[Joshua] wrote in to show us this great Halloween tip. He wanted to take his 4 foot long black light along with him on Halloween. You can buy portable versions, but he realized he had enough parts laying around to slap together a portable one himself. He pulled the inverter from a scanner light and wired it up to a couple of 9 volt batteries. Knowing he would probably need a fresh set during the night, he actually wired in some extras with a switch to control which was powering the unit. We know this isn’t the best solution, but you could probably toss this together in just a few minutes.
great quick n’ dirty hack, especially sourcing the inverter!
if someone has more forewarning, 1W UV LEDs are now available for reasonable prices. they’re not super efficient with their wavelength output – a lot in visible deep violet/purple – but they’d probably be way more power efficient, durable, and portable.
Nice Job, Much better then running power around a yard with extension cords like I used to do. The long tube is great for outside, little black lights just don’t do the job.
I bought a whole string of near-UV LED’s. These things are AWESOME and VERY bright. Much brighter than the traditional blacklight brought to this event by some other poor sap. I bought mine from:
http://superbrightleds.com/specs/WFLB96.htm
They’re not cheap at $27 for a 38″ long strip. On the plus side they’re supposed to be waterproof. I powered mine w/ a small, portable 12v battery pack. They drew very little current and lasted for many hours.
http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/8646/46841070978666126654016.jpg
I did the same thing and build the UV tubes in to a shirt for a party. Worked delightfully. You can’t really see how bright it was in this photo, but there’s a tube on either side and a tiny backpack under the shirt with batteries and inverter.
But why isn’t the power the switch relayed through at least 17 arduinos? How can it possibly function?
have fun getting retinal burns