3 X D cell X2 Zooming Light @ Tmart

searched with “3xD” on the SmilingShark site and found
http://en.cnsmilingshark.com/product/html/?97.html

pictured with a dedicated long cylindrical battery

SS-A92
ZOOM:Adjustable
Light source:CREE Q3,US ORIGINAL
Lumens:150LM
Function:3Modes(Strong-Weak-Flashing)
Material: durable aircraft-grade aluminum
Switch:Middle push ON/OFF button
Weight:750g
Power supply:3xD alkaline battery

last week I found none; today ’oogle is finding a lot of them, searching “3xD” “zoom” “flashlight” as the search string.
Here’s one of several more

click on “Image” at the top of the search results. They’re popping up like mushrooms after a rain.

I found another imperfection, in addition to it having an XM-L rather than an XM-L2 because it was made quite a while ago. The zoom has quite a bit of momentum and coasts on for a while after you let go of the button. That must be due to the weight and speed of the motor armature (rotor would be a more general term). Another picky point is that, at least with alkaline cells, the current is resistor limited rather than regulated.

well, I’m waiting on one.
Have you tried NiMH D cells in the light? That’s what I figured on using.
I

No, I think it will be brighter maybe twice as bright on them, especially if it can be moded. for higher current, but the cost is comparable to that of the light and I haven’t yet decided to spend that. I think at 1.5 A the alkaline voltage will drop below that of Ni metal hydride. I definitely am not likely to use it so much that rechargeables are cheaper than alkalines, though that seems to be what it was designed for.

The 3 x D light is now a Smiling Shark SS-W0016 and costs $52.49.

It also appears on the Smiling Shark Web site, but it is listed in both places as 1 x 18650 with a 38 or 52.6 mm. diameter. The Fasttech listing shows it with a 18650 and an unusual converter/charger.

The 3 x AA one is slightly more than at LightMalls at $39.53 and is still a Smiling Shark SS-W0019.

Since the two are now appearing with the same brand name, it seems likely that the zoom is identical.

Anyone know a good source of Ni MH D cells. This looks good to me: http://www.batteryjunction.com/1dni10reba.html .

I can tell you a not-so-good source of D and AAA cells — cheap Tenergy NiMH, light blue with a dark blue band at the negative end.
Lots of those were for sale cheap for quite a while last year and longer ago, around the time Tenergy took them off their website.
You can still find them for sale here and there. I bought several batches — they’d either aged out on the shelf or been stored too hot somewhere in the sun, low capacity and didn’t hold charge very long.
Cheap though … they’re Ok if charged right before they’re used, for a day or two.

Dang. Got mine today, N&K Trading, North Brunswick NJ.

Lights up, but the zoom does nothing but make a brief little gritty noise when the silver button is held, then silence. No sign of any change in the actual light pattern, no movement inside the head.

EDIT: slight twitch inside the head, in and out, maybe a millimeter, not enough to affect the beam spread at all.
Motor pulls enough that the emitter dims slightly while the motor’s trying to zoom/focus and failing.
The amount of the twitch varies a bit, definitely feels like something’s jamming the zoom mechanism in there.
And it doesn’t open up, dammit.

The zoom button doesn’t depress noticeably at all. Should it?
EDIT -no, that’s how it’s meant to work
The silver button feels like it’s just an electrical sensor/contact.
The power button is usual black rubber cover over a clicky switch.

High, low, strobe as expected.

… contacted Tmart “chat” ….

They will email me after they “contact the relevant department”

Well, perhaps this is why the gray ones are on sale (but the other colors aren’t).

There’s a little twitch inside, feels like it’s got something jamming the zoom.

Sorry that happened. It seems I was lucky. Yes, the silver colored button does not move. It must be an electrical sensor of some sort. Maybe it senses capacitance at a high frequency.
I see now, in addition to black and grey with no brand at $23.13, there are ones branded TangsPower for $42.64 in black and bronze. The descriptions are all wrong, but in different ways. I don’t have experience with Tmart, and I don’t have much idea what postage back to New Jersey would be. You should send them a video of trying to make it work.

I finally ordered three Tenergy high discharge NiMH D cells from Battery Junction for $30.54 with postage. These are old “tech” cells that no longer appear on the Tenergy Web site. Nothing is said about self-discharge.
My alkalines are already down below 1.5 V from me and two three year olds playing with it. At 1.44 V from each of my alkaline cells, it is down to 0.6 A on my cheap meter.

I ordered 2 and received them today. I received one black one, and one grey one. But had ordered 2 grey. No biggie. Amazingly both work despite having slid out of their boxes in the shipping bag.

Not particularly bright, loud, and a fair amount of drift in the zooming mechanism if trying to stop between flood and zoom.

Despite all of that they’re fine for the price paid, and if I can get one of them apart safely it’ll make an interesting host.

I heard from Stupid (not her real name) today — the chat support bumped me to them two days ago.

I sent them a video with audio so they can see and hear the problem and asked for a RMA and shipping label, or a replacement.

Here is a listing that actually says something bout the mechanism (3*AA/3*14500):

And a 18650 version:

And another 18650, but the mechanism is not clear:

Tmart tried to repay with points instead of money — to be credited only many days after return of the problem light
and
in the fine print
“A2: 10% of the order amount can be paid by Tmart Points. When you check out, the system will show you available points in this order.”

No way.
Waiting for a return label and a refund.

I would love to see how the zoom moves

You can hear at the end that it retracts when turned off.

now that’s interesting (though I expected it to be noisy gear grinding zoom)

thanks for the video :smiley:

My Tenergy cells came. They are charged to 1.29 V, though nothing in the description said anything about low self discharge. Perhaps they charge them before shipping them out.
I get 1.0 A with the rechargeables and 1.25 A with the Alkalines. Very disappointing! I had expected a big increase. Either the current is not as sensitive to the battery resistance as I expected, or else the NiMH cells have high internal resistance.

I’d suggest faking up a holder for three good Eneloop AAs and see how they do, albeit briefly.
And try putting the Tenergy cells through break-in cycling if you have a charger that does that.
The blue Tenergys are pretty old. But after cycling a few times in a Maha break-in mode, mine are anywhere from 1.31 to 1.39 a day after being charged.
I did have several DOA (0.0something voltage, and “High” in the charger) when I bought batches of them, and that was a year or more ago.

My charger will cycle them, but it has only two slots, only one amp. and it will take magnets to use both slots, so cycling three 10 Ah cells will take some time. It discharges at half an amp. which is almost a day!
I still don’t see any of the more recent grey ones for sale anywhere. The other choices are the white and blue ones, or rigging 3 x AA substitutes.
This is the size of NiMH cell my car uses. I don’t suppose it would miss three, lol.