well i was messing with my small sun zy-t13 today. got it up over 200,000 lux, and i think my meter is reading somewhat low too, so i put a reading from my ea4w along with it.
3,502 lux per dollar for this light.
what are some of you guys best budget throwers getting per dollar?
thought this could be fun
I put a de-domed XP-G2 in a ultraOK ZS-2 I then wired it to direct drive. Total cost $5.12 What are the LUX I have no idea but it throws that little tiny beam a long ways. You can’t run it for more than a minute without it burning your hand but for the money I bet it gives your’s a run.
I have also put a de-domed XP-G2 in a the Small Sun but I took it back out and put in a de-domed XM-L2 it might not have as high a lux but it puts more light downrange. So that within it’s effective range it’s brighter. The XP-G2 out throws it but it’s not enough light to be really effective at least not for me.
One of these days I need to buy a luxmeter and a good DMM. For now I just eye ball everything and in a strange way it almost seems more accurate. For instance I know the XP-G2 in the same reflector focused properly with the same amps as the XM-L2 throws farther and thus has higher lux but it just doesn’t seem brighter to the eye.
well, if it got more than 17,930 lux it beats mine lol.
3,500/dollar?
Well, how about a stock Small Sun ZY-C10-S that does 63,000 candela (by lux you actually mean candela I hope?). So, do the math and 63,000 candela for $14 from Manafont is 4,500 candela/dollar. That's stock - I tweaked it up to 76,000 candela by switching the wires to 22 gauge, sanding down the pill top and back of star, using AS5, and that's about it. Figure $15 total for 76,000 candela: 5,066 candela/dollar.
Note: I ordered 2 C10-S's, one came with a EZ900 XR-E that did 63 kcd, the other came with a EZ1000 XR-E that did 50 kcd.
Also did a Convoy C8 host with a de-domed XP-G2 that does 127 kcd for under $30 in parts, so, 127000/30 = 4,233 candela/dollar
You could also look at stock Jacob A60 the same way - long throw, cheap investment.
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For lux vs. candela, lux is basically a measurement of light, but candela is light at a distance of 1 meter, so ANSI/NEMA set the throw standard in candela units. You measure in lux, then convert your result to candela units -- that's how we should do it. Oh, and you should probably avoid doing the measurement at 1 meter because it's not very accurate - measure a precise distance in meters, and do the math to convert back to 1 meter, results is in candela units.
Ex: At 4.3 meters, I measure 3,000 lux on my meter at best spot from scanning the center beam (dark room, try to eliminate reflective input to the meter)
So, 4.3 x 4.3 = 18.49,
18.49 x 3,000 = 55,470,
so throw measurement is 55 kcd (I truncate)
Equation is: (d2) x (lux)
Yeah I probably do mean candela, wich is probably why most people will write 200kcd when they post readings…
So looks like your modded zy-c10-s is the budget champ so far.
Wish I was able to have my meter calibrated… Either that it get someone’s readings from a ea4w to compare mine to
I never calibrated my meter and seems pretty darn accurate. Think I spent like $30-35 for it on eBay or Amazon, nothing special.
Yeah, I knew the conversion but I guess I didn’t fully understand what I was converting to S)
My meter will get consistant results, and is really good enough for what I need. Like dedoming the xre in the t13 gave me about a 33% boost in performance, about 155kcd to just over 200kcd… Didn’t actually do the math so that 33% is just an approximate
May I suggest trying out a laser instead.
If it's lux/high kcd numbers you're after, no flashlight will come close to touching a laser with a beam expander. :D
only slightly more on topic…
if it’s lux/price you’re after, a beam expander at ~$80 is not going to help much? 
or are they a simple mod?
[edit:] maybe an adjustable focus laser is more in the price range…
If you can buy a $14 laser that you can actually light up a target enough to see it fully, out 200-300 meters, I'll buy one - post a link! 
Lasers are great for pointing things out - never knew you could actually use one for seeing full objects/targets with a degree of color reproduction. Dunno what that beam expander does for you.
Yeah I know what you mean. My Modded A60 (XP-E2 driven at 2.8A) is putting out about 115k lux but my stock xml lights look brighter because they light up more area.
lets keep this to flashlights and not lasers… not really a fair comparison. i could probably go buy a laser for $2.99 that will max out my light meter…
how much do you have into your a60? never really looked into them too much, but they were dirt cheap when they came out werent they? like $12? if thats the case, new led and driver would bring it to right around $20 or so.
is that dedomed?
just thought it would be fun to see peoples budget minded flashlight throwers
I built 2 of the XP-E2 A60's, but even stock with a good XR-E Q5 they do up there, think in the 70's? and also it's $14.70 at DX. On the modded ones, I replaced the driver too - think we are doing 2.45A, and the XP-E2's are on SinkPAD copper. Reflector is plasitc, but pretty good quality - pretty unique light. I'm thinking about $12 in parts maybe, so $27 total for parts? -- 4259 candela/dollar, but stock about 5000 candela/dollar.
xm-l for a jack of all trades, MC-E for pure floody power, XP-G2 for maximum throw.
It all depends on what you need.
of course there’s the monster sst emitters, but keeping things cheap, you can have more flood than you /really/ need with a MC-E if its driven right.