illuminated BBs
 

I made my tracer unit mod to my 249's box mag, I was wondering; what's the best LED's to use to illuminate these? i hear some colors of light work better than others, I'm using clear LEDs right now.

UV leds are the best I believe since
E = hc/Wavelength
UV has the shortest wavelength which gives u the most energy
and glow in the dark bb's are based upon electrons jumping energy levels then going back to steady state to give that glow

If im wrong let me know thanks :)

excellent, i'll see what i can do, thanks!
would IR LEDs work? I dont have my night vision here right now so i cant see for myself

Ir has a longer wavelength then UV rays so IR would give the bb's less energy, I guess the only real way to find out is to test it :)

But theortically UV would give the bb's way more energy and keep them glowing for longer then IR waves would

doesn't IR have the longest wavelength?

edit* damn Nova you beat me to it

http://www.luxeonstar.com/index.php

Try give a read through a few of these led's. I have heard that some of there dental line may do what you are looking for. They are pricey but one light should be plenty bright. And what in airsoft is not slightly pricey anyway. Good luck.

Chalcus.

so i got this UV lamp, dunno about LEDs but it looks awesome lol
cant see the UV so when you pass the lamp over they glow super bright, but fade within 2 seconds to about 3/4 as bright then fade within 8 seconds
mind you its not bad for airsoft, the BB is only in flight for 2-3 seconds.
Maybe its the composition of the BB?
I'm doing all this with TM .20g tracers but I'm going to try this with Digicon and SIIS .25g BB's as well.

Best bet is a good little Luxeon LED, like those in the 1W, 3W and 5W flashlights.

They can be bought for about 20-25$ each and thought they are not UV, they are the LEDs that are the most powerfull for the price. An equivalent UV LED would run for about 50-60$ piece...

UV light doesnt have the range to light up all the BBs in the box mag but it does do a good job. I figure I'll just use more LED's to help light them up.

I'd concur with UV LED's