I’ve been seeing all kinds of lumen outputs on flashlights and began to wonder what the actual limits to brightness actually are .lets say flashlights around the size of a BTU shocker (can be a bit bigger if needed )and smaller … And not more than $250… Just to keep some nasa house sized light out of this discussion … I.e portable battery powered lights …
So. How much can we have with our tech today ? Any examples of lights they own or seen ?
I’ve seen some crazy numbers online … But the 50,000 lumen pen flashlight for 5:99 is probably not very accurate lol…
Some of the modded bigger lights are pushing 10,000 lumens, like the X60Mvn.
My MM15vn does about 7500 lumen for a couple of mins before it starts roasting my hand.
For highest output, basically install an array of the highest efficiency emitters directly under the lens, or omit the lens altogether. You probably won't find a combination of battery tube and batteries that can drive that many emitters hard, so it's all about the efficiency. If you could somehow stuff every bit of space under the lens with an XP-L V6 and drive each at a mere 150mA, you'd have far over 100 thousand lumens. The power requirements for that actually aren't all that crazy.
RMM indicates he has measured ca 11,000 lumens from his highly modified Trustfire TR-J20. A huge light that weighs about 3.25 pounds without batteries and with a battery tube that can take 32650 cells. It has a very heavily finned head assembly. He is working on a version he can offer for sale. Below is the link to the review of the unmodified light.
Something seems fishy about them not showing the 48 xml leds… and that’s a lot of heat generated in a small package even with a magical self cooling mechanism.
I think it comes down to more emitters driven at lower current (more efficient), minimized lumen losses (AR lens, good reflector, foybezelled or eliminated light contact with lip of flashlight) and many high capacity batteries with an efficient driver (big one, many non linear drivers can be as low as 50% efficient).
I have a Tom-E modded BTU thats upwards of 3700L, and the recently acquired Tripple-MT-G2 / 8-Cell monster wall-of-light from OldLumens is off the scale in my Light Sphere, ( upwards of 8000 or higher)
Also have a 12 + Amp modded Skyray M4 Kung that measures just under 3900 in my light sphere for a few seconds before it gets to hot. (only on Samsung high-drain 20R cells)
I built a portable light that does over 40,000 lumens. A couple of Bridgelux arrays (fan cooled on copper heat sinks). Battery is a 4S16P A123 LiFePO4 pack that can do 3000+ amps into a short circuit. The main issue with lotsa lumens is getting rid of the heat… at these levels passive cooling is a non-starter.
My biggest project does over 500,000 lumens running off of AC power with water cooling…
Nope, the people and what it was built for prefer to remain anonymous…
You can get an idea of what the 40,000 lumen light is like by looking at my build for Old Lumens first contest. Except this one has real reflectors instead of a salad bowl… also has current regulated driver (over 400 watts).
