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

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.

Thank you just ordered two sharks.
H)

I am shopping for half inch outside diameter copper pipe. I also have a burned out cord from an electric stove.
Added: Perhaps one reason they are so cheap is that the head inside diameter is, as close as I can measure, a half inch. Perhaps they bought some surplus or commodity aluminum tubing formed to American specifications.

You are welcome Tad.


It is hollow, but with a thick copper star I don’t think it will be worth the time to fill it with copper wire and solder and drill wire holes. This is the thicker “L, outdoor” tube they had.



No attempt to fit the reflector to the flatter led yet.

Metal conductors as resisters have the advantage that the resistance increases with temperature.
That was with Li ions in both. The Efest in the 5039 was charged to about 3.8 V.
It ran for about 8 minutes, to much reduced light at 3.0 V. Warm but not really too hot to hold.

Charged to 4.21 V, I get 2.4 A, which is as much as most of my 18650 lights draw, dropping off at a rate that is in inverse proportion to battery size. This is with both the original springs in the head, some Nanjg 102 circuit traces and the original pill wires. I don’t know whether the tail cap resistance is more or less than that of the multimeter and leads.
Because the SinkPAD does not fit an XP-G, it has an XM-L2 T6 4D. So one can’t expect much but pure flood.

The Smiling Shark SS-5038 is similar to the 5039 except for a shorter narrower cylindrical head and a thicker walled wider body and tail cap. To get a smaller light, I filed the front threads on a 5039 body shorter to fit a 5038 head. Head and tail threads of both are all interchangeable, except for length. I also filed the plastic pill shorter to allow more battery space.

The 5038 has the same nice finish as the 5039. The hybrid is still thicker than a MagLight Solitaire, but not by much.

Later:
Here is what it ended up with.

The copper pill is split, the easier way to make it fit the head. That is an Osram left over from an SK-58 that I modified.