Olight Smini

[camelight]

Yep, that's what immediately jumped out at me: good idea locking that thing in place so we can form some tactile memory and find the button quickly and reliably every time we put our hands on the flashlight, but bad bad idea on the orientation. The button has no business facing the clip and becoming inaccessible, but it also has no business facing the wearer's body, which it can be pressed into in some situations, leading to unwanted activation. The right orientation for the button is 90 degrees from the clip, one side or the other, to minimize the chances of unwanted activation.

And another questionable design element on these newer S1/mini models: the timer feature, if I understand it correctly, only applies to the 3 main modes that can be cycled with a long-press. But the expected usage scenario most people (and reviewers) will talk about with this is turning it on temporarily at night and wanting it to turn off on its own after you go back to sleep. Well what mode do people use in that scenario? Moonlight! The timer should work primarily (if not exclusively) for moonlight mode, not the normal illumination modes!


They had the most important part of that - a low battery indication via red light in the switch - in the old S10/S20 models and they brought it back in the newer tailcap-rechargeable S1R/S2R, but it's not in the simple S1/S2 and apparently also not in the Smini.

My s mini dose have the timer on moonlight

 

[CelticCross74]

weird. I have all the S Mini's. All of them have the same UI. As for accidental activation the side switches on all my S Minis are firm enough that it would take a hard press for accidental activation. As for the above post about the O-rings on the S Mini's I 100% agree. I have lost 3 S Mini O rings while removing the battery. These cheap O rings came right off with the tail cap and I have not seen them since. As for the timer feature and mode memory all my S Mini's have mode memory save for firefly. Run times. I went out of my way to search out legitimate AW 16340's for all my S Mini's. Took a couple of days to find a legit source for them but did finally find one. All my S Mini's have AW 750mah protected button top cells in them that hold their charge better than any other 16340 I have ever used. I also must note that the Olight branded CR123 lithium cells that these lights come with are extremely good. I still have all the Olight CR123 cells these lights came with as thus far they out perform even the Energizer CR123's which I believe are 1550mah...

 

[donjoe]

My s mini dose have the timer on moonlight

That's why I said "if I understand it correctly" - none of the UI descriptions are ever as detailed as I'd like.
Turns out my new S1 also has the timer in Moonlight, so they did think of the most probable use case after all.

 

[elzilcho]

Does anyone have the SS version? It's hard to tell from some of the photos if it's polished or more matte.

 

[firsttothescene]

Does anyone have the SS version? It's hard to tell from some of the photos if it's polished or more matte.

I have two of the SS ones and neither really looks like the one depicted on their website. Both are different colors; one is considerably lighter in color than the other. And both have some small imperfections in the finish. Also, I had returned a couple that had damaged looking bezels around the switch. (Additionally, the switch bezels varied from a shiny, uniform blue color to a dull splotchy blue).

 

[andydviking]

Decided to switch out the factory Silicone O-ring to a more durable Viton O-ring. While you may have different experience, I have no confidence in these clear Silicone O-ring as I've broken quite a few in the past when changing batteries (on other lights that uses these translucent O-rings).These Silicone O-ring has poor wear resistance...

S Mini uses 1mm (CS) x 17mm (ID) O-ring, in case you are wondering...

Just wanted to say thank you for this post and information. I used this to swap out my orings in mine and my girlfriend's s mini's.

 

[hackito]

Hi. This is my first post and it's only to share a cheap and alternative way to get a lanyard on the S Mini without the pocket clip. It's just a simple split ring.

 

[kreisl]

Re: *new* Olight Smini

does it have a magnet in tail ?

can it be USB recharged ?

no ? hmm.

I remember having had a discussion regarding the "tail magnet" of the Smini Ti but can't find the discussion, maybe it was on another forum. Users explained to me that my off the top of the head memory of the Smini was wrong and corrected me saying that the Smini does not have a magnet (while the Olight H1 Nova does). Both the H1 Nova and the Smini Ti do have a "black ring" in the tail cap, that's a fact!, i had remembered that fact correctly, which is why i had thought erroneously that the Smini had a magnetic tailcap too in the first place.

I've been using the Smini Ti as my primary EDC light since i got it 4.0 years ago, still running strong! But only today did i realize what the black non-magnetic ring is for. lol :laughing:

I put in a 16340 battery the wrong way, tried to turn on the light, and was shocked about my mistake .. since i remembered ppl on the WWW claiming that the electronic reverse polarity protection (ERPP) on some Olight model wasn't reliable. And iirc, the documentation/manual/marketing never advertised that the Smini has ERPP (or can you find a quote?). Be it as it may, did i just test the ERPP and possibly ruin the light?

When i opened the tailcap, i realized that the falsely inserted 16340, its (-)pole, never made electrical contact with the titanium! Because of the black ring inside the cap. So even if the Smini has ERPP, it was not tested by this incident. I did not ruin the light through my mistake, what a relief.

There you have it, long story short. The black ring in the Smini tailcap is not a magnet but functions as mechanical reverse polarity protection (MRPP). Most of you owners were probably aware of that, i really wasn't. Nobody told me. Olight didn't list it as feature. :shakehead
Back then I had thought that the black ring was useless, *gly, and poorly made (black foam? black soft plastic? black ****?), and i wanted to pull/peel it off. Am glad that i let it sit there, that i let :hahaha:it alone, unharmed, untouched.

Anyway, that's good news for Smini Ti owners: We doht need to be concerned about wrong polarity 16340 battery insertion, hooray! :twothumbs

Same goes for the H1 Nova apparently: a reviewer claims that the "foam donut" and the tail magnet are separate entities (so the black ring in the H1 Nova tailcap isn't a black magnetic ring either!). He doesn't sound too sure, though, also because the MRPP is nowhere mentioned by Olight company. But we can take the situation at face value: Both the H1 Nova and the Smini Ti seem to have MRPP through the black donut, great! And since MRPP is present, these Olights doht need to have ERPP in addition. (we're not sure if they have ERPP, are we? it's nowhere advertised as feature)

That makes me wonder why the folks at Zebralight couldn't add MRPP to my ZL AA flashlight. Actually, thinking about it now, i could try to add MRPP to that AA light myself, a nice mod. I just need to find a black plastic/foam donut and try to glue/tape it deep down there. ( EDIT1: done! :kiss: )

EDIT2: I checked. The pseudo-compressible black ring of the H1 Nova is very thin (low). It's not a "foam donut" but prolly made out of the same black plastic material as seen in the Smini Ti. The "problem" is the extremely tight clearance between the magnet and the donut, i measured 0.1-0.2mm, crazy. If your 16340 battery has a bulged out (-)pole and the magnet has moved out of its glued/fitted(?) position, then there could be electrical contact. So i modded the H1 Nova tailcap as well by adding another +0.25mm layer for a total of 0.35-0.45mm safety clearance: