Short spoiler and very flawed scientific test.

And, it was that simple!

When I bought a UV nail curing lamp to develop UV PCB resist people laughed at me. You're not laughing now I can bathe my hands in UV are you! (never got the UV thing to work, I use toner transfer)

Paul Hill

That's really interesting, I've heard that the replacement lenses they put in the eyes don't block UV light like the natural ones do, and I've always wanted to ask someone technical what it's like! Could you tell the difference between UVA and violet light, or do they both look the same? There are a number of flowers that have patterns visible in UV only that insects can see, have you tried looking at those and can you see the UV-only patterns? Do sunglasses make any difference to the brightness of the UVA torch? Do the objects that fluoresce now have a purple glow to them from the UV light itself that you can now see? Sorry for all the questions but it fascinates me!

Berkeloid

I had cataract surgery on my left eye, but waiting for the hospitals to reopen for my right eye. While normal colours appear the same to both eyes, my UVA torch appears intense violet to my left eye, not just against white objects that fluorescence, where as my right eye sees the dull violet glow I recall both eyes seeing before surgery. Similarly at dusk, my left eye sees the sky turn violet, unlike the deep blue colour my right eye sees. It doesn't affect the infrared end, e.g. my left eye still sees nothing from from a remote control IR LED.

Seán Byrne

It wasn't a very scientific test. The main video will be released shortly. I could test the film with a mercury discharge lamp, but that does put out UVA as well as UVC.

Big Clive

The only real looking ones I've seen are a grommet style with a single UVC LED for inserting into the lids of small water tanks.

Big Clive

It's dry film resist for PCB manufacture.

Big Clive

The film is very interesting. What keywords do you use to find it?

Mark Trombley

Are there any cheapo Chinese UV LED disinfecting lamps that actually produce UVC? Did I miss a test?

How much of a difference where you expecting? I'm guessing if it were a real UVC led and the film only reacted to UVA then really neither side should have *shrugs*. If you have a real UVC led could you not use it as a bad but possibly usable detector. Or you could repeat the test and replace the film with a UV sensor card like a Newport F-UVC1-S

Glenn Achten

It's more if you were working in a smelting plant and looking at the molten metal a lot. A blacksmith doesn't get anywhere near that exposure. You also have to consider that nothing can compete with sunlight for exposure of everything from infrared to ultraviolet.

Big Clive

So working as a blacksmith would be things to consider

Mike

There is some online research regarding cataracts and IR, but the main risk appears to be the huge amounts of IR from things like furnaces over a lifetime occupation working with them.

Big Clive

You do get a longer wavelength infrared floodlights for CCTV. I'm not sure if it's a balance between range and camera sensitivity to the longer wavelengths.

Big Clive

That is interesting, I wouldn’t have known if an LED would be able to achieve that wavelength, I was told that looking at a infrared light from a CCTV flood light can cause cataracts,

Mike

Very interesting! I wish they made high power infrared LEDs that didn't emit any visible light. It's a bit pointless having an IR security camera when there's a dull red glow to tell everyone where the camera is. Interestingly the IR camera LEDs which emit a little red light are invisible to my phone camera, yet remote control LEDs emit no visible light and show up brightly in the phone camera - why is that?

Berkeloid