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

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.

I think I found what I did wrong. Under the subheading “Constant current diode” in the Wikipedia article “Current source” it says:
“The simplest constant-current source or sink is formed from one component: a JFET with its gate attached to its source. Once the drain-source voltage reaches a certain minimum value, the JFET enters saturation where current is approximately constant. This configuration is known as a constant-current diode, as it behaves much like a dual to the constant voltage diode (Zener diode) used in simple voltage sources.
Due to the large variability in saturation current of JFETs, it is common to also include a source resistor (shown in the image to the right) which allows the current to be tuned down to a desired value.”
So that must be a PNP (p channel?) JFET and the resister is in line, in the main current path. So I measured the resister I took out, and it is 1 or 2 ohms, all my meter can tell me, not the 51 Ohms I still read coded on it.
So I should try next only a wire there.
I don’t know what the figure to the left is.
Maybe there is another resister coding convention I don’t know, or maybe it changed its value when it was salvaged. I assume most of these things are built with salvaged components from electronics that was sent for re-cycling.
Added: The resistor is not as shown above, but in parallel with the transistor.

With the resistor replaced by a heavy gauge wire, I am getting readings around 0.4 A. With various cells and running down two Eneloops, I get this.

The curvature may be only an artifact due to the internal resistance of “1.5V” lithium cells.
First, this is lower current than I would like but usable.
Second, this shows us how to make drivers even smaller than 12 mm.
Third, Smiling Shark has, at some level, selected leds with unusually low minimum forward voltage for this model. An led from a 5039 made no visible light with the same two cells as the lowest point, and an XP-G drew only 0.06 A. (The light output must go to zero by the point where the voltage reaches the photon energy in electron volts.) Practically, this means it is not clear whether it would improve it to replace the led with a Cree.
Comparing the light output and current shows that at least this example will benefit from a new led.

Got my 2 Smilies today. A SS-5039 and a 49. I like em, especially the texture of the tubes. Nichia 119 definitely going in at least one of them. Light out put isn't too bad on Eneloops. I may keep the stock driver. Although, I will try to read this whole thread and see if it has any info on modding the driver up just a hair. I'll stick with Ni-Mh though.

Thanks Fritz :)

Two AAAs work better with low V forward, so I used a red XP-E. I read 1.1 A on the bench. Assembled: 1.4 A at 2.65 V, without the tail spring. This shows that a 2 x 1.5 V configuration is good for red light, but raises the question of whether it is still in its primitive form of regulation or whether I have shorted out the transistor.

Clever idea that. Red emitter with low Vf. I really like the idea of having a AAA red for in the house with dark adjusted eyes. I think I will have to copy that idea.

It is quite a lot brighter than my Nanjg 102 1 x AAA Shark. The driver efficiency is very good, whether or not the transistor is still in the circuit.
Nanjg 1 x AAA alkaline on left and direct drive 2 x AAA alkaline on right.

Because of the smaller led, the focus is more sensitive to the relative positions of the led and reflector. My way of judging this is how the led color disappears as I rotate the light away from my eye. If it stays longer on the near side, file more off the bottom of the plastic reflector. Then I file the pill until everything fits in the head, the front of the battery tube contacting the driver or connection board, as in a twisty.
I have an XM-L and an Osram on my table that I took out of larger lights for better leds.

Examining the second 5049 driver board, the resistor and transistor are in parallel on the positive side. The negative side goes straight through. Perhaps the transistor’s rating is too small to be used alone, but it helps out when the battery is low? I get 0.17 A connected normally and 0.45 A connecting the positive to the other side of the resistor. (It was no brighter with 0.45 A and now is very dim and low current, so maybe that is too much for the led.)


So that explains why the red one is direct drive. Shorting across the resistor also shorts across the transistor.
I have Mini 12 driver boards on order but don’t know if I can actually build them. I could also run them on alkalines with more internal resistance.

With 2.7 V Ni metal hydride I get 0.04 A through my old XM-L. I get 0.23 A with nearly new alkalines and 0.46 A with new Lithium primaries. So except for red leds, Li primaries, particular leds or long run times, 2 x AAA cells need boost.

With one of the less badly broken Nanjg 102s and alkalines, I get 0.40, 0.38 A through the Osram and XM-L, respectively. Another measurement suggested poor driver efficiency.

Back to 5039s. With an AK-007 0.8~1.5V 3-Mode Circuit Board for Flashlights (11.9mm) from DX and a 1.3 V white Eneloop, I get 1.8 and 0.35 A, on high and low modes. High is the same as with a Nanjg 102, and it appears to be the same coil, but it has three modes and the two board configuration protects the coil in shipment. The first light I tried to put it in, a 5038 with an Osram, had a short pill and it didn’t fit. Now it is in a 5339 with an XP-G on a 10 mm. star. I had to file the reflector a lot to clear the wires. Brightness is similar to Nanjg 102s versions. Ordered three more.

Someday, I will understand the electronic stuff you are talking about. At first I will be using the stock driver like I did in this light with a Nichia 119H as I don't have any AAA sized Li-ion cells.

I really like the beam patterns on your 2 red emitter lights above.

My little lithium ion cells and charger are from Mountain electronics. Efest IRMs and a mini USB Xtar charger. Great output, if you don’t mind five or ten minute run times.
Hadn’t noticed your thread before. Looks like the same pill solution. That one that resembles the 5039 looks the same as an AA Smiling Shark I have.

I built a BLF Tiny 12 driver, but it doesn’t work.

Here is a braided switch. It goes easily in spite of the size. Click on the pictures for larger views.

I see no good way to beef up the steel plate and washer.
This is for a 5049 with direct drive and an XM-L, the white led I have with the smallest forward voltage. With two used alkaline cells it is about as bright as a 5039 with a Nanjg driver and draws a quarter of an amp.

The 5039 I used to hybridize with a 5038 has unusual marking on it. It shows that lights marked Smiling Shark and Police do come from the same factory, as suspected.

By filing down the 5039 body, I got it to fit well, except that the tail button takes more force than usual.

This is as small as one can be made with all its outside anodizing and the tail switch in tact.