasonable way. On the other hand the reduced duty factor must decrease the led’s efficiency and clearly uses the stored charge less efficiently.

Added: I am not even sure what this means myself now. I will have to repeat the measurement before deciding to use a boot driver.

I don’t have extensive knowledge of circuits, but yes of course most people won’t understand post 60. On the other hand some people on here can correct me if I am wrong.
It is a current limiting driver, like 7135 drivers. But instead of limiting the current to n x 350 ma., it limits it to the input voltage divided by 11 Ohms. (I suppose that is the best one can do with two simple components.) Like 7135 drivers, it falls out of regulation at low input voltage, in this case about 3 volts.
The 11 Ohms, if I am correct, comes from the 51 Ohms of the resister divided by the current gain of the transistor.

It would be nice to find a way to put 7135s on a 12 mm. board.

Would this 12mm linear driver pcb by Mattaus work for you? From this thread.

Yes, that looks like an improvement, because of constant current, because we know 7135s can take more voltage drop than that without overheating and because there is mode control. I may try building one, but I have not yet built a surface mount circuit. I guess I can get most of the parts by cannibalising a Nanjg 105c. Swapping resistors with wire leads is easier, more familiar and cheaper for me. I ordered a set of three from Osh Park. I also bought resistors this morning.

If you don't already have some, do yourself a favor and get some solder paste and a hot air gun. Makes reflowing smd's a breeze.

You can get a cheap hot air gun. Mine is as cheap as they come and I have been using it for years on all kinds of stuff. Even autobody mods. I think I'm using this solder paste at the moment. Seems to work good, even for reflowing emitters.

http://www.fasttech.com/products/0/10003546/1261003-chips-repair-tool-soldering-paste-grease

Now it appears that my analysis of the circuit is wrong. With a lower valued resistor I get less current. But I may not have it together right. Even after making jewelry, this thing is little.

In a dozen flashlights, I found 3 or 4 o-rings. I got Burna-N 70 and silicone 1 mm. cross section o-rings from The O-Ring Store, in various sizes. The silicone ones do not fit. They are too weak to be squeezed into such tight spaces and do not stretch any farther than the others do. For the head, 10 mm. inside diameter seems right and matches the ones originally fitted. The tail space is smaller and 8 mm. seems best. 1/2 mm. o-rings are used for watches but do not appear to be easy to get in small quantity.
I have not attempted to waterproof the front. My best idea is wax.

I ordered the paste. The Martian heat ray might take up too much space for the times I would use it, and I am already spending enough. I do appreciate this help in bringing my electronics skills into the 21st century.

Wax, what a novel idea. I have to give that a shot. Seems like it could make threading smoother. I have a multi pack of rubber o-rings, but often I need sizes I don't have.

You'll like the solder paste even with a solder iron. It's just so much easier to control the quantity per joint. It's also thick enough to hold help those little components in place so that all the pieces don't shift around if you jar or bump the circuit board. For some reason, I really enjoy watching the flux boil out of it when heated.

Do you do your soldering under a vented hood or something? I solder outside if the weather is ok. Otherwise, I do it on our kitchen stove. I cover the stove real good and then clean it up real good afterwords. I annt a work bench with a real strong vented hood.

The lube I use most often on threads is good furniture wax, a mixture of bee’s wax, carnauba wax and orange oil. I sometimes use Treewax carnauba based floor wax on doors but have not tried it on flashlights yet. I use a thinner lubricant on threads to clean them up.
My wife has not complained about the smell of fluxes, except when I use my propane torch. There is a common room I could use with a high ceiling.
The tail of one of the lights was not holding its o-ring, even though it is under sized. I got it to stay in place by deepening the groove with a triangle file.
I have not continued testing of the 5049 driver yet. Ordered three more of them though. If all else fails, I can use direct drive again.

I will have to check into the waxes. I don't know anything about any of them.

Dude, I'm no expert, but I think Flux fumes have very bad stuff in them.