Car GITD charging ideas

Hi LPF folks, I am working on a project to install a stereo system into a vehicle, and in the back, we're installing a 15" subwoofer with a ring around it that has been painted with some Ultra Blue GITD powder, and acrylic clear coated.

I am trying to think of a decent way to charge this with purple diodes. I have a couple 405nm lasers, and a UV p60 dropin that I got from Lighthound in a cheap light to charge GITD items, so I am familiar with some UV LED technology.

The subwoofer is going in a sealed fiberglassed box in the far rear center (spare tire well) of a 2012 Chevy Equinox firing up at the rear roof. The amps, sub and sub ring will all be hidden under a false floor in the back of the cargo area.

The intent is to wire lighting into the area around the subwoofer ring to charge it, relatively quickly, using a switch at the front that will evenly charge 360 degrees of the ring. The false floor will lift to reveal the amps and sub ring, hopefully, with the ring glowing.

I was thinking of buying UV p60 mods, but I wanted to see if anyone had ideas that were simple to wire with 12v DC.

Here's the rear deck, box, and sub. No hole cut for the sub yet in the box.



Here's the ring, before machining the front surface to the bare metal (the sides will glow).

[URL=http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/52/imag0703g.jpg/]

Here's the ring, which is still in the dusting/painting phase.

[URL=http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/837/imag0675e.jpg/]

Fully machined, wrapped in plastic, ready to be installed. If only the bolt pattern fit....
[URL=http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/94/imag0706n.jpg/]

Why not just use a few 12 v UV cold cathode tubes? They are way cheaper and much easier to set up?
12in Dual UV Cold Cathode Kit at Xoxide!

Hi T_Warne,

Thanks for the reply. I have not used those before, but I have seen something that looked similar, and I was not impressed with the overall light output.

Have you used those? How are those in comparison to flourescent black lights? Do you think 4 of those would be needed to spread the light evenly?

I was thinking about putting a ring of UV LEDs in a wood circle around the sub ring, and using plexi to distribute the light evenly around for charging. The circles around circles thing might be a bit much, but it could be constructed low profile with the ridge of plexi extending up an inch and a half to distribute light halfway up the ring.

Take the covers off the amps, put one amp on each side of the speaker and install the UV light strips along side the amps or across them. I always loved when they took the covers off and lit up the amp. Looks so cool.

I have not used them, but I have a bright blue one in my computer case.

4 would give you good 360 coverage.

Take a look at the customer images link on that page to see what they look like.

If you need to charge it quickly maybe a small high power strobe/s would work. A couple of high intensity flashes should charge the GITD well, right?

TacoHerder said:

Take the covers off the amps, put one amp on each side of the speaker and install the UV light strips along side the amps or across them. I always loved when they took the covers off and lit up the amp. Looks so cool.

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There's not enough room beside the sub and ring to mount the amps if we want to retain the side panels over the rear wheels.

The two silver amps are going in a row behind the seat, and the black amp and sound processor are going in the stock subwoofer area in the far rear passenger side.

The amps will light up blue, with silver. The sub ring is blue, with a machined silver ring, black grill covering a titanium woofer. The upholstery is black. Trying to maintain the overall theme, which should be clean and symmetrical.

T_Warne said:

I have not used them, but I have a bright blue one in my computer case.

4 would give you good 360 coverage.

Take a look at the customer images link on that page to see what they look like.

If you need to charge it quickly maybe a small high power strobe/s would work. A couple of high intensity flashes should charge the GITD well, right?

Click to expand...

That's good to know, thank you. They also have some other diode arrays on that site as well, it is quite good for what I am looking for.

On the strobe idea, I think that might work for a quick charge, but we want to be able to display it with the UV lights on, which would cause the ring to glow pretty strongly. Strobes would not have the same effect.

Why are you using a secondary light source like GITD anyway? Why not light it directly?

Cyparagon said:

Why are you using a secondary light source like GITD anyway? Why not light it directly?

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Well, there are a number of reasons.

1) No one has anything like it. Few people even know about the new GITD materials and how much light they retain. It looks like something from Fukushima.

2) Flourescent colors have been done to death in many competition cars, and they require full time UV to flouresce.


3) It matches the subwoofer in my home theater in theme, though the house sub is v10 green GITD. The car has more blue in the interior lighting and with the amps lighting up blue, the ultra blue color matches better.



[URL=http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/411/imag0453j.jpg/]

Why not try some simple blue flexible 12V strips under the GITD impregnated epoxy? Blue LED strips are way easier to come by than UV, but have less energy per photon and aren't as good at charging GITD.

glowinc said:

Red light actually discharges the glow pigments.
Green light is neutral.
Blue Light inefficiently charges the pigments.
Ultraviolet light charges the pigments efficiently.

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They also list suggested charging sources, indicating a preference for UV.

src: Glow in the Dark Charging Lights

Wildlands said:

That's good to know, thank you. They also have some other diode arrays on that site as well, it is quite good for what I am looking for.

On the strobe idea, I think that might work for a quick charge, but we want to be able to display it with the UV lights on, which would cause the ring to glow pretty strongly. Strobes would not have the same effect.

Click to expand...

Think about how bad-ass it would look if the ring suddenly increased in intensity at every heavy hit of the bass? I think dude might be onto something here! Pulse that UV LED every time the bass hits!

Yep, we're going to do some sound reactive work with it. We were contemplating using a laser to draw on the ring itself to draw sine waves in response to bass, but rotating a laser around the ring is a little beyond my capabilities. So we're looking at a way to use lighting in a couple methods. The Cold Cathode sound reactive modules are interesting, and if we go with diodes, I was looking at the Streetglow ANMI2 Music Interface.

I've worked with the new GITD phosphors quite a bit and regular 395-405 nM LEDs don't charge the blue material all that well. If you really want to go with LEDs find yourself some 380nM parts. Six 1 watt parts at 380nM, spaced evenly around the ring, will do what you want to do very nicely.

Hi WizardG, thanks for the advice. Any idea on a good place for a supplier in the continental US? I googled a couple, but I hate crap shoots of dealing with new companies.

And do you know if those require any heat sinking?

At full power, LEDs of 1 watt or more will need small heat sinks. It can be tough to find 380nM LEDs. Try DigiKey, Newark, or Mouser. They're all reputable and reliable. These are NOT cheap LEDs though. Prepare yourself for some sticker shock!

Yeah, those are not cheap. I am glad you didn't recommend the 355 NM ones