I have an "in" with a guy who can build pretty solid drop-in modules for Surefire lights (6p and 9P sizes). I am having a conversation with him about the possibility of building me a drop-in that would live in a light mounted on an AR used for home defense. The direction I am asking him to go with this is heavy on output with only a little regard for runtime.
In terms of actual specs, I am thinking of 500+ lumens on a 2 cell and basically asking him to drive the LED hard enough to run for 45 minutes. On a three cell version, 1,000+ lumens and again backing the runtime down to 45 minutes if it gets me more light. [Understanding that the eye does not perceive light output in a linear fashion, if I can get longer runtime (and less heat) with the same *practical* output, I'm good with that. I will leave that to my buddy who knows about these things.)] As for the reflector, I want to shoot for something that tends toward really good throw, but still retains a decent amount of spill/flood. At 1,000+ lumens, I'm not sure you would need a lot of spill inside a structure.
I will note for the record that I am aware that at these output levels, heatsinking becomes an issue. I will rely on the design of the drop-in to transfer the heat to the aluminum light body, and from there into the light mount and handguard. But mainly, I'm going to rely on using the light in short bursts. I supposed you might go hunting for someone and then have to hold them at gunpoint for 30 minutes while the Po-Po get there, but other than that fairly outlandish scenario, I have a hard time envisioning running this light for more than a minute or two at a time, if that. Any differing thoughts on that?
So I'm throwing this out there on the off chance that my buddy decides he wants to start building and selling these drop-ins as a regular thing. I am interested to hear any critiques on my thought process/guidance on the lumens vs runtime thing, as well as the beam pattern.