miniature UV flashlight powered by smartphone

Rdubya18 · 2019-08-29T08:24:13.000Z

…wish stuff I made looked that good !

djozz · 2019-08-29T09:15:24.000Z

Garuspik:

Guys, please look at video - main purpose is UV flashlight for smartphone With filter you won’t take more or less decent shots from smartphone camera.
And from my point of view fluorescence is visible in almost same way with or without ZWB2 filter.

In my experience (so not an opinion), the addition of a ZWB2 filter to 365nm light from any current UV led improves the fluorescence contrast enormously, allowing users to distinguish many fluorescence details that are completely invisible without the filter. Further, the stray light from a UV-led is a particularly poor source for background illumination, if a background illumination is desired, a second white led would give better quality plus there is the option to switch it off. Or the inbuild smartphone light could be used as secondary illumination. It does complicate the design of course.

This is all a suggestion from my side to improve the design, I do not mean to say that the current design is bad, I still think it is a nice gadget as it is now.

Garuspik · 2019-08-29T09:47:43.000Z

djozz:

Garuspik:

Guys, please look at video - main purpose is UV flashlight for smartphone With filter you won’t take more or less decent shots from smartphone camera.
And from my point of view fluorescence is visible in almost same way with or without ZWB2 filter.

In my experience (so not an opinion), the addition of a ZWB2 filter to 365nm light from any current UV led improves the fluorescence contrast enormously, allowing users to distinguish many fluorescence details that are completely invisible without the filter. Further, the stray light from a UV-led is a particularly poor source for background illumination, if a background illumination is desired, a second white led would give better quality plus there is the option to switch it off. It does complicate the design of course.

I definitely a newbie in flashlight society and don’t have big experience but I’ve experimented with several 1w IR leds and there were such that show almost the same result with and without ZWB2 filter. And there were such that differs dramatically. The most expensive one (like Nichia for example) had almost no benefits.
What I see on BLF from your own topic proves my opinion also:
Test of ZWB2 filter

Optosupply leds behave in the same way.

djozz · 2019-08-29T09:57:08.000Z

I have never had any Optosupply leds, if they emit as little visible stray light as Nichia 365nm leds, the ZWB2 filter makes less difference but would still help significantly for enhancing fluorescence contrast (as stated in my ZWB2 filter post). One thing to consider is that at least my experience with the Nichia 276A U365 led is that over time the visible stray light increases, making a filter more useful. But that may be more relevant for a heavy-use forensic flashlight than for a smartphone add-on for occasional use.

Garuspik · 2019-08-29T11:37:52.000Z

Absolutely agree. That’s not a pro tool and never intended to be. I’ve designed it for occasional use for those who want to check whether plates in restaurant or linens in hotel are clean.

For some reason insertion of video in previous post failed.

djozz · 2019-08-29T12:32:44.000Z

A tip for making a video: digital camera’s pick up light further into the UV than your eyes, so there is a purple haze in the video that you do not see in reality. You can filter out the purpe haze with a UV-blocking filter before the camera lens. Polycarbonate protection goggles for example work well as a blocking filter.

EDCba · 2019-08-29T12:39:09.000Z

Very interesting. How does it compare with Tube UV?

Garuspik:

Seven4s:

I’ll buy 2, if you’re selling now. Please contact me offlist via PM.

No, it will not work this way. To start a production and sell them at a reasonable price I need orders for at least 250 pcs. I need to order PCBs, buy led at bulk prices (by the way one led cost about 5:money_mouth_face:, make a small injection mould for plastic case. This is a new device from scratch, not a mod of existing flashlight.
So I guess I’ll go to Kickstarter. If you think that I’m some sort of fraudster - check my previous Kickstarter project or website in my signature (especially reviews section)

There’s already a KS for something like this: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1070855717/multiwavelength-uv-flashight-for-travelers-and-pho

Garuspik · 2019-08-29T13:01:54.000Z

EDCba:

There’s already a KS for something like this: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1070855717/multiwavelength-uv-flashight-for-travelers-and-pho

Yeah, I know. But from my point of view mine has absolutely another form-factor.

How it compares with tube uv? It compares like sun and alpha centauri when looking from earth in daytime. I’ll show video later.

wle · 2019-08-29T13:29:27.000Z

Garuspik:

Brief explanation why everyone who want to keep his house clean need UV flashlight. Everything is recorded with smartphone\ smartphone with attached flashlight.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cfm0avfkRt4

but a lot of dirt, germs and gunk, do not glow under UV

and some of the things that do are not problems - like laundry whiteners, bright blue under UV

wle · 2019-08-29T13:29:58.000Z

i would put that on a 1 meter cord, or at least add an extension cord

wle

wle · 2019-08-29T13:32:10.000Z

also i concur that a ZWB filter will make it easier to things that are fluorescent.

and a UV filter on the camera, will take fuzziness out of pictures

wle

DavidEF · 2019-08-29T20:48:43.000Z

Garuspik:

Seven4s:

I’ll buy 2, if you’re selling now. Please contact me offlist via PM.

No, it will not work this way. To start a production and sell them at a reasonable price I need orders for at least 250 pcs. I need to order PCBs, buy led at bulk prices (by the way one led cost about 5:money_mouth_face:, make a small injection mould for plastic case. This is a new device from scratch, not a mod of existing flashlight.
So I guess I’ll go to Kickstarter. If you think that I’m some sort of fraudster - check my previous Kickstarter project or website in my signature (especially reviews section)

Well, since you’re new here, perhaps you don’t know about our sometimes huge group buys. We have one right now for a lantern that has already exceeded 2000 units and is still attracting new members. It is expected to be ready to sell soon. Reaching 1000 units isn’t hard for a popular item. To get 250 units for a UV light that adds on to a phone, you may have to offer a few extra ‘options’ to make it a more universal accessory for the members, but otherwise it should be easy to reach that number. Even with the exact model you have now, if you needed more interest than BLF could provide, you can squeeze in the CPF and TLF and get a lot more. Kickstarter is okay, but if you want to really market to your product’s best target audience, you should keep it here (and CPF and TLF if needed).

Also, about the PCBs and LEDs and other components. We have contacts for all of those things right here at BLF. Look around the site a little. It really is impressive what we have the capacity to accomplish.

wle · 2019-08-30T11:18:36.000Z

it’s interesting to see this, i’ve done it, shine UV around the house.

I’ve found though, that it is not as useful as you might think.

“unclean” and “fluorescent”, are only loosely related, for many reasons.
dirty stuff shows nothing, most of the time, and glowing stuff can be perfectly clean (many soaps and cleaning products fluoresce, so that is a ‘false positive’.)

i also don’t really see the need for it to be powered by the phone.

if you really need to take pictures (how often would that really be?), just use your $20 super bright convoy UV light.
there is no need to have it powered by the phone
just my 2c.

wle

DavidEF · 2019-08-30T20:54:55.000Z

It’s not that it needs to be phone powered. It’s that holding a phone up for use as a camera can often take both hands. It’s a convenience to have this thing hanging off the end of the phone, so it gets pointed the same direction as the camera at all times. To that end, being powered by the phone is a convenience as well.

As for the efficacy of the light, well, it depends what you’re doing with it. It seems to me this light isn’t something you’ll need.

wle · 2019-08-30T21:03:02.000Z

DavidEF:

It’s not that it needs to be phone powered. It’s that holding a phone up for use as a camera can often take both hands. It’s a convenience to have this thing hanging off the end of the phone, so it gets pointed the same direction as the camera at all times. To that end, being powered by the phone is a convenience as well.

As for the efficacy of the light, well, it depends what you’re doing with it. It seems to me this light isn’t something you’ll need. :innocent:

right, i already have a pretty good idea about my needs vs its capabilities

good luck

another thought, is there maybe already an iphone doohicky that does this, that you could just swap LEDs with?
instead of making your own product…

question, design decision, what about android support?
i guess you could include an adapter.

wle.

DavidEF · 2019-08-30T21:06:13.000Z

wle:

DavidEF:

It’s not that it needs to be phone powered. It’s that holding a phone up for use as a camera can often take both hands. It’s a convenience to have this thing hanging off the end of the phone, so it gets pointed the same direction as the camera at all times. To that end, being powered by the phone is a convenience as well.

As for the efficacy of the light, well, it depends what you’re doing with it. It seems to me this light isn’t something you’ll need. :innocent:

right, i already have a pretty good idea about my needs vs its capabilities

good luck

another thought, is there maybe already an iphone doohicky that does this, that you could just swap LEDs with?
instead of making your own product…

question, design decision, what about android support?
i guess you could include an adapter.

wle.

Yeah. I would need mine to use USB-C, because that’s what my phone is. No Apple phones in my house.

Garuspik · 2019-08-31T08:55:04.000Z

[quote=wle]

DavidEF:

question, design decision, what about android support?
i guess you could include an adapter.

It’ll be another version with usb-c for modern android smartphones and usb-c - mini usb adapter.

Garuspik · 2020-04-08T12:09:05.000Z

A year have passed after I’ve made first samples and I decidet to try luck on Kickstarter: UV flashlight

So if you feel like it is a time for such tiny and IMHO useful device I ask you to support this campaign.

Thanks in advance!

wle · 2020-04-09T14:09:14.000Z

what a filter would do is, on things that fluoresce blue, like white cloth, you can see the glowing stuff instead of just a uniform blue blur.

Garuspik · 2020-04-11T20:32:51.000Z

That’s a problem of my camera. A bit tricky to catch what is really going on.