What's with glow-in-the-dark O-rings? (Lumintop)

Hi all,
OK, really happy with the Lumintop IYP-365. Something seems strange to me, and yes, I was aware before purchasing, the O-ring at the front of the light is glow-in-the-dark, but requires 'pre-charging' with light firstly. One has to actually use the flashlight, and then the ring will glow for a while after the light is turned off.
The nuisance of this is that if the area is dark and you want to find the light, you can't see it unless you have been using it recently. I would have thought a better options would have been to have regular a glow-in-the-dark style, that just does glow when it's dark, without needing a pre-charge of light first.

Anyone know if why the particular pre-charge O-rings were chosen by Lumintop and some others?
Anyone know of a place selling regular glow O-rings that would or could replace the one in the Lumintop IYP365?

I may just find a stretchy O-ring or two that will go over the head and fit snug on the body, that should work, and save me dismantling anything too.

I am not aware of any glow-in-the-dark o-rings that don't need pre-charging with a light source. The energy always has to come from somewhere. Unless it has a radioactive energy source such as a tritium vial - but these are not sold in form of rubber o-rings.

Energy has to come from somewhere - very true, else all hell would brake loose!

I've had different keyfobs and other little plastic/rubber type material toys and these all had a glow in the dark effect. They did not require a pre-charge with strong light. Maybe they had a big enough surface area and enough mass to store what little energy came from daylight to use that. Though I seem to recall them being glow in the dark when kept in a drawer for long periods.

EDIT: Just checked a keyring figurine that's been in the wardrobe for ages. No glow at all. Put the flashlight to it, and turned on for a few seconds - oh, yeah, needed charging. So it looks like these typically get charged from ambient light, the O-rings maybe too small to gain/hold enough luminescence energy.

Comment removed to maintain family friendly consideration - Empath

Yes, it sounds like you would want a flashlight with tritium vials. I don't have any, but I do drool over the pictures posted here.

Tritium is safe - since the alpha particles are not able to penetrate the plastic housing. Also it's a gas - so it will safely dissipate and not stick/contaminate in case you break the vial. But there is a ton of discussion about this on CPF . Radium (Ra-226) was used a long time ago - this was the dangerous stuff (and you could probably make an o-ring with that stuff, but that would be extremely radioactive and dangerous ).
The disadvantage is that most of the tritium stuff is enclosed in hard plastic - there isn't an o-ring available with tritium.

I thought o-rings go inside to keep the elements on the outside....

They have outside o-rings these days? Geez, I'm sure behind the times lately...
Next I suppose I'll learn that LED was not a fad?

We've seen some nifty flashlights where members have put GID orings around the outer barrel of a flashlight, often where a groove has been machined. Looks nice, especially if it is a thicker oring made with strontium aluminate. One of those might have residual glow from ambient light but one's eyes would need to be fully night-adapted to see it. All the GID orings I have are the cheaper, less glowy ones.

I have GID paracord from glorope.com that has been doped with strontium aluminate, but I am of the opinion {needs further study} that there is not enough material there to be able to glow as brightly as I would like, for all night. At least not as well as other GID objects that are thicker, with strontium aluminate infused throughout the product, such as glorope's older dock cleats. There is a rubber type GID dog ball that is pretty good. I got a frisbee years ago with quality GID that I used to put important items on, that needed to be found quickly at dark time. Along with a GID basketball and some coiled 5/16 inch nylon rope from glorope (they have 1 inch rope) there is enough glowing from the far side of my side-table by the bed to quickly orient from a sound sleep, see the profile of the table and quickly access a serious illumination device (My young son will come from his room and have an urgent need to urinate at times). All of the GID items receive only ambient light, never direct sun, nor a charge from a flashlight.

Well, of course the Lumintop flashlight I have does include 2 O-rings, one on each unscrewable part. These provide the water sealing. Those are black and made of sillicone I guess. However there is another ring, and that sits infront of the glass lens. This one absorbs light when the torch is on, and them emits it for a short while once the light it off. I don't really see the point in it, as you have to have turned the light on first to charge the ring. If you look for your torch in a dark room, well, that ring won't be glowing. It just seemed like a strange inclusion to me.

Buy GITD tape and cut to the appropriate size you desire then stick it to your IYP365. That's what I do to my light. Cut out two 1cm x 0.5cm then stick them onto the light body opposite of each other to minimize the chance of missing the sight of it in the dark. Voila. Works like charm. Add clear protective tape on each if you fear of the damage by water.

I think it's a nice feature. If you use the light alot, it's easy to see where you put the light. If you are for exaple outdoors fishing, you can see the light on the ground with ease. A friend of mine lost my maratac aaa cu rev2 to this way. He got a fish, and put the light in the moss when he was taking care of the fish, and newer found the light again...

I was also pretty disappointed with the duration of the glow. Glow on both of my lumintop lights, tool aaa and copper worm is awfully short-lived.

Daniel_sk said:

Tritium is safe - since the alpha particles are not able to penetrate the plastic housing. ....

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This probably would not have caught my eye so much if this wasn't the topic I was teaching at school this week, but H-3 puts off beta particles. They penetrate further than alpha particles; how many get outside the vial is not my specialty.

Related to the op topic; I get your frustration, but just like with ZL's GITD non-reflector on their HX0X lights, I think it is just for 'set it down after usage' locating. Just last night I purchased some GITD silicone finger bands at wish.com for putting on some of my lights. I'll report back to this thread as to how they work. $2 for 10.

Steve

The light needs an o-ring there and if a GITD one is as resilient as a standard one, why not use a GITD one, it's more help than a standard black or red one.

I am sorry, you are right - tritium emits beta particles and not alpha particles . They will not penetrate the vial housing, but bremsstrahlung is causing low levels of x-ray radiation that can be detected.

"Tritium presents no external radiation threat via beta radiation when encapsulated in non-hydrogen-permeable containers due to its low penetration depth, which is insufficient to penetrate intact human skin. However, GTLS devices do emit low levels of X-rays due to bremsstrahlung." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tritium_radioluminescence

It might seem that some folks are reading my original tone as being particularly negative. I don't mean it like that.
The light has a GITD O-Ring at the front, but needs 'charging' with light before it glows, and it doesn't glow for all that long. I really am not that fussed by this, and it'd be more of a footnote on a review than a glaring massive negative point against it.
I understand the point that it does work for locating if the light has been recently used, that's handy, but a visual in-the-dark indicator that didn't require use before hand would be arguably better.

I was just poking for some discussion to see what other folks thoughts were on it, and if there could be a way of improving the GITD action of the O-ring - lower intensity required to 'charge' (ambient)/longer sustain light release.

Interesting:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phosphorescence

KITROBASKIN said:

We've seen some nifty flashlights where members have put GID orings around the outer barrel of a flashlight, often where a groove has been machined. Looks nice, especially if it is a thicker oring made with strontium aluminate. One of those might have residual glow from ambient light but one's eyes would need to be fully night-adapted to see it. All the GID orings I have are the cheaper, less glowy ones.
...
There is a rubber type GID dog ball that is pretty good. I got a frisbee years ago with quality GID that I used to put important items on, that needed to be found quickly at dark time. Along with a GID basketball and some coiled 5/16 inch nylon rope from glorope (they have 1 inch rope) there is enough glowing from the far side of my side-table by the bed to quickly orient from a sound sleep, see the profile of the table and quickly access a serious illumination device
...
All of the GID items receive only ambient light, never direct sun, nor a charge from a flashlight.

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Thanks for your comments. I have a feeling that the effectiveness of GITD materials are based on density and mass of the object. O-rings are pretty thin, but there maybe something a little more improved in GITD properties over the front O-ring on mine and others flashlights.

LED_Power_Forums said:

Buy GITD tape and cut to the appropriate size you desire then stick it to your IYP365. That's what I do to my light. Cut out two 1cm x 0.5cm then stick them onto the light body opposite of each other to minimise the chance of missing the sight of it in the dark. Voila. Works like charm. Add clear protective tape on each if you fear of the damage by water.

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This seems like a reasonable solution, providing we don't mind a little sticky residue on the light to clean off later, or less than professional results with my cumbersome dexterity. I wonder how the density/mass idea works out with (very)thin tape?

geokite said:

Just last night I purchased some GITD silicone finger bands at wish.com for putting on some of my lights. I'll report back to this thread as to how they work. $2 for 10.
Steve

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Right on. I've a feeling that there maybe rings with better GITD properties at the expense of heat resistance, water resistance etc, all the properties needed as a front sealing ring. To plonk a couple of cheap GITD rings or tape.



Thanks peoples, some interesting ideas coming along here.

a16 said:

This seems like a reasonable solution, providing we don't mind a little sticky residue on the light to clean off later, or less than professional results with my cumbersome dexterity. I wonder how the density/mass idea works out with (very)thin tape?

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Well, I never intend to take off the GITD so it's a non issue for me. I use a ruler to do the measurement and come out with the size, nothing hard there. Patience and passion is the key. The tape is japanese product so the standard is there. Glow quite well and moderately long.



The GITD o-ring is more of a cool factor than practicality to me so I treat it as an 'extra' than seeing it as a serious function. You can't see it anyway if you put the light on flat surface with bezel facing straight down, so no big deal whether it glows bright and long or not.

If you are hesitant of my method leaving residue, how about 'circle' it around instead of sticking it to the light? Here is how one of the member do it on his lights.

rookiedaddy said:

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I should mention that I isolated just the paracord GITD from glorope and confirmed that there is a faint glow after several hours that can be seen with fully night adapted eyesight. Will study it more.

A lanyard of this material could be used on a flashlight for initial detection in the dark.

Hmmm... Nice and cool glowing paracord there it seems. I'd say more practical as well since you can shine on itself from the light itself. Add a glowinc GITD 1" keychain stick to the lanyard like my ld10 to make the glow locator stands out even more after shining on itself.

I have a gitd body'd 5 led cheapie hanging on a nail in my kitchen. Although it doesn't glow for long the point is say you're frying up some chicken and poof! Lights suddenly go out... well across the room is a glowing green tube that we know will put out light in emergencies.

Perhaps that was the intent of the o-ring on the light being discussed? To find your light in sudden darkness?

bykfixer said:

Perhaps that was the intent of the o-ring on the light being discussed? To find your light in sudden darkness?

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Yup, of course. But the light has to be placed in tail stand mode to be able to take in any external light to charge. Even then, I doubt the visibility of the GITD O-ring will be enough to be noticed in the sudden event of blackout, since, the glow o-ring is far dimmer than those normal real GITD items like those of we discussed above, and the O-ring glow fade out much quicker as well, so no dice. Plus, I believe the light will be placed with bezel facing down when not in use, so likely no glow as well. Better just buy any real GITD item and put it on the external of the light to increase its visibility in the dark. The addition of GITD into O-ring feels like a half-baked effort than a full serious professional hard work trying to maximize the glow of the silicone ring.