It’s not budget but the ThruNite TN30.
The TN30 is pretty awesome, especially if you get the TN31 to go with it, but the TR-J16 uses 18650s, has better fins than the TR-J12 and pulls more amperage.
Also my J16 is my most neutral white light, the build quality on it is much higher than I expected from a *fire.
BLF budget diffusion = window frosting spray
A light coat on the lens is all you need .
+1 on that.
Especially the neutral white version hkequipment has.
My next target.
don’t have my tn30 yet but i’ll give it a recommendation also lol
I found a 9000 lumen Bridglux LED at DigiKey for $72.00. Interesting.
1) Get a powerful light
2) Get diffuser film of your choice for a buck or two
3) More Flood? Add another layer.
Pros: You can remove it, no need to modify light, they make also throwers all flood so versatile when removed
cons: Film can eat some % of power, needs "assembling" (dohh)
The one that I linked to above is around 12,500 lumens at 3.75A. They do over 15,000 lumens at 5A. And those are genuine American lumens. Multiply by at least 3 for Chinese equivalent lumens.
And the price is now <$69.00
I saw no link in your post. Funny, one of these things by itself could dwarf many folks entire light collection in lumens.
I think the Chinese version of this only costs $5.00. 
Check msg #27…
I checked the output of several different Chinesleeze arrays. At 60 watts in, the Bridgelux array put out more light than the best Chinesleeze 100 watt array.
[quote=texaspyro]
Check msg #27…
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Oops! I was looking at the other one.
thanks for all these options friends.
that tn30 i hear is suppose to be thrunites flood monster. but yea it is quite pricey.
so whats that hke clone of the tn30….link anyone?
getting a powerful light and diffusing it with film sounds like a good idea.
i was thinking maybe a hd 2010 or stl v6 or v2.
where can i buy this diffuser film?
hey jack, where did you buy the window frosting spray? that sounds neat. i can try that as well.
i did really like the removal of reflector tip though. i was happy with the outcome of that, but how do i keep the pill from popping out? do you guys just use some sort of glue?
because with the reflector on, it screws onto pill and the lens pushes down on the pill, but without the reflector, its just wobbly.
HD2012, STLV6 and V2 use one single XML emitter and the head is designed for pure throw, as in a small tight hotspot with minimal spill.
Even if you diffuse the light, it will be dimmer than say an Apex 5T6 (5 XML emitters), or a Skyray King (3 XML emitters) or DRY (3 XML emitters).
I got my window frosting spray at Ace Hardware .
Make a short piece of spacer tube to fit between the bezel/lens and the pill. For something quick and cheap, find a cap off of something that is the right size and cut it to length, then cut out the end of the cap so that you just have a tube). You want it as close to the inside walls of the flashlight body as possible.
Another way would be to make a whole in the end for the LED to clear. You could even paint the inside of the spacer with some of that shiny chrome effect spray paint (never tried that, though).
Ive never had an issue with the LED floating freely when the reflectors been removed so i cant really comment on that much. I use a UF V6 XM-L with the reflector off all the time and its given me no bother. Like the others say, you could probably stick a bit of round flat bit of plastic with a carefully sized hole cut in the centre that snuggly fits into the barrell edge to hold it. With the XM-L the led resin drop is often softer than with other leds and gets softer as it heats up so youd want to be careful about touching it with much force against anything. Also its obviously not waterproof so even a few big raindrops in the right place could short it. Its not a workhorse setup that you can throw about much. Ive used a old Romisen RC-G2 as my main EDC light for years with the reflector off and its always been fine as a throwabout light but its LED is much tougher than a typical XM-L.
Ive always loved the portable lightbulb style of light from them.
HD2012, STLV6 and V2 use one single XML emitter and the head is designed for pure throw, as in a small tight hotspot with minimal spill.
Even if you diffuse the light, it will be dimmer than say an Apex 5T6 (5 XML emitters), or a Skyray King (3 XML emitters) or DRY (3 XML emitters).
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i thought i would need something that was designed for pure throw with high intensity and a tight hotspot because since im diffusing it, its gonna turn it floody so i was thinking i need something powerful to compensate for the diffuser.
or maybe this theory will work better with removal of reflector….?
how i came up with it was because i took one of my weaker single xml c8’s, and removed the reflector. it was near perfect flood. it made my skyray king look like a single xml. i even had to turn it on and off a few times to make sure it was on high mode. but since it was one of my weaker c8’s the brightness was not satifactory. flood was great.
so thats how i came up with maybe if i was to buy a super bright light regardless if i was meant for pure throw, taking off the reflector would just turn it into a floody beam, so i would basically take the power of the hotspot, and it would translate it to a more brighter flood……? am it crazy for thinking this? im fairly new to how led lights work so bare with me on this haha.
i dont understand how frosting the lens will turn it floody. i would think it would just become very dim because theres a layer of white film covering it.
but if it does indeed work, thats very cool, but removal of reflector would problably be brighter huh since there is no layer of film to shine through.
would you happen to have any pictures of the beam after removing reflector off of your stl v6? do you have a king or multi emitter xmls? if so, was it almost as bright and was it more floody?
When a led is concentrated with a reflector or optic it is brighter in the concentrated direction. When a reflector is removed, the angle opens up and the same amount of light is spread out over more area - that is why it looks dimmer.
With no reflector the led puts light out at whatever angle it was designed for . . so like 125 degrees for XML (180 would be all directions in front of the led, 125 is a bit narrowed). The angle is what gives you the flood effect.
Lights that are bright because of their reflector are no help in terms of more available flood. You want lights that have high draw XML and/or multiple leds. You want a short wide angle reflector, wide optic, or perhaps no reflector to use the max led angle.