# UV Flashlight to find golf balls at night



## goforgolfballs (Oct 25, 2003)

Would like some assistance in finding out the best make and model of UV flashlight for the purpose of searching for golf balls in long grass etc on golf courses at night. Any assistance much appreciated


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## ufokillerz (Oct 25, 2003)

There aren't really many choices in UV lights, the Inova X5T UV has 12ft effective range.


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## brightnorm (Oct 25, 2003)

gofor,

I can't help you with UV specifically, but I've found that blue/purple tinted 1W LEDs (like many KL1's) tend to make white objects react quite noticeably with a kind of "semi fluoresce" effect.

Brightnorm


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## PhotonWrangler (Oct 25, 2003)

[ QUOTE ]
*goforgolfballs said:*
Would like some assistance in finding out the best make and model of UV flashlight for the purpose of searching for golf balls in long grass etc on golf courses at night. Any assistance much appreciated 

[/ QUOTE ]

I have a 3-LED UV flashlight from Brilliant Creations.
It's a little cheaper than the 5-LED UV model from
Inova. It has a decent throw for it's size, but
it's probably not going to work well for your application
unless the golf balls are painted with fluorescent
paint.

Do they make a phosphorescent golf ball? Or better yet,
a ball with a built-in GPS-based transponder? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

pw


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## McGizmo (Oct 25, 2003)

A Luxeon III Royal Blue in a good reflector might be of some aid. You don't want to use a white light due to ????

- Don


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## tvodrd (Oct 25, 2003)

I think I've read of self-illuminating golf balls for sneaking onto courses at night. I'm guessing glow powder-powered. (I totally hate that game! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif )

Larry


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## Beretta1526 (Oct 25, 2003)

Don hit the nail on the head. A Royal Blue Luxeon III will be the ticket here. Put it in a McLux PR head or McL4 or similar and it will be perfect.

I have a 1W RB in a mini-mag. It will fluoresce just about everything the UV lights do (notice "just about"). I was going to put my RB into my FireFly.

I wonder if the shock of hitting the ball with a driver would knock off anything you painted the ball with? 

EDIT: The RB could give off enough visible blue to reveal your position, /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/naughty.gif If you want stealth, I think a good IR illuminator and night vision monocular would be interesting as well. You will find that not all golf balls will fluoresce with UV as well.


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## BlindedByTheLite (Oct 26, 2003)

well.. this is the most extravagent UV flashlight i know of..

it's a creation of the intretech company..

http://ledmuseum.home.att.net/uv20.htm
(review by led museum!)

but i'd take some other ideas into consideration.. since some lights that aren't UV will still reveal your golf balls, but also have more throw to locate them from farther distances..


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## Icebreak (Oct 26, 2003)

Don's suggestion would be perfect.

I have a Blaster IV with 5W RB that is pretty scary.

How about an ElektroLumens Tri-Star 3X3W RB? That would be awesome. Heck, I think I want one.


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## McGizmo (Oct 26, 2003)

I recently put a Nichia 2W UV in a McLux-PR head and it does seem to have some good reach but I haven't been in real dark with it and looked for fluorescent objects. It certainly provides more "stealth" than a Royal Blue would.


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## Icebreak (Oct 26, 2003)

I'd sure like to see that light.

After golf ball hunting you could take it with you to the local eatery to sanitize your utinsels?


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## Rothrandir (Oct 26, 2003)

don...i hate you /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif
i've been really really wanting one of those /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif

that does seem like a very good solution though!

a royal blue luxeon would probably be the best high-powered option available to you, since don appears to be the only one that can get those nichias /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/twakfl.gif


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## Saaby (Oct 26, 2003)

This is a *brilliant* idea. Recapture golf balls cost on the course at night. Sell them in a vending machine by the clubhouse cheap and pay for all your lights and then some /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif


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## [email protected] (Oct 26, 2003)

Blinking golfball  /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif


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## whiskypapa3 (Oct 26, 2003)

What you need is this puppy...







36 5mm 395uM LEDs driven by a PowerPuck off 12V batt pack.

2 foot circle at 10 feet. Enough spill of pale blue light to keep from tripping over things. Stealth mode ( Rosco 59 filter) cuts range about 30% but kills most of the pale blue light...


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## Blackbeagle (Oct 27, 2003)

Wouldn't it be better to use a standard incandescent with a UV filter - ala CSI? Especially if you get something like a Stinger or UltraStinger rechargeable and get someone to custom cut a UV glass filter.


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## Zelandeth (Oct 27, 2003)

Drat, Bart got there first with the blinking golfball. I'm guessing that the intended use here is to find the ones that are flourescent orange/yellow rather than white. (Got quite a collection here, friend has a house near to a golf course, and they keep accumulating on the roof of the shed!).


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## cmendoza (Oct 27, 2003)

Anyone seen the GlowOwl GID balls made with strontium aluminate?

http://www.glowowl.com/index.html


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## goforgolfballs (Oct 28, 2003)

Thanks for these prompt responses - food for thought


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## INRETECH (Oct 28, 2003)

The question "standard incandescent with a UV filter"

That would be very wastefull, like those cheap Blacklight bulbs at the store, there is VERY little UV in incandescent light

http://www.inretech.com/pictures/5.jpg


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## binky (Oct 31, 2003)

I'm going a bit on intuition and vague recollection, but don't HID lights give off a bunch of UV? Many more per watt than incandescent? 

So that may be another option -- an HID (such as UK Light Cannon) with a UV filter. Might give much more range than some other options.

But on the other hand, whiskypapa's cancerblaster does look very menacingly cool. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/drool.gif


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## The_LED_Museum (Oct 31, 2003)

I received a question like this via email a few days ago. Best UV light I could think of was the Vector 7, a rechargeable NUV light that uses 7 LEDs, each behind a special optic. The Vector 7 was originally designed for finding leaks in refrigeration systems, but it has enough "throw" to maybe be useful on the golf course too, for finding golf balls with at night.


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## Tombeis (Nov 1, 2003)

A non Flashaholic was hunting lost golfballs in a woods next to the town public course. 

He had a very good day and walked out of the woods with his two front pockets full of balls. 

He walked to the corner and boarded a bus to go home. 

He took a seat across from a lady who kept staring at his pockets which were full of golfballs. 

A few minutes pass and the guy looks at the lady and says "GOLFBALLS." 

The lady looks at him for another long minute and says.... " DOES THAT HURT AS MUCH AS TENNIS ELBOW?"

The guy thinks to himself, " I'm gonna go buy a flashlight and do this stuff at night." /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif


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