Logisys Day & Night UV-Blue Inter-Switchable CCFL Kit

Examination:

Many companies offer cathode lights of all varieties. It is really hard to stand out when there is so much competition and a limited room for improvement. Logisys, however, has come up with a good idea. Instead of running a UV cathode separate from a bright light cathode, Logisys has combined the two into a single tube. As stated in Logisys’ description, it can be run in daytime mode, a bright blue light, or nighttime mode, a dimmer UV-blue light. Velcro strips were also included with the package and should prove to be useful when mounting the cathode inside a chassis. On the expansion slot switch, there are three modes, off, day, and night.

Installation:

Instead of attaching in permanently to our case, we chose to simply secure it with some twist ties. We used twist ties instead of the Velcro strips because we wanted to be able to move the tube to a different case if we saw the need. However, the Velcro strips seemed pretty standard. The paper backing simply needed to be peeled off and then attached to the tube. The paper backing on the other side of the strips simply needed to be peeled off and then attached to the desired location in the case. There was also a piece of Velcro for the user to attach the inverter to the case and the process is the same. If you are going to use the Velcro however, it is essentially permanent, so choose the location well. The 3-stage switch was then simply installed into the expansion slot.

Performance:

On the day setting, the bulb was very bright. Probably one of the brightest cathodes we’ve seen. The light was steady and it didn’t cause any problems throughout the time we had it on. The night setting was a dimmer blue/UV light. We had some UV-reactive cable sleeving and so we placed it close to the light for testing. We could see a very faint glow on the sleeving, but nothing like we were used to seeing with other UV cathodes. This led us to believe that the UV cathode was unfortunately very weak. We tried also with the A.C. Ryan UV reactive fans and the result was the same; it only produced a very faint, rather unimpressive, glow.

Conclusion:

Logisys had a good idea going when they combined two cathodes into one. Unfortunately, the UV bulb was very weak and so it was rather useless. If the UV bulb were improved, then this would be a rather convenient and space saving alternative to using two separate tubes for UV and lighting. However the UV bulb inside is too weak to illuminate the UV reactive to an acceptable level. As said before, this was a good idea. Perhaps if they improve it in the future and strengthen the weaknesses then this will be a more appealing product.

Pros:

· Very bright day bulb
· Dual bulb feature saves space
· Easy to use

Cons:

· Very dim UV bulb
· No option of having only UV

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