ArcUV mini shootout

[THE_dAY]

hi folks, just received my Arc UV and wanted to do a little comparison.
i am very impressed with the new Arc UV.
it uses the new Nichia NSPU510CS UV LED
i've owned a handful of UV lights including the InovaX5 UV and by far my favorite has been the the Photon370nm UV keychain light.
even though the InovaUV was brighter, the Photon has flouresced items better than anything i've seen until the Arc UV.
i didn't take many pictures so this will just be a mini shootout, i hope you enjoy it.
i don't own the Inova anymore but have two contenders for the Arc UV.

lights will be: Arc UV, Photon UV370nm, and Fox UV350nm. note: the Fox 5mm 350nmUV LED was received from a group buy


all beamshots are ~12 inches from target, the Fox350nm is ~6 inches from target(due to weak output)

beamshots are in order: 1st)Arc UV 2nd)Photon370nmUV 3rd)Fox350nmUV

first is a cat pee stain:

the Arc clearly reveals the stain compared to the PhotonUV. the Fox350 has a very weak beam and weak flourescence.


next is $100 U.S. currency, 2 tritium vials, and bic lighter:

again the ArcUV has the best flouresence of all three and is the only one that can view the $100 strip. somehow in the picture,the photonUV seems to show $100 strip barely but this cannot be seen with the naked eye.

[THE_dAY]

ok, here are some more comparison pics.
this time it's just the ArcUV against the Photon370UV.

i left out the Fox350nm UV LED because it's very dim and more importantly it doesn't flouresce nearly as well as the others (as you can tell by the pictures in the first post).
from the Fox UV group buy i purchased the 350nm 5mm UV LED and the 360nm UV LED and both have very weak output and very weak florescence.

i had previously assumed that the lower the UV wavelength the better the flourescence but that is not the case.
i've also used higher wavelengths (395nm-410nm) UV LEDs and they have a brighter more purple output but don't flouresce things as well as these two lights imho.

it seems like the new Nichia 375nm UV LED which the ArcUV uses has the best "glowing up things" factor, with the Photon 370nm UV coming in second.

once again, pics are of: 1st)ArcUV 2nd)Photon370nm UV

this is a U.S. $5 bill:


this is a U.S. $10 bill:


this is a U.S. $20 bill:


this is a california driver's license and a Visa bank card:


overall, both lights do well with glowing up things with the ArcUV easily taking the lead.
the ArcUV uses the new Nichia NSPU510CSLED which does an amazing job!
thanks for looking!

[greenlight]

Thanks for making that comparison. While many users have no need for UV detection, access to that capability can be useful. Hopefully more manufacturers will take advantage of these new LEDs, making the fraud protection qualities of the new dollar bills more effective.

[xenopus]

Yes -- that new Nichia 375nm LED is very cool

Piers!

[AvroArrow]

THE_dAY, would you happen to have any newer Canadian currency you could try out the ArcUV on? I'm tempted to buy the ArcUV for currency detection, but don't want to waste my money (Arc's int'l shipping is fairly expensive) if it won't light up the Canadian bills.

The UV reactive security markings are actually kind of neat, you can see what they look like here. Hover/mouse over the #6 and you'll see what shows up.

I have a 1w 395nm Cree UV drop-in (the Terralux mini-mag 2AA one) that does NOT light it up. I also modded a Dorcy 1AAA LED with a FoxGroup 360nm LED that DOES light it up, but it's fairly weak (e.g. in a fluorescent tube lit room, the light needs to be 3-4 inches away to light up the markings).

[THE_dAY]

AvroArrow,
sorry for the late reply, i've checked out your link.
i asked around, and couldn't get a hold of Canadian currency.
i'm pretty confident that the Arc UV will easily pick up the markings on the currency.
it picks up everything that flouresces, even stuff my other UV lights never picked up!

as for the Fox UV, i'd picked up a 360nm and a 350nm UV LED from a group buy here.
both 350 and 360 were very weak (pic of 350 in 1st post) and i really had to bring the LED very close to the flourescing object to actually get anything to glow.
even then it was a very faint glow.
the Nichia UV in the Arc imho is far superior to the Fox UV LEDs that i have.
i would definitely recommend the Arc UV for you!

[Donny Dont]

I used my ARC-UV to check out Canadian currency, namely the 5, 10, 20 and 50 dollar bills. Unfortunately, I could not capture the fluorescence with my digital camera. The ARC will pickup the random threads and some of the lettering of "Bank of Canada" at 12" under a bright fluorescent light. Under normal circumstances, you can pick up the glow easily at 6 - 10", which is about what I would use to check out a bill in my hand during daylight. With the lights out, everything glows.

You can confidently buy this light to verify the authenticity of Canadian bills.

I had hoped the light would be brighter, like the ones on CSI. A little darkness helps the ARC-UV. I find that in an almost dark room, I can hold the light at waist height to look for pet stains quite effectively. I have heard that a black light works pretty well for those hunting expeditions to see what Fido has been up to while you were out, but have never tried it out. The ARC-UV is much more convenient to carry around than a trouble light with a black bulb.

Hope this helps.

Joe