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Lighting question for Tron-type control project
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Xiaou2:
Be careful.

 From what Ive heard, blacklight LEDs are a bit dangerous.. because they are much more concentrated.  Therefore, as much as typical UV isnt good for the eyes..  an LED blacklight, accidentally shined into the eye.. can do a lot more damage.

 This was told to me by a guy who made kinetic art museum attractions.  And it makes sense.

 The two kinds of UV are blacklight, and white-black light.   A full UV bulb is dark purple, and in mild lighting.. isnt easy to see.  So this is usually used in very dark applications.   Its also used in applications where all the art is UV.

 White-Blacklight bulbs glow more of a lighter violet.  They emit UV, but also a lot of white light as well... and so if you have artwork that has non-uv colors as well as UV colors.. this is what you would use.  Its also seen better in an environment where its not as dark.

 A white blacklight is seen on the bottom of a Discs of Tron Environmental cabinet.  It illuminates the UV orange floor rings.  However, the bulb right next to the joystick, is a standard blacklight, which creates that wonderful glow of the stick... as well as the UV lines used in the tron control panel artwork.   If they were to use a white-blacklight, it would be way too bright for the player.

 You may be able to find a small narrow uv bulb & fixture.. but not sure.   If using LEDs, be careful and make some sort of diffraction, such as sanding some plexi on the inside and out, to a dull frosted surface.  Even then, you may need additional diffraction, such as internal plexi bumps/triangle shapes..  to keep the LED from burning your eyes.

 Lighting the stick from the inside, would also needs that same kind of thing..  where you sandblast the internals to a frosted level.  This however, will kill that wonderful translucent crystal look to it.


http://www.flickr.com/photos/22593093@N05/sets/72157626239557335/

wp34:
I'm planing on lighting my Tron stick from the inside for my Legacy build. I was just doing some testing last night and it seems with Randy's repro handles a little UV goes a long way.  My plan is to position the LED's as much as possible where you won't look directly at them.  Along the top pointing down for example.  I'm not worried so much about blinding but diffusing is a major issue with LED strips.  You can see each and every "dot" which ruins the effect.


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Xiaou2:
Pointing down is a good idea.  Still probably may want to try some sort of diffuser such as a frosted sphere or bar of plastic .. just to help with spreading out the light. Post some pics when its ready.
wp34:
This was just very preliminary testing as I was trying to decide whether or not to light the stick from the CP or from inside.  Initially I was impressed with how much the stick glowed with just a few lights in it.  I will post some pics once I have something.
RandyT:

--- Quote from: Xiaou2 on September 18, 2013, 07:25:23 am ---Be careful.

 From what Ive heard, blacklight LEDs are a bit dangerous.. because they are much more concentrated.  Therefore, as much as typical UV isnt good for the eyes..  an LED blacklight, accidentally shined into the eye.. can do a lot more damage.

--- End quote ---

I wouldn't stare directly into the emitter for a long period of time, but they aren't as dangerous as you might be thinking.  They actually glow a darker violet color, which means that a portion of the output is actually in the visible (above 400 nm) range.  The portion which exists in the invisible range is not very intense as LED's are very inefficient in these areas.  UV LED's are in the UV-A band, which is pretty safe.  The damage come from the UV-B range and shorter wavelengths, as these are more easily absorbed by tissue.

The "white-uv" lamp used inside the TRON cabinet is more dangerous, which is probably why it was inside.  This would be the same type of lamp which is used in germicidal devices.  The wavelength output by these bulbs is much shorter.

Diffusion of the interior surface of the shell isn't necessary, but diffusion of the UV LED would probably help.  This can be done by fine sanding and flattening out the top of the LED.  You only need to scatter the source to get a fluorescent object to illuminate more evenly.
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