How has your experience with glow in the dark filaments been in the past? Also: check out our CNC Kitchen products at cnckitchen.store/ or at resellers www.cnckitchen.com/reseller and on AMAZON (EU) geni.us/s8rYtQ

@iamdmc

Жыл бұрын

fyi eSun Glow Green is quite good, but their glow blue is awful (very dim!)

@philipp2104

Жыл бұрын

i had an old "Das Filament" V1 - and at the time i didn't know that it could kill the nozzle -well it did. Also V1 was much darker. Even if V2 is better i use an e3d nozzleX.

@ijaapajuk

Жыл бұрын

My brass nozzle on my Prusa Mini has def gotten bad after printing Glow in the dark, so i'm considering a Tungsten nozzle, have you tried any Tungsten nozzles?

@L2740G2CG

Жыл бұрын

Can you make a video by trying to mix the glowing green, red and blue filaments so that you can get a white print? Would be really interesting to see how it then changes the color from white to turquoise and in the end only shines green because of the different lengths of luminosity of the individual colors

@hitf5

Жыл бұрын

I am wondering if you have ever tested Extrudr glow PETG? I have found this to be the brightest and longest lasting glow PETG filament after testing ones from 3DXTech (which sucks) and some others I found on Amazon.

I wanted a glow in dark lamp shade for the ceiling, so I printed a half sphere that was the moon model, thinking the difference in thicknes will make the perfect moon, but I was wrong. You see, the glow effect is so strong that it comes off all parts and most importantly - it glows in all directions. So the low glowing parts are being illuminated by the strong illuminating parts. The final effect is that you lose all detail and it looks like a radioactive meteor and not like the moon. The first few days the light was so strong that I had trouble sleeping. It was like a green lightbulb, filling the room. But then it got more dim and you could see it better. If you are thinking about something like that, try the blue filament that is not as strong and it might look more like the moon. Keep in mind that everything you do will require sunlight or direct lightbulb exposure to charge up. Indirect lighting and normal distance from a lightbulb is not enough and will be barely visible. And another thing. I found out that mixing strontium powder with a transparent nail polish is way better than printing entire objects with glow in the dark filament. It glows almost the same and you put it anywhere. So unless you want the whole thing to glow, just use paint. Before I got bored with it I made the Gurken tower, The door to Moria and a Totoro with umbrella. I have the last on my channel. Capturing glow in the dark is difficult.

@paintballercali

Жыл бұрын

I have been planning to do the same with the boob light on my son's room

@hammerman2002

Жыл бұрын

I had the opposite experience. Printed a full moon (minus 10% as a mounting flange) and put it over a standard lamp. While the light is on, I get the mentioned lithophane effect, and when the lamp is turned off, the glow in the dark variation due to thickness gives the same (but opposite) effect.

@Tomaskom

Жыл бұрын

Blue light is not great for sleep as it increases alertness (although dim blue might not be an issue). For the moon to look better, maybe the more opaque glow in the dark material he mentions would improve it? Or go the other extreme and use the quite transparent sparkly one so the thickness makes the amount of sparkle change? Essentially either prevent light from spilling over or make it not diffuse as much - two very different strategies. Maybe if Stefan shows us all the thickness tests, they could be used to select the best strategy 🙂

@id104335409

Жыл бұрын

I think the reason the moon looks the way it does is because it reflects light back to us. Not because it glows. There are 3d printed accurate moons that use a single light source that makes a very believable moon. But they are expensive. What 99 percent of us think is that the 3d printed glowing moon will shoot a light beam straight at us. But that's not true. Each single molecule that emits light emits it in all directions. Its like increasing your tv or monitor brightness. All detail is being drowned out. Its like looking at the sun. Maybe you could see the surface with filtered glasses. But you will not get better results by increasing the light source. They just shine in all directions.

@sky0kast0

Жыл бұрын

maybe id paint the edges to minimise the loss of shape?

It's good to remember that 3d printing is not the only way to make custom stuff. If you want a really powerful glow-in-the-dark effect, use a silicone mold, a 2-part clear epoxy resin, and powered strontium aluminate. You can even cast the silicone mold yourself, using a 3d-printed positive of the item you want in the end. For one-offs where you don't need something to glow that bright or for that long, sure, 3d print it. But if you're going to make a bunch of something really bright, save the money you'd spend on nozzles and try mold-making.

@Mikabellaa

Жыл бұрын

Downside is resin is extremely toxic while curing and not everyone has a space to safely use it 🥲 I have so many projects I’d love to do with resin but I’m not messing with those fumes in my current living environment 😅

@oasntet

Жыл бұрын

@@Mikabellaa There are some non-toxic resins available (or other castable materials like UV-cured resin or even silicone itself), but you'd want some decent ventilation for anything with a solvent. Or use a 5-minute epoxy and do the casting outdoors. You might want to look into ventilation for FDM printing, though; quite a few filaments outgas stuff when hot, and abrasive filaments like these can put out some pretty nasty dust.

@t1e6x12

Жыл бұрын

@@oasntet Which 3D printing resins are non toxic?

@oasntet

Жыл бұрын

@@t1e6x12 I'm not talking about 3d printing resins, I'm talking about casting resins. 5-minute epoxy and whatnot. However, most 3d printing resins aren't as toxic as they're made out to be. Sure, avoid drinking them, and prolonged skin contact can cause irritation, but their vapor pressure is quite low and so even a small amount of ventilation is sufficient. Some people also have additional allergic reactions that can be worse, so it's good to find out if that's you before running a resin fab in an enclosed space with no air exchange...

@bravefastrabbit770

10 ай бұрын

@@oasntet Highly doubt that. Just because you don't die doesn't mean it is 'harmless'. Look into plastics and their way of mimicing estrogen in the body and effectively disrupting the endocrine system, Dr Anthony Jay (author of Estrogeneration) has done extensive research into this field. It's no coincidence that virtually every single 3DP enthusiast has feminine characteristics/manners. I don't mean to diss anyone, but rather just expose the fact that they've been poisoning themselves. Get a carbon filter at the very least

A small cheat I do whenever I print any glow in the dark things is to stick a small circuit comprising of a tiny lithium battery, a transistor inverter, a UV led and a photo resistor inside it. That way your ornament or night light or w/e will glow for weeks.

@damaylaphoenix1155

Ай бұрын

do a video please!

Even though I have less than zero interest in glow in the dark filaments (until I have a functional need for that), that video was both entertaining and educating for me. Thanks for your efforts on this! And: GET WELL soon!

I like that you don't just single out one winner and say "this is the best, all the others suck", but instead point out how each one has its own benefits. Great job.

@jimbobjones9330

Жыл бұрын

Well, except for the stinky red one.

The DasFilament stuff is amazing, it glows good but doesn't grind your nozzle away. I pushed amost two full spools through a regular brass nozzle for Halloween and didn't notice any extended wear, their stuff is probably ground so fine that it doesn't really have an abrasive effect. Some cheap white filament I tried in the beginning was more abrasive than their green glow stuff. If you plan on printing a lot of glowing stuff, use this!

@CNCKitchen

Жыл бұрын

Yeah, that's true. I bought it for a wear test 4 years ago and was so disappointed that nothing happened 😅

@madduckuk

Жыл бұрын

It's so far ahead it is basically the only option. How can it be that different?!

@lukasharvan2242

Жыл бұрын

​@@CNCKitchen Can I also print (The DasFilament V2) with a 0.2 or 0.4 nozzle?

@Donnerwamp

Жыл бұрын

@@lukasharvan2242 I used a 0.4mm nozzle, but I don't see why this stuff won't work with a 0.2mm nozzle.

@tigerchills2079

Жыл бұрын

@@madduckuk Perhaps, as previously hinted, particle size. Perhaps they are wearing down some grinders in the factory for us to be able to put fine powder in the filament.

Stefan, your analysis and scientific approach always blow me away. I wish more KZreadrs were as pragmatic and as thorough as you are in their own areas of interest. Often I find myself watching your videos on materials I'm not even interested in (as an example, glow in the dark filament), just because your approach and style are top notch. 👍

As usual, very well researched and presented. I love the way you approach a subject, think of tests and explain how you generate data!

@CNCKitchen

Жыл бұрын

Thank you. Appreciate it.

For Halloween last year we printed hundreds of skeletons and ghost keyrings for the kids when they came round. We went through many brass nozzles, but as they where not critical prints we didn't worry about changing them too often. My sons extruder though ended up getting almost worn through as the filament was pulling against to the top of the entry point and was out of sight.

@conorstewart2214

Жыл бұрын

If you went through many brass nozzles why not just buy a cheap hardened steel nozzle and then you dont have to change them at all. Almost half a millimeter on a 100g print like in the video will massively affect the print quality.

@daliasprints9798

Жыл бұрын

@@conorstewart2214 Hardened steel = slow printing. Get a Bozzle if you can afford one and you'll never have to replace it. 😁

@conorstewart2214

Жыл бұрын

@@daliasprints9798 that just isn’t true, it might be in some extremely high speed use cases but in most cases with most printers it just isn’t true. You can print just as fast with a hardened steel nozzle, you just need to increase the temperature to compensate for the lower thermal conductivity. Where did you get told that you can’t print fast with hardened steel nozzles? Yes tungsten carbide nozzles are harder and have a similar thermal conductivity to brass but they are very expensive in comparison.

I never would have initially guessed that glow in the dark would be an abrasive nozzle destroying filament. Actually learned about this from one of the employees at Microcenter as I was browsing the Inland filaments.

I love the depth that your videos go in to, especially the glow in the dark chemistry in this one. And these filaments are an advert for TC nozzles.

Stefan, I've grown to love your channel even more after seeing you on the safety third podcast! I've never expected to see my love for 3d printing and dumpster arson come together like that and I'm all for it

You do such a great job setting up your methods. Great to show students on something fun! Danke!

Those are some beautiful macro shots of the nozzles

I printed a rc plane with glow filament and put uv led strips inside it. Perfect for night flying

In the watch circle we call this a lume test. A dominant company is Super-LumiNova, they experiment to make bright and lasting luminescent materials. You normally get white, yellow, blue, green, red colors. And yes green is usually the brightest, and not much behind is blue, coincides with why we see the abundance of these two glowing colors.

The quality of your work is off the chart !

Stefan, I'm very interested in how a tungsten carbide nozzle would have fared. Maybe you could do a quick test of a TC nozzle printing the most abrasive of the filaments in your test.

@CNCKitchen

Жыл бұрын

I wanna do a comparison between different nozzles, yet fear that I kill a couple.

@Koooo4

Жыл бұрын

Throw in a ruby and diamond one too ;D

@NickNick2024

Жыл бұрын

@@CNCKitchen that really grinds my gears. 😜 I know people have also reported issues with extruder gears wearing down after a lot of use.

@KrishanuAR

Жыл бұрын

@@CNCKitchen maybe ask Patreon to fund it specifically? I’m interested enough that I’d buy you a TC nozzle, though maybe not a ruby one 😅 Would also be interesting to see whether the thermal properties of the different nozzles materials truly make a difference or not. E.g. is the only benefit of not always running a hardened steel nozzle infinitesimal energy cost savings from not having to print at a higher temp? Do steel nozzles really need to run at a higher temp for the whole print? Etc.

@gaugeprower

Жыл бұрын

I’d like to see this test with an ObXidian Nozzle as well

Superb video as usual! Packed with useful information in an easily understood format. Quantitative data allows us to select our personal "best choice" based upon how we value the different criterion. Keep showing how it should be done!

I did this for my daughter's bed like a few months back. It's awesome

@CNCKitchen

Жыл бұрын

Cool!

Those micro shots are so cool!

Very interesting video🤩 and well-done in-depth comparison💪 Thanks for including our filament in it 🙏

Can’t believe we didnt see any of the polymaker glow filaments. But what great results, really have been loving your content lately its top shelf great

YES! thanks, i love glowing things!

Hardened steel still wears for sure. Just changed my slicer settings to 0.5mm for my 0.4mm nozzle and it prints amazing. There's a fine line between smart and lazy haha.

Hi steffan! Thanks for all the great content. Greetings from Uruguay!!!

I have printed with the overture glow pla! I didn’t know that it was particles that made them glow. It glows so great I really like that filament. Ty for this excellent video and I was surprised to learn it glowed the longest

I specifically grind the tip of the nozzle down a couple .1mm to create a larger flat face square with the bed surface for a more consistent "squish" and it makes nice flat beads of filiment. Also instead of setting the gap (z offset) with a sheet of paper, print a thin layer and adjust the offset to match the initial layer height you have set in your prifile. Let it fully cool befpr removing from the bed to mesure or it will stretch.

I have some glow-in-the-dark filament from 3D Solutech that I love. (Yes, I've always used a hardened nozzle with it.) It's translucent PLA with some excellent GITD pigment and the glow lasts a long time. This video has inspired me - I will have to pull it back out for some more prints! I'm truly enjoying your videos - it's been fun to see the likes of you and Tom develop your style over time and become more comfortable as 3D printing educators. I and others appreciate what you do!

Spectacular work as always. Thank you!

Thank you for this important warning about glow in the dark filament!

I also have used some glow in the dark filament and the probably coolest thing I did was print something to put in my lamp so at night after it is turned of it still glows a bit in blue

Amazing work, as always

I have been on Oveture filament for almost two years. I was satisfied with them so far and I was rooting for them in this "competition" I'm glad to see they didn't disappoint here.

Your videos are consistently upbeat and pleasant to watch. If I had a child I would show your videos without hesitation.

Amazing quality video and in depth with visual cues

@CNCKitchen

Жыл бұрын

Thanks! Appreciate it.

This is a exciting video, I've gone thru maybe 14 roles of Amolen glow in the dark in the last 3 years. I've never compared them to other brands because everyone just likes the things I make.

Yeeeeessss finally, I have been looking at glow filaments for a long time!!!

Man those macro shots are awesome

@CNCKitchen

Жыл бұрын

Thanks! Appreciate it.

I appreciate your tests!

Amazing content for the ages as always!

Another awesome test, thank you!

Great comparisons! I've used Overture and Polymaker Glow in the dark PLA. Like them both. I initially used a brass nozzle until I learned that it is abrasive. Got some Micro Swiss hardened nozzles, but then got a Revo. So now waiting for the ObXidian before I can print more glow.

That AVGN reference was very left of field. What a throwback!

I've designed and printed diffuser caps with glow in the dark filament for most of my flash lights that friction fit onto the lens end so A) they stand up stably and can be used like a lantern, B) diffuse the light enough to easily make a room fully visible, and finally C) continue to glow enough to generally see for a little while even if the light dies or is shut off. I've used them countless times when the electricity went out. I even made one that telescopes to extend and looks like a little light saber lol.

Thank you so much for this review!! It's timing is perfect as we were considering printing glow in the dark stars for a fundraising gala but had not settled on anything yet. I frankly don't want to tear up my printer. You show the tamage to the nozzle, but can you imagine all the damage inside the feed system. You even said some were to course to feed? Wow. No thanks to glow-in-the -dark, and a big thanks to your channel!

Nice! Was looking into that recently!

You just saved me a lot of money. Thanks! 😁

Great comparison!

DasFilament is my absolute favourite Filament! From time to time my kids wanting some glowing toys. I use coated copper Nozzle so i don't notice any grinding effects.

Great test as always, love it 😀

@CNCKitchen

Жыл бұрын

Thank you! Cheers!

Great investigation as always, kudos for the experimental data.

@CNCKitchen

Жыл бұрын

Thanks! Doing my best.

I bought a cheap ruby nozzle for printing glow in the dark, and it’s worked great for me. I’ve even printed metal filled pla with it with seemingly no damage

Iam from Czech Republic and Iam using aurapol all the time i love it

Great and interesting Video 😊 Love your scientific methods 👍

MightyOhm! Built one of those myself and log the serial out to graph. Very cool kit!

Well done! Thanks

Exceptional scientific method!

Real talk: If you have access to a vinyl cutter and want glow stuff for the kiddos go with custom glow vinyl stickers. It is brighter in most cases, has more colors, cheaper, faster, and easier to make stuff with(no nozzle wear). You can even get vinyl that isn't just solid color either; not only do some companies use patterns, but companies like TechWrap have specialty glow vinyls that have iridescent and holographic properties in the light while still glowing bright as ever in the dark.

Ich glaube mich hat noch nie ein KZread Sponsor so überzeugt wie Aurapol heute ich bin immer sehr geizig bei meinen seltenen Filamentkäufen Werde nächstes mal definitv Aurapol ausprobieren Achso und das restliche video war natürlich auch super. der mond ist schon sehr cool

@CNCKitchen

Жыл бұрын

Freut mich. Ich war mit den Drucken bisher sehr zufrieden und bei 7€ Versand oder so macht man nicht viel kaputt.

Oh man I have been wanting this video

@CNCKitchen

Жыл бұрын

Great to hear that!

This explains why after printing maaaany prints with Das Filament Glow in the Dark, i didnt had issues with my nozzle.

love me a forbidden transition

You should have converted to HSL, then extract the luminance channel and sample the brightness from there. By just converting to greyscale the color will alter the lightness, so your lightness comparison is invalid.

@MNbenMN

Жыл бұрын

well, color perception varies, so any method of comparing brightness of sources with different hues is going to involve some compromise or another

@Alia51

Жыл бұрын

Color perception varies, true. Any method is a compromise? No. BUT, one could at least extract the lightness after a conversion where there is at least the effort made to extract lightness in a non-random way. Best would be convertign to 'Rec. 601 luma Y'.' as that color space has a standard way for perceived brightness. While HSL (Hue, saturation, lightness), suggested for ease of use/availability, doesn't use luma, but it would still be far better than a simple BW conversion where the image processing most likely also alters lightness values, trying to produce a more "pleasant" picture to the human eye, thus completely invalidating all the lightness values

@MNbenMN

Жыл бұрын

@@Alia51 That's all subjective based on how some "standard" person sees color. For a clear extreme case, consider someone who has damaged their retinas in a very specific way, baye some laser accident, that almost completely renders their red and red cones insensitive, but has no noticeable damage to the blue cones. That person will see standard yellow as very dim, with standard deep blue as mich brighter. As long as there is variation in perceived brightness of different hues, there cannot be a method that is equally valid for every observer, so there will always be two observers for which there can be selected a pair of differently hued light sources such that they will disagree about which brighter. Hence, every method of ranking brightness is a compromise.

I purchased 4 different colors of glowing filament a week before you post this video....hoping to get good results!

Never tried glow in the dark filament. Have no reason to use it. But this was still an interesting video.

I've always got great results with ColorFabb (Glowfill) 2.85mm filament, printed on an Ultimaker S3, with a Diamondback 0.04mm diamond tipped nozzle, that even after numerous lengthy prints, still shows absolutely no signs of wear. Diamondback nozzles are well worth the money for their ability to resist all abrasive filaments. 😉👍

Good timing, I recently thought about buying glow in the dark filament

@CNCKitchen

Жыл бұрын

Perfect timing!

IM over here cheering because the Glow in the Dark filament i love was the best filament

Nice red one jock

Aurapol can also be found on the Dutch Amazon. Bought a whole bunch of it a few months ago. It's nice filament.

Awesome video! I had printed a T-Rex skeleton several years back in glow-in-the-dark, and afterwards my prints of regular PLA were horrible. Stringy and just ugly quality. After swapping the nozzle in case of a clog, I noticed the tip was ground down, and the hole was way bigger than my replacement nozzle. That was how I learned how much wear glow-in-the-dark does. If I'd had this video back then, would have saved me a lot of troubleshooting! Thanks for the awesome content!

This was a bit unexpected, but a really fun and interesting topic!

Very interesting ! Thx

Honestly, the brand I have always been impressed with is Microcenters Inland PLA Glow-in-the-dark! I haven't had it in a while but when i was a noobie I only printed with glow in the dark. That stuff was amazing and would glow visibly in my dark bedroom for like 6-8 hours, if not longer. My poor stock 2017 cr-10 extruder and hotend were so destroyed from the massive amount I used to print with that stuff! I had the same crappy stock brass nozzle for almost a year until I realized the reason I couldn't get anything to stick was that my .4mm nozzle was more like a .7mm nozzle. I think I accidentally changed to a .6 profile and that's the only reason it sorta worked for a while. Man, I miss those days. I was so bad at 3d printing back then lol

@HackMonkey

Жыл бұрын

I ran a test a couple years back with the Inland Glow and a brass nozzle, it took about 200g and the nozzle was wore down to trash, and wouldn't print worth a darn! But I have had good luck using inexpensive stainless nozzles with the Inland.

Great video! I print a lot of Glow in the Dark, printing fishing gear! One of the thing you did overlook and what drove me nuts for two days is brass extruder gears! The filament will wear a groove and you will be chasing your tail and slowly driving nuts! It was happening on three printers LOL

@CNCKitchen

Жыл бұрын

Good point! I guess hardened steel feeder gears should also fair better here.

@GaryrietM

Жыл бұрын

@@CNCKitchen Yes LOL Im looking for pictures i took of them. The whole path should be checked every roll for wear. I use hardened steal everythign now

Thanks for the informative video. I am curious, how did the Overture Glow PLA compare with regards to nozzle wear?

man, cant wait to get myself some radium filament

@CNCKitchen

Жыл бұрын

"Military Grade" glow in the dark filament.

Reminds me of articles and videos comparing the lume on rolex, seiko, blancpain etc.

I really enjoyed 3d printing for the first few months after I started but my prints started having issues after 3 months. I did not realize how much damage even regular filament does. Now I change my nozzle out every couple hundred hours.

I'd be curious to see how various different hardened nozzles handle the most abrasive filaments from this test. I'm using several different nozzles on my printers, including one tungsten carbide from Dyze Design due to a lot of high temperature and/or abrasive materials I use in my prints. Possible future video/review?

If you print transparent prints with gradual slope and adaptive settings, starting from 0.1mm you can create a smooth gradient that almost vanishes to nothing. Accidental discovery but looks really nice when laid on top of something that has color. Could work very well with glow in the dark stuff..

Danke!

@CNCKitchen

Жыл бұрын

Bitteschön und vielen Dank!

Danke, mal wieder ein unglaublich gut gemachter test. Hilfreich wäre noch gewesen, wenn in jeder szene eingeblendet wird, welches filament es war. Vielen Dank, hat mir trotzdem sehr geholfen!

Great video, as always! I'm curious if those filaments would also damage the extruder gears and hotend throat. Did you noticed anything?

I have a notch ground into the edge of the mount for my Wyze camera I use to monitor my printers from glow in the dark filament sliding past it.

I had to repair a printer as the user didn't know how to set it up with the bl touch. The glass bed was literally coated in brass. They managed to wear two brass rings into the glass surface. It was barely raised as your finger could hardly feel the height change. But that nozzle was ground down by about 3-4mm over a 100mm area. I fixed the printer, flashed the correct firmware and was worried I'd have to find a new glass bed, but surprisingly. It worked with the brass embedded into the glass surface and doesn't appear to be seperating into the prints.

I used glow in the dark filament from redline and it didn’t damaged my nozzle… so I can recommend this one too (at least the PLA Version)

Very cool. I wonder how this compares to Polymaker glow, as my circles use a lot of that brand and at this point they make green, blue, and orange glow. So they're an easy one-stop shop for many colors and types of material.

Would have loved to see the Polymaker glow filaments, especially since at some point they were pulling their blue glow filament back from the market because they found it wasn't glowing enough, and released an improved version later. So I was curious how much it glows now.

@CNCKitchen

Жыл бұрын

Thanks for the suggestion. Might add that if I ever do a second round.

😂 Fart Smelling Filament sounds so good! I'm gonna run out and grab some now! 😂

@CNCKitchen

Жыл бұрын

I didn't find a source for the fart filament in the US unfortunately and I don't know if other red ones stink as well.

@TheEdgeofTech

Жыл бұрын

@@CNCKitchen Sounds like you should bring it to the Rocky Mountain RepRap Festival, and we can stink up the place!!

I used the same technique to judge fading of LED light strips over time, kept 24/on!

I don't print with Glow in the Dark much, but this is why I bought a E3D Nozzle X (made from hardened tool steel). 3 years later and it still looks great and can't see any signs of wear

glow filament is 2nd abrasive to the glass filled nylon that stuff would eat through a hard plated micro swiss nozzle and bore the extruder hob out in under 20 hours of use. its pricey but a hardened steel nozzle and hob is a must in the trick kit.

I own a Purple Glitter Glow PETG that is decent in glow potential, however it's definitely better for something when it isn't glowing, since it has color during the day. Interested to see if any other red glow filament stinks.

I printed with MG Chemicals Super Glow ABS for almost 2 years solid. It was the only filament I used and never noticed bad nozzle wear or anything. Maybe I just got lucky? I love that filament still.

I think that you can "charge" it way faster using a UV light, saw that on the Action Lab :D

Hey Stefan ✌🏿 Nice and Simple Automated Macro Tail! Building a Macro Rail myself was the first project I did with my printer. I assume the controller and software you're using are custom too? What is the software you're using on the controller?

Two quick technical notes: (1) Our eyes are more sensitive to green wavelengths compared to other colors. This is something you'll see in textbooks and classes on perception. You can also see it in color-space formulas for converting, say, from sRGB to greyscale (the green channel contributes more to brightness). Green laser-pointers appear brighter to us, for the same reason. In physics we talk about brightness in terms of radiant energy per area per second. In psychology/perception, the perceived brightness also depends on the spectrum of light, even if the (physics) energy is the same. (2) Almost all images from consumer cameras are "gamma corrected" rather than "linear." Basically, our perception of brightness is non-linear, and images (such as jpeg, etc.) have RGB values that are non-linear in brightness. So say, an RGB value of 200/255 isn't "twice" as bright as 100/255. For computer graphics and special effects, they have to re-map the image data into a linear space before adding them together (as in mathematical addition, pixel by pixel). Gamma is one of those technical things that I never explain well. Best to look up the details. For your application, though, using a camera with gamma is fine. Afterall, you're using the camera as a stand-in for a human eye. So the camera already approximates what we see. So, less scientific (since we're ignoring details of how the camera generates the jpeg images), but totally fine for an informal comparison. Thanks for your tests! They were interesting and it was fun to see your results. I'm a science junkie, so I mean no criticism, but can't resist an opportunity to point other science-junkies at interesting stuff to learn.