Need travel sized UV for inspecting hotel rooms

I'm a freight pilot that does a lot of international travel and I need a UV light that is small enough to pack in a suitcase. The purpose of the light will be to inspect hotel rooms for cleanliness. Most of the hotels we travel to are decent and I/we do not suspect them as a problem. But in some locations our company has opted to put the pilots and mechanics up in "questionable" hotels. We complain and convey our suspicions, but without proof, nothing gets done. hence this post.

I did a search of the forums and found nothing that quite matches what I am seeking.

So, first what wavelength should I be looking for? The kind of stuff we are looking to find are human fluids such as seamen, urine, and such. In addition urine from mice or rats. I'm not sure what else we should be looking for, so suggestions are appreciated. Does any of this stuff require a chemical be sprayed before they illuminate? If so then this is a non-starter as I cannot carry that stuff.

Size..Nothing larger than a 2-AA maglight. smaller would be better.

batteries...I am flexible on this. AA or AAA would be nice, but other battery types are OK too. This is not a piece of required equipment. If the batteries go dead, I can wait till I get home to buy replacements

Cost...about 30 USD.

Lastly, if I do find something, I have to photograph it. How would I do this? It would seem the flash would have to be disabled. Is this the correct way to do it?

Thanks in advance for all your suggestions.

That is so gross, i'd take my own sheet and focus on detecting bed bugs... If you really want to know then uv is surely the way to go. Sorry I don't know anything first hand, but I'm pretty sure you need a low light setting and No flash for tht pic.

Simplest and easiest: links removed. see red banner at top of page
Used one of these for years to check carpets for cat accidents.

To take pictures, you'd have to have a tripod, long exposure, and have figured that out in advance; camera light meter's not real useful.

Lots of others out there I don't know first hand, like


And you can get very inexpensive ones, with 9 LEDs (brighter in the visible range, not the best)

Not sure about any specific model, but I think any ~380nm UV light will do the job. I think Tank007 makes ~390nm 1xAA and 2xAA lights, but you can use an AA P60 host like Solarforce L2r or L2i and use a generic UV module for this job. I don't have Photon's UV keychain light, but it should also work for close range inspection. That's what I have, and it works fine with cat urine, oil stains etc. Never tested it on semen or blood, though. I don't think bed bugs fluoresce under UV light, at least not under UVA, and you probably don't want UVB or UVC (which I don't think bed bugs fluoresce on these wavelengths either).

You'll probably want to inspect and photograph through a UV filter, to protect your eyes and also to remove the purple color from view (most UV lights give a fair amount of purple light in addition to UV itself). I have a pair of yellow safety glasses from fleebay that work great for me, much better than the clear ones I got from a local hardware store. Sunglasses may also work, mine (and those of the rest of my family) are just bad with regards to blocking UV and purple light (although they are rated as 100% UV blocking). I think you'll have to disable flash for clearer pictures, so you may want some mini tripod, a simple table one or a gorillapod.

Thanks for the suggestions so far.....I'll keep looking in the 380nm range.

Does anyone know what range the streamlight UV stylus runs in?

Carrying a spare sheet is out of the questions...18 days on the road with a carry-on sized suitcase just does not leave a whole lot of space. My second bag is my professional equipment.

Bed bugs are usually detected by dogs trained for the task these days, and not UV.

I do carry a small travel sized tripod, but a UV filter will probably not work as I use a simple Kodak digital camera. It has no provision for filters like a SLR does.

I have an Inova X5 UV I use for checking IDs. Its small, built like a tank and the batteries last forever. That might work for you.

Could just try a photon freedom uv or the purple (backlight I think they call it) very small and under 30 bucks, i have both the uv and a purple freedom and i think the purple one does the job better, they also do the proton pro uv with a secondary white light in it but that's about double your budget. Another small handy uv light could be the arc aaa but again a lot more than your looking to spend.

You could just try a cheap uv light from china but ain't sure on the build quality or how effective they are.

Good luck

I won't derail the thread too far, but the bed bug thing is a growing menace -I'm sure you're already well aware of that. And after you run into them once you can learn to spot them. An established infestation will have clear signs but it's more likely that you'd be running into a fresh infestation without obvious signs. Spread apart creases at the seams of mattresses, lift mattresses, and examine inside of creases and folds of upholstered furniture, behind pictures, corners, carpet, etc.
I'd look in the most likely places with a bright light and feel fairly confident about the place if I couldn't find any nymphs, skins or signs. Bright light held nearly parallel with the floor will give tiny moving objects large moving shadows to better spot them.
http://bedbugger.com/photos-of-bed-bugs-and-signs-of-bed-bugs/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lou_bugs_pix/1025024173/
Ok, sorry for the equally disgusting sidetrack of this disgusting topic ;-), I'm off to go dry heave for a bit.

paklite has uv 9v caps cannot get much smaller than that

look them up

Bicycleflyer said:

I do carry a small travel sized tripod, but a UV filter will probably not work as I use a simple Kodak digital camera. It has no provision for filters like a SLR does.

Click to expand...

You don't need to mount the filter on the camera, just hold it in front of the lens while photographing. I don't think hand movement will degrade the image too much. And having glasses as filters also helps tremendously while looking for fluorescing materials.

@ 127.0.0.1......I'm a big supporter of PAL lights, so that Paklite appeals to me. Thanks.

@ Haggai... I will definitely consider the use of a filter. Those glasses, do they help to illuminate better than the naked eye?

Regarding the frequency of the light:

I've read recently that most forensic kit lights (very expensive) are at 365nm. However, each specimen has it's own slightly different fluorescence peaks.

That's apparently one of the benefits of a fluorescent bulb, because they emit light in a range (like 360nm - 390 [for example]). LEDs are generally a very small range.

I haven't seen any good quality handheld/battery powered fluorescent UV lights recently.

Keep in mind when viewing the bathroom using UV, most soaps and cleaning products fluoresce extremely well.

Norm

Bicycleflyer said:

@ Haggai... I will definitely consider the use of a filter. Those glasses, do they help to illuminate better than the naked eye?

Click to expand...

See this demonstration which I made in the other forum - a 100 Norwegian kroner and 50 euro bills, illuminated with a 380nm flashlight.
First image - photographed without a filter. Lots of purple light, UV elements almost invisible.
Second image - photographed with the yellow safety glasses placed in front of the camera's lens. Purple light gone, UV elements clearly visible.







And since my link to the other forum magically disappeared, here are a couple more photos:
With the yellow glasses covering the flashlight, a bit of purple light but no UV fluorescence (they block UV well) :


And the same series of photos, only with a 365nm flashlight which is better for bills but I think does worse for organic matter:





And lastly, in the following photo (illuminated again with the 380nm flashlight) I covered half the lens of the camera with the yellow safety glasses:

++ Haggai ! You just answered a bunch of questions that I hadn't thought of yet.

Excellent post Haggai...Thank You