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#11
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"blacklights" found in pet stores, don't work for me
In article , "Jean B." wrote:
OK then, DougD is really on to something and I need to find out the proper wavelength. Quick research on the web finds that the "Urine- off" brand UV light, does advertise that it has the proper wavelength, OK I will try it. Thanks Doug! This is a timely discussion for me, so thanks for starting the thread. My one attempt to locate cat urine using a blacklight was unsuccessful, and now I know why. I will also have to get the above mentioned kind, which I suppose is not in pet stores.... I can smell the cat pee, but I can't pinpoint it precisely.... One thing that may be possible, is to spray something more conventional on the area's that are suspect, and the combination of urine and a second material could cause it to flouresce under the cheaper party light type UV lamps. Something with phosphorus in it like laundry soap may work, I'll try and do some experiments as it would be a heck of a lot easier and cheaper than having to hunt down a specific lamp type. The other thing is possibly stealing a trick from the CSI folks.. The reason the cheap lamps don't work isn't nesc. because they aren't causing the urine to glow, it's just that it's a weak flourescense compared to the broad UV of the cheap lamp. By looking for the stain's under something like orange colored glasses, it would cut down on the amount of black (er.. blue) light in the visible, while allowing the shifted light from the stain which would appear in the yellow wavelengths to pass through and be seen. Again, it might be a long shot, but that IS how the UV light is used for spotting fingerprints, the oils in the print glow yellow under the UV. Even bright green from a YAG laser can light up the prints, but that's an awful lot of light!! d. |
#12
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"blacklights" found in pet stores, don't work for me
DougD wrote:
In article , "Jean B." wrote: OK then, DougD is really on to something and I need to find out the proper wavelength. Quick research on the web finds that the "Urine- off" brand UV light, does advertise that it has the proper wavelength, OK I will try it. Thanks Doug! This is a timely discussion for me, so thanks for starting the thread. My one attempt to locate cat urine using a blacklight was unsuccessful, and now I know why. I will also have to get the above mentioned kind, which I suppose is not in pet stores.... I can smell the cat pee, but I can't pinpoint it precisely.... One thing that may be possible, is to spray something more conventional on the area's that are suspect, and the combination of urine and a second material could cause it to flouresce under the cheaper party light type UV lamps. Something with phosphorus in it like laundry soap may work, I'll try and do some experiments as it would be a heck of a lot easier and cheaper than having to hunt down a specific lamp type. The other thing is possibly stealing a trick from the CSI folks.. The reason the cheap lamps don't work isn't nesc. because they aren't causing the urine to glow, it's just that it's a weak flourescense compared to the broad UV of the cheap lamp. By looking for the stain's under something like orange colored glasses, it would cut down on the amount of black (er.. blue) light in the visible, while allowing the shifted light from the stain which would appear in the yellow wavelengths to pass through and be seen. Again, it might be a long shot, but that IS how the UV light is used for spotting fingerprints, the oils in the print glow yellow under the UV. Even bright green from a YAG laser can light up the prints, but that's an awful lot of light!! d. Interesting. How about red glasses? I don't have orange ones, but my daughter has red ones. One obviously needs to locate all of the pee. Yuck! BTW, I did gaze at the lights in the pet stores and noticed they are supposed to be 2-3 inches from the area--which implies one has to be crawling around with the light. (I think I would try to use my daughter's grabber, since I don't much relish crawling all over the place.) Also, the apparently ineffective lights in the pet stores are much more expensive than the one that was recommended in this thread.... -- Jean B. |
#13
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"blacklights" found in pet stores, don't work for me
In article , "Jean B." wrote:
Interesting. How about red glasses? I don't have orange ones, but my daughter has red ones. Red would be too dark, the urine flouresces in a dull yellow color, so maybe yellow type hunting/pilot sunglasses, or orange. Some hardware stores carry orange shades to be used with laser levels so that you can see the beam better, and they're not expensive compared to the "real thing" that are sold by laser and forensic supply companies. One obviously needs to locate all of the pee. Yuck! BTW, I did gaze at the lights in the pet stores and noticed they are supposed to be 2-3 inches from the area--which implies one has to be crawling around with the light. (I think I would try to use my daughter's grabber, since I don't much relish crawling all over the place.) Also, the apparently ineffective lights in the pet stores are much more expensive than the one that was recommended in this thread.... Well, I spent about 3 hours last night hunting down the answer to this blacklight question from what resources I can find on the net. I'm going to compile it all together and put it up here in the next day or so as I have one last place I want to check out as the answer to this question is still a bit murky... d. |
#14
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"blacklights" found in pet stores, don't work for me
DougD wrote:
In article , "Jean B." wrote: Interesting. How about red glasses? I don't have orange ones, but my daughter has red ones. Red would be too dark, the urine flouresces in a dull yellow color, so maybe yellow type hunting/pilot sunglasses, or orange. Some hardware stores carry orange shades to be used with laser levels so that you can see the beam better, and they're not expensive compared to the "real thing" that are sold by laser and forensic supply companies. One obviously needs to locate all of the pee. Yuck! BTW, I did gaze at the lights in the pet stores and noticed they are supposed to be 2-3 inches from the area--which implies one has to be crawling around with the light. (I think I would try to use my daughter's grabber, since I don't much relish crawling all over the place.) Also, the apparently ineffective lights in the pet stores are much more expensive than the one that was recommended in this thread.... Well, I spent about 3 hours last night hunting down the answer to this blacklight question from what resources I can find on the net. I'm going to compile it all together and put it up here in the next day or so as I have one last place I want to check out as the answer to this question is still a bit murky... d. Thanks, Doug. In the meantime, Mingy has used his potty--and who knows what else he has done. -- Jean B. |
#15
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"blacklights" found in pet stores, don't work for me
Well, I spent about 3 hours last night hunting down the answer to this blacklight question from what resources I can find on the net. I'm going to compile it all together and put it up here in the next day or so as I have one last place I want to check out as the answer to this question is still a bit murky... d. Doug, if you could write what you found, please do, because from what I can see, all these things simply do not work. I got in the hardware store a huge blacklight, 70 watts of power, and now I tried 2 different lights bought in pet stores, and also one that is specifically advertised on the internet as having "the correct wavelength", which you mentioned could be the problem. My kitty a few days ago peed on my pants left on the floor - how nice of him, reminding me to put away my clothes. Instead of washing them, I dutifully dried them up on the balcony, and with urine dried, I tried all the lights. According to instructions, completely dark, 2-3 inches etc. NOTHING. Not a thing, no faint yellow glow, no glow of any kind. Mark |
#16
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"blacklights" found in pet stores, don't work for me
In article . com, Mark_Galeck wrote:
Doug, if you could write what you found, please do, because from what I can see, all these things simply do not work. Ok, I did post my "findings" about a week ago, maybe it didn't make it to the different news servers, so I'll put it up again as it's not that much material. I got in the hardware store a huge blacklight, 70 watts of power, and now I tried 2 different lights bought in pet stores, and also one that is specifically advertised on the internet as having "the correct wavelength", which you mentioned could be the problem. My kitty a few days ago peed on my pants left on the floor - how nice of him, reminding me to put away my clothes. Instead of washing them, I dutifully dried them up on the balcony, and with urine dried, I tried all the lights. According to instructions, completely dark, 2-3 inches etc. NOTHING. Not a thing, no faint yellow glow, no glow of any kind. Mark Hmm, don't know what to tell you. I didn't have any luck either with the knock off "BLB" 20 watt lamp that I have that "should" have worked if it was a real BLB type lamp. It is very easy for someone doing knock-off's to make a black light that will flouresce things like Day Glo paint, and anything with phosphorus in it. It's much more difficult to make the narrow band UV filter such as the one that's spec'd by GE in their BLB lamp, so part of the problem is dealing with knock-off's. If you can find either a real GE, Sylvania, or Osram BLB type lamp, it should work. One problem may be that you're using too large of a lamp. That much UV is going to play some tricks with your vision, making it more difficult to see the weak flourescence of the urine. It's a pain, but there is a good reason for the sake of visibility of having to get the lamp close to the area in question. I don't think any lamp will work to be able to just flood the room and then hope to spot the stain. Anyway, here's the material that I dug up last week, maybe there are some answers in here.. D. Ok, here's pretty much everything you'd ever want to know about blacklights, or blacklights to be used for sniffing out cat urine stains. I can't guarantee any of this material, or the sources, I've just tried to get some idea of what may work best for stain spotting. And one thing, not all black lights are black lights!!! Or at least when it comes to cat urine. The ideal flourescent type lamp should have the part designation of BLB on the end of the part number. The BLB stands for: Black Light Blue. The problem is, not all BLB tubes work!!! I have a cheap Asian party light myself with a BLB type bulb in it, but it doesn't work!! The key seems to be staying with high end, well known lamp suppliers such as GE (General Electric), Sylvania, and OSRAM. The GE BLB type lamp has a specific black light filter on the glass of the tube that provides a very narrow band of light in the desired 365nm range. "NM" stands for nanometer, and it's used as a way to numerically label a frequency of light (it's actually a measure of the wavelength, in nanometers. It's pronounced "Nan-O-meters", or "Nann Om OMeters". The resources that I could find on the topic of using UV to spot stains is somewhat sketchy, in that some folks use different numbers as the ideal wavelenght. The GE BLB tube is centered on 365nm. I've found another chart that shows that 380 or 395nm is best, so for the time being, I would think that any UV source from 365 to 395nm should work. Also, some of the URL's below are for LED type UV lamps. These lamps can be purchased for a specific wavelength, so you need to pay attention to that when ordering as they have about 10 variations on what wavelenght is used. Some also have multiple wavelengths in one lamp, which might be handy as long as they are in the range that's desired. So, stay away from any lamp that just has a "BL" on the end, that won't work. And then only stick to the big name suppliers when looking for a BLB tube. All the data is here in these URL's, as well as a good selection of sources for them. Oddly, it would appear that probably the best place to buy one of these urine inspection lamps is from the same folks that sell the removal chemicals. Their lamps aren't much more expensive than any other source, and that way you know that you're getting a lamp that has been tested and works for this application!! OK, I'm worn out.. Good luck, please post your results if you try any of these and they WORK!! Thanks, Doug GEF15T8-BLB 365BLB 368BLB (Good GE part numbers) 380 or 395nm best for cat/human urine. (best suggested if using an LED light source) http://riskreactor.com/Index.htm http://0-0-0checkmate.com/Hot/Portable_Blacklight.html http://www.urine-off.com/ http://www.defensedevices.com/portable-black-light.html *** http://www.sprayalert.com/finding-cat-spray.html (suppliers of flourescent type UV lamps) http://www.acehardwareoutlet.com/(og...productDetails. aspx?SKU=3237435 (large 40 watt BLB bulb) http://genet.gelighting. com/LightProducts/Dispatcher? REQUEST=CONSUMERSPECPAGE&PRODUCTCODE=35885&BreadCr umbValues=Specialty_Colored% 20,_%20Party%20Lights_, T8&ModelSelectionFilter=FT0010:Specialty_Colored%2 0&%20Party%20Lights (Tech Spec's on BLB type lamps) http://genet.gelighting. com/LightProducts/Dispatcher?REQUEST=COMMERCIALSPECPAGE&PRODUCTCODE= 10531 (more tech spec's/detail on BLB lamps) http://genet.gelighting. com/LightProducts/Dispatcher?REQUEST=RESULTPAGE&CATEGORY=Lamps&FILTE R=FT0010: Specialty_Colored+%26+Party+Lights_Blacklight+Blue &CHANNEL=Commercial&FILTERFI ELD=Specialty&BREADCRUMB=Specialty^Blacklight+Blue (GE's master listing of all black light blue lamps) http://www.theledlight.com/uv_flashlights.html (LED type flashlights) http://www.24hours7days.com//Science/Demonstration.html (school science type projects, with blacklights for sale) |
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