zhong sheng zs20rba3 - 5W flashlight

[RacerLex]

Hi guys,
I just picked up a "5W Police" flashlight. It's a handy, cheap light for camping.

I am impressed how bright it is for only $15.
Does anyone know how bright this light is? the lumens or anything about the LED?

It takes 4 AAA batteries and is a anodized metal housing. The LED is a little round yellow led and it says "zhong sheng zs20rba3"

thanks for any info

 

[hyperloop]

where'd you pick it up from?? if you could provide a link that would be helpful and oh yes, :welcome:

also, no offence meant whatsoever, but multi AAA lights arent usually all that efficient, my first ever LED was a 3xAAA 9 LED 'showerhead' light which i thought was the bee's knees, wasp's nipples, hornet's elbows, well, you get what i mean, but then i got an Ultrafire C3 from DX and my downfall started from there.

If you're prepared to take a risk, try doing a few 1ft drop tests on concrete to test the durability, as you wouldnt want a light to just die on you after a drop, especially if you're out camping.

I'm afraid i don't know much about the light you're referring to, perhaps if you could post some pictures or (as stated above) a link to the light, that would be much more helpful. i tried googling but couldnt find anything at all relevant on either "zhong sheng zs20rba3" or "zs20rba3" except that it did lead me to pics of an LED star but that was it.

In the meantime, i strongly recommend you go to 4sevens and get yourself a Fenix E01 sa a backup light, this is a small, tough as nails (trust me i have tested it, dropped, thrown, submerged) and long runtime (10hrs) backup light that runs on 1xAAA. It's $15 too but it comes with free shipping and a discount if you use the code "CPF8" when checking out.

ALWAYS have a backup light and spare cells. Cheers and enjoy your time here (though your wallet may not)

 

[RacerLex]

I happened to pick this up at the Rose Bowl flea market. It was good timing, meaning to get something to replace my old LED flashlight that was a POS but (but still works). The reason I like LED is that I don't worry about batteries. My crappy, crappy LED flashlight has a couple AAA and never needed replacement.

I've seen that Fenix light. It's not as bright at all!

This generic one will be fine, it's really bright and has rubber seals. Just curious if anyone knew the stats on it.

 

[tnforever]

Closest thing I found was this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-TACTICAL-SW...-Metal-5W_W0QQitemZ350147047744QQcmdZViewItem

which claims 70+ lumens, I'm guessing like all advertisements it's a bit overstated.

I could've sworn I passed by swarms of these while in the street markets of Hong Kong, but knowing how crappy some of the lights can be, and being the poor, stingy student I am, I decided to pay a little bit more for an Ultrafire or a Romisen (though I did take the plunge for a Tank007 too after checking them out in person) rather than have a cheap light break.

It seems the LED itself is made by ZhongSheng, since there's a lighting company registered to that name, and it's printed on the circuit board itself.

All in all, doesn't seem like a bad light, the LED seems to be native Chinese, though, and doesn't have the sort of quality reassurance we might expect from SSC, Lumileds, or Cree.

You can try, at your own risk, to take it apart even further, by using a pair of needlenose pliers... since there are clearly holes for them on the head, to see how (or if) the circuitry is.

 

[Marduke]

Having "Police" printed on the side of the flashlight, or being powered by multiple AAA's, or worse yet both combined, pretty much condemns a light to "junkdom" to begin with.

 

[kramer5150]

Eeeh... hard to say for sure just how good it really is. Multi-AAA carriers are a turn off for me. I'm willing to bet the LED has a Vf ~4.5 and the light is running DD off those 4AAA cells, which IMHO is not a good design.

For ~$20-$25 I think your money would have been better spent on any of the XRE-Q5 Romisens from shiningbeam.com.

Wow... google searching "ZhongShen ZS20HBA" brings up a lot of URLs. Its a very popular light/emitter in China, thats for sure.

 

[Illum]

its a sapphire LED... there's 6 dies under that flat substrate, hit it with 1.5V in total darkness and you'll see...made by Shenzen I think
barely a one watter

 

[csshih]

the emitter isn't efficient at all, btw.

 

[RacerLex]

Closest thing I found was this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-TACTICAL-SW...-Metal-5W_W0QQitemZ350147047744QQcmdZViewItem

which claims 70+ lumens, I'm guessing like all advertisements it's a bit overstated.

You can try, at your own risk, to take it apart even further, by using a pair of needlenose pliers... since there are clearly holes for them on the head, to see how (or if) the circuitry is.

That looks just like mine, or very close. Glad to see I paid a fair price at $15:thumbsup:

It does seem pretty bright. Went on a walk w/ the wife and it has a nice bright hotspot and decent throw. Don't know what 70 lumens is suppossed to look like but I don't think it's worth taking apart or anything.

Is that actually a 5 Watt LED? I have seen a 1 Watt LED that seems to be a more substanial design http://www.oznium.com/1w-led but is the LED in this flashlight brighter? or is the oznium one more powerful?

I had the flashlight on for about 15 min. and it didn't get warm so I don't think it's a powerful LED?

 

[Marduke]

That looks just like mine, or very close. Glad to see I paid a fair price at $15:thumbsup:

It does seem pretty bright. Went on a walk w/ the wife and it has a nice bright hotspot and decent throw. Don't know what 70 lumens is suppossed to look like but I don't think it's worth taking apart or anything.

Is that actually a 5 Watt LED? I have seen a 1 Watt LED that seems to be a more substanial design http://www.oznium.com/1w-led but is the LED in this flashlight brighter? or is the oznium one more powerful?

I had the flashlight on for about 15 min. and it didn't get warm so I don't think it's a powerful LED?

Your light is nowhere near 5W. That's just pure marketing BS. Any modern emitter driven at 1W would handily stomp it in brightness as well.

Even at $15 it's a bit overpriced...

 

[ypsifly]

I think the Husky series of lights available from Home Depot are Zhong Sheng. Here's a look under the hood of one of their headlamps:

It was $5 and while it isn't the best made light, its worth the money. Use what makes you happy.

 

[kramer5150]

That looks just like mine, or very close. Glad to see I paid a fair price at $15:thumbsup:

It does seem pretty bright. Went on a walk w/ the wife and it has a nice bright hotspot and decent throw. Don't know what 70 lumens is suppossed to look like but I don't think it's worth taking apart or anything.

Is that actually a 5 Watt LED? I have seen a 1 Watt LED that seems to be a more substanial design http://www.oznium.com/1w-led but is the LED in this flashlight brighter? or is the oznium one more powerful?

I had the flashlight on for about 15 min. and it didn't get warm so I don't think it's a powerful LED?

If you like it thats all that matters, enjoy it:thumbsup:

Looks like it comes apart easily, might make a serviceable DIY mod host:naughty:

 

[RacerLex]

That's funny! I got that headlight thrown in with my flashlight. (except it was a generic brand)
I was happy because I needed one more for the wife so it was a good shopping day.


thanks marduke, it gives me some idea of how powerful that Oznium 1W unit is. I might order some to play with

kramer5150,
yes it unscrews easily and seems like a good candidate for adding something else. I'm not savvy with this stuff so i'll leave it to the experts

 

[Big_Ed]

Maybe "5W" doesn't stand for "Five Watt" Maybe it's just model #5W, meant only to deceive a potential buyer. And having the word "Police" printed on it, what a joke! I'd like to see a cop who would seriously depend on a light like that. There's no way I could take a light like that seriously. Now maybe for just lighting up the area under the bed to find stray socks or something, that's different. I still wouldn't waste my money on it if I saw it for sale somewhere though.

And couldn't they come up with a better name, like MegaFire, or PoliceFire or something? There aren't enough xxxFire lights!

 

[Marduke]

By "modern emitter" I mean by modern, reputable brands such as Cree and SSC and such. Not generic brands who are still a generation behind.

 

[Linger]

Racerlex,
I don't want you to spend any more money on flashlights that aren't worth your while.
Please, try the cpf market place:

http://www.cpfmarketplace.com/mp/showthread.php?t=199988

(that person is selling two great lights. The quark is fantastic)

Look, you're gonna spend more money until you hit on lights that work well. We're trying to save you from buying ones just to throw out again.

http://www.shiningbeam.com/servlet/the-163/**NEW**-Romisen-RC-dsh-N3-WW/Detail
(warm tint)

http://www.shiningbeam.com/servlet/the-162/**New**-Romisen-RC-dsh-C6-II/Detail
(flood to throw)

Think about it, oK?

 

[hyperloop]

For a very 1st light, its probably decent enough for you, i know that my 9 LED shower head was (to me) a great light then but when i discovered CPF, i realised that there is a whole world of options out there and having been hanging around, around 50 orders to DX later, one truth emerges:

you get what you pay for

case in point: recently purchased a Nitecore EX10 GD+ from a fellow CPF-er for $55 (came with a cell, charger and clip), broke the lens recently and emailed nitecore, they replied within 4 hours and they're sending me a new lens for free

 

[lctorana]

The ZhongSheng emitters are a very elegant design. Look at one closely - you'll see the emitter is deposited on / bonded to the star as a thin film, rather than soldered to one as a heatsink. Very elegant, and evidently cheap to make. At the dealer-we-may-not-name, they are known as the "Generic LED emitter".

And they work well, too.

Up to a point.

I had a ZhongSheng ZS20HBA in a similar sort of side-clicky torch (from the dealer-we-dare-not-name), and decided to swap the 3AA battery carrier for a LiCo battery (I used a short 18650, from memory).

The result? Bright as a Cree for about half an hour, and then it died. The extra voltage, lower internal resistance and less resistance from six less internal contacts meant just too much voltage hit the emitter.

Lesson learned - the ZS emitters do not tolerate ANY overdrive.

If you're going to stay with this emitter, then stick strictly with the intended batteries. Zinc-Carbon, Zinc-Chloride, NiCad or NiMH AAA only. No alkalines and no lithium. THe emitter is strictly a 1W job, so wants current down around the 300mA-ish level.

(Oh, my torch lives on, of course. A Cree Q5 bolted straight in, and DOES stand up to the lithium voltage, being a 3W design.)

 

[hoongern]

The "W" definitely does not stand for watts, although it's probably a marketing ploy. Over here, there are 2 roadside stalls near my office which sell a TON of these police flashlights (got a couple at home, including a 3W, 8W, 20W.. and saw a 80W at the stall). Some of them have extras like a compass on the back, or built-in laser pointer. They cost between $2-$10 over here in Malaysia, and they will give you [blue-ish] light, but they will probably break. (I bought 7 of them - and right now only 4 are still working)

Btw, one of them actually runs on 1AA. Comparing it to my Quark AA moonmode, it's probably around 0.05 lumens =) Actually - it's a good night time ultra-low light!

However, all flashlights are still fun to play around with, and any light is better than none.

 

[hyperloop]

and any light is better than none.

as long as it works when we need it to