Need help on some flashlight terms

What is emitter lumens vs out front lumens?
Nomally which is more?
When manufacturer states the lumens, which are they referring to?

What is bin, pill? Thanks.

Emitter lumens are measured at the emitter (LED)
Out the front lumens are Measured as what comes out the front.
Emitter lumens will be more then out the front lumens
From my understanding most manufactures measure emitter lumens
Bin I believe refers to the LED and what type the LED is For instance CREE P4 or CREE Q5 both are different bins.
The pill I believe is what the LED is mounted to as a whole componant.


But then again this is all new to me as well, So take what I said as semi-educated guesses. I'm sure if I'm wrong someone will correct me and we can both learn a thing or two. :thinking:

Emitter lumens is usually the manufacturers rating of the amount of lumens the emitter can put out at a certain current. If a flashlight maker drives it at 700ma then they often double the rating from the LED maker that may give a lumen rating for 350ma (typical). Or they may go by the LED makers charts. Most don't measure the actual emitter output as that takes fairly sophisticated equipment to do so accurately.

Out front lumens is what you actually get once it passes throught the front lens and can be measured with a light meter. This amount is always less the emitter lumens.

bin refers to the LED manufacturers codes that specify the color coding, typical lumen output at 350ma, forward voltage and other specs. Original Luxeon bin codes were for example WO, XO, YO and so on. Certain codes are cooler (bluer) and some warmer (more yellow) and some greenish (yuck). They also had codes specifying Vf and flux so TYOJ would tell you the forward voltage, color, and lumens at 350ma. Do a search here and you'll find charts and specifics or go to www.cree.com for the latest Cree bin codes.

A pill usually refers to the LED on a PCB board with driver.

Regarding bin, isn't it, the pcb with the circuitry where the led was mounted. Cause for the fenixs, I can see Q4 and Q5 bin, where the led is the same cree xre 7090.

Then the pill, is it something like the silverish cylinder holder inside the head, where it holds the pcb with the led and with/without the regulator/driver?

This is my 20th posts, think after this, I should get enlightened..

The bin is the rating given to the LED. They might all be Cree XR-E 7090s but a Q5 bin XR-E 7090 would be more efficient then a P4 bin XR-E 7090. Bin also tells tint. The WD bin will be warmer then the WC bin(thins is for Cree). Bin codes are used to identify the LED within a model. Every LED company has different numbers and letters for their bin codes. Check here.

The pill includes the LED, driver, and (part of the) heatsink. It is also called the light engine.

Thanks all for the replies..