Showing posts with label glow in the dark. Show all posts
Showing posts with label glow in the dark. Show all posts

Sunday, November 19, 2017

WISH-LUST: UV PAqlite MSL micro-safety-light

So, here's a Kickstarter project I thought I should promote. It's an upgrade product of something I already have and I am only too happy to share the news . I've covered products by UVPaqLite before, their unpowered glow-in-the-dark items are awesome  but none have been as impressive as the powered Mule ORB lights. These USB rechargeable battery powered LED lit globe with a shell of epoxy embedded strontium aluminate crystals. The LED's act to charge the crystals, as well as acting as a  mild green-yellow flashlight. An on-board chip  allows it to pulse every 2 minutes to keep the crystals charged. 
An even smarter feature utilizes a small photo-receptor built into the side of the Orb, just beside the USB charge port.
 Holding the on-off button for a double-flash of the light letting you know you've activated the light sensor and now the Orb will only function in hybrid mode when it’s dark. It lights up for about 4 seconds, which can be a bit disconcerting if you're trying to get to sleep and it's dangling over your head but certainly enhances its 100hour battery life. .

So, UVPaqLite have come up with a new and improved version of the Orb, in the MSL, their Micro Safety Light. The MSL -Micro Safety Light - is a compact flashlight and safety device. It's the light you'll want everyone to own!

The MSL is pocket sized, being a slimline lozenge shaped, light, with a more prominent on-off button than that found on the Orb.  The LED is being in two different options, a bright white (30000-35000k) version with a 2.3 hour run-time or a UV (400-410nm) version with a 2.6 hour run-time.

It again features a pulse mode, with a 2 second / 2 minutes mode, or a 2 second /15 minute mode. These have runtimes of 140-156hour and 1037-1172hour runtimes in white/UV respectively. (It runs for almost 6 full days on the faster "pulse mode".)

The portable design makes it easy to take anywhere. Ridiculously bright flashlight. It glows in the dark so it's easy to find. The MSL also is designed to attach to a very loud emergency whistle (reported to sing at  115 decibels) which is great for survival situations, natural disasters, crime prevention, or to ward off animals. It's much louder and less exhausting than yelling for help. And the pitch of this whistle can be heard over loud rescue equipment or ambient noises.



The UV emission wavelengths of  that LED option is particularity good at exciting strontium aluminate and will be the one I hope to get once the project goes live.

Now, it's battery powered, rather than USB rechargable, which is a down-side, but the battery time is cheep, plentiful and  given the long run-times  I see this as a good investment.  get onto it. Get one for you kids, your parents and your own keychain!











Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Review: UVPaqlite - Mule Light Orb

As first published on BreachBangClear!


I do so love my glowing lights. There is something very satisfying about a renewable light source that is charged by the sun to mark out the dark corners of a room, locate a bag or device in the dark or even to ID friends vs foes. I have gathered quite a collection of glow in the dark items over the years, all starting with those little stars you put on the ceiling to make constellations, as a kid. My girls have them too, now.

I've been an even bigger fan of the products from UV PaqLite for some time, I keep them in my packs, hand them to my kids when we go out at night and generally have them on hand for those "where did everybody go moments, where I might need more than just one of my multitude of flashlights.


One is none, two is one, and batteries run low. I kept tabs on the family team of Steve Nagel and Alexis Nagel, and their inspiration, gun-toting outdoors-man Uncle Vernon, who was their inspiration. Their basic product is based around the fact that if you embed the raw strontium aluminate crystals in a solid resin you get a long glowing light-source, in a solid, stable and resilient unit.

The problem with all this type of glow-in-the dark products are that they all still need to be charged to work. If your emergency happens when you're already in the dark, or the light is in the bottom of a bag, you are not going to get much use from them. This is where the folks from UVPaqlite came up with another option. They embedded a LED in the middle of two halves, with USB rechargable lithium ion rechargeable batteries, light-detection sensors and some clever circuitry to give you a hybrid light that gives you an infinitely renewable GITD shell and long lasting electronics that can hold 100hours of illumination on a single charge.
So the UVPaqLite people have came up with a hybrid model.

To operate the flashlight mode, you press the button built into the middle band. This illuminates one side of the orb, right through the embedded crystals, and casts a very satisfying light, as well as charging up the GITD crystals. Holding the button until the light flashes sets a timer mode, which will set the LED's on either side of the orb to flash every two minutes recharging the crystals to peak performance. The batteries will hold around 100 hours of these flashes.

An even smarter feature utilizes a small photo-receptor built into the side of the Orb, just beside the USB charge port.
 Holding the on-off button for a double-flash of the light letting you know you've activated the light sensor and now the Orb will only function in hybrid mode when it’s dark. It lights up for about 4 seconds, which can be a bit disconcerting if you're trying to get to sleep and it's dangling over your head. This means you can set it up wherever you want it and forget about it. Clip it to the side of your pack with the built in split ring and snap-clip, hang it from the top of your tent, or drop it in your bag.
 It will self-charge the crystals as you go about your life. This is really good for the forgetful or the over-packed.

The on-theme USB cable they supply is just long enough to do the job and not so much to get in the way. The 45g (1.5 oz) Orb is  37mm (1.4") x 25mm (1") is a little big for a key-fob, but perfect for pockets. I've had it on the side of my Hazard4 Escape RG harness for a while and didn't find it getting in my way at all.

It's weather-resistant in its native state, meaning it can take some rain and exposure, but don't soak it. If you're expecting a big wet, they've thought of that too. The dive capsule is rated to 100m (300') which is more than three times the depth I've ever been rated to SCUBA dive to, but I suppose some day I might want to tag some salvage and come back to it with a ROV. 

I'm a lot more likely to be yomping through a storm though, so the extra weather protection and night-swimming illumination is what appeals to me. You can't access the button from inside the capsule, so whatever setting you have selected before you hit the water is what you're stuck with, unless you feel brave enough to pop it open in the wet. In the capsule the Orb is positively buoyant and floats around happily on an even keel. It's a well designed accessory, with a smooth threading action, and a sturdy o-ring and flat-folding attachment ring.


I was really impressed with both the GITD illumination that the Orb offered, and the flashlight mode. It certainly has a lot of potential to give medium term, renewable and reusable illumination, on-demand, really the best of both worlds. Since getting my hands on the UVPaqlite range I haven't used a cylume stick, but I've kept some around just in case I've been caught out without an immediate light source and now that I have the Orb, I might just pass them off to the kids to have one last hurrah.

Sunday, November 30, 2014

Review: Rhino Ropework - Tritium fob


I wanted to get my partner Lorin a piece of jewelry for her birthday, but didn't feel that a store-bought piece was really "me" ( as you might imagine), but I was lucky in that I'd been following the exploits of Shane Marks of Rhino Ropework who as well as some really excellent looking marlin spikes and fids for ropework, has also been turning out some really lovely fobs, and better yet, hollowing them out and fitting them with vials of tritium!

You may recall that I had a bead made, with six vials of tritium installed by H3, for my keychain,and I really liked it, though that bead had exposed vials, all but two have since been broken.


The fob I commissioned encompassed the vial, with four sets of three holes drilled, allowing the light to be exposed, but protecting the vial in its sheath of stainless steel. I was very pleased to see that its light, being a much bigger vial, was quite bright, and well exposed by the fob. It is certainly bright enough for me to pinpoint it in a darkened room, tent or in fact, deep underground whilst caving on a recent adventure.

The fob has a hole drilled through at the top, with which a necklace, be it link or a ball-chain to suit the wearer, or even feed a thin split ring through to add it to a keychain. The vial is securely seated and snug within the fob.

It's an elegant piece, rugged and functional in the same moment.
Probably the best part about it was how much Lorin enjoys wearing it, and consequently how much I enjoy seeing it being worn. Much like the SAR GlobalTool MoonGlow disk I wear, it is a great spotting device, without being obtrusive. With tritium, it's glow will last for years, no recharging needed.

Rhino Ropeworks  produces tools in copper, stainless steel, brass and even some in titanium. You should totally check out their Facebook for the most recent tools and designs, and watch this space for when my marlin spike comes in!



Thursday, October 2, 2014

Wish Lust: Kickstarter UV PaqLite - Mule Orb

Here's a cool Kickstarter project that I am backing, and wanted to get the word out there.

This is the Mule Orb, by UV PaqLite,  who also produce the the UVGlowStik, the 6" ToobLite, a UVO ring necklace and the flexible signature UVPaqLite sheet that I have covered previously as part of their Scout Pack.

The UVPaqLite line gets its signature glow from the solidified clear epoxy, in which crystals of  glow-in-the-dark strontium aluminate are suspended. These crystals offer significantly more "glow" than the powdered SrAl2O4:Eu that goes into other moon-glow products.  

The trick with the Mule-Orb is that it combines those very efficient crystals with a USB rechargeable battery-powered LED. The hybrid option works in energy saving cycles: 4 second bursts of light from the LED's every 2 minutes keeps the crystals at a super bright level allowing users to maintain a glow stick illumination for at least 100 hours. Check out their existing Mule-Stick option.


The LED is activated in two ways; the first is to activate the lights for constant-on, acting as a flashlight which sines through one face of the crystal-embedded epoxy, and the second as the pulsed-recharge option, keeping the crystals charged. A built in photo-receptor allows it to also be set to only pulse in the absence of light, meaning you can leave it set outside and not have it pulse whilst it is lit by ambient light, further extending the battery life.

The Orb is water resistant, but not water proof, which is why the UVPaqLite folks have also designed this diving case, which I am also hoping to lay my paws on, with a 30m (100') depth rating, this would be excellent for all the PADI Open Water types out there, and given its operational life, might even suit the needs of all you cave and wreck certified types to act as markers and waypoint indicators.


All in all this hybrid option looks to be a really good investment, and certainly worth adding to anybody's bug-out-bag .

Go check out the KickStarter page, as well as their home-page,  their technology is the reusable, green-alternative to disposable cyalume sticks.




Saturday, June 14, 2014

Review: Gearward - 24HSD glow tag

I saw these come up in one of my reader feeds, and saw that there was controversy about them, but felt I should check them out myself rather than just take a knee-jerk response.

I'm a big fan of both glow-in-the-dark kit, and signalling in general, and thought it would be worth your time and mine to cover an item such as this.

This is the 24 Hour Signal Device by Gearward, and it's a no frills day/night signalling tool.

You may recall the  SAR Eclipse Signal System I covered ages ago, and also the SAR MoonGlow disk. This product is in some ways like a combination of those two systems.

Combining a slab of the same moonglow plastic as in the SAR disks, and the terminatorized NukoTool ACDT and a mirror finished chrome tag which acts as a signalling mirror. It came bundled with a strip of ranger-band and a braided, waxed cord.

Both tags are in standard dog-tag size and shape and are drilled with a hole to use as a helioscope for signalling, much like the inner segment of the SESS-c.

Still, whilst it has many similar features, these are quite different products, and I have added this to my collection of EDC alongside the SAR systems and the similar, glowy UVPaqLiteUVP products.

I have added my 24HSD as a fob for my phone, seen here in its Strike Industries SHOX case.


More glow is good glow, as far as I am concerned. The big solid block of glowing plastic gave me many hours of illumination, both enough to find my phone, but also to navigate my keys and wallet contents in a dark room. I found it too bulky for me to add to my already prolific neck decoration collection, where as the SAR disk fits nicely there, but if just adding to an existing dog-tag, for example, it might well be just the ticket.

Monday, November 4, 2013

Review: Nuko Tool - ACDT (in GitD)


Following up from the sneak-peak:

When I saw that Norman of Nuko Tools was dallying in glow-in-the-dark materials, I was quick to drop him a line expressing my desires. Whilst the GitD platic is too fragile to be used to mill one of his signature Single NukoTool punchrings or the classic Nuko Heads which he has been milling out of G10.  (and you may remember I got the titanium version for my lovely partner Omega)

He thought it was a great idea too, and suggested he could sandwich a slab of GitD plastic between two titanium slabs of his 2nd Gen Atomic Cranial Divot Tool, which he did, and this beauty is the result.

Seen here looped through my belt-loop, with my paracord ID lanyard hitched.


The simplicity of this deign is evident, it almost passes as a piece of modern art.

Sandwiching these three layers makes the tool considerably thicker than its design originally intended, but this isn't really a drawback, except for those looking for a slimline pocket fob. I like my metal to make its presence known, and this certainly does.

Three hex-screw rivets lay flush with the front surface, and a keyring hole drilled through the piece gives the option of attaching a split ring.

The leading edge of the ACDT features a bottle (or perhaps threat) opening scallop, the flanking edges of which protect the soft GitD middle nicely, and are not so sharp as to catch or dig into clothes or the hand whilst wearing the ACDT.

When gripped through the finger hole, the curves fit the hand nicely, even with an index finger and middle finger ring on. This leaves the "bottle opener" corner as your leading edge, with the squared faces outwards and upwards. Essentially a pistol grip, with any keys or the like, trailing from the bottom of your palm. I found that when striking a target, the slot bit into my index finger a little, but as I'm not planning to make a habit of taking to the bags (or heads) regularly with it, that's no big deal. This is primarily a fob, with a -tertiary- impact tool application for me. That said, I put some nasty dings in a HDD, timber facing, and concrete wall!

I also tried a reversed grip, presenting a much more flat face, which covered more knuckle, but left me with less to grip, and put the bottle opener in my thumb/index webbing.

This wasn't quite as easy to grip, but offers the other advantages of more titanium (and glow) frontwards ..

I found that the extra-thick ACDT has been difficult to feed a split-ring through, and whilst I am still looking, I've so far been happy just to do a loop through the finger hole, the placement of the slot has been just fine for this.
Then there is the glow in the dark side of things. The running-board strip of GitD plastic catches light quite nicely, I have noticed my belt-looped ACDT picks up enough ambient light to be noticeable when I go into a darkened room, and quite positively flares up after exposure to the Australian daytime. For the purposes of this shot, I did hit it with my Jil Lite - JenyX UV torch .

I really love my UV and GitD items, as well as my titanium goodies, and even more so, my wearable impact tools ....

If you have a hankering for some cool pocket bling, be sure to check out NukoTools ...


Monday, October 14, 2013

Review: Hydrogen-3 Workshops - Tritium bead

I know I am late to the playground when it comes to the cutting edge of self-illuminating lights, but I finally laid my paws on some tritium radioluminescence,  in the form of this gorgeous bead from Hydrogen-3 workshops.

For those of you who don't know, tritium (H3) is the ever so slightly radioactive heavy-brother of regular hydrogen, which sheds electrons as it slowly decays, which in turn excite a phosphor coating on the inside of the glass phial is is trapped in, and, tada, a constant (if dim) glow. With a half-life of 12.5 years, this isn't a "forever" light, but it also doesn't irradiate the carrier either ...

Hydrogen-3 Workshops offer a variety of cool ways to carry their range of tritium phials, (which they have with phosphors glowing in Green, Blue, Ice Blue, Pink, Purple, Red, Orange, Yellow, White), and the bead I chose was a six-sided AISI 304 stainless steel, handcrafted from a metal bar stock and milled to accept six 6 x 1.5 mm tritium phials.

The phials themselves are glued into the bead with the rather cool UV-cured Norland 61 Optical Adhesive and are recessed below the lip of the bead, for added protection.

I chose two each of Red, Blue and Green, for a classic CRT effect. Spinning it, I get a nice off-white glow.

 Adding the bead to my keychain was as simple as slipping it over one of my nifty titanium split rings and onto my Gar-A-Biner to go along with all my other cool EDC keychain tools.

As far as how well it illuminates, I've been able to spot my keys in the dark of my room, the foot-well of my car at night, and at the bottom of my bag, when rummaging at the pool. I'd say the green was the clearest to spot, but the red was not too far behind.

This was a pretty small sized phail for each, so I didn't expect much, but I think they will prove valuable when it comes to finding my keys in the dark of a foreign bedroom, underground lair or ditch when dropped evading zombies.








Friday, September 20, 2013

Review: UVPaqlite



I had a comment left for me by a reader on my Facebook page (g'day LCpl Thralls!) following on from my Lazerbrites post I dropped by UVPaqLite to check out their glowsticks.

I'm a sucker for lights, as my regular viewers would know, and have an enormous affection for glow-in-the-dark products, having decorated many childhood bedrooms with constellations and have expanded that into my adult life with the SAR GlobalTool Moon-Glows. I was impressed by the range of rugged, practical items that UVPaqLite had on offer, and snapped up their mixed collection Scout Pack.
 I put my Moon-Glow down beside the collection for a comparison as well as a wrapped cyalume stick, for scale. I super-charged all of these with my Jil-Lite Jenyx UV torch

The scout pack consists of four different elements; the UVGlowStik, the 6" ToobLite, a UVO ring necklace and the flexible signature UVPaqLite sheet

The UVGlowStik, ToobLite and UVO are solid pieces, consisting of solidified clear epoxy, in which crystals of
glow-in-the-dark strontium aluminate are suspended. Being solid-state, these pieces can be cut or drilled and can also be taken to ANY depth. 


Unlike traditional GITD products, the large crystals are clearly visible but apparently this large granularity increases the brightness, duration and speed of charging, they certainly appeared to do so.

The 4"x1/2" UVGlowStik is not quite as bright overall as the 6" ToobLite, but is "ruggedised", lacking
the tube, plastic cap, and key chain ring of its larger cousin, but features a drilled lanyard hole.
Picture
Swiped from UVPaqLite webpage.

The UVO is 1.75" in diameter, and comes in both the traditional greenish GITD hue, but also in their "Ice Blue", but subtly adjusting the chemical composition of the crystals. Spinning the UCO on its lanyard produces a signalling method of contrasting of light and movement which would make it easier for rescue crews to see from the air.


The UVPaqLite flatpack is a vacuum sealed roll-able, stuff-able, pouch measuring 20cm x 15cm (8"x6") and weighing only 36g (1.3oz) and can be dangled or laid flat to provide a tents forth of illumination all night long.  Better yet they have an essentially infinite shelf life, unlimited recharge cycles. Perfect for a disaster, where resupply, or even infrastructure is doubtful.

I found that the whole set could be exposed to electric room lights for "getting ready for bed" durations, and still be visibly glowing in the pre-dawn gloom, when Tactical Baby comes calling. Daylight exposure for just a few minutes makes them light up visibly even in lit environments, thanks broken ozone layer! UVPaqLite suggest that they would still be visible as markers even after 4 days of cave-darkness. These are super cool, and I think I will be adding more to my collection as soon as budget allows, great gift ideas are forming ...

Friday, December 9, 2011

Review: SARGlobalTool Moon-Glow

Here's a fun little piece that i picked up earlier this year. The SARGlobalTool Moon-Glow. 

What is it is a disk of glow-in-the-dark plastic, with a secondary disk on each side, one of SOLAS 3M high intensity reflective tape, the other of mirror-polished stainless steel. A split ring lets you feed it through a necklace to lay flat. It comes with a bead-chain, but I put mine onto one of the boot-lace cords i wear with my other do-dads and gateaus around my neck. 

How does it work?

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