Hi guys. I had somebody build me a triple UV in an S12 host and unfortunately it ended up being really weak for my intended purpose which is pet urine detection on carpet. I was trying to get a floody UV light with good power for detection of bodily fluids so I could view large areas and detect many spots at once but it did not seem to work out. I have no idea why this light is weak but I can only make assumptions that the bulbs used in it were not comparable to Nichia, LG or Luminous SST10, or the bulbs were not 365NM, but again just an assumption. Putting in a 21700 battery made it a hair brighter then 18650 but it still does not detect well at all. So now I would like to try to salvage the host at least so it was not a complete waste of money but I don’t know how to remove this bezel, what tool should I buy for removing the bezel without damage and removing the driver retainer so I can attempt my first build?
I would also like a recommendation on a soldering iron to use and any other tools I may need to build on a novice level. Since I am a total rookie and this would be my first attempt I need dummy proof parts, I was looking on kai domain and saw that they have a triple Seoul UV in 365nm is this the only triple uv on pcb available and how good is it? If UV just wont work good in this host I guess I will be converting it to normal light.
Your post raises a few questions. You had someone make you a light but you don’t know what’s in it? I would have the maker tell you what the emitters are so you can check if they are what they should be. And what wavelength they are. Should be 365nm What makes you think it isn’t powerful? From the image you posted it looks like it is fluorescing well. Maybe there wasn’t urine in the area you checked. Try it in your bathroom. I also notice that you don’t have a filter. If you get a ZWB2 filter for the front it will cut down on the extra bluish light and make the fluorescence show up better. Is the battery fully charged? Is it a high quality battery? These are easy things to check before you tear it down.
Thanks yeah its a Samsung 40T battery and the light was compared side by side with another build in an M1 host with an SST10 bulb and yes there was oodles of urine… I mean like these dogs went to town…lol… the emitters were supposed to be SST10 bulbs but I am questioning if they really are because the color is completely different from my other SST10 light. This S12 barely shows urine at all… Same guy made both lights and I generally trust him but i wonder if he took a shortcut rather then flowing SSt10 bulbs onto a PCB he just used the available Seoul Triple…
My profession is carpet cleaning and we need extremely powerful UV lights for detecting pet urine in daylight. I have been on a bit of a quest to find a floody light that is capable of showing urine in brightly lit rooms but so far it is a bust… Only spot lights like the M1 and C8 hosts seem to be capable of doing that. Even this old Gearbest S2+ with Nichia UV out performs my S12 triple in rooms with sunlight or artificial light in them…
Looks like you have checked it out thoroughly. I’m a little surprised as that should be a pretty hot UV light. I think that triple board at Kaidomain should do the trick as long as it is the correct diameter. To get the bezel off you need a special 5 point tool or some kind of spanner. This will probably cost more than just buying a Convoy UV light that, as you say, is brighter than the one you have. You may be able to unscrew the bezel if you can grip it tightly with a strap wrench. If you can get the bezel off it is a really simple soldering job to replace the emitter board. Just unsolder the two wires, take out the old board and solder the new one in. Make sure you note which color wire goes to positive and negative. You can decide if you want to keep it as a UV light or put something else in. If you want to keep it UV, you can also buy 3 new emitters that you know what they are and learn how to reflow. Reflowing a triple is maybe not the easiest thing to learn on but that’s what I did https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/49853 . Easier to just get the board from Kaidomain but if you want to learn to roll your own just dive in.
As far as tool recommendations, there are many on BLF. Just Google “BLF soldering iron” or whatever you want to search on and you will find several threads. Always good recommendations from people who use them a lot. I learned all I know about this from just lurking and reading on this forum. If you are buying tools I presume you are looking to get into modding in a significant way. The hard decision is, should I get enough tools to make my own lights, or just buy the lights premade. For UV lights there are fewer choices than regular lights, but there are a lot out there. It all depends on whether you want a new hobby or just want a tool for work. Oh, and dummy proof parts, there is no such thing. Every time I have tried modding a light, there has been some unexpected thing that made it tougher than I thought. This is how we learn. With enough tries you learn how to do it.
Thanks again, I am entertaining the idea of making specifically UV lights to sell to other carpet cleaners but its just a thought at this point, I probably wont pursue it unless I find out I am just good at it. for now it would be just building this S12 and maybe an L2 Host with an LG emitter. I have owned the Nichia and SST10 bulbs but not the LG yet so I am curious. I just did some more random testing with the M1 vs the S12 around the house and after a few minutes I can feel the head heating up on the S12 triple while the M1 single is still cool and outputs a far superior light for detection… It is odd for sure, I had hoped this triple would be pretty impressive but I guess it must not be 365NM because it misses things the other light shows and does not make things glow as bright.
