Cold Cathode (UV) question

[syee]

Has anyone tried using the UV cold cathode with a regular cold cathode? I have seen a few places that sell the CC with 2 the ability to install 2 tubes. I am thinking about getting a blue CC and add a UV tube in it (and put the UV dye in my watercooling kit). However, I'm afraid that the blue cc will be too bright and basically "outshine" the UV making the UV sensitive dye kinda useless coz it's not dark enough to be seen. Does anyone else have this kinda setup to give me their opinion on how it looks?

 

[MacBaine]

You basically answered your own question. Any other color is going to outshine the UV by far. If you still want a blue hue in your case, th best thing do to would either get some blue LEDs, or get a 4 inch blue cathode and a dual UV. UV light isn't very bright at all, so you want as high a UV:blue ratio as possible.

 

[syee]

So going forward, I'll pass on the UV light. However, anyone know of any places that sell dye that isn't necessarily UV sensitive? Just by looking at the pics of the dye they have, the UV ones looked kinda washed out (i.e. the green wasn't exactly flouro green - it was kinda a light green color). All the dyes I've seen around are all UV sensitive...

 

[amcdonald]

I have 2 dual cathodes setup in my case... one blue and one UV
The blue is overpowering, but you still get a UV effect on sensitive materials with both on.
My solution to this is a rheobus I ordered. 2 fans and the 2 dual inverters.
This should give me control over the blue CC.

 

[drx9175l]

You don't need to have a UV cold cathode to get UV sensitive items to glow. Here's a pic from the inside of my rig. The cold cathode is one of the red/blue combo units from BestByte. The green UV sensitive fan is from SVC. As you can see the fan really reacts well with the blue light.

 

[MacBaine]

Originally posted by: amcdonald
I have 2 dual cathodes setup in my case... one blue and one UV
The blue is overpowering, but you still get a UV effect on sensitive materials with both on.
My solution to this is a rheobus I ordered. 2 fans and the 2 dual inverters.
This should give me control over the blue CC.

I wouldn't use cathodes on a rheobus... they aren't designed for variable current. You run the risk of frying the inverter.

 

[Smilin]

I was wondering about that. Pretty much any kind of florescent lighting is pretty much on/off.

 

[amcdonald]

In order to get UV sensitive stuff to really look good you need a uv light in there. The materials look ok under non-uv cc's but my uv sensitive cabling looks completely diff without UV light. The rounded cables just look like silver braided cables but under uvlight they SHINE. I'm sleeving all the cables in svc's uvsensitive flexowrap, and so far it looks good.

About blowing an inverter... I'm not sure you are right, as the sunbeam website shows an example setup like the one I mentioned. You can see the lights appear to be lit 2/3 of the way.

 

[MacBaine]

Originally posted by: amcdonald
In order to get UV sensitive stuff to really look good you need a uv light in there. The materials look ok under non-uv cc's but my uv sensitive cabling looks completely diff without UV light. The rounded cables just look like silver braided cables but under uvlight they SHINE. I'm sleeving all the cables in svc's uvsensitive flexowrap, and so far it looks good.

About blowing an inverter... I'm not sure you are right, as the sunbeam website shows an example setup like the one I mentioned. You can see the lights appear to be lit 2/3 of the way.

I stand corrected