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Aker Voice Amplifier 12watts Black MR1505, Portable, for Teachers, Coaches, Tour Guides, Presentations, Costumes, Etc. List Price: $63.00 Sale Price: $30.99  |
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Model: Aker MR1505 Color: Black Power output: 12 Watts Frequency response: 100hz ± 13db1khz ± 1db Dimensions: 4.13in x 3.31in x 1.38in (105mm x 84mm x 35mm) Weight (w/ Batteries): 0.92 lbs (420 g) Voltage : 7... |
Is it possible to get a nice tan from a normal 20 watt black light?
CaseETC PC blacklight and UV fluorescent coolant dye
Review date: 28 June 2001.
Last modified 01-Apr-2008.
Welcome back to the Dan's Data Tale Of Woe Half-Hour. Today: How I didn't quite finish reviewing some ultraviolet toys.
You see, CaseETC were good enough to send me...
...this. Ten inch blacklight, modified computer cases for the illumination of, one. $US29.99.
They also sent me...
...this. Dye, water cooled computer coolant for the decoration of, one fluid ounce (about 30cc). $US14.99.
The dye fluoresces under ultraviolet light, which is what the blacklight emits. Put a few drops of the dye into your coolant - because a little goes a long way - and install the blacklight in your case, and your see-through coolant tubing glows spooky green.
The light wasn't a problem.
The dye was.
So let's talk about the light first, shall we?
Lighting up
Ten inches - about 25cm - is the length of the light-emitting middle part of this fluorescent tube. The overall length of the light is about 15.75 inches (40cm), plus a little more for the screw tabs sticking out at the ends. If you mount the tube with double-sided tape - which is the way to go, in a PC case - you can cut off the tabs.
This is a 12 volt lamp. It's got step-up hardware built in that lets the tube run from 12 volts DC. So you can just connect it directly to any 12 volt power supply. Like, for instance, the 12 volt line from your computer PSU.
The tube is obviously made as a car decoration. Well, all 12 volt neon products are made as car decorations, really, but this one's in its original packaging and comes with its original connection hardware, so its intended purpose is unusually apparent.
Here's what you get, besides the tube itself. There are four solder-free wire-splicers you clamp together with pliers; they'd probably work OK on a computer's PSU wires. The tube itself just has a plain unterminated figure-eight cable coming out of it.
There are also some plastic crimp-on wire end-caps, a couple of self-tapping mounting screws, a pre-wired switch, and a pre-wired in-line fuseholder with a one amp fast blow fuse in it. You could botch this setup together with nothing but pliers, but you'd really want to do some soldering to get it looking nice.
The package also contains somewhat tortuously worded instructions for installing the tube in a car. Installing it in a computer isn't the most difficult feat in history, and any vaguely competent electronics hobbyist could figure it out. But this is not a plug-and-go solution.
The next step up from CaseETC are their more computer-specific "Neon Light Kits", but they're still do-it-yourself. You just get more appropriate connectors, some heat shrink tubing, and double sided tape. BYO soldering iron.
If you can't quite handle that, then for a bit more money they'll do you a full "Premade Light Kit", with everything connected up for you.
Getting back to the blacklight - hooked up to 12 volts, it draws about a quarter of an amp, so it's a three watt unit. That's not exactly monster light power.
You can get Compact Fluorescent Lamp (CFL) blacklights now (Aussies can buy them from Jaycar) that have 15 and 26 watt ratings. You can also get ordinary straight blacklight tubes that fit in standard two and four foot fittings, and have the same 20 and 40 watt ratings as normal fluoros for the same fittings.
Incandescent "blacklight" globes, by the way, aren't much use. They have a hot filament in them (with maybe a 500 hour lifespan...) and a purple coating inside which lets through longer UVA wavelengths, and a fair amount of non-UV light as well. They run hot, and their efficiency is lousy, because even a hot incandescent filament doesn't emit a whole lot of UV.
Herewith, a brief diversion on the subject of what, exactly, this "UV" thing is, and why you don't have to worry about getting skin cancer in discos.
"Blacklight" lamps don't emit any dangerous ultraviolet radiation to speak of, unless you're taking some drug that increases your sensitivity to mild UV exposure. If a normal person not on any such drugs spends all day staring at a high-powered blacklight, they might eventually suffer eye damage.
So don't do that.
The UV output of these sorts of lamps is in the "near ultraviolet", spilling over into the visible spectrum. The light is in the "UVA" band, which has wavelengths of 400 to 315 nanometers (nm). The shortest wavelength humans can see is, canonically, about 400nm. If blacklights emitted nothing above 400nm then they'd seem to be a very dim violet; they actually emit a reasonable amount of visible blue light as well, which is why you can easily see whether they're on or off, as long as you're not somewhere brightly lit. The shorter the wavelength, the higher the energy. The higher the energy, the more damage UV can do.
The shorter UVA wavelengths have enough energy to give you a suntan, followed by sunburn. And possi
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