Tritium Powered 0D Maglite

[nein166]

1. To make the Maglite 0D I cut the bottom 1/2 inch of body tail threads off a 6D Mag that died (Duracells exploded due to water in the tube.)
2. Then I beveled the cut edge of the threaded ring so it would slip into the head.
3. I coated the first few threads in the head with epoxy and took off the bezel and lens.
4. Then with an old tailcap threaded onto the ring I hammered it into the head.
5. Wiped out excess epoxy and cut the reflector to fit, screwed on the lens and waited for B@RT to order the sphere... waiting... waiting...
6. I crazy glued the sphere onto the reflector when it arrived having no more patience to wait for epoxy to dry.

Oh no its still daylight and theres windows in every room and the closets are full... Time for a blanket party.
In my childhood fortress of solitude an eeire light emerged as my eyes adjusted and BEHOLD it was worth all the wait.

Behold the Glow!

Behold the Throw!

Power Source: 18mm Green Tritium Sphere
Runtime: 12 years to 50% output
Output: 100 EGGU*

Okay so its only a few inches off the wall. The camera can't pic up the light it throws at distance. Let me just say in total darkness I can see my feet and everything thats not red in front of me. I almost tripped over the red haired cat but I evaded the black and white cat. Come to think of it I may have trouble finding my red haired girlfriend :laughing:. Reading is possible if the eyes are dark adapted.

Heres the setup in light. Pictures are 4sec exposure at F3.2 I think.

*errie green glow units

 

[barkingmad]

Love it :twothumbs

Perhaps a tri-tritium version next?

 

[Norm]

:twothumbs Great Job

 

[carbine15]

I wonder if batteries & LED's can do 12 years to 50% output (comparative brightness) in a host of that size. I bet it's possible.

 

[B@rt]

Good job! It might even have better "throw" than a regular tritium torch... :thumbsup:

 

[Illum]

:wow: ...the shortest D-cell mag ever:huh:

try aspherical lens next

 

[MSaxatilus]

Nein!!!

Hey you got that thing completed. I remember at the last PF that you were going to build it. Looks great my friend.

MSax

 

[3rd_shift]

Awesome! :goodjob:
And no wiring or soldering skills were needed for this one either.

 

[Tritium]

:wow: ...the shortest mag ever:huh:

try aspherical lens next

Not quite the shortest. I have a tritium powered light made from a AAA minimag head and tail cap assembly.

OOps, I meant Solitare head and tail.

Thurmond

 

[Illum]

edited for clarity

 

[RustyKnee]

FerrkeeN awesome!

Stu

 

[MrBaz]

I have an idea that would make that flashlight even more awesome.

All that is needed is a single 365nm LED (doesn't even have to be very powerful).

The UV produced by the 365nm LED will cause the reaction of Tritium to He-3 to occur much more frequently, with more intensity. This means that you will get more intense photons being emitted from the tritium sphere. Rayleigh scattering shows us that increasing the number of incident photons does NOT increase the intensity of the light produced. However, increasing the frequency of the incident photons WILL yield a higher intensity photon being emitted.
Now, using more 365nm LED's will obviously yield more photons being released as well. Rayleigh scattering explains why you would want to use a 365nm LED vs a 380nm or even a much lower frequency 395nm LED.

This would give you a really cool flashlight that barely consumes any power.

Oh, btw....this will obviously shorten the life of the tritium sphere by quite a bit. I would guess half.

 

[Walt175]

Nice to see it finished! :goodjob:

Don't forget to bring it to PF9! :twothumbs

 

[tvodrd]

:thumbsup: I'm trying two of those spheres for my bedroom nightlight tonight.

Larry

 

[greg_in_canada]

I don't think there are any ways to speed up nuclear decay (excluding using an accelerator to smash atoms together). The UV probably just makes the phosphor glow brighter but isn't doing anything to the tritium so the half-life will be unaffected.

Very cool project by the way. I want one even though I have no real need or use for one

Greg

The UV produced by the 365nm LED will cause the reaction of Tritium to He-3 to occur much more frequently, with more intensity. This means that you will get more intense photons being emitted from the tritium sphere. Rayleigh scattering shows us that increasing the number of incident photons does NOT increase the intensity of the light produced. However, increasing the frequency of the incident photons WILL yield a higher intensity photon being emitted.
Now, using more 365nm LED's will obviously yield more photons being released as well. Rayleigh scattering explains why you would want to use a 365nm LED vs a 380nm or even a much lower frequency 395nm LED.

This would give you a really cool flashlight that barely consumes any power.

Oh, btw....this will obviously shorten the life of the tritium sphere by quite a bit. I would guess half.

 

[B@rt]

Yup, no easy way to speed up the decay thankfully... :sweat:

I agree with Greg, the UV led exites the phosphor wich in turn emits more photons.

 

[MrBaz]

I don't think there are any ways to speed up nuclear decay (excluding using an accelerator to smash atoms together). The UV probably just makes the phosphor glow brighter but isn't doing anything to the tritium so the half-life will be unaffected.

Very cool project by the way. I want one even though I have no real need or use for one

Greg

You're right, I don't know what I was thinking.

 

[Radio]

:thumbsup: I'm trying two of those spheres for my bedroom nightlight tonight.

Larry

:mecry: I just got a "Visual"

:tinfoil:

 

[nein166]

As to UV enhanced output I tried it with one of those small freebie uv lights from Lighthound and I get a lot more light. And I was thinking about adding a UV LED in the tailcap to switch on by turning it out. Time will tell as I'm already onto another project.

 

[nein166]

Good job! It might even have better "throw" than a regular tritium torch... :thumbsup:

Does the torch have an optic?
After being in the dark for 20minutes I can see very well by the glow.
At 10' it lights up a 4' area, at 1 foot I can read a newspaper easily.