Chief Delphi - useing UV

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- - useing UV (http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?t=90564)

Quote:

Originally Posted by 548swimmer (Post 1014527)

I've had good luck getting UV reaction out of 470nm blue LED's. I installed them for my friends climbing wall in his garage, and all of the fluorescent holds glow as if they were under a black light. The neat thing about these LED's is that they are still solidly in the visible spectrum, so the blink reflex occurs. This wont be as significant as UV LED's, but should help.

I would normally NEVER say ANYTHING like what I am about to say, but a spectrum analysis of those LEDs would be interesting to see if any other wavelengths (specifically UV) are actually produced and how much is produced.

A lot of LEDs—white in particular, but I suppose some blues as well—are actually UV sources coated with a phosphor that reacts with the UV and (inefficiently) converts it into a visible wavelength.

There might be some UV leakage, though I'd hope that the LED's manufacturer has tested it to make sure it's eye-safe (presuming that they're not for industrial use only, or something like that). The trouble is that there's no easy way to be sure. (Places like Edmund Industrial Optics sell test cards that glow in the presence of UV; they're at least somewhat calibrated, and might be a relatively easy test for the presence of unusual amounts of UV.)