Glow in the Dark Projects and Mods

[Skylighter]

You can get a different but equally interesting bottle effect by just painting the bottom of the bottle. You then have the option of filling it or leaving it empty. One of our bar customers does this on top of a glass shelf. Under the shelf is a black light on a timer that fades in and out.

 

[Morelite]

My first GITD mod and I did it on the LB Micra.
Green powder mixed with 6 minute Loctite epoxy gel.

 

[thesurefire]

Heres a summary of my 'glow powder efficiency' thread as requested.

What percentage of the lumens a small container of glow powder 'takes in' will it re-emit?

Well…

Lets say you turn on a light and it hits the glow powder. In the first few seconds (I would estimate 10 seconds) the glow powder absorbs about 90% of all the possible energy it can take. It takes about 20 minutes to get a full charge from a 1000 lux lamp.

Its mostly UV light that charges it, but the blue spectrum of visible light works well to. Of the light that hits it a percentage is absorbed as energy, and the powder will continue to absorb more energy until either it gets 'full' or the energy stops coming (you turn the light off)

In technical terms 'Glow powder works by when light hits it, the electrons move farther out in orbit. Then as they fall back down to their normal levels, they emit photons'

To really get an accurate reading of how 'efficient' glow powder is we would need a spectrophotometer to measure the UV light and a integrating sphere to measure the lumens of a light, and then use that light to charge the glow powder and then put the glow powder into both of the above devices and work out over a 24 hour time if the powder emits the same amount of energy as was 'put into it' This would also tell us roughly how much energy is absorbed and how much is wasted.

Other conclusions:

It seems to be generally accepted that 100 percent of the absorbed energy is re-emitted as light, but this has yet to be proven. Remember 100% of the light that hits the glow powder is not absorbed.

Blue charges glow powder well and red uncharges it.

Glow powder is charged with a reverse exponential curve (it takes in a lot of energy in the first few seconds and then less and less until it reaches its maximum capacity, for example 10 seconds may give you 90% of the total charge but you need another 5500 seconds to get the last 10 percent)

Glow powder un-charges (glows) with a reverse exponential curve (it emits lots of light at first then falls quickly to emitting a lower level of light for a much longer time)

So the glow powder must be receiving more energy then it emits to charge itself.

Sorry if I missed anything major and thanks to all those who contributed.

 

[greenLED]

Blue charges glow powder well and red uncharges it.

So, red "sucks" energy out of the GID? :thinking: How can it do that, if the red light is already emitting energy onto the GID material?

Or is this a visual effect of our eyes and the red color? :shrug:

 

[thesurefire]

So, red "sucks" energy out of the GID? :thinking: How can it do that, if the red light is already emitting energy onto the GID material?

Or is this a visual effect of our eyes and the red color? :shrug:

Well as I understand it the particles in the GID stuff get excited with certain wave lenghts and get 'calmed' if you will by others. So UV and blue makes the particles move faster making them brighter and red makes them move slower making the powder glow less brightly (or not at all)

On another note it looks like great minds think alike Morelite..

Yes I know its not pretty but its practical

 

[greenLED]

How are you guys taking those macro shots in the dark? Seems like my camera can't focus properly in the dark (all my closeups come out blurry).

 

[LEDcandle]

How are you guys taking those macro shots in the dark? Seems like my camera can't focus properly in the dark (all my closeups come out blurry).

Guess it depends on your camera..

Surprisingly, my mobile phone camera takes 'better' night shot pictures than my girlfriend's Konica-Minolta Dimage. I think because it is 'dumber' and just snaps whatever it sees without trying to compensate or focus too much.

The Dimage is a PITA to use at night, and will try very hard to focus and adjust and will take like 5-20 secs in low light conditions before the shutter snaps. With a super steady hand/tripod/surface, it can still take decent night shots (like the vodka bottle)

The other way is to use black light to provide some ambient lighting

If you have a manual function, use that. If not, I guess use the black light or a dim light in the distance just so the camera can focus.

 

[firefly99]

I still love my self-made glowtubes. A short piece of clear plastic tube, filled with a glowpowder-epoxy-mix.Chrisse

hi Chrisse, How did you put the sticky mix into the tube ?
When I try, the stuff would remain near the edge of the tube and would not move inside to fill the tube.

Care to share your technique ? Thanks

 

[Morelite]

hi Chrisse, How did you put the sticky mix into the tube ?
When I try, the stuff would remain near the edge of the tube and would not move inside to fill the tube.

Care to share your technique ? Thanks

Heat it up a little with a hair dryer, then I used a plastic toothpick to help force it down the opening. As long as you keep breaking the seal the air will come out and the expoxy will flow down the tube opening.

 

[firefly99]

Thanks, will try the hairdryer & toothpick method.

 

[Echo63]

heres a pic of some of my little bits and pieces

the squareish thing at the top is a Epoxy and glow powder mix
i got a rubbery ice cube tray from ikea then mixed up some green and put it in the mold - let it set then added some thin wire to strengthen it
then covered the wire in blue glow/epoxy mix
the Blue cross in the lower right is the same thing but thinner and blue only
the two cylinders are just clear pen lids that have been filled with glow/epoxy mix

and the spyderco delica was painted with nailpolish/glowpowder mix

 

[Echo63]

Pila power - sorry for not emailing you about that mold compound
i couldnt find dad's can of it so i used "crc silicone spray" instead

here are the mold pics (ice cube tray)



the epoxy mix in the mold



and a better pic showing the two colours of glow stuff in the one cross thingy

 

[OddBall]

Holy crap batman!! That's awesome!

I'm going to Ikea tomorrow! I have some silly cone spray so I'll give that a go - any idea on the price of the molds?

Nice going with the two-tone.

 

[Mr. Blue]

these are amazing projects...BUT...

how do you actually "fill" a small cylinder or groove around a flashlight?... what tools do you use to apply it/scoop it?


like how did you get it into the pen lids/glow tubes so neatly?
how did you fill that Micra so nicely?

thanks

 

[greenLED]

Follow the link in post#7. I also posted some additional tips on how I did my GID rings around my GL3.

 

[Pajamas]

Does Glowinc have a CPF coupon #? Was interested in playing around with some of this stuff and not sure if they have a CPF discount....Thanks.

 

[greenLED]

Here's a much better pic of the GID ArcAAA LED I put when I replace the LED:




Here's some shots of the LED's, pre-assembly:

 

[greenLED]

Another project I worked on over the Christmas break, adding some GID paint to the logo on the SF U2 pocket clip. I used a toothpick, and filled in the depression, repeated a bunch of times.

On the first pic, the U2 is laying on it's side on a table, notice the green reflection :naughty: from the GID paint on the table (bottom of pic). The second pic was taken about 30 minutes later.

 

[greenLED]

Last, but not least, another GID light I just did. This one has pure blue GID paint on the inside of the head, so the glow gets transmitted through the optic of the light. The glow is so dang bright that it can generate a shadow from about a foot away from my nightstand: :rock:



With a bit darker conditions, and resting on the U2:

 

[greenLED]

...and just to keep things from getting lost, here's a thread where we're discussing glow materials responding to pressure and heat.


PJ: Glowinc does not have a permanent discount, but they run pretty good sales once or twice a year (down to 50% off sometimes!) so keep your eyes peeled for those.