UV searchlights for mineral spotting?

tossing this out here.......is there ANYTHING like this?

basically what i want is a extremely high powered UV "searchlight" that has some flood and throw.....I want to scan cliffs and river banks and dry embankments for minerals and crystals, but at a distance (say across a river, or up a cliff" you get the idea....


could be 12, 24V or genset powered, would need to be mobile (aka in my 4X4)

i have this idea that i could mount the light on the truck, and drive around offroad scanning the cliffs for minerals, crystals etc.....then exit the vehicle, turn of the UV searchlight, hike to the location and use a handheld UV light from that point on.

thoughts?

:thinking:

I've used both HID and maxabeam with a woods glass filter with much success.
My Stanley HID can hit well over a block away and maxabeam with tight focus can throw a UV spot insanely far, farther then you can see with a naked eye.
The amount of light thrown out is much higher with the Stanley but the maxabeam really reaches.
If you do decide to use a HID, I suggest carefully breaking the outer envelope off carefully. This restricts UV light but with the woods filter will prevent any dangerous UV exposure.

frst you need to know what minerals you searching and their wavelength to excite the fluorescence .

second fluorescence is usually week and i don't think you can search minerals on long distance - few meters max.

third the power of the excitation light must not dazzle fluorescence .

forth filters on hid light takes almost all power and convert it to the heat inside light and left only few percent of UV spectrum - get them with UV leds http://www.luminus.com/products/uv.html

http://uvminerals.org/fms/uvlights , http://www.galleries.com/minerals/property/fluotabl.htm#short

lucca brassi said:

..........

forth filters on hid light takes almost all power and convert it to the heat inside light and left only few percent of UV spectrum...........

Click to expand...

Yeah, that's what I was saying about removing the outside "tube" in order to allow the maximum UV thru, but I'm just speaking from hands on exp so what do I know?
'cept I'll pit either of my UV lamps against LED any day.

FRITZHID said:

Yeah, that's what I was saying about removing the outside "tube" in order to allow the maximum UV thru, but I'm just speaking from hands on exp so what do I know?
'cept I'll pit either of my UV lamps against LED any day.

Click to expand...

By removing the outer glass envelope, are you increasing the output of UVA, UVB or UVC?

All but mostly C and some B, basically the harmful spectrums of UV (hence why it's there), however these spectrums add to the fluorescence of many elements. Using woods glass will reduce the majority of harm but looking into the beam is/can be harmful depending on quality of said filter so caution is advised, especially with thin filters.
Mine are fairly thick but caution is still practised.
Using SA is even more so, and with MSA it's extremely harmful so much caution is recommended. As far as the fluorescence of minerals, it works wonderfully.... so much so that at distance, magnification is required to see.

incredible info here folks! thank you....

i do have the appropriate safety glasses for working around UV lamps.......thats not an issue, nor is using hi powered UV lamps for my needs.....it would be at night and with no one around....

looks like i'm back to walking the river beds and mountains with a handheld lamp....

was really hoping for something with about 500 - 1000' range..

A properly mod'd 55 watt HID would do the trick for ya

Bushman5 said:

tossing this out here.......is there ANYTHING like this?

basically what i want is a extremely high powered UV "searchlight" that has some flood and throw.....I want to scan cliffs and river banks and dry embankments for minerals and crystals, but at a distance (say across a river, or up a cliff" you get the idea....


could be 12, 24V or genset powered, would need to be mobile (aka in my 4X4)

i have this idea that i could mount the light on the truck, and drive around offroad scanning the cliffs for minerals, crystals etc.....then exit the vehicle, turn of the UV searchlight, hike to the location and use a handheld UV light from that point on.

thoughts?

:thinking:

Click to expand...

i doubt there is anything ready made to fit your need. you need to either modify or build your own.

i have build 385nm uv spotlight, i use it ona shooting range, i blow up baloons, and fill them with paper circles punched with 3 hole puncher. (not much per baloon, about 2-3 table spoons full ) when ballon pops those paper circles look very cool in uv light, they do flouress rather bright, and when they fall\spread around after pop makes it very visible "hit" the targets are usually no more than 50 yards away, i used 4 3w uv leds, with 5* lenses.

however i'm not looking for menirals, and 385nm is enough to make white paper flouress, my light is not handheald, neither has its own power supply, but if there is a need and desire it is absolutely possible to build what you want. as long as you know the wavelenght, (also possible to have few different leds with different wavelenght). uv light can reach far, if there is enough power, but unlike white leds, good quality uv are very expencive, 365nm 10w led from ledengin is around $100, that is just one example

http://i876.photobucket.com/albums/ab324/alpg88/IMG-20131113-00720_zpsxbkuk48a.jpg

http://i876.photobucket.com/albums/ab324/alpg88/IMG-20131113-00722_zpslouvis84.jpg

That's a nice lil setup alpg.
Any beam shots around?