Hello to all light fans. I’ve just discovered your forum, it’s an exceptional mine of information!
I’m a new member and I’m delighted to be able to read you.
I had the opportunity to test a Countryman CUN6GF1A 365nm UV flashlight which proved to be very effective as an auxiliary lamp for studying the varnishes of old instruments. But I can’t find this model on the Internet. I’ve seen old posts on the forum about this lamp and they were positives, but it’s nowhere to be found. Do you know of any flashlights that are as effective as this model?
In my search I’ve seen some models that look good but I’m not sure. Do you know the Jaxman U1 Nichia 365 nm 6W UV flashlight? And the Weltool M4-365 UV flashlight emitting at 365 nm?
Edit: Nearly all articles that they sell are marked as sold out during the chinese new year, so don’t worry, it will probably be available after Feb. 8
Simon, the man behind the Convoy brand that @L4M4 mentioned above, also sells some UV emitters from Seoul, and one model seems to be very close in specifications and construction of the ‘LES’, but only it’s a ‘domed’ version: CUN66A1G UVA 365nm LED - Convoy flashlight
But there are several other good UV LED options, also from convoy. I think the most important is to buy a 365nm LED, since that seemed to work good for you, and also a flashlight with an ZWB2 filter, since that makes a massive difference in removing the visible blue light from other wavelengths.
As L4M4 stated; Convoy is a reputable brand, with a good price to performance ratio.
Well done L4M4 for finding this photo, because thanks to the title I’ve found a piece of information I was missing, it would be a 5w flashlight. Do you know the wattage of the S2+ black model you recommend? I can’t find the specifications on the website.
Do you know if it uses the Seoul Viosys CUN6GF1A UV LED? If not, does it perform as well? I imagine the differences are subtle between all the existing components of similar quality…
Wingman, you use the Seoul Viosys CUN6GF1A UV LED as a basis for recommending a model based on the CUN66A1G. Is it the same thing? I’ know nothing about UV LED, I hope I’m not asking too stupid a question ^^. For your first link you indicate that it’s a ‘domed’ version, what does that mean? That it’s only the led but without the flashlight that goes with it, or is it a particular type of led? For the second link, the flashlight looks good. It seems to be in 3w which would make it less powerful I guess?
After doing some research, I realized that the Nichia 276A has a power of 1 to 2w, whereas the CUN66A1G are more around 3 to 5w and is similar to the CUN6GF1A (maybe of higher quality), which seems to suit me better. However, the S2+ lamp with the Nichia is more expensive, how can I explain this?
A short while ago, I bought an Alonefire SV65. Just out of curiosity how a light performs that costs three times nothing.
Alonefire seems to make dozens of versions of these lights.
Well, apart from not being a UV-thrower and having just one mode, it performs pretty decent.
A quick comparison of it with some of my other 365 nm lights is on my to-do list.
Certain emitters are simply pricier than others due to various reasons–difficulty of production, difficulty of transportation and distribution, who knows what. One thing to be learned about this hobby is that price and quality/performance are generally very weakly correlated.
So to tell the truth, I have an Inova flashlight, probably this model but I’m not sure, impossible to find in my emails the model I bought several years ago. It was a recommendation from a friend. Then, when I see the price of the convoy, I wonder if I haven’t bought a tourist flashlight!
Up to now I’ve been happy with it, but when I compared it with the countryman, I was surprised to see that the fluorescence was really more distinct with the countryman and that what was orange with my flashlight was white and orange with the countryman. It’s a big difference, so I wanted to make a change. But not knowing much about it, I wonder if I’ll invest in a new lamp with similar qualities than mine.
I have the impression that what would make the difference would be to have a flashlight really focused on 365nm with the filter. Because the Inova seems to have a frequency range from 365nm to 400nm without the ZWB2 filter.
The countryman was also powerful enough to reveal, admittedly crudely, general fluorescence in broad daylight and at a distance of 70cm.
I’m tempted to go for the convoy CUN66A1G flashlights, as their wattage seems appropriate. I might even go for something even more powerful, such as : convoy-m21a-uv-365nm-21700-flashlight
I’ll finish by replying to your question L4M4: yes indeed, it’s a time-limited use, 1 or 2 minutes here and there. But in the end, it’s not the battery that interests me so much as the quality of the flurescence and the power of the lamp.
It is not the same LED, but they are from the same factory and I compared the specs and they are almost identical. Also, going by the photos, the ‘LES’ (‘Light Emitting Surface’, the center part of the LED where the light is generated) seem to be constructed in exactly the same way, so there is a good chance that is identical.
A domed LED has a ‘silicone’ lens (the ‘bubble’-shape), which generally gives a wider, more ‘floody’ beam. You also have ‘domeless’ LED’s (like the version used in the Countryman), which are ‘flat’. Most of the time that results in a narrower beam and a more intense hotspot.
Convoy says that the S2+ with the CUN66A1G LED, usually has an output of around 1.2 A(mpere) due to high voltage. According to the specs the ‘Forward Voltage’ of the LED is 3,7, so that would mean (at least) 4,4 Watt (3,7V x 1.2A).
Don’t pay attention to the claimed watts, that’s typical chinese marketing, more bigger = more better.
I don’t work for Alonefire, I just happen to have 3 lights from them here because they are cheap and I wanted to try some cheap lights out. And as far as my knowledge goes, the quality seems to be quite good.
Had a couple of Alonefire UV lights. While the output is nowhere near advertised, they do work pretty well in the short term, and the filter is a nice inclusion. However, the build quality (machining, mechanical robustness, waterproofing, heatsinking) is much worse than Convoy lights, and in some models (particularly the smaller AAA models) the aluminum MCPCB might be floating in air, not heatsinked in any way. So in the long term the failure rate may be very high; equivalently, the expected time to failure may be short.
During an aliexpress sale you can get a 18650-class model from them for under $3, which is very good value as long as you are not aiming for extreme performance or durability.
That’s why I asked how long he is using the light when he is using it. No cooling can be acceptable if you only use the light for a minute at a time, but if you want to use it for more than that, cooling should be preferred.
But since he already has a low power UV light, I think he should choose something else with more than one LED chip.
