Unless you “NEED” one right now, you should probably wait.
From the forums, Amal has indicated there are a few things in the works and likely on their way.
DT is always reliability over function, so hopefully it is what you are after.
3 Likes
I wasn’t aware! Id much rather buy DT.
2 Likes
Oh wow, you’re right. It looks like Alex isn’t selling fireflies ATM. I know he was supposed to be working on another revision (v3 I guess). Maybe he ran down his stock of v2s and he’s done with it for now.
1 Like
Frankly I’m not that impressed with the FireFly V2. I don’t know that tritium will ever be powerful enough in any configuration for my liking. I would jump for joy if we could energize an LED with some amount of capacitance so it stays illuminated for a small span of time.
1 Like
Every LED stays illuminated for “a small span of time”, it’s just that the span is not on human timescales. It comes down to how long is long enough for it to be worth it, and how big is the capacitor that you would need to store that much charge
2 Likes
Ok guys… you asked… we have an extremely small run of these (just 15!) and it’s a hidden product… so the only way anyone will know about it is from this post;
The funny thing is, these were accidentally put into VivoKey sterilization pouches hah but they are a Dangerous Things product for sure.
9 Likes
Thats fucking cool. Unfortunately I cant go ham on gadgets at the moment since I’m moving. Hopefully these wont be a one-shot.
Quick question, since its through decay, whats the half life of that amount of material?
2 Likes
12.3 years 
2 Likes
Sweet 
1 Like
Any plans to for a wider run of these in the future?
2 Likes
How well do they show up under the skin? Is there any images of one that’s been implanted?
1 Like
@amal are these essentially the same as the firefly? If not, how are they different. I’m quite disappointed in my firefly which is currently in my left hand between the third and fourth metacarpal. It does glow somewhat brightly but only in the near absence of ambient light or only if my eyes are fully dark adjusted.
If these are more luminous I’m all in.
1 Like
not well. this is why we didn’t bother for so long… but the people demanded it, and we can’t leave the people wanting now can we?
there are photos of the competition’s “firefly” implant that should be comparable out there on the internet, including further up in this thread (@Satur9).
the firefly is made with double walled, flame sealed, super long borosilicate glass with a melted knob on the end… the xGLO is the same Schott bioglass we use for our other x-series implants, it’s shorter, and it’s laser sealed for maximum elegance and safety
Unfortunately physics is physics and I’m pretty sure they pack as much tritium gas into those ampoules as is practical. We’ve even got ourselves a light meter to test tritium ampoules from different suppliers, and even the ones that claim “max brightness” or “super max” put out the same intensity of light that any other one does for the color spectrum being emitted. Green is the most intense output, but it also has a very low tissue penetration (or high tissue absorption rate, depending on how you want to look at it). We could try other colors, but I feel like it’s really not going to result in anything any more impressive.
1 Like
How about Strontium Aluminate-filled vials? Yeah they have to be “charged” with an external light source but they glow much brighter initially and tend to last longer than the half life of Tritium as well as lend themselves to present better color selection. Is this a possibility?
1 Like
I feel like its probably pretty hard to “charge” them when they’re under the skin. I’m not positive, but it might end up either needing to be in direct sunlight for a long time, or need to literally have a flashlight held up to your skin for it to work.
1 Like
Yep… my bet is a modern smartphone LED flash / flashlight is bright enough… hold for a minute and get quite a glow for at least 10 mins is imagine… probably all that most people care about…
My question is, can they be charged with IR light… basically converting the IR band to visible light. What if you were in a space flooded by IR flood lights… would you have indefinite glow power?
Amal
2 Likes
Or just put an xLED in it and you can charge it directly.
2 Likes
The brightest phosphorescent powders I’ve ever seen are Strontium Silicate + Aluminate Oxide doped with Europium (I happen to have a bunch). Phosphorescent “glow” powders like this absorb UV light (higher energy) and re-emit it as visible light (lower energy). I tried it with Infrared light and it doesn’t work. Unfortunately, UV does not transmit through the skin well. Nevermind the glass capsule it would be contained within. It might work for a tattoo, but probably not an implant.
A biohacker that uses the handle Helyx just got 2 prototypes of what you described implanted at Grindfest this year, so I might be totally wrong. Still waiting on feedback from him.
3 Likes
Honestly anything visible in less than perfect dark, however brief is all I’m interested in. Even in a dark theater I can barely make out my tritium vile. Plus, if phosphorescent powders make for a much brighter light I could see red and blue as being a viable option.
1 Like
4 Likes