The picture on the BG site shows a chinese led, certainly not Nichia. A nice light if you have no UV light yet, very disappointing if you know what it looks like with a good 365nm led plus UV-pass filter.
Ugh!, Buzz kill! That’s what I get for shopping at 3AM. At worst I’ll have a host to mod.
Sorry about that. I’ve been there myself more than once.
No worries, caveat emptor.
Just joined this forum due to my interest in the Convoy S2 UV light. We found this a few weeks ago and I announced it in our fluorescent mineral group on FB - folks went bananas. This is the perfect light for fluorescing minerals, scorpions, and all other things longwave fluorescent. A couple of discussions opened up about the light, availability of filters (required for mineral viewing) - y’all might be interested in the content: Fluorescent Minerals | I'm certainly not technologically inclined, however, I was intrigued by Raymond's and Mark's 365nm torch flashlights
ZWB2 filter a lot cheaper here
https://de.aliexpress.com/item/ZWB2-filter-for-365nm-light/32649282235.html?spm=2114.13010208.99999999.6.S7JMuD
You can use my pictures in this thread for demonstration
The thing with this Light is the LED is overdriven so Djozz pecial copper board is nice to have
On the other side the LED is only at full brightness when the battery is more than 80% full
It is funny how we can discuss these lights for years at BLF, and the people really needing it not knowing about it.
Mark, if a good (ZWB2) uv-pass filter is used, there’s quite a few new 365nm leds that can be used just as effectively or even better than the Nichia 276A.
Edit: nice website! 
With UV filter the Lite-on is way better, more current and has an thermal pad used with DTP stars to drive it hard
Only Problem with that LED is at 1A its forward voltage is above 4.2V so you need a boost or buck driver
http://eu.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Lite-On/LTPL-C034UVH365/?qs=pPiH5vUCJeR2s22VxlBhsw==
Thx! I have been building my own lights using LEDEngin LZ1s for a couple of years. 1.5w radiant @1000ma - but they are pricey ($30/ea at Digikey). The key to this light is it costs less than what I pay for an LED! One example: http://www.minershop.com/technology/diy-projects/lw-display-light/. I've also built several flashlights using 4ea of the LZ1's in various hosts. But the price is too high for our general hobby
Edit: a pic of my 4 LED light is here (4th image down - on the deck railing): https://www.naturesrainbows.com/fluorescent-mineral-lights - puts out a whopping 6 watt radiant.
LZ1’s from LED Engin have by far the highest radiant power in this category. LG also makes some powerful 365nm LEDs
Have been thinking about swapping out the Nichia LED with an LZ1, adding one more driver and driving it at 1050ma (50ma over the absolute max). Don’t have experience in overdriving LEDs - think it will last longer than a few weeks? Will the Convoy host handle the add’l heat? Opinions? The LZ1 has almost double the radiant output. I’ve also found DIY Convoy hosts on Banggood - might be a good way to go?
The LiteOn led that Lexel mentions has comparable or better output than the LZ1.
LG’s newest UV leds are listed on their website for over a year but I have never been able to source them as an individual buyer. Do you know a source?
Yeah LZ1 or Nichia 233 are those at about 1.5W but for 40$ a piece
The Liteon C034UVH365 costs only 8$ and emits 1W
And on a Direct thermal Path Sinkpad you can overdrive it to 1.5W
http://eu.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Lite-On/LTPL-C034UVH365/?qs=pPiH5vUCJeR2s22VxlBhsw==
If you want go crazy get the 18W Nichia 333 which emits 5-6W 365nm but costs 150$ a piece
https://www.nichia.co.jp/specification/products/led/NVSU333A-E.pdf
$30/ea at Digikey, qty 10 for the LZ1
The 18w need 15 volts or more?
750ma for the Nichia, 1000ma for the Liteon not much difference. 1500ma, that gets my attention.
BUT - for the price, this Convoy light is spectacular IMHO
The trick with the LiteOn led is that it has a central thermal solder pad, that the Nichia’s do not have. Here on this forum we use special (direct thermal path) ledboards that heatsink these leds very well so that they can be overdriven with the output boosted and without seeming harm. What it does to the led over many many hours I don’t know for sure but they may survive just fine…
Yes I do but he’s not a member here. PM me your email and I will forward it to him; if he wants to reply he will (good guy, but may be working on his own design)
(I don’t sell lights - just an offshoot from my mineral hobby)
The 18W Nichia needs 3.85V and 4.5A
But you need to buy it likely direct from nichia
This test for UV photography is also interesting
Something that may not be very relevant to your use is that the Nichia and LiteOn leds have clearly smaller dies than the LZ1, so in a same flashlight they produce a clearly smaller and brighter spot.
Djozz you read the topic about aging LEDs
The Osram specialist claimed that a harder driven GaN LED will age less if the junction temperature is the same
On a DTP star you can drive the Liteon to 1.5A
Your 6W light is impressive on radiant flux, but on intensity a Convoy S2+ beats it like nuts
You may get only 800mW from the S2+ but its very focussed due to the 1x1mm chip
The LZ1 got a thermal pad but is the star DTP?
Aha - I got an engineering sample from them several years ago at a higher voltage. That chip sounds very nice (and pricey)
Wonderful web site! Thanks!!! We have our own web site dedicated to photgraphing mineral fluorescence: https://www.naturesrainbows.com/