My first stir plate

[77bawls]

Well I was looking for an interesting case to put the components in. I was in my girlfriends garage and she had some old DVD players that didn't work anymore. One stood out from the rest. It has a unique design and it had a radio in it too. I took it apart and as I suspected the radio and DVD player were separate modules.

I took out the DVD module and will be using it's ribbon cable and existing power supply. It has 12 volts and 5 volts. There is an LED that lights up the lid but it only comes on when the DVD is working. I need to find out if it takes the 12v or the 5v and I will be able to have it powered all the time.

I'm going to make it so the radio will still work.

Here's what I'm dealing with.

 

[Dave_K]

Very fancy! I see one potential concern though.
I read somewhere that blue LEDs have a similar wave length range as UV light, and that means skunky beer. I definitely wouldn't want to pour a skunked started into my wort. (not sure of my original source, but this link makes a similar point https://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Skunking) That said, if you are not putting hops into your starter than skunking won't be an issue.
Good luck!

 

[bmbauer]

I checked for you, blue led has a wavelength of about 460-490 nm. UV light on the other hand is anything >400 nm (according to wikipedia)

If this is accurate and there is no crossover between the two then technically you should be fine. They are however very close to each other and you might get a little bit of UV.... (although I am not a physicist so don't quote me on it.)

Try to ask a chemist or a physicist!

 

[Dave_K]

I checked for you, blue led has a wavelength of about 460-490 nm. UV light on the other hand is anything >400 nm (according to wikipedia)

If this is accurate and there is no crossover between the two then technically you should be fine. They are however very close to each other and you might get a little bit of UV.... (although I am not a physicist so don't quote me on it.)

Try to ask a chemist or a physicist!

bmbauer, your numbers are correct, but you are incorrect in assuming it is the UV light that is the problem. It is the wavelength range in which UV light falls.
The the range of wavelengths that cause skunking extends up to the visible blue light spectrum. The page I linked above specifically points out "blue visible light" causes skunking.

Because I have no particular credibility on this topic I also found this source:
http://realbeer.com/spencer/bottle.html
In this test of the effects of wavelengths on beer, it was concluded "The critical part for beer skunking seems to be wavelengths shorter than about 500nm"

Keep hops out of the Blue!

 

[Brad2287]

I don't know about you but I have never added hops to a starter. If there are no hops it is never an issue.

 

[Dave_K]

I don't know about you but I have never added hops to a starter. If there are no hops it is never an issue.

Agreed, but I've seen it done so I figured I'd throw the warning out there.