Hi exekutive,
Part of why my method measuring UV leds is how it is, is because it developed out of measuring white leds first. It was very rough at first and now it is finetuned a bit but does not have the accuracy of white led testing. It seems to work, and that is always a valid reason to stick to a method.
There will be other approaches indeed, the most obvious one is leaving out the fluorescence step if you use a UV detector instead of a luxmeter and go from there.
UV detectors do introduce new sources of error: i.e. the sensitivity slope in the wavelength area of measurement can cause significant errors: in case of the detector that you linked: a led with peak at 365nm will be measured higher than a led with peak at 370nm (5nm peak difference is a common variation among “365nm” leds). If you have not also measured the spectrum to correct for that (which I usually have not done) a 10% error is easily made. I know that the ZWB2 filter in my set-up does a similar thing but I hope (not measured) that the U-glass that I use in my current method has a reasonable flat radiationpower-to-visiblelightoutput response over my usual around 365nm wavelength measuring range.
Also, I’m not good in electronics and not good in computers. So not being able to design electronic circuitry and computer interfaces, I always use standalone instruments. And as Scientist already pointed out, they can be expensive and my hobby money is very limited. I do allow myself something pricey every now and then though
One thing that I learned from measuring white leds is that it is not obvious to measure total light output of a source if the beam profile differs from source to source. In that case you need some integrating device. My current method does provide some integration by projecting all radiation onto a fluorescing surface and measuring the resulting fluorescing light in my usual integrating sphere made for visible light. Not perfect but it does to quite some extend compensate for different beams.
If a UV detector is used, also an integrating device is needed and if the UV light is bouncing around in an integrating sphere I must determine if the reflectivity of the sphere’s inner surface does not vary too much for wavelength differences. Because the light undergoes multiple reflections before reaching the detector, small differences get multiplied.
So I do my measurements the way I do for several reasons:
-historic reasons, it has been developed towards this method
-convenience/lazy reasons, it works for me and it will be a major undertaking to develop something new
-financial reasons, a new method will require buying new equipment
-fear of the new, can I learn the new stuff? (electronics, computer stuff, interprete datasheets etc.), and will I ever be able to sufficiently first measure then solve all the causes of error in a new to be developed method.
My white led tests that I have been doing for 5 years, in the meantime are being done better by a few other BLF-members, who have better equipment, methods and skills than me. So I know that my possibilities and skills (and space!, my hobby is 2 meter2 from our 3-room city appartment that I share with wife and son) are limited and I welcome people to do better UV led tests too