Are there any flashlights with UV-C leds out there?
Will ’C even get through the front glass?
Idk but a flashlight like this would be super useful, especially these days with this coronavirus.
You could just shine it on your hands and face to disinfect yourself
Driver PCB for UVC Boost driver is delayed from China Fab
Normal glass works but Quartz glass is better
UVC is pretty dangerous not only to bacteria, shining in your face is pretty much not a good idea
I was looking for UVC LEDs (bare emitters) to make a DIY Steri-Pen, for treating backcountry water sources. I had trouble finding ones that were powerful enough, and the one or two that I did find that MAYBE would have worked, they were prohibitively expensive anyway.
If anyone knows a good source, let me know.
Even very good Klaran emitters have only 40-50mW output likely not enough to do water disinfection quickly
for bacteria killing a just 10nm wavelengths is more critical than output power 270nm kills far better than 280nm
Might depend on the type of glass. Eg, EPROMs always have quartz windows because glass effectively (completely) blocked UV from erasing the chip.
So dunno if something like UCL might be more transparent to ’C vs other types of glass, etc.
If regular glass blocks a significant %age of ’C, then you’d need special glass (dunno is sapphire would be any better) or something less common (thus way pricier) than “normal” glass.
I’ve used lots of water treatments:
Filters: Sawyer Squeeze, Katadyn BeFree, MSR Trailshot (borrowed)
Chemicals: Iodine, Aquamira, Aquatabs
UV: Steripen (borrowed)
I like to try different gear, and I’m heavy (pun intended) into the ultralight backpacking mindset. I make a lot of my own gear as a means to carry something lighter than commercially available options. I thought it might be neat to DIY a UV filter.
This is a terrible idea, UVC is technically ionising radiation. You will cause much more damage to your skin/eyes from frequent UVC exposure than the damage Coronovirus will do to you.
Why not just wash your hands with soap and water?
I, too, looked at this, but I’m not an ultralight guy. Went with a filter and sterilisation tabs in the end- unless you’re drinking perfectly clear water, the UV system should have a filtration stage to remove the ‘bits’ that can shade disease causing organisms from the UV light.
If someone is determined to build one, there are small SW UV tubes and ballasts available on eBay, they’re bigger than the steripen and I would imagine have greater output, which would mean quicker sterilisation.
At the risk of drifting off topic, I’ve often wondered why there isn’t a cost effective, portable, sterilisation unit for car camping/emergency preparedness at home. Kit would run from 12v, no pump required, just gravity filtration like the Berkley system and a big UV tube in the base…
it is very possible to make a cost effective uvc, actually quite easy,m but you wont see it anytime soon, cuz in wrong hands it can do lots of damage ,uvs aka germicidal lamps are on the market, there are plenty of them out there, but they are for professional use, or it be installed inside ACd unit, or water cooler\water filters. but you just can’t sell those to general public. you risk a big lawsuit.
In the UL world, the Sawyer and Katadyn BeFree are the two main filters - everything else is either much heavier, or impractical for anything other than emergency use (LifeStraw). The BeFree is REALLY nice at first due to the amazing flow rate, but IME (and many others) they clog and cannot be effectively backflushed like the Sawyer filters to restore flow rate. I went through three BeFrees before finally giving up on it – I didn’t like the cost and the waste of replacing a filter every 6months. The Sawyer Micro and Mini (I owned and used both but neglected to put them in my list) lower flow rates are not worth the 1oz weight savings over the traditional regular size Sawyer Squeeze, and I say this as a person who counts grams, not ounces.
When I take trips to places with good and plentiful water (Colorado mountains) I use the Sawyer directly connected to a smartwater bottle (the threads are compatible) to carry and drink one liter at a time. When I hike in my more common places in TX, water is much more sparse so I may be collecting 2 or 3 days’ worth of water at a source, and filtering 12L or more at a time is really tedious so I use chemicals. If I’m with a group, having a gravity filter setup is great for filtering lots of water every day/night (usually a semi-DIY setup of Sawyer combined with several CNOC 3L bladders).
I feel the UV system is effective with mildly turbid water as long as you give the water some movement and increase exposure time (as per the instructions).
When dealing with very turbid water, I have used 0.5micron polyester felt filter bags like THIS as effective pre-filters for both UV and traditional filters. They weigh less than an ounce once you cut off the steel ring at the top. Using a bandana or Buff as a prefilter is not effective except for large debris like leaves and such. In a pinch, a thick tightly woven wool hiking sock (Darn Tough) makes an OK prefilter (speaking from experience).
At this point I always carry Aquatabs no matter what system I’m using on any given trip. 20L worth weighs like 3grams. They are either my primary (in combination with a 1oz prefilter mentioned above), or backup to my Sawyer (in case I do something dumb like let it freeze).
You can buy those for swimming pools they are mass-produced for public use
they are even easily to open to clean the glass window from time to time, of course the manual points out to disconnect them when cleaning
There are mass produce UVC Makeup tool boxes that sterilize with like 8 1-2mW UVC LEDs
https://de.aliexpress.com/item/32880062226.html
A simple hand lighter is a very dangerous thing and sold in almost any store in the world without warning signs
Then it can be used to sterilise objects before you pick them up.
I don’t think that’s true.
I bought a 20W UV-C lamp from Aliexpress for just 10 bucks.
And I saw even higher power UV-C lamps in dyi stores, but they don’t have the E27 socket like the one from Aliexpress
Every backpacker should carry a can of this ultra-lightweight drink mix…
The Klaran LEDs Lexel mentioned are made for water disinfection and they have a lot of nice application notes on the Crystal IS web site, e.g. UVC LEDs for Disinfection . Lots of specific information on the time required to kill various organisms. Of course the flux you get is highly dependent on your setup, so as usual YMMV. Should be easy enough to put one into a flashlight once Lexel gets his driver built. I am looking forward to it. One of these days I am going to have to get a UVC meter to compare the real flux from a lamp and LED. I suspect we are going to see more and more water and air disinfection units using UVC as time goes on.
As usual with any powerful LED or UV source, care must be taken to keep the light out of your eyes. And for UVC minimize skin exposure. As you can see it works by damaging DNA so it can damage yours too. Wear your protection!
But that Lexel led only has 50 mW… that’s 0.05W !
That’s nothing compared to a decent UV-C Lamp that has 10W +
that is what i said, you can buy spare bulbs, for ac\water coolers, even entire assembly to be installed somewhere, but you will not find many, assembled and ready to go battery powered lights in that wavelengths for consumers. too much danger if misused, and there is a big chance it will be.
same way as with laser pointers imports to usa, you can’t import any ready to go laser pointer over 5mw, you can import 100mw laser as a part, but not as a ready unit.
Curious, why is special driver needed for UVC LED? mainly for much smaller drive currents? (UVC in mA, compared to our high power lights that take many amps)