Mains UV Light?

Yan816 · 30 Oct 2006 at 21:48

I have been thinking of fitting a mains powered mini UV striplight into my PC :eek:

, and having it powered and switched on by a pump relay switch that I have lying around. Can anyone see any problems with me doing this? Would I benifit from a higher voltage UV light over normal 12v UV lights. The ones I seem to buy dont put out that much UV light.

Before I go ahead your thoughts would be appreciated.

Hades · 30 Oct 2006 at 22:59

Heat?

Yan816 · 31 Oct 2006 at 07:28

Thanks for the reply Hades, I had thought about heat.

My system is water cooled and has 2 x 120mm fans drawing cold air in, 2 x 90mm fans and a 120mm fan expelling hot air. would this be enough to still keep everything cool? I have no idea how much heat a fluresent UV light might give off.

w3bbo · 31 Oct 2006 at 10:39

Best just to get a uv light designed for PC use imo. £5 isn't too much to ask is it?

Captain Fizz · 31 Oct 2006 at 11:19

Yan816 said:
The ones I seem to buy dont put out that much UV light.

2 x cathodes?

You know that UV light isn't "visible"... It will only react with UV reactive devices/cables/dye etc.
Even an LED fan can wash out some of the light being emitted from your UV components.

If you want your case lit up, then normal cathodes are the way forward.
If you want UV, but lots of light... You need LOTS of UV reactive components so they generate the light you need.

I would say the standard 12" cathodes (2, maybe 3) would do the job nicely.
But they will never ligth a case up to the same extent as even one 4" normal cold cathode.

R B Customs · 31 Oct 2006 at 11:28

just buy good quality ones.
ive got some really cheap cathodes and theyre crap.
im sure one of the companies makes a thicker, brighter cathode than all the others, cant remember who though
could be Vantec

geuben · 31 Oct 2006 at 12:17

i have a mains UV light, its just light a flourecent tube, so has a starter, meaning if flickers when u first turn it on, and also it makes a humming/buzzing sound when turned on. it gets pretty annoying after a while. best to stick to pc specfic ones

Yan816 · 31 Oct 2006 at 19:08

Thanks for the replies. I sorry I did'nt make my self a bit clearer. I already have 4 x UV cold cathodes in my case a Thermaltake VE2000BWS Armour LCS Super Tower, and to be honest the UV kit in it (including UV dye in the water) does not appear to glow that much.

I know UV lights dont actually light up a case, I am just after making the kit I have glow a bit more vibrantly, and tidy up the number of cables I have snaking around and behind things.

I did'nt think fluresent tubes gave out a lot of heat, and was thinking that one decent tube in the top of my case would solve my problems. If anyone can reccomend some decent brands of cold cathode UV light tubes, then I would really appreciat it.

w3bbo · 1 Nov 2006 at 16:06

The UV lighting will be destroyed if you have any other form of lighting (led's etc) in the case. I have 2xSharkoon UVcc's (£8 iirc) and they light my UV sensitive stuff fine.