zapper,
As cy says, it is a lottery when it comes to brightness. The fabled R bins have a range from 39 to 57 lumens at 350mA. My BB500 R2H Fraen LP minimag most likely leans toward the low to mid 50's in lumen output at stock levels. I would guesstimate it punches out 65 lumens when driven at 500mA. (it loses lumens when going through the optic but is still brighter than an Arc4+)
Another thing I noticed is brightness perception depends on tint. I have two BB500 R2H Frean LP minimags and they have slight tint variances. My EDC minimag (the one cy likes) it punches out a very white, slightly warm beam. The oh so slight leaning towards yellow would appear brighter to the human eye due to the eyes increased sensitivity to that color.
My other BB500 R2H sammie leans slightly towards the blue side. I use that one for my bicycle helmet mounted minimag. The slight bluish tint to the white light is more noticable to cars because the color is different from the sea of headlights that are normally seen.
The reason cy changed his sammie in the firefly when switching from copper to aluminum is simple: copper has greater mass to absorb heat. Copper also absorbs heat faster than aluminum so it works better for high wattage cooling. The higher the mass, the faster the heat is removed. Computer CPU heatsinks follow that rule, the high powered CPUs use either copper bases with aluminum fins or solid copper bases/fins. Silver is better than copper but has a cost/corrosion problem.
Optics have a major effect on throw. My BB500 R2H with the Fraen LP throws very far for a small light. Ran into cy during the OK Freewheel, he spotted me as a flashaholic because my minimag helmet light had a Kroll tailswitch. He guessed it was a modded light and asked lumen output then said "BB500 sammie" I was busted!
A few nights later at a campground, we were screwing around with his Firefly MM+ R2H, Arc4 and Arc AA. Compared them to my BB500 R2H Fraen LP minimags and MM+ R2H 2D Mag. It was the battle of the bins /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crackup.gif
The firefly uses a cut down Fraen LP and I think that reduced output putting me at an advantage. His sammie pushes the R2H at over 1,000mA with mine at 500mA so call it a draw. Then it was time to even the score. Compare apples to apples and oranges to oranges.
Two MM+ R2H lights were compared but using different optics. cy with his firefly with cutdown Fraen LP against my 2D Mag with modified Mag reflector. In terms of throw, the Mag reflector utterly (with extreme prejudice) destroys all our lights. It must of thrown a spot at least 150 meters and we had a good time discharging the NiMH 11 AH D cells.
If you want throw from a small light, use the Fraen LP or the largest reflector that will fit.
If throw is the most important, a 2C Mag with Madmax+ and a high binned Luxeon I or III would be your best bet. Luxeon V 5 watters will not throw as far due to the large die size although they will give a much larger hotspot. I have all the parts to put my WX1S 5 watter/nFlex 8AA in a 2D Mag project together except one thing: the heatsink. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mecry.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/banghead.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/help.gif
If you are doing mods, asking about bin codes, heat sinking and optics... you have rounded the corner and can't turn back. Just empty your wallet, clear a desk to work, have a container for all the extra parts and resign yourself as an addict. Enjoy!