How do you Glow an ARC-aaa

[Crenshaw]

I just got my new Arc-AAA DS, amazing little thing, but i was looking for it in the dark once, and realised that an emergency light (at least it wasnt an emergency then) is useless if you cant find it.

I did try putting on some of sigman's glow-rings, but i didnt like the way it spoilt the stream-line form factor of the light.

How and where would you suggest i put a layer of maybe, epoxy-glowpowder mix on an ARC? i havnt actually got the mix yet, but should be getting from glowinc as soon as possible.

I want it to be asthetically pleasing as possible, yet, functional. Yes, i did search, but greenLEDs glow-powder at base of led in arc picture is no longer there...:shrug:

Crenshaw

 

[mossyoak]

glow powder wont be of much use in the middle of the night trying to find the light in an emergency or something, it has to be on to charge up the glow stuff... how bout a tritium vial exopied on the tail end of the light? you dont have to charge those buggers.

 

[Isak Hawk]

If you keep the arc on a keychain you could get one of those tritium glowrings, and you wouldn't have to modify the arc at all. If not, then maybe you could get a small tritium sphere and epoxy it in the split ring hole of the arc (since it isn't being used anyway).

 

[Sgt. LED]

Was it greenLED that opened one and glued a trit vial behind the led?
Maybe I'm thinking of another light..............

 

[Crenshaw]

actually, my arc is my keychain light and my bedside light. I usually take it off my keys at night, and attach the clip on the split ring to a magnet on my wall. I might do the tritium thing, but that means having to find tritium. Does market place still have it? and how tough are tritium vials?

Crenshaw

 

[HoopleHead]

add a tritium vial key fob to it

 

[jzmtl]

Yeah one guy still sells 6mm tritium vial at marketplace.

Sounds like a pain in the butt taking it off every night and put it back on every morning, might as well get another light for bedside. I use the CPF safelight you see in banner ads, it has a glow locator mode and clip has a magnet which attach to my metal bed frame perfectly.

 

[LED Flashlights.]

How about glow in the dark strip tape?

 

[swxb12]

I would go for a tritium keychain attachment. The Merkava DIY II is extremely small, not much bigger than the vial itself. Charged up glow-in-the-dark is nice, but after a couple of minutes the tritium will be brighter and stay that way.

 

[joema]

..How and where would you suggest i put a layer of maybe, epoxy-glowpowder mix on an ARC? i havnt actually got the mix yet, but should be getting from glowinc as soon as possible...

The new glow-in-the-dark paints are much brighter and longer-lasting than the old zinc-based stuff.

I painted the tail of my Arc-AAA with with GlowInc's ultra green paint. http://glowinc.com/detail.aspx?ID=1

Just the tail part where the key ring hole is. Used several thin layers, letting each one dry. I masked off with tape areas I didn't want to paint -- made it a little neater.

It worked well, and was easily visible to dark-adapted eyes after 8-10 hr.

Sorry don't have a picture, as I gave it away as a gift.

However paint is still a bit messier than an O-ring or a GID tail cap. I got a GID tail cap for my Fenix P3D, which works very well.

Small lights that have factory-integrated GID features work well. E.g, the Photon ReX has a GID button. I wish more mfgs would do that: http://www.photonlight.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=REX-LITHIUM-ION-RECHARGEABLE&Show=ExtInfo

 

[LED Flashlights.]

Don't get something too bright that glows in the dark.

You might end up not needing your flashlight anymore.

 

[datiLED]

Yeah one guy still sells 6mm tritium vial at marketplace.

Sounds like a pain in the butt taking it off every night and put it back on every morning, might as well get another light for bedside. I use the CPF safelight you see in banner ads, it has a glow locator mode and clip has a magnet which attach to my metal bed frame perfectly.

I'll second the use of a CPF Safe-Light. My wife and I use ours every night. The glow mode is awesome, and makes it really easy to find in the dark.

 

[greenLED]

You can do it with GID stuff. This is how a finished mod looks like:



...and this is how it's prepped:

Was it greenLED that opened one and glued a trit vial behind the led?

I did that with an A2, but it's possible to do it with an ArcAAA as well. Trouble is, you'd have to take the darned thing apart, clean the epoxy, attach the vial to the bottom of the LED's dome, and then reassemble everything. More trouble than it's worth, given the risk of breaking the inductor or something like that.

Because of that, I'm now partial of attaching an external locator vial. Here's a very quick and dirty first iteration I made a while back. It's just a vial from Bert covered by clear tubing:



I was just goofing around with that, but it's worked so well it's still attached to my keychain ArcAAA. The only change I made was to shorten the tubing to be almost flush with the vial.

 

[Federal LG]

+1 vote for tritium inserts!

 

[IcantC]

Whew finally found your A2 thread Green
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=120034

Hmm now to get some 5mm vials.

 

[greenLED]

Whoops, I should've provided that link.

The pics in that thread don't do justice to the mod. I can see the "easter eggs" glowing clearly across a room at night.

BTW, if you look closely in that pic of my ArcAAA I posted before, you'll notice I have a small glo-ring behind the bezel. Sigman sells those, but I forgot the exact size I used.

 

[IcantC]

Whoops, I should've provided that link.

The pics in that thread don't do justice to the mod. I can see the "easter eggs" glowing clearly across a room at night.

BTW, if you look closely in that pic of my ArcAAA I posted before, you'll notice I have a small glo-ring behind the bezel. Sigman sells those, but I forgot the exact size I used.

No worries. i've been looking for those vials for my A2 and no luck. do you know of any source?

 

[Crenshaw]

Thanks greeLED, nice pictures, but somehow i doubt that ill take my arc apart, seems risky now that i think about it.

Dont have a safelight, or PALight of any sort at the moment, but i do intend on getting one, im too am intrigued by its glow mode that aparently uses the natrual discharge of a battery to light up.oo:

And tritium would be the ideal source for me, but im worried about it not bring as rugged as the arc itself? and breathing radioactive gas from a bashed up tritium vial cant be good for you..., or are tritium vials made of fiberglass or something?

Oh and its no trouble taking it of the key chain..

as you can see, its a clip...

reverse angle (excuse to post my photos, done with my friend's Sony Ericsson k750i macro mode i might add)

joema, i have the xlight micro, but it doesnt glow very well, it will glow for maybe 5 mins before it goes totally dark..and yup, the new glow powders etc are interesting to me cos of the 10ish hour glow time...

Oh yes, greenie, that sigman o-ring, yours is flush with the arc?! mine was too thick and went beyond the height of the little groove...

LED Flashlights, heh, that happend for about 5 mins with Sigman's 1in glowring which i clipeed the arc onto at night until i implement a decent solution...

Crenshaw

 

[jzmtl]

Dont have a safelight, or PALight of any sort at the moment, but i do intend on getting one, im too am intrigued by its glow mode that aparently uses the natrual discharge of a battery to light up.oo:

I don't actually use it as locator, too bright. The actual brightenss isn't high, you can comfortably look into the LED and see the lead wires, but at night the light spot on ceiling is annoying for me.

 

[Crenshaw]

I just discovered that the back of the ARC-AAA, the perpendicular part, is exactly 6mm long....

Crenshaw