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

It shouldn’t have lit the emitter if only from a 1.5vdc battery though

Oh, you said you shorted a small Li Ion…then yes…shorting it made it a direct drive contact board more or less

I use the Li ion in the 5039. The 5049 in direct drive with two Eneloops give very low current and output, but with alkalines or “1.5 V” lithium primaries, it works fairly well, with the original led, with a red led or with an XM-L. With a red XP-E it even works with Eneloops. 3 V is above the forward voltage of some leds.

From general physics, machines of smaller size can work faster without being limited by diffusive processes such as respiration or cooling. So AAA lights that need the best cooling have very short run times.

Main reason is there ain’t alot of metal to soak up all that heat when you run Li Ion pretty much direct drive to an emitter…no mass = heat up quickly

That can be helped by holding it by the head unless the head gets to hot to hold anyway. Your hand has much more heat capacity than the light.
My point is that the distance the heat has to go to get to air or hand is less, so there is less decrease in cooling than there is in battery capacity as a light becomes smaller. At 2 amps. with a 350 mah IMR the light will be way down in output in five minutes. So it is not worth building a solid pill and trying for three or four amps.

I have destroyed two Philips Luxeon deep red leds while filing down the stars to fit. I put a sort of duct tape on the dome while I filed and cleaned it off with “Odorless” mineral spirits. The second one shows no physical sign of damage and worked when I got it down to 12.3 mm, but not after repeating the tape and filing grooves for wires and scraping off the insulating layer over the leads for contact with the wires.

Very sorry to hear about your emitter losses. Do you have a theory on what caused the emitter failure?

No, it could be holding it by the dome to file it, it could be the mineral spirits, it could be the tape pulled off something when I took it off. I have not lost any XM-Ls from any cause, but other leds seem to be more fragile. I tried other input points in case a connection had been cut, but it didn’t work touching anywhere I can reach with the dome on.
I think I will try reflowing an other Philips onto the same star.

I finished a deep red three mode 5049, but, on two Eneloops charged to 1.4 V each, it just flashed once or twice and went dim. It did the same on only one Eneloop. Apparently the “007” driver does not like the low forward voltage. The driver works fine with an led left over from a 5039.
I will try a Nanjg 102.

Added: The Nanjg draws 1.5 A from 1.4 V, and 3.8 A from 2.8 V which would burn out the driver and/or the led.
So my deep red, mounted at trouble and expense on a 12.3 mm. star can be used only with a Nanjg in a 5039 or with a resistor is a 5049, or maybe with some combination of driver and resistor. My stock of resistors is very limited and my pill isn’t the right length for a 5039, so I should proceed with a white led and work on a 1.5 V deep red light later.

Added later: The SS-5049 works normally, with an XP-G and the Dx three mode “Tank007” driver. It draws half an amp. from two Eneloops.

Can you remove the emitter from the star, do all the harsh filing and punishment work to fit the star, then reflow the emitter?

This way you don’t nick or damage/break the emitter doing all that heavy duty modding

Removes the most sensitive part that is easiest and most susceptible to damage from the equation

Yes, that is the best way for this type led. At this point I just took the dead led off and reflowed one from an unmodified star onto the cut down star.

The reflector filed to fit and focus the deep red led

This 5039 is only 12.1 or 12.2 mm. internal diameter. A bit under 12.3.

The deep red 5039 with Nanjg 102 is working. It draws 1.9 A from an Eneloop. I had to sand the star smaller to fit and partially dedomed the Luxeon while I sanded and broke a window (lens) when something stuck in the head.

Here are the deep red works (before finding that more sanding was needed)

Beams shot. This camera does not render the deep red well.

The beam looks quite throwy. Sharp hotspot, faint spill. Looks like it belongs to a bigger outdoor type light. How do you intend to use it?

I must have gotten the focus right and it is a small led, but I suppose the accidental dedome also contributes to the throw. I have night hiking in mind but am concerned about mountain lions and regulations. Right now it is in my shirt pocket, in place of the red button cell light I usually carry. The deep red really looks very nice and is best for preserving night vision and for fog or smoke.
I just got a lime and a PC amber Philips Luxeon, but I expect to use them in larger lights. They are broad wave length range but also colored.

After using the short twisty 5039/8 for a few minutes constantly, the plastic reflector has a rough surface near the bottom and stuck to the star.

Does anyone know of a metal reflector that is close to 12 mm. diameter? I suppose I will have to cannibalise an other AAA light to get it.

That shortened the works so it didn’t turn on right. I filed another plastic reflector to focus and fit over the wires, and I am filing a new head to fit. The XP-G2 is not the most heat sensitive part of the light. It has a black dent in its dome but still works well.

I cannibalized a slightly worn Black Cat for the reflector. It is close enough to fit.


Click for full size.
And I soldered the Noctigon to the copper pipe, which I hadn’t done originally for fear of desoldering the LED, the inner pipe or the wires.

I filed the reflector to fit over the wires without making contact, and over the XP-G2 base. I kept it full length because it looked over focused already.

Put some non-silicone heat sink compound on the bottom of the reflector, inside the head and on the threads between the head and the battery tube.
The Black Cat mirror is longer (shorter focal length), so I used a full length 5039 head.

I think, it throws better.

The aluminum reflector not only won’t melt, it gives it cooling comparable to that of more expensive reflector lights, instead of only to zoomies. So I think it is fixed.

I am reading 1.4 A at the tail, and it gets brighter when I short the meter leads together.


Using most of the components from a Nanjg 105c with Two Group program, a BLF Tiny 12 driver board from OSH Park and a Smiling Shark SS-5039, I built a current regulated 10440 cell flashlight. It draws 0.73 A at 4.0 V and 0.72 A at 3.75 V. It has two other steady modes and hidden flashy modes.


Yes it is crooked, but it works anyway.


I recovered some length for the copper pipe by setting the star back in the pill, instead of the star contacting the head directly as in previous mods.
The loss in heat transfer length could probably be eliminated, using the smaller BLF Tiny 10 driver.

awesome build!!!

Thanks War!

The three regulator chips stacked, but the board continued to need attention.

I took the coatings off one copper star. My first plan was to solder the pill and stars together with 99% tin, and then I could have reflowed the LED without disturbing the pill/star. The melting point of tin is too high for this to work.

So I took the coating off the other star and used a regular aluminum star with an XP-G on top of it.

Since it is regulated, I didn’t need the spring to be a resistor.

For the connection plate, I use a denuded Nanjg 102 that broke its inductor’s ferrite core on the way from Fasttech.


When it was all together, R1 was missing and it always warned low voltage. I took one off a broken driver, and after a week of interruption got it working. Have not tested low voltage warning.

It draws 1.08 A on a fully charged cell, with out of regulation maybe at 3.8 or 3.9 V.
The “3W” after the logo is now accurate.