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


I found my SS-5003 to be characterless and flimsy feeling, but liked the picture of the SS-5039 and risked US$2.89 on it.
I have it now, and its other qualities are like its picture and not like its price.

It is not as bright as my Black Cat or as small as my Maglite Solitaire, but it is brighter than some and the output per tail cap current is more or less in line with my other led AAA lights. It feels better than it looks in the pictures. The anodizing feels good, the shape is smooth and clearly defined, it has fine grooves around the thin waist to aid in grip. It has a battery spring in the tail cap and two springs in the head end, one for the positive center connection and one to make a secure negative connection between the battery tube and the driver, the threads inside the head being anodized. The tail and head threads are well fitting, long and smooth. A more elegant solution to the negative connection problem than on most lights costing ten times as much, and probably many costing a hundred times as much. (Admittedly, it might not scale well to higher currents.) The pocket clip feels strong and its connection to the light is strong. The tail switch might be a little on the hard side, and it doesn’t tail stand. It might be waterproof if the grooves were furnished with o-rings.
Added: The negative connection spring falls out.
As a collector, Smiling Shark is my favorite brand. I don’t know if the designs are original, but many of them are unusual, starting with the only moving pill zoomy that I have seen with good cooling.

Got this one too.
It’s cute!

Always liked the looks of this one, but wasn’t sure if it was worth the trouble. Despite not having any moding experience whatsoever, I need to ask if it would be possible to do some mod of any kind? I think for this price I may just buy it, regardless of moding capabilities.

Here it is taken apart.

I received two more today, by China Post. The threads fit just as well as they do in the first one. The driver consists of one IC and the necessary coil of a boost driver. The pill is plastic, as expected in this price range. The Star is another tiny printed circuit board, with the led on it. The driver is 12 mm. in diameter and fits in the head. The fiberglass star is 9 mm. and fits in the widened out end of the plastic pill.
I measure 11.7 mm. inside diameter for the head, with only threads to attach the body and a constriction, to keep the lens from coming out, varying from the cylinder. Plastic lens reflector and pill and fiberglass driver slide in with slight force.
I measure about 1/3 amp. with a fairly good AAA cell.
So to make good use of this excellent host, we need 12 mm. or smaller boost driver, star and, for high output, metal pill. Or if we use a lithium ion cell, the driver does not need to boost.
It is so nice to feel a AAA light that is not cylindrical!

Yup…driver is the typical joule thief single IC w/ coil

You can get 13mm boost drivers from FT

Thanks, WarHawk-AVG.

Here is the laser etched logo, grip anodized surface and ridiculous power claim, magnified with an old zoomy aspheric lens.

Saw one in a local shop earlier without any logo being sold for only PHP100 (USD2.30). Comes in a black box. You can choose either black, gray, blue, red and gold. Nice cheap light.

It has a spring between the body and driver, instead of having the driver touch the edge of the body directly or conducting trough the head to the rim of the driver. I could shorten the head or lengthen the plastic pill to make contact, but I tried beefing up the spring. Soldering on copper braid didn’t work neatly, so I added coils of solid copper wire.
With the camera in normal macro mode:

With a supplemental aspheric from a zoomy:

The head now doesn’t screw on all the way, but I can shorten the plastic pill later when I change the driver and/or led.
I added two o-rings. Undersize ones, 8 or 10 mm. in 12 mm. grooves, stay in the shallow groves when the head and tail cap are screwed on. I might try putting a third in front of the plastic window (lens) if it doesn’t reduce the aperture.

This thing has a really narrow ‘waist’ of just 12mm, while the inner diameter is 11mm :slight_smile:
0.5mm wall thickness :smiley:

(i think it’s printed, as it’s not recessed)

Yes, the waist is like a Mag Light Solitaire.
I guess it is time to put the battery back in the digital caliper I bought when I was working on model airplane engines; my readings with this one are not consistent on this scale. Besides I can’t read the veneer without a magnifying glass as I could when I was young.

Now I get 10.8 mm. inside the battery tube and 12.0 mm. at the waist. For my Maglight Solitaire I get 10.6 mm. inside the battery tube and 12.7 outside. It reads one more digit than that, but it is not reproducible. So the wall thickness of the Mag Instrument Solitaire is 1.05 mm., thinner only where supported by the tail cap threads and maybe at the head. The minimum thickness of the SS is 0.6 mm. The SS walls are protected from crushing by the thicker nearby parts of the wall (13.9 mm.), so the strength may be similar. The Mag takes less pocket space but the SS feels much better in the hand and is easier to hold, as well as looking better.

There is a version with a strait cylindrical head, probably slimmer but not as nice looking or feeling, called the Smiling Shark SS-5038.

Either this is the same thing, or at least the same host, with a different brand name, or else there is an imitation of a light that sells for under $3.

FT shipped my order yesterday. I may have ruined a Nanjg 102 somehow. The inside diameter is 12.3 mm., the same for the smooth part where the insides go and the threaded part where the body attaches. The fit of the driver and star need to be good to avoid breaking the window pushing them out and for cooling, with no metal pill. Stock, the driver fits the head and the star sits in a groove in the plastic pill, perhaps a comment on the efficiency of the driver. The led sticks up from the star, so with a new led it will probably need a longer pill or shorter head and body, and the reflector will need to be shortened to restore the focus.

SS-5039s, stock on left, X-PG2, Q2, 7C4 Tint (~2900K) on right. Eneloops charged to 1.3 V.

Black Cat with lithium primary on left.

My only Nanjg 102 still doesn’t work, so the modified light is using the stock Joule Thief driver.

"7C4 Tint"

Nice! , I see I am not the only one around here who is found of warm tints.

I've been following this topic for a while. Well done!

Thanks Kodachrome40. I like warm tints for outdoors, but I now have a Nichia 219 for indoors.
Also, it could end up replacing sometimes the red button light I carry in my shirt pocket.

I ordered 6 more which makes a dozen. If I spent that much on one unit, would that still be considered a budget light?
I am thinking about shortening them, even though that makes holes in the lovely finish. My first modified one is a few mm. shorter.
Both the stock one and my XP-G2 one draw about 1/4 amp. from the same Eneloops.

One without the outer spring. Had to file three surfaces to make it screw shorter, plus tapering the outer edge. It locks out and would work as a twisty if I take off the switch.
One XP-E Nanjg 102 that worked for a while. Was comparable to the Black Cat. Probably over heated in reflow.