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

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.

New filed star and XP-E from a junked SK-68 clone. Unbroken finish.
It draws a little over an amp. and is about as bright as the Black Cat on lithium. Bigger spot and less throw. It gets noticeably warm starting with the head.
Drawing an amp. is roughly consistent with the specification of half an amp. at the led.

Sunday: One working with a Nanjg 102 and a warm white X-PG2, Q2, 7C4 Tint (~2900K).
FT is out of 5 mode drivers.
Monday: Working on a 10440 version, with a 1/2 watt 1 ohm resistor as the driver. Looks like it might fit in the plastic pill. Fluxing and tinning the led before mounting (again) on the board seemed to help. I expected the led to be tinned so no flux would be necessary.
Still no visible scratches on any of them. The clip slides off and on without scratching. Probably the best AAA host for under $100. The quality is equal to the artistic/engineering concept. The 5038 has a larger body, so how to minimize the size is not clear.

The new one is working. With an Efest 350 mAh IMR 10440 charged to 3.9 V, the one ohm resistor and original springs, it draws 0.6 A at the tail — similar to my CR123 lights. It is considerably brighter than the one with the same led and a Nanjg 102 driver on an Eneloop. Tinning the led didn’t hurt it. If I am able to rig some sort of metal pill, I might take out the resistor, on the next one.
The flashlight is no longer the bulkiest thing on my keychain.

i have a blue version of this light. I swapped in a Warm White strawhat LED.

Don’t Banggood and Paypal send confirmation emails?

PayPal emails me whenever they send my money. Banggood usually emails me to confirm orders and to notify me of shipments, but from searching my old email, maybe not always.

Shouldn’t Banggood always send confirmation emails? Paypal always emailed me except with Banggood. Banggood not sending email is one thing, but Paypal not sending one is very disturbing. Did Banggood make arrangement with Paypal not to send one? The information on making contacts or complaints is in the Paypal confirmation email.