I’m new to the world of dropins and hosts, but do I have it right that basically rather than buying a complete torch people buy the case (host) and light (dropin), and the two screw together by default? Can someone recceomend me a webpage on torchmaking for newbies like me?
Fwiw the CU6 shows the 20 on the £20 notes very well, on par with nichia, better than a BLB-T5 and much much clearer than all the 395nm LED torches from ebay
Here you go, my little contribution to this discussion. The torches are all those referred to at my site http://extreme-macro.co.uk/uv-macro-lighting/
The KD UV would be nice to try
Did this series as well, because mfm, the starter of the thread, also did a 20 Euro note so this should give some common ground to compare. What’s interesting is the way that the cover of the BLB-T5 ‘bank note checker’ actually does itself a disservice. The clear plastic cover over the tube is itself excited by UV and gives off blue light, which then swamps the already quite thin UV fluorescent green/yellow panel. Link: http://extreme-macro.co.uk/uv-macro-lighting/
If you send me that 20 I’ll test it with the 365nm Ultrafire 501B and the Fasttech 395-410nm
.
:bigsmile:
Awesome. I’ll have to post some currency pics… though I don’t have nearly as many UV lights to compare.
About all I can say so far is that my cheapo UV light looks about like the “41-LED” pics above, and the KD UV drop-in looks a lot like the CU6. However, it doesn’t do well at fluorescing the red stars and circles on the 20 euro note.
The problem is though that some of the colours might be due to the camera rather than the lights. As in each camera interprets UV signal somewhat differently, so it’s hard to standardise. And to really see just the visible fluorescence you have to filter away any UV or IR signal, ie prevent it reaching the camera. Otherwise there is spillover. Trust me, I’m a camera geek 
Here’s another thing I did tonight. the UV/IR cut from Baader I’m using on the centre column is about the most expensive “prevent UV and IR reaching the camera” filter around:
Definitely. I’ve tried and mostly failed to capture accurate UV-lit images. But then, I don’t have the proper filters and I have a cheap camera. I especially haven’t been able to get accurate white-ish tints to show in beam shots, no matter what I do with the white balance.
So, any shots I post will be … a bit lacking. But maybe it’ll still be useful to someone.
I’m also trying to figure out how to accurately show the output of my wide-spectrum light compared to a high-CRI light and common medium-CRI tints, but I think I’d need a far better camera. An elph 110 HS is great for snapshots, but it simply doesn’t cut it when you want accurate representation of subtle color differences. At least it was able to show the not-subtle difference in how my eyes perceive the wide-spectrum light versus incandescent overheads:
Wide-spectrum BST (looks almost identical to a Nichia 219, only with slightly more vivid colors):
How I see with overhead incandescent bulbs (my eyes never adjust to the tint):
There is a new Tank007 365nm UV light on HKE. It uses an 18650. 3W version so 2x1.5W UV emitters under the dome I think like the 3W AA one. Same Japan UV as the other Tanks. Asking price is a bit high
Is there a BLF coupon for HKE?
ya i noticed that new one at a few other places too. until i found the older AA version for a good price at focalprice.com
http://www.focalprice.com/LFD45B/TANK007_TK566UV_1Mode_1W_Purple_WaterResistant_LED_Flashlight_Torch_Black.html
there was also a 10% coupon online too. so i only paid $33 shipped
I haven’t tried a Tank007 TK566UV, but a L2m + KD drop-in works pretty well and comes out to a little less than $30. With two cells, it runs at around 5W.
I found this thread too late. I bought a Ultrafire WF-501B (on the body it also says HWA/WYS). I claims to be 365nm and uses and 18650.
Does anyone have any experience/comparison relative to the Tank?
First time poster, long time reader! You all have a lot of great information on this site.
I thought I’d share my limited UV experience. Several years ago I bought my first UV light. It’s a Pentagon Lights 2 watt UV that’s labeled as being 390nm. It really didn’t fluoresce that much as I had hoped. It mostly seemed like a deep purple light. A couple years ago I got an Inova X5, the newer version with the dual output and both 365 and I think 380nm LED’s. It worked much better for things like currency. That’s when I found out that the stripe on the $100 bill would actually fluoresce red and it won’t at 390nm. The problem with the X5 is that it’s not very powerful at all. I’ve visited this thread a few times looking for information on a higher power REAL 365nm light.
Anyway, a couple weeks ago I was looking at the CustomLites site and noticed Dave was selling a 365nm drop in with an LEDEngin LED and I kind of bought it on impulse. Oops I’ve got it in a L2p running on 2x 18350 IMR’s and it’s just crazy to me how much light it puts out! It will easily fluoresce things at least 50 feet away. That’s the farthest I’ve tried so far. It was a little pricey but I was a little sick of messing around. Even so, it was still less than I payed for the Pentagon Lights one several years ago that I didn’t ever like and that includes an L2n host I had in the order. I’m very happy with it!
I would try it with a $100 bill but I don’t see many of those.
Welcome to BLF Ladp!
If it is the Ledengin LZ1 365nm led in that Customlites drop-in, that is the one I used for my small zoomie mod (I linked the build thread somewhere above in this thread), it is indeed impressive! The bare led alone costed me more than 30 dollars (twice as much as the host) 
Thanks!
All the tube the drop in came in says is:
Ledengin
365nm
1level regulated
4.2-12 volts
It doesn’t say if it’s an LZ1 but, just looking at the data sheets from Ledengin, it seems like that would be the best match. I actually started by putting a 18650 in there and was impressed already but then I saw the 4.2-12v I initially missed so I popped in the 2 18350’s I had and was wowed! It’s powerful enough that I’m actually a little spooked in using it before I get some protective glasses. I don’t know if that’s too cautious or not but that’s what Dave recommended to me in an email and he seems to know what he’s talking about.
I might have a 380nm light soonish. It’s not as short a wavelength as I’d like, but it’ll be very compact and should be interesting to compare against my 365nm drop-in. Great to have around when I don’t feel like carrying the bulk of my nicer UV light. It’s the size of an Olight S10, which is like a third as large as the L2m I use for full-power UV purposes.
Can you describe the amount of visible blue light compared with your others?
How well would you say it works with 1 × 18650?
Thanks
My SF L2m w/ KD 365nm drop-in is by far the best UV light I’ve tried. It has only a small amount of visible light and it makes pretty much everything glow if it’s capable of glowing at all. However, it’s significantly dimmer on 1x18650 than it is on 2x18350. On one cell it’s still better than my others, but not by such a wide margin.
The new 380nm light has been a bit disappointing. It’ll light up bleached paper but not much else.
In any case, I don’t have any good retail blacklights to test against, like the Nitecore CU6. So, I don’t know how those compare.
Hmm, the CUXP2 from Int'l Outdoor has a UV option that could be interesting.
Anyone planning to try it out?
specs say 400nm
Anyone splurged on this Ultrafire C3 version from KD yet?
http://kaidomain.com/product/details.S023295
If it is as a good as the P60, that would be great as it runs 14500’s.