Cheap bare 385nm UV LED

Did you still know what the batch of springs had cost? Because there is no really good spring available a GB could be interesting. The last one i was really happy with was bought from Richard. But it is not listed anymore in his shop.

They were expensive because I only had 200 made: they costed me a dollar a piece. This was my sales thread: trying to sell a few of my custom made phosfor-bronze springs

If I had 2000 made, they had costed me at least 3 times less but that was a financial risk that I did not dare to take. If I had known that it would stay the only proper spring for sale in 3 years to come, I would probably have sold all 2000 after all.

Mhh not cheap! So at the moment we only could hope that a shop will jump on this. It would be nice to have a source for good strong springs.
i am still searching for the good 7135chips. FT can not get them and i am running out of options. I need 20pcs for the MELD-X driver but only have 17-18 left.

PS.
The UV leds arrived today.

Mine arrived today, too!
Thanks!

leds received, thank you.

I still haven’t received mine yet. I keep watching the mail box… every day… hoping to see a package… Maybe today. :weary:

how about DD with FET but with a resistor glued with thermal epoyx to the host that eats up that 0.3-0.5V to get to a safe current

I got mine today! WooHoo! :smiley:

Got mine last night!

tried it with few tir lenses, the only tir that wont block uv is pmma, originally i was gonna use triple from ledil, but tall dome makes it impossible to use that lens, polycrb, lenses all block uv, so they are useless with this led, the led does fit under cute 3up (35mm) lens, and it is the only lens, that i have, that fits, somewhat focuses it. and does not block uv.

i wonder if dedoming will either fix focus situation or make it worst. will have to try that later

Thanks for the heads up. Let us know if you find anything else that works (like de-doming).

dedoming did not improve anything, it actually made things worst, output dropped by a lot, at least with lenses i have, so far the best combo, is 35mm 3up from ledil. i have 3ups made by different manufacturer out of polycab, they do not work.

my next project would be another woody, with 3 triple , and white light between (using 4 led 34mm star from mtn electronic) i wanted to do 4 lens but i was careless enough to leave a plastic strip with leds on the table for the night, and my cat found it, destroyed 4 leds, lol from the looks of it, he defiantly enjoyed it,

Thanks alpg88! Sorry for your troubles (bad de-dome and hungry cat). Are you going to enter the O-L contest this year? That woody 3 triple with white in the middle sounds like a cool project! :sunglasses:

if i come up with something i’ll enter, but woody i already did twice, did not get me far, (5th and 6th) it is not a winning design. i’ll build one with uv anyway i need it for different purpose, but not for the contest.

i build the light, this weekend will try it outdoors. i actually recovered more leds than i expected, cat only destroyed 2, others were saved by thick reel, enough for 4 triples, all wired in parallel, fed by 6a linear driver.

white leds in the center ( has no optics, basically, the beam pattern is horrible, with dark spots everywhere, but it does pretty good job at illuminating dark spaces. it also wont blind if you look directly into it.
only 3 triples have white leds, all parallel too, 4,5A linear driver, both drivers, are slave boards from ME)

whole thing fed by 6 18650, in parralel, usb charging board,

Imgur

Imgur

Imgur

Imgur

Imgur

Imgur

after using it outdoors, i can’t say, i’m happy with results, i had lower power uv reach farther, and have more intense beam, i think odd 54* primary optic does not work with tir lenses that good. i’d give the light a C, as far as illumination\making things glow. a tennis ball lights up like a bulb from 10 feet, but after 60-80feet you can barely see the ball.

Looks awesome , this lamp.

A thing you could do is cutting off the domes for 90%, the beam will then be much more suitable for the optic.

tried that, what it gained in focus , it lost in intensity, it was even worst, that is why i left the domes as they were. it is still good party light, makes lots of things glow. it was very popular during party this weekend. i just expected more. oh well, i’ll find better led\lens combo. i really want the light to have focused\strong enough of a beam so i can make yellow targets glow from 100-150 yards.

for 100-150 yeards you better get a Nichia LED with 1mm² die and no dome and an aspheric thrower with glass lens

the thing with this LED in 365nm to get regulated output you need a 2S buck driver or a 1 cell boost/buck driver as its forward voltage is about 4.2V

in 385nm the LED forward voltage is lower

yea i was thinking aspheric, just not 3w nichia, but 100w array.
paper and targets do not need 365nm, they glow just as good if not better at 400-405nm. and with 400-405nm, i can use polycarb lenses. unlike with anything below 400nm