Pocket UV lights?

[WildRice]

not sure, i believe it was 90 sec. the fun part is mixing. when you meter out the epoxy, try to keep the two parts seperated. use a tooth-pic to mix in the glow powder into the parts, then mix them together. otherwise you wont have enough work time. apply with tooth-pic all the way around. when 360 done, hold flashlight horozontal and roll trying to keep epoxy even all the way around. I know 5min and up epoxys work better, but they take too long to set for this application.
Also, unless the target light silver colored, a white undercoat is needed. I useually use aluminum tape fitted under where I am going to glow.
Best of luck.
Jeff

 

[PhotonWrangler]

[ QUOTE ]
jpeg said:
If you're a rock hound, you can bring it with you to help find neat rocks.

[/ QUOTE ]

Another rock hound here! Yes, this is a lot of fun. I wish that more of them would fluoresce under longwave UV, though.

I don't think that longwave UV has any significant germicidal effect, however. I have a few shortwave UV fluorescent germicidal lamps, and those DO kill germs (as well as skin cells!) so one has to be quite careful around them. Fortunately ordinary glass (eyeglasses, windshields) blocks shortwave UV.

I also have a dual-wavelength portable fluorescent lamp for rock collecting. I can't wait for them to cook up a shortwave UV LED, as that "portable" fluorescent is large and heavy. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon15.gif

 

[jpeg]

Thanks for the info Jeff, I'll let you know how it goes.. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

PW.. didn't know about that long wave/ short wave stuff.. Darn I liked it better when I thought it was killing just the bad stuff. I suppose if it's all or nothing, I'm glad I was pointing the LW UV at my foot and not the SW.. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ooo.gif Good luck in your rock finding adventures... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink2.gif

 

[PhotonWrangler]

[ QUOTE ]
jpeg said:
PW.. didn't know about that long wave/ short wave stuff.. Darn I liked it better when I thought it was killing just the bad stuff. I suppose if it's all or nothing, I'm glad I was pointing the LW UV at my foot and not the SW.. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ooo.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

And thanks for the tip about the athlete's foot fungus... I didn't know that some of them will fluoresce. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbsup.gif

One effect I've noticed from the shortwave UV lamps is a "prickly" feeling after a few seconds of skin exposure, the same type of feeling that I've had from intense sunlight. Shortwave UV causes sunburn (and related skin damage), and I'm sure that the prickly sensation was an indication of my epidermis going "Aigh!" /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ooo.gif

I have never noticed that effect from longwave (blacklight) UV.

Longwave UV LEDs are in the neighborhood of 365-395nm, with the most common (cheap) ones falling around 395-400nm. Shortwave UV is around 265nm if I recall correctly.

BTW, my "prickly" experiments with shortwave UV happened many years ago, before I was aware of the dangers. I'm much more careful now.

 

[jpeg]

pretty glow = good
prickly feeling = bad

Got it... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/yellowlaugh.gif

 

[LEDite]

I've been building a shirt pocket model with 8 5mm LED's.
They are all 395nm and have a 15° narrow beam. I tried about ten different UV LEDs before I found good matching and proper wavelength. Many of them performed poorly on fluorescent objects.

The light is powered by a 1800 mah rechargable lithium-ion battery. Weight with Li-Ion is only about 3 ounces. Run time is three hours (direct drive). Rocker switch is momentary for safety reasons.

It charges from either AC or 12 VDC regulated supplies in about 2 hours.

I have sold a few of them to be used as UV inspection lights commercially.

I did a couple with 8 10,000 mcd white LED's also.

A picture is at:

http://www.cobbcarpet.com/blklt1.jpg

Larry Cobb

 

[Flatscan]

I just picked up one of the $5 UV lights from CountyComm. It lights up the fluorescent strip in $5 bills just fine. For some reason, the $10 bill I had on hand was missing the glowing strip. I spent it before I got bored enough to look at it more closely.

A while back, I put a near-UV LED (380nm violet) from Digi-Key in one of my Photon IIs. I think it was brighter, and I would guess that it's closer to true UV than the CountyComm one. After all, the LED itself cost nearly as much as the entire light. I went looking at everything in the dark, and learned that I shouldn't look so closely underneath toilets. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon15.gif

 

[IsaacHayes]

LEDite, very nice!

 

[chalo]

utomatoe,

Have a look at these squeeze lights.

They are not fancy or sophisticated in construction, but they put out as much light per diode as any near-UV LED light I've seen. And the price can't be beat! One freakin' buck!

Shipping from Black Feather is $6 regardless of quantity, so it's best to grab whatever tickles your fancy while you're there. All the squeeze and switch keychain lights are impressive in output *except the amber/orange one*, which is of the night-vision-conserving sort. It appears that Black Feather no longer stocks the squeeze+switch Photon clones that I found underwhelming.

The UV lights appear to come from a different source than the others, as they are always lumped naked in a bag with a bunch of loose split rings, where the others are individually wrapped and have keychains attached.

Evenif you intend to get a "more serious" UV LED light eventually, these are wholly adequate for experimenting and can even be parted out to yield an intact LED and 2 CR2016 lithium coin cells.

Chalo Colina

 

[PhotonWrangler]

[ QUOTE ]
Flatscan said:
For some reason, the $10 bill I had on hand was missing the glowing strip.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yikes. If it was one of the newer-style bills and didn't have the glowing strip, I think the gummint wants to know about it... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif

 

[PhotonWrangler]

[ QUOTE ]
LEDite said:
I've been building a shirt pocket model with 8 5mm LED's.
They are all 395nm and have a 15° narrow beam. I tried about ten different UV LEDs before I found good matching and proper wavelength.

[/ QUOTE ]

So which UV LED did you decide upon? I'd like to try some.
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/popcorn.gif

 

[WildRice]

I remember when the bills with the strip first came out. you could use a pin amd pull out the strip. Not like I did it, but I saw it done.

Jeff

 

[gregw45]

[ QUOTE ]
Flatscan said:
I just picked up one of the $5 UV lights from CountyComm. It lights up the fluorescent strip in $5 bills just fine. For some reason, the $10 bill I had on hand was missing the glowing strip. I spent it before I got bored enough to look at it more closely.

[/ QUOTE ]

LOL! I just got an ARC UV and thought the $10 bill was missing it also. It's in a different location than the $5. Look to the right of Hamilton running vertically through the T and H in "The United States of America" It should be orange and shows up better if backlit.

 

[utomatoe]

*lol* you guys are great, thanks for the suggestions. I'd love to have a UV X5 or Arc, but I'm not sure I want to dish out close to $75 for one yet... I'm already going on a big LED spending spree.. hehe. The UV is just for fun. I'll consider modding an old photon 2 orange with a UV light later, when I get my soldering iron...

 

[LEDite]

The more expensive ones of course.

They are $1.75 ea. @ All Electronics.

Very consistant in Forward Voltage @ 30 ma. Ideal for parallel LED setups. I've used hundred's of them with no problems.

LEDite

 

[Flatscan]

Regarding the $10 bill, my guess at the time was that the strip had been pulled out, though it could have been in a slightly different place. The paper didn't fluoresce, and the watermark of the second portrait was visible.

utomatoe, you don't need a soldering iron to "mod" a Photon II, if you're waiting on that. All you need to do is gently bend the leads like the LED inside the light and cut them down to match. Make sure the polarity matches up, though I guess you could install the batteries backwards if you make a mistake.

 

[utomatoe]

That's great! I opened up my Photon II and realized how easy it would be. Any other keychain lights that are easy to mod? I'm too fond of my existing Photons.... looking for something similar and reasonably priced. CMG lights? ASP?