Does anyone have 48" blacklight Tubes in their Arcade?

Braido

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Does anyone have 48" blacklight Tubes in their Arcade?

I put a bunch of 48" blacklight Tubes into my home arcade and they must be the wrong kind. The room lights right up and it's very hard to see the black lite carpet the light actually doesn't look black to me.

Anyone know what kind of tubes i should be running?

thx,
 
The room lights right up and it's very hard to see the black lite carpet the light actually doesn't look black to me.


Who told you it would look black? WTF? It should look purple/violet. If you have diffusing lenses/covers over the bulbs, remove them and then see what it looks like.
 
Hi Phet,

Thanks for the reply. The room does look purple but it's also very bright so much so that when playing Space invaders you can't see the moon and you can see the burn in on the monitor. Shouldn't the room be dark with a purple glow and the black lite carpet lite up?

Here is a video of the room with the black lights on (sorry no sound and the vid is turned for some reason when uploaded to YouTube).

oh yeah there aren't any covers over the 48" tubes and there are 12 48" tubes in the 575' room.

thx
Braido...
 
Hi Phet,

Thanks for the reply. The room does look purple but it's also very bright so much so that when playing Space invaders you can't see the moon and you can see the burn in on the monitor. Shouldn't the room be dark with a purple glow and the black lite carpet lite up?

Here is a video of the room with the black lights on (sorry no sound and the vid is turned for some reason when uploaded to YouTube).

oh yeah there aren't any covers over the 48" tubes and there are 12 48" tubes in the 575' room.

thx
Braido...

uhhhhhh what video?
 
I run 3 different lights with 2 bulbs each and i get plenty of blacklight reactivity on anything white and games that have blacklight reactive paint on em. HOW MANY LIGHTS ARE YOU RUNNING? If your getting a blinding purple haze then mabye you have too many blacklights going. Another trick to get blacklight carpet to really glow is to ditch the overhead blacklights and moint some small ones pointing down from your machines down to the carpet.

ALso lighting form the games marquees etc can affect the blacklights strength.
 
I am not sure if you can get them in 48", but I hope he isn't using those UV plant growing lamps. Might get a visit from ATF wanting to look around if they see that coming out the windows.
 
I've got the 48" bulb setups and they do let off a lot of light, to the point that they light up the entire room in a bluish-purple, but everything glows nicely and I like it that way. I put a few of the smaller bulbs I had (I think they 18" singles) and they worked good and gave off a deeper purple, more what you would expect from a blacklight IMO, but not as powerful as the 48"'s obviously.

To me, it's really a matter of preference...

Here's a vid of my arcade, it's changed since then :) I now have the Blacklight carpet and a 60-1 cocktail..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjTcjv9Ihqk
 
Now that my neck has a kink in it from looking sideways, thanks! :)

The floor is definitely glowing, I noticed you went to a few of the games, but I am not sure those games had UV reactive art.

I think you may have too many bulbs for that given space. Looks like you have them spaced only a couple feet apart, that might be part of it.
 
Another trick to getting stuff that is blacklight reactive to be lit up good, is to have darker ceiling and walls. My arcade's ceiling is black and the walls are a medium blue. It helps the room appear darker except for the things that react to the blacklight.

Notice in my pic with the blacklights on how the room isn't bright with purple light? It was until I painted the walls and ceiling. Just like in khabbi's video of his room, you could see the purple-ish walls and ceiling. I have two 48in blacklights mounted on the ceiling.

BTW khabbi, awsome MK collection!!
 

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Notice in my pic with the blacklights on how the room isn't bright with purple light? It was until I painted the walls and ceiling. Just like in khabbi's video of his room, you could see the purple-ish walls and ceiling. I have two 48in blacklights mounted on the ceiling.

Nice Willow. One of my favorite (if not my favorite) Capcom classics pre-SFII. I hope to own it someday when I have the luxury of space for my game room. For now, a Blue Elf 2 in my SFII will have to do.

All these tips about setting up black lights are helpful. I have light tan walls and white ceilings. Good to know that is not the best color scheme to have for a game room that wants black lights.
 
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O.K., I saw the video Braido. Paint the ceiling and swap out the curtains for some very dark ones. They are so lit up by the blacklight that they make the room appear lit up.

Also you could try fewer bulbs.
 
Nice Willow. One of my favorite (if not my favorite) Capcom classics pre-SFII. I hope to own it someday when I have the luxury of space for my game room. For now, a Blue Elf 2 in my SFII will have to do.

Thanks! That is funny, my SFII has a Blue Elf in it too! But I can't stand to play Willow on it, it is -upWAAAAYYYYY to fast. Don't know why it's sped-up, but it is.
 
It is supposed to be a purple-ish color. It also depends upon how much other ambient light you have (from the marquees, monitors, etc) as that will cut down on the "effect". I have 20 T8 48" bulbs lighting the arcade.

Here is the main part with 16 bulbs.

DSC04314.jpg


The Bulbs

DSC04320.jpg


A little time delay on the shutter

DSC04313.jpg
 
If the fixtures that you are putting the black light tubes in are still painted white, you need to repaint them with silver or chrome or some similar highly reflective, but non-phosphorus containing paint (e.g. not white) That will significantly reduce the amount of reflected purple-white light.

Also, after looking at the video it almost looks like you purchased black light white (BLW) or "growing" lights, not quartz "woods glass" black light blue (BLB) tubes. These will produce much brighter whole-spectrum white-light as well as a little bit of UV.

Post all of the part number information that is screened onto the tube or if you still have the cardboard sleeve for it (a picture would be ideal) and we can let you know if you purchased the right stuff.

Also get fixtures with 50% surrounds to force the light down instead of parallel to the ceiling so it doesn't illuminate the ceiling as much. Again, paint these silver/chrome to keep them from illuminating so much.


> when playing Space invaders you can't see the moon and you can see the burn in on the monitor.

The reason most monitors glow and show their burn-in is because the black light UV will illuminate the phosphor on the face of the tube, unless the tube is covered by a piece of plastic that blocks the UV. Glass will not block UV and therefore the glass bezel and mirror in the SI will allow the UV rays right onto the tube causing it to glow, even with the game off. This is one drawback of blacklights in game rooms unless you have at least a clear piece of plexi, or ideally a tinted piece of plexi over the monitor to prevent the gray + burn-in showing glow.

Finally, though it is not the problem in your room, do not cover the bulbs with any plexiglass -- again, because that will absorb most if not all of the UV and significantly reduce the impact of the lights on the carpet. You need to have bare bubs or cover with glass if they need protection.
 
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Wow that's allot of bulbs! I would start off with one see how it looks and then add more in strategic locations. We used to light up a whole room with one 48 bulb in college! But we liked it dark with a glow.

The games should spill enough light to fill in. Maybe add some neons for more light.

Cool arcade by the way love the space!
 
I aggree with Pac Fan on painting the fixtures something other than white. I painted my fixture black and that also helped.

I wish I had a picture of my arcade room with the blacklights on before I painted it. Then you could see the difference a darker room makes on how the blacklight "lights" up the carpet and other things that react to it. Before painting it, it would have the purple glow to the room yours has. But after painting it, with just the blacklights on (games off) the room is VERY dark except for the glow the carpet, artwork, buttons and etc. that react to the blacklight.

It is really a matter of how you want the room to look. If your walls, ceiling, curtains and doors are bright and glowing, the room won't look dark enough to make the blacklight reactive things "pop".
 
The reason most monitors glow and show their burn-in is because the black light UV will illuminate the phosphor on the face of the tube,

You sir, have just given me a very good way to check for monitor burn-in when I buy games. Thank you. From now on, my little battery powered 12" blacklight will go into my arcade toolkit.
 
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