Jetbeam Jet-UV Review

The problem is that visible light totally hide some fluorescence most of the time…
I did the test in the bathroom and the difference is huge

Well, i am not good at grinding
So, i think i will order convoy s2+ and an UV filter, more power, less effort( and more costing, sadly)

Bulkier, also. But yeah, way more powerful !
I did a shorty S2+ with 3*7135 and that is the sweet spot to have both high output and prevent over-heating of the LED. I reflowed the LED on a Noctigon though.

can we ask simon to make smaller size ZWB2 lens?

I dont like my convoy UV because it’s bulky to carry

The ideal size is 12mm diameter, so it can be used in many AAA-lights. I have not found 12mm ZWB2 filters anywhere sofar.

Chris, a tip for taking pictures of 365nm fluorescence: the camera picks up deeper into UV than our eyes do. To make the pictures more like what you really see you can take the pictures with safety googles in front of the camera, it filters out much of the UV under 400nm, so you do not see the purple glare on the pictures (that you also do not see with your eyes).

I made a 12mm and a 10mm with my Dremel equipped with a thin cutting disc (standard) and then a grinding Wheel.
Took some patience, but was about 1 hour of work for both.
The key is to make a straight cut at the surface with th disc, then trying to cut deeper. The glass will crack following the line.
You then make about 5or 6 more straight lines to make a rough round shape.
Once you have a round shape, you can finish with the grinding wheel. The key is to remove material slowly, and not over heating.
There still is some small chips on the edge, but once installed in the flashlight there are hidden by the bezel anyway.

i found some but they cost $10usd for 12mm whereas 20.5mm cost $1.5USD

dont know why smaller size cost so much but the material is much less

ZWB2 filters are extremely cheap to make, you can find manufacturers on alibaba that offer all kinds of sizes. But the demand is virtually zero, so the few sellers that do offer them on Aliexpress can ask what they like, there is no competion taking place. And there’s Simon from Convoy who has ordered a batch directly from a manufacturer (20.5mm diameter), and Gearbest ordered 20mm ones. So those are cheap.

I agree. I have both and the security strip on older Benjamins don’t even show up with the Tube-UV. With the JETBeam, you can at least make them out. On newer bills the security strip is easy to make out with the JETBeam. Does a decent job on dog piss too. My daughter just got a new puppy. :rage: :smiley:

I have a WF502b UV (395 nm, I believe). The JETBeam clearly outperforms it. Not quite as good as my UV Convoy S2+ though. Considering the power source and package size, I’m pretty impressed.

The Jetbeam UV could run a Nichia 276 UV LED at 3.8V and 500mA rated specs easily.
anyone opened one and checked how much current the LED takes?

Any idea what the UV output of the 1.5v Jet-UV AAA is, compared to the 3.7v 18650 Convoy?

Im guessing about 60% less, so
IF a Convoy outputs 780mw from a 3.7v source, the Jet-UV from a 1.5v source would proportionally produce 316mw. Sound Reasonable?

and in that case the 365nm AA Jaxman E3 UV should have similar UV output power as the Jet-UV, but longer runtime, yes?

I’m clearly no expert, but I think you also have to consider current output. I don’t know enough to know whether or not the max output of each cell is going to affect overall power output, but since watts = volts x amps, I’d think it would have to, assuming the LED could handle more power than the cell could provide. Even in the case of the Jaxman, perhaps instead of only longer run times, you have a combination of increased run time and power output?

Hopefully someone more knowledgeable will chime in?

Oh and thanks. Now I have another light I may have to buy. :smiley:

It’s not linear on the voltage. You can’t even run a red LED with 1.5v, much less an UV led. You need to increase the voltage to the Vf of the led, about 3.8V, to obtain any usable output, so any uv flashlight with a single AA/AAA battery uses a boost driver for that. The current will depend on the driver and how much load the battery can handle. For example on a thrunite ti3 XP-G2 the high mode is 120 Lumens (high for a 1xAAA light), looking at the Cree Product Characterization Tool we can see that for a XP-G2 (S2 bin) such output is consistent with 250 mA with a Vf of 2.86V. The 135 Lm output of the Jetbeam mk1 is consistent with 280mA at 2.87V

A similar driver to the Mk1 may give to an UV led 0.28 A * 2.87 V / 3.8 V = about 210 mA at 3.8V. The higher the voltage difference of a boost driver, the lower the efficiency will be , so the current input to the led may be lower, say 90% of that, 190mA. If the 276A emits 780mW of UV at 500mA and 25ºC (per specs), we can assume linearly that 190mA gives 190/500 * 780 = about 300 mW. We need to increase that value somewhat because leds are more efficient at lower current and decrease it again because the temperature is higher than 25ºC, so 300mW would be a good estimate if the led was an nichia NCSU276A.

However the led on the jetbeam is not a 276A but a cheaper led, so we can expect that the efficiency would be lower, therefore the uv output would be lower for the same current.

[quote=ggf31416]

thanks
so
if AAA is ~ 25% as bright as 18650, we would be looking at ~200mw UV output

the AAA works up close, on money, now we need someone in Arizona to see how well it works at Scorpion range :slight_smile:

[quote=jon_slider]

18650 are much more than 4x as ‘powerful’ as AAA, but the limiting factor for 18650 UV flashlights is heat dissipation at the led (even more for the 276A). For visible light you can use much higher currents than 700mA without problems. For a AAA flashlight the limiting factors would be the ability of the small boost driver to handle high currents and the voltage drop of the batteries, as well as the need of a reasonable runtime.

Thank, you, yes, I agree.
Im just putting together some general estimates of what to expect when comparing a Jet-U to a Convoy S2
both will light up a redline on a US $100
but the convoy will do it from further away, and will spot Scorpions from further away
The Jet-U won’t have as long a runtime either, which is a trade off because the AAA battery weights 33% as much as an 18650… plus the body weight differences…

the whether to choose a Jet-UV or an S2-UV, depends on how heavy a light one wants to carry, based on how far away the target is, and runtime. Same considerations as regular lights, it comes down to a choice of battery, personal preference, based on the primary application or intended use.

I bought them both. The Convoy stays in my backpack, whereas the Jetbeam is always on me. Kinda similar to my strategy with my EDC lights. On my person, I carry 16340, AA or AAA lights and leave the big guns in my fanny and back packs. Recently, I’ve shifted to AA/14500 for the most part for a variety of reasons.

Jon, have you seen this? Might be a neat keychain solution. They claim 365nm output on the UV LED. No deals that I could find, though and kind of expensive, IMO.

good info, I take it you mean the AAA Jet-UV

yes, Ive seen the MecArmy SGN3, it does seem to have a true 365nm, and uses a USB rechargeable 3v LiPo afaict, Im guessing the output is similar to the AAA Jet-U, good for close up, such as money

I have no info on how well the Jet-U AAA or SGN3 UV LEDs work for lighting up mid range distances, such as inspecting a hotel room.

How would you describe the usefulness difference between the 18650 Convoy and the AAA Jet-U

I am a PWM snob, so the SGN3 is not on my Radar because it pulses on its low and mid with the cool white and Low CRI LED, but it does have some interesting red and UV LEDs:
SGN3 PWM:

I have both and this would be comparing a real car with a toy car… kind of.

The Jet UV is ok at very short range but lacks both power and a UV filter. The S2+ UV on the other hand is much more powerful and can be equipped with a ZWB2 UV pass filter so that very few visible light interferes with the induced luminescence. If you want to inspect a room or spot things outdoor, that’s what you would want.