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I made a video about this glitter lamp eight years ago and didn't realise that this lamp has been running 24/7 for eight years! That's over 70,000 hours! Perhaps a good demonstration of the exponential effect of over-driving LED lamps, since this "3W" lamp runs at only 2W and is therefore a lot cooler. It has also operated base-down, which also helps keep the electronic driver a lot cooler.
Interestingly, the blue LED had reduced in intensity quite a bit, but the output had also been affected by discolouration of the lens on the surface as a distinct brown ring and a dot in the middle. I'd guess those were the peak focal points of the light. Side by side in series, a new and old LED showed very different beam patterns, with the new one being a strong focal point and the old one have a distinct diffusion pattern with prominent dark rings that tallied up with the lens discolouration. (Brown doesn't pass blue light well.)
In this video I fitted a new LED and it restored the red/blue balance well.
It takes a surprisingly high specific gravity to support floating mylar glitter in a neutral enough ratio to allow a humble 2W lamp to move it by thermal convection. The specific gravity of the fluid was adjusted literally drip by drip of water to achieve the balance.
I have deduced that many glitter lamps may use calcium nitrate as the chemical that creates a high enough specific gravity of fluid to work. But attempts to make similar vials of glitter and liquid have been plagued by the aluminium layer being eaten off the mylar resulting in a lack of glitteriness. The fix for this may be using coated glitter, but that doesn't explain how the re-used glitter lamp fluid hasn't attacked the shiny aluminium layer of the exposed Rosco scenic glitter. Is it a different chemical? Or is there an additive that stops the calcium nitrate corroding the aluminium layer?
The glitter I used was a theatre industry glitter supplied by Rosco. I don't know if they still sell this. It is the most extreme glitter I've come across, with an intense sparkle that I've not seen in generic glitters. I think it's because it's pure aluminium coated mylar with no protective coating. It flows like granular liquid mercury in its container.
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