Where to get a sub $20 UV light?

I need to get my friend a UV light since he's been lusting after one. Any ideas?

If $21.95 isn't too high, Peak has the prototype style AAA's w/ 3 LED's in UV on the discount page.



LINK

Hmm, that's approaching the X1 Inova

CountryComm.comm has UV squeeze lights for $5.00. I just got one and am quite pleased with it.

for less then $7, you can build a pretty powerful one out of a pill bottle, a 9 V battery and 4 UV LED's from Superbrightleds.com. wire 2 pairs in series and then those in parallel putting a 47 ohm resister on either leg. It is bright enough to make the scorpions glow from a standing position. Don't forget to shoegoo the LED's and the resisters on the back of the cap. Of course, I'm an engineer, and so can deal with the asthetics!

It really DOES have that mad-scientist look to it, people are amazed you can do that with a couple of household objects, a couple of resisters and an LED.

Also try ebay. What does he want to use it for? 400nm is cheaper and the LEDs last longer, and 385nm is mroe expensive and the LEDs don't last as long.

For scorpions, black light posters, glo in the dark, 400nm should be fine.

[ QUOTE ]
kenny said:
for less then $7, you can build a pretty powerful one out of a pill bottle, a 9 V battery and 4 UV LED's from Superbrightleds.com. wire 2 pairs in series and then those in parallel putting a 47 ohm resister on either leg. It is bright enough to make the scorpions glow from a standing position. Don't forget to shoegoo the LED's and the resisters on the back of the cap. Of course, I'm an engineer, and so can deal with the asthetics!

It really DOES have that mad-scientist look to it, people are amazed you can do that with a couple of household objects, a couple of resisters and an LED.

[/ QUOTE ]

Sounds interesting. What do you do for a switch? I like this DIY stuff. Saves money and is fun to make.

I used to get slider switches from Radio Crap, but the were $1 each and they were junk. I got the last batch from Hosefelt electronics (off their website), they are toggles, which is OK, but they are robust and only $.60 each (3/16) installation hole). If you are using a standard size pill bottle (get the one for old folks) the cap flips around and screws into the inside lip of the bottle -- kind of acts like a reflector! Be sure and mount the switch in the very bottom (or maybe the top might work too) because there is just enough room to put the 9 volt in on top of the switch.

I got all the guys at work making them (bunch a nerds!). They make great computer lights or just kicking around the jusk drawer. Also, they are plastic, so if you need to stick it in your mouth you can.

good combos include:
2 - white
3 - red
4 - UV's (only because the UV's don't put out so much light)

burn you long time!

He wants it for playing around with, basically and this will be a gift for him

it is pretty easy to take a dorcy single aaa led flashlight and swap a 400 nm uv led into it.

I did this it is pretty bright

so a 8 buck small aluminum uv led flashlight is born.

for around 6 bucks on ebay you can buy a photon clone with a 385 nm uv led.

less visible light polution-more glow.

I would get the 400nm for playing around with. The cost is less that way. You can do almost the same things with the 400nm.

385nm is good for a couple more things like fillings and human urine.

Cat urine will glow with either. So will scorps, dollar bill strips, credit cards, special inks, white shirts, glow in the dark, etc.

Oh, remind him nto to shine it in any ones eyes as it is harmful. This is why sunglasses block UV, because otherwise yoru pupil would be wide open to the UV light. Bright sun and your pupil closes down.

I depends what you want to do with it. I drove the single UV LED's I got pretty hard -- the first ones out were only about 700 mcd. Now the ones at superbrightleds are showing 2000 mcd, I haven't got them hooked up yet, so I can't say, but I'm hoping they are much brighter. If you compaare that to the super bright whites or greens which are 10,000 mcd, you can see they are not near as bright. If someone has a better source I'm all over it!

For a real scorpion finder I'd home-brew with 4 LED's to bump the output up. If you get a comercial unit with 4 LED's it may be kind of ex[pensive. If you're just going to check currency or something close up -- then one LED should be OK.

WALMART $12.99 comes with a pair of glasses to help see stuff. Its with the motor oil anti freeze. Used for spotting AC leeks.

eyes are a lot more sensitive to green light tha 400 nm uv light

that is true, but output is output and the UV's I've seen so far are really wimpy. Again, if someone know where we can get REALLY bright UV LED's, I'm all ears.

Re:

How about those ebay lights?

Are they of high quality?

I like my 385nm 7 led uv light.

what is it
where'd you get it
how much was it
We nend details!

Do a search on ebay for UV and Flashlight. I have one I got from a vendor off ebay and I have had no problems from it. Nothing special about it though.

Kenny, you can get a 7 LED 385nm UV light from ebay for around $20 as I recall. I don't know if that is the one Markdi is talking about.

Be more careful as 385nm appears less bright then 400nm. Thus your eyes will open up more and let more UV in. UV is of course not good for the eyes.