UV 7 LED Flashlight (385nm High Quality LED)

[LightScene]

Overview: This light uses 3 AA's. It has a brushed aluminum finish which is almost white. It looks very nice.

The flat tail cap is the only thing that's removable. The whole thing seems very solid. It has no inscriptions. It has a rubber covered, recessed clickie switch near the head. It was $17 plus $8 shipping on eBay.

The knurling is excellent, and the fit and finish are excellent.

There is one LED in the center and 6 around it. Strangely, the beam is not round, and not symmetrical. The hot spot looks kind of like a swirl of gas. There is very little visible light emitted. It's difficult to see the whole beam unless you have a very large flourescent surface, (which I don't), because there is a lot of spill. The LEDs are not perfectly aimed straight ahead.

According to the sales literature, it consumes .63 watts.
Edit: I measure a battery draw of .18 amps, which is 25mA per LED.

It's bright enough to be useful. If you shine it at aomething that flouresces, it's brighter than an Infinity Ultra. If you are outside, in the dark, using it to find scorpions, or whatever, it's kind of wierd, because there is almost no visible light. So the only things you can see clearly are things that flouresce. This could make you a little uncomfortable.

If you shine it on a white surface that doesn't flouresce, it turns it to a dull, dim, reddish purple. Not at all like what you see from a purplish-white LED.

If you shine it on a white bath towel, it makes it very bluish-white. The Infinity Ultra looks *very* warm by comparison. It shows up dust around the baseboards, etc. quite well.

There are no scorpions where I live, but I think it would be quite useful for finding scorpions. A Princeton Tec Rage flashlight (4 AAA) is clearly visible at 15 feet.

The flourescent line on a $20 bill is clearly visible in daylight.

This is meant to be an overview, for those who are thinking of buying a UV LED light, not a review.

 

[The_LED_Museum]

If the LEDs are really receiving 90mA apiece, they won't last all that long. Maybe 100 hours to half intensity. And if you can't remove the head to replace the LEDs or the module itself, you'll probably be SOL and have to buy a new flashlight.

 

[LightScene]

[ QUOTE ]
The_LED_Museum said:
If the LEDs are really receiving 90mA apiece, they won't last all that long.

[/ QUOTE ]
I made a mistake. It draws .63 watts, not amps.
It measures .18 amps, which is 25mA per LED. Run-time should be more than 6 hours.
The LED module is waranteed for 3 months.
If an LED goes bad after that, it may be possible to open it up. Unless that happens, I'm not going to try.

The reviews of UV lights at The LED Museum indicate that they are all emitting at 400nM and higher. This light claims to be emitting at 385nM. Since I don't have any other UV lights, I have no way to confirm their claims, but for sure, this flashlight doesn't emit much visible light.

This light certainly performs to my satisfaction. I wish I could compare it against an Inova X5 UV (which I can't afford, at over $50 shipped).

 

[INRETECH]

Starting to see a lot of UV adapters here on the forum, I would like to say that Craigs "Disclaimer" Safety of not being able to drive down and purchase more eyes is very important

People naturally assume that they are able to see everything with their naked eyes, these shorter wavelength products put out a LOT of power in a area that our eyes are not very sensitive to; but can still cause damage - these are not TOYS and should be treated with respect

 

[cy]

lightscene, I'm interested in this light, pictures please. Is the link to ebay still live?

 

[The_LED_Museum]

I too was also interested in this flashlight, if it really has 385nm UV LEDs in it.

According to ebay, there are 15 more of these...well, maybe 14 more if I have the cash. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

The page is right here if anyone's interested.
The opening bid is $16.99; the Buy It Now price is $20.99.

(Edit, a few moments later)
I just bought one, for CPF sakes of course. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif
So, now there are 14 more of these, not 15. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[3rd_shift]

If there's going to be an "mc385 or lower, count me in as a customer Mike. (I love really black lights!)
At present, I only have a single T5 keychain that is probably closer to 400 - 410nm.
It flouresces, but with a lot of visible deep purple light. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smoker5.gif
If anyone knows of some good eye protection that will filter out the uv but, not the flourescent effects, your comments are welcome for the sake of some eyeballs.
I too have been unsuccesful at finding replacements for my eyesockets (just in case).
Nobody on the net (including ebay) has them yet. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mecry.gif

 

[3rd_shift]

ps; Way to go Craig!

 

[LightScene]

If you wear light colored sunglasses, you will be able to see the flourescence, but you will be protected from the UV. I tried this with light yellow sunglasses which I bought for cycling. You can even get clear sunglasses, which would be even better. I've been assuming that the UV gets absorbed and doesn't reflect back to my eyes, so I don't wear sunglasses most of the time when I'm using the light.

You know, there's a lot of UV in sunlight, so it's not like it's completely un-natural. However, I do wear sunglasses outdoors almost all the time, now that I'm more aware of the danger from UV.

You can test your sunglasses by using them as a filter for the light. I found that all my sunglasses completely prevented flourescence. My regular glasses, and reading glasses didn't stop the UV at all. After I tested my sunglasses, I was not afraid to shine the light directly into my eyes with my sunglasses on.

 

[3rd_shift]

Hey LightScene, thanks for the info. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[bj]

I'll second (or third) that thanks. I'd been wanting an X5T-UV, but we are talking $50 shipped even with the current specials. It'd be cool, but not the kind of thing you use everyday (or night). Might be handy for use with fluid leak detector additives, don't always show up well with a small single cell UV light. I went ahead and bid on one as well - seems like you should do alright making the minimum bid if you look at the completed items.

-brian

 

[Canuke]

[ QUOTE ]
LightScene said:
You can test your sunglasses by using them as a filter for the light. I found that all my sunglasses completely prevented flourescence. My regular glasses, and reading glasses didn't stop the UV at all. After I tested my sunglasses, I was not afraid to shine the light directly into my eyes with my sunglasses on.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yep. My Walmart glasses have very little effect on the light from the 395-405nm light from my Inova X5T, but they are nearly opaque to the UV from my fluorescent blacklight (which I understand is about 365nm) as checked by illuminating fluorescent material through them. It's interesting to observe the subtle change when I look at the CF blacklight with and without them; the bulb and overall scene looks the same, but my cornea/lens don't exhibit that strange "phantom glare" from the light when the glasses are on.

 

[LightScene]

It's interesting that the cut-off of your glasses for blocking different UV frequencies is so sharp. When I looked at the specs for the UVEX safety glasses, they specified 99.9% blocking up to 400nM. I was thinking that they would taper off above 400, but maybe they just stop having any effect above 400.

Now I wish I had some way to test my sunglasses at different frequencies. The frequency range of UVA is 320 to 400 nM, so maybe sunglasses are intentionally designed to only block everything below 400. Your results suggest that the X5T is emitting above 400, which is technically not UV.

 

[TheFire]

Most leds have a bit of a range to their emissions, some of which will generally fall as far as 20nm up. The sunglasses that are listed as UV blocking, but that also filter blue and/or violet should be good for looking at LW UV sources.

 

[The_LED_Museum]

I received the shipping confirmation email early this morning; and should have the light within two weeks (it's shipping from Hong Kong). When I receive it, I'll update my website with it at once and provide the link to that page in this thread. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[JJHitt]

This light looks VERY similar to one I bought from Golden Gadgets a couple of months back. The only difference being mine had 6 LEDs in the head instead of 7.

I was NOT happy with it.

One: one LED was not soldered correctly and needed to be doctored with.

Two: switch began to malfuction after only a couple of days.

End result, I canibalized the UV head and put it in a completely different body.

The Inova UV light is worth every extra penny you pay for it.

 

[Canuke]

[ QUOTE ]
LightScene said:
It's interesting that the cut-off of your glasses for blocking different UV frequencies is so sharp. When I looked at the specs for the UVEX safety glasses, they specified 99.9% blocking up to 400nM. I was thinking that they would taper off above 400, but maybe they just stop having any effect above 400.

Now I wish I had some way to test my sunglasses at different frequencies. The frequency range of UVA is 320 to 400 nM, so maybe sunglasses are intentionally designed to only block everything below 400. Your results suggest that the X5T is emitting above 400, which is technically not UV.

[/ QUOTE ]

I too found it interesting. But then, if UVEX safety glasses cut off 99.9% up to 400nm and yet do not appear yellowish (I haven't seen this, so I don't know), they must have a similarly sharp cutoff.

The X5T straddles 400nm judging by the emissions spectra I've see on The LED Museum. In fact, when I look directly at the unit in operation, one of the LED's looks darker and purpler, while its neighbor is much brighter and bluish. Their effect on fluorescent material, however, shows no such variance, which tells me that they are merely offset slightly in wavelength, the darker one getting down to 395nm.

 

[LightScene]

[ QUOTE ]
JJHitt said:
This light looks VERY similar to one I bought from Golden Gadgets a couple of months back. The only difference being mine had 6 LEDs in the head instead of 7.

[/ QUOTE ]
Was your light advertised as having 385nM LEDs?
This one comes with a 3 month guarantee on the LEDs.
I've seen a 6 LED "UV" light for sale on eBay, but my inquiries indicated that it wasn't very useful. This one is.

I received mine from Hong Kong in 12 days.

 

[JJHitt]

No mention of wavelength.
Here's the link.

As I noted, the head is obviously different, but body looks like an exact match to me.

 

[LightScene]

Anybody can buy the same flashlight bodies and modify them to suit their own taste. That's what elektrolumens does, for instance. In fact, he may soon be offering this same flashlight with a Lux 3.
If you are right that our flashlight bodies are the same, then my light may have a weak switch also. So far it is OK. Switches seem to be the Achilles heels of flashlights.