Real UV flashlight

[Cyparagon]

It should be fine. Since it's a buck driver, anything over 4V within reason should be fine according to my tests. You can test to see if the bucking is working by powering it with different voltages. If the current increases as the voltage increases, it's broke (or they did away with the driver and used a resistor instead?). One of the following occurred:

1. They upgraded the LED and driver since I bought mine.
2. They downgraded the driver to a resistor.
3. The driver is defective.

The weird color and same price suggests it's not (1) though. Try the different voltages and see what's up.

 

[SOG]

I am wondering, both pictures are with the light on?

You might not have 365nm, piferal. The markings on the side are for the case only. The drop-in can be different. I have two lights with the same markings, and are otherwise identical, but one is 400nm and one is 365nm.

The 365nm:
Mine draws 200mA at 4V, and is constant power from 4V up to 8.4V. Below 4V, it drops power. The emitter looks like:

The 400nm:
Mine draws 630mA at 4.3V, and is constant power from 4.3V to 8.4V. Below 4.3V, it drops power. The emitter needed attenuation to look like:

The major difference between the two is brightness.

I put the 365nm one against my power meter and got ~30mW. But the area of the sensor is only half the area of the output of the light, so I estimate 60mW of optical power.

 

[Things]

Yeah, here is one with it off:

 

[Lonewolf]

Yeah, here is one with it off:

 

[BShanahan14rulz]

365nm emitter looks familiar..... hmm...

and to dude having weird yellow light coming out, see what your tailcap current is. I'd imagine it would be some insanely off number if the driver were DD-ing the LED with all 8.4V.

 

[Atomicrox]

It should be fine. Since it's a buck driver, anything over 4V within reason should be fine according to my tests. You can test to see if the bucking is working by powering it with different voltages. If the current increases as the voltage increases, it's broke (or they did away with the driver and used a resistor instead?). One of the following occurred:

1. They upgraded the LED and driver since I bought mine.
2. They downgraded the driver to a resistor.
3. The driver is defective.

The weird color and same price suggests it's not (1) though. Try the different voltages and see what's up.

1x18650 fully charged to 4.14V: 220mA, starts decreasing quickly
2x16340 fully charged to 8.28V: 680mA
1x16340 (same as above): 270mA
2x15270 fully charged to 6.86V: 890mA (WTF, lower voltage and higher amps?)

The thing is completely crazy.

Also I'm a bit confused - the driver is supposed to always send the same current to the diode. Shouldn't that mean it will draw a higher tailcap current with lower voltage batteries to compensate?

 

[Cyparagon]

I was hoping for more regularity. That's not telling me anything. Can you get variable voltage? A lm317 with three lithiums for power would do. In voltage regulation mode of course, not current mode.

Vary the voltage smoothly from 3V up to 8V and record the resulting current.

 

[Atomicrox]

Wish I had one of those variable power supplies but I don't. I'll grab a regulator next time I go to an electronics shop but it probably won't be any time soon

 

[Smeerworst]

I just ordered me one of these

UV Flashlight Maxima 365nm/300mW

TECHNISCHE DATEN UV-LED

* Hochleistungs UV LED: Seoul CUN

* Wellen-Länge 365 nm

* Stromaufnahme 500mA

* Optical UV-Output 300 mW

 

[Sigurthr]

Looks sweet, Smeer! How much did that cost ya?

 

[Smeerworst]

Looks sweet, Smeer! How much did that cost ya?

It was 229 Euros = 305 U.S. dollars

 

[Smeerworst]

They (the shop) confirmed my payment..

Sind's it in Germany, i should have it this week.

I will compare a regulair ~400nm led flashlight to this 365nm one on some minerals i have (i've got lot's!)

Can't wait for the results myself...

 

[Meatball]

Nice scorpion illuminator that is. It is surely something you want to keep you eyes safe from - don't develop cataracts early!

 

[norbyx]

It's a nice light, but wouldn't it be easyer (and maybe cheaper) to use a highly defocused laser?

 

[Sigurthr]

365nm diodes are $5000 and don't come close to 300mW.

 

[norbyx]

well I didn't mean for the 365 but the 405