TOPIC: Indigo LEDs (and Reddit?)

I just came across an interesting claim on Reddit saying that Indigo LEDs at damaging to the retina, blade or no blade, because they're transfer UV light. Here is the exact quote:
Can anyone verify this?

In a side note, I don't know how many members here are on Reddit (I know I've seen Archer, but that's all I'd recognize), but with the Star Wars excitement of the last few months, there's also been a lot of saber excitement. Unfortunately there seem to be a few redditors dead set on tearing down SF. There's a somewhat misleading sub there called "Saberforge", but it's an anti-Saberforge platform. While I'm sure they're no "danger" to SF, Reddit represents a large, interested community. Would it be worth SF's time to have their social media reps get involved there? Maybe an "Official Saberforge" sub? Whatever the case, just wanted to bring that to SF's attention.

"ultraviolet" would be anything with a wavelength of 10nM - 400nM, and an indigo color would be somewhere in the 420-450nM range. This is a ridiculous claim, and doesn't make any sense because UV light by definition is out of the visible spectrum. Don't believe everything/anything you read on reddit, or any other source that doesn't screen their contributors for actual knowledge.

Well, the unlikelihood is why I asked, as opposed to parroting it around to people.

Plus the Indigo LED isn't even indigo; its 3 royal blue and a red that mix together. So even if indigo was in the spectrum that could damage your eyes, SF's indigo blades wouldn't, as royal blue doesn't, and red is at the other end of the spectrum.

I remember a forum user named Mystbyte that started a saberforge subreddit awhile back, but no one was interested at the time.

Jaden Korr wrote:
Great point. Either he's talking about an older version, or just doesn't know what he's talking about at all.

It's one of those partially-true-but-sretched-too-far kind of things.

Visible spectrum runs from red-to-blue, but (non-visible) light can be emitted in wavelengths past either. Light before red is "InfraRed" and light after blue is "UltraViolet".



LEDs don't just grab a single point on that spectrum either, they produce in a range.

Red LED start at the edge of red and produce some of the red-orange right next to it. They're very bright, since they produce only visible light, but the color winds up with a slight orange hue. This is most evident on-camera where the blades look yellow-orange while producing a red glow.

Amber LEDs start in the orange section and produce toward the end of yellow, producing a golden light.

Green LEDs produce in the green section, and appear brighter than other lights thanks to our eye's natural sensitivity to green light.

Blue LEDs start at the edge of cyan and continue on toward the edge of blue, producing a bright blue with all visible-light, but winding up a lighter shade than some might prefer.

(Some manufacturers also produce Red-Orange, Lime, and Cyan LEDs that fall in other points of the spectrum.)

However, there are some cases where you want a really deep blood red, or a very deep almost-purple blue. That's where Deep Red and Royal Blue come in.

Deep Red/Photo Red LEDs produce in a more leftward-spectrum than traditional RED LEDs, producing a truer, deeper red color. However, they're not quite as bright, since the adjacent spectrum is InfraRed. It's not particularly dangerous, but it's not visible either. Blades made with these LEDs look either blood-red or pinkish on camera, depending on how the camera renders IR light.

Royal Blue LEDs are the opposite - ensuring they produce a deep blue by moving the spectrum a bit to the right compared to traditional Blue LEDs. While this deepens the color, some brightness is lost, as a small chunk of light is UltraViolet. Royal Blue saber blades also have the neat effect of acting as a subdued blacklight, lighting up phosphorescent pigments like the orange in NERF darts and certain greens. They have a blue-to-purplish hue on camera, depending on how the camera renders UV light.

I wouldn't warn anyone against using Royal Blue LEDs in the same manner that I wouldn't warn anyone not to go outside because the Sun produces UV light. That said, saber responsibly. It might not be the best idea to use a Royal Blue saber to light up the room at night (reds tend to be easier on the eyes anyway).

Short version: No, people on Reddit are either idiots or deliberately shittalking SF.

Long version: As others have pointed out, the Indigo is made from a blend of individual dies and none of them would ever cause damage to the eye from UV or any other kind of radiation. (Now, I will say that if you were to turn on a 12W+ LED of any color in a pitch black room and stare at it for an hour? You will PROBABLY hurt your eyes. So please don't do that.)

As to the reddit thing - the original /saberforge/ reddit WAS supposed to be a positive spot, but after seeing it come back to life after a long period of inactivity (and the many, many gallons of shit spewing from it shortly after), I checked some old posts here vs when the subreddit started and figured out that the founders and mods who have been most vehemently trashing SF are all people who have gotten banned from this forum for various reasons - including one who was banned for ripping people off in a couple of saber deals.

I left the /r/saberforge reddit because it's obviously a poisoned well, and I've tried to keep an even strain on some of the other lightsaber related reddits and facebook groups, but it's clear there's a faction of people who, for legitimate or illegitimate resasons, REALLY fucking hate Saberforge (and Phil, personally), and will use any possible excuse to trash them.

It's juvenile, it's stupid, and it's really, really exhausting.

I really like sabers. I like the hobby. I like the fighting forms and the groups who practice them.

But there are days where I just kinda want to say screw it and stop interacting with most of "the community" because it's such a shitshow.

I take the occasional break myself to reorient, detoxify, and remind myself why I love the quirky community that's the custom saber world.

If an indigo LED does damage your eyes, it would probably be about the same amount of harm as the same exposure in sunlight. And, like with the sun, don't stare directly into the source and you'll be fine.