I’m attempting to build an ultra cheap but powerful little UVA (365nm) light.
The reason it needs to be so cheap is I want to make 1000 of them and install them into a novel product I’m designing.
But I would still like it to be visible in ambient daylight (indoors during the day). I was hoping for 3w output (like the small convoy models) but realise I may need to settle for less brightness to get my costs down.
I know that I need an 18mm zwb2 filter.
I know that I need an orange peel reflector.
What I’m struggling with is the emitter, mpcb and driver.
I have found 365nm emitters for as cheap as $1.20 from Ying Feng. $2.00 with mpcb.
Simon at Convoy offers similar wholesale prices but I need to bring these costs down, as this does not even include a driver.
Can anyone advise me on how I might make my budget light even more budget? Should I reduce the wattage? Will that help get emitter and driver costs down?
Forgive me for being blunt, but there are contrarians in the forum who won’t help you unless it’s to contradict what other people say, so i will say something…
SO, what are you trying to accomplish? Also, we have no frame of reference as to the products you’re talking about. And being a noob, how can you be sure of what you know you need?
**And do you need the ULTRAVIOLET specifically to be visible, or the objects you intend to flouresce? I assume you’re making some kind of chem detector or something
Hi, no worries about being blunt. I am still in the patent process for my idea so I can’t disclose much.
I want the light to make it easier to spot dust. At a distance of roughly 80mm - 150mm.
I have purchased a few uv lights on the market, with Zwb2 filters, to try to get an idea of the appropriate strength. It seems that a 1-3W emitter should work.
Does that give you enough detail? Sorry that I can’t reveal more at this early development stage
You’re installing 1000 flashlights into a single device or are you producing 1000 devices that you’ve designed that each takes a flashlight? Do you actually want/need flashlight format or just the guts and a heatsink?
If you’re in the USA you might have a problem with the Way Too Cool LLC patent (US7781751).
I find this confusing also, UV is invisible to the human eye do you mean you wish for the fluroecence to be visible in daylight? In which case this is equally related to how strongly the material you’re trying to identify will fluoresce… For strongly fluorescent materials, you could do away with the UV filter.
I realised I did not reply to this but I think we continued discussing it on another post.
I’ve made a new post, now that I have slightly more knowledge and have been able to run some tests with actual components.
