Losing interest in lasers.

wannaburnstuff said:

And to be clear. Despite my moniker, my desire in lasers lies not in their thermal capabilities, but in the beauty of the beam. And 5mW is just not enough to behold the glory that is a bare beam stretching from your hand into the darkness of the night.

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Aye, rep (edit: when i can ) to that! Nothing has kept me into lasers more than holding my (sold) 110mW 520nm with an outstretched arm, and seeing a solid vertical, bright green beam shooting to the sky- then turning my hand, and seeing the beam turn in perfect unison. I dunno, something about it was just amazing.

Hang in there. Branch out and try new things. God knows there's plenty of help here.

Try doing some lumia with your higher power lasers. Get some granite glass from Hobby
Lobby in the stain glass section. Cut it round or square. Attached a small low rpm ( .5 to 3)
motor to it and shine your lasers through it. Project it on the ceiling or do a wall wash.

Check out this thread

http://laserpointerforums.com/f47/lumia-one-thread-all-85396.html

Shakenawake said:

10mW... yes pass on that. I'd say hit up thejoker for one of his 650nm 200mW 502Bs. get your parent's permission if need be. they're less than $60 and I think are a great laser and intoduction to higher powers. plus it's divergence is nearly impossible to beat. I bet that laser will please you more than some of your LG units that you paid much more for

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$60 for 200mW of 650nm? Wow!! That sounds like an awfully great deal for such a good laser. Will definitely have to go check it out

-Alex

I agree with the above comments. I'll bet that Flaminpyro isn't too impressed by most fireworks unless they are really big, but I bet he would be impressed by an atomic bomb (as we all would), my point is that the laser hobby is much like being an alcoholic, eventually 2 or 3 drinks isn't enough for you and you then need 6 or 8 drinks before you are satisfied (maybe we need a Lasers Anonymous). My first 3 lasers were low power reds, however I had a real use for one of them and that's what got me interested in lasers again. I was first interested in lasers when I was 8 tears old in 1970 and I remember the laser I wanted cost $50,000 and I remember thinking I would never have the money to buy a laser so I imagined that one day I would learn enough about them to build one myself, little did I know it would take another 39 or so years before I would own my first laser and about 43 years before I would build one myself that is even better than the one that cost $50,000 in 1970!

So yes I would agree with the others, move up in power. Once you see the light (a visible beam) you will be hooked.

You will have so much fun if you build one yourself. You will experience the thrill of victory but beware you will also experience the agony of defeat when you put it together and it doesn't work because you did something wrong, but you will learn from your mistake and soon become an expert who can build or repair a laser blindfolded and with one hand.

I have the parts right here for my 5th build and I'll probably put it together tomorrow and post a thread in a few days. To see some examples of some of the easiest ways to build your first laser see the white links in my signature.

Alan

Both Green and Kboy are quite young- and its pretty common for younger members to loose interest- & more power may not e the answer- I agree about Lumia-as well as a spiro project or Liquid Sky or Tunnel EFX- these projects also will show others things that laser can do this NOT dangerous-pointless or expensive.. they will say WOW rather than WHY??

IMO 3 to 5 rpm is way too fast- 1/2rpm vdc or 1/3rd rpm AC motors are used the most.
You can slow these down with gears- and try moving towards the center as the edges move faster-

RGV pointers are cheaper than ever and plenty over-spec- at $2.50 each its no big deal if you run it so long it dies--

good luck & best wishes --guys== hak

Have you ever taken something apart? If you want 200mW @ 650-660nm, there is one inside almost
every DVD burner. Perhaps you and I are different, but I have always enjoyed taking things apart. There
isn't much better than looking at the inside of something new and trying to figure out how it works.

My advice is to not overthink it. Seriously, there are tons of things out there that probably will interest you if you do a little searching. Your lasers will be there for you when you are ready to pick them back up and continue... you don't HAVE to be married to just one interest. Take a break with no guilt or second guessing and you'll likely find that lasers are just as cool to you as they always were, you just needed a little perspective.

Who knows... maybe you'll find another passtime that you will eventually incorporate lasers into and find renewed vigor.

Life is about the living... get to it.

Cheers,
c

lazerman121 said:

I find my interest in lasers comes and goes.

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^the same thing avaible for me^, maybe because I don't find anything to do with only an 15mW@532nm laser...

Hey Alex sometimes life is like that. There are things that we start off with enjoying and after time they fade, but some things stay forever. sometimes its the other way, things we don't like when young we may like when older. When I was young I hated brussel sprouts and was forced to eat them, but now I am older and I still hate them!
I would definitely recommend doing your own Builds. Maybe start off with a cheaper simple build. Get a 30 - 50mW 532nm module with driver from da bay @ around 10 - 20 dollar mark, get one with the spring already attached to the driver, also go to survival laser ad get a host and heat sink to take the 12mm module.
DIY C6 Host Assembly Under $11
Unanodized Aluminum Heat Sink Under $7 You will also need a single 16340 li-ion battery.
You can also try do some things with lasers that are not so obvious but would be fun. here is a start. Spying with a Laser - YouTube. You had better ask the girl next door first before you start spying on her though!:tsp:

I will be adding a thread later today on building a 532nm Greenie as I have just described.

KapHn8d said:

My advice is to not overthink it. Seriously, there are tons of things out there that probably will interest you if you do a little searching. Your lasers will be there for you when you are ready to pick them back up and continue... you don't HAVE to be married to just one interest. Take a break with no guilt or second guessing and you'll likely find that lasers are just as cool to you as they always were, you just needed a little perspective.

Who knows... maybe you'll find another passtime that you will eventually incorporate lasers into and find renewed vigor.

Life is about the living... get to it.

Cheers,
c

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I was going to say something along these lines. Quite often I pick up a hobby and fairly quickly sideline it for something else. The result is most of my hobbies lose the main focus and become "passive", but there are many ways in which I can relive the interest in everyday life. My once glowing passion for photography is reignited with lasers, I used to be a railway fanatic too and still love the trains. Even my interest in street furniture makes car journeys interesting.

A hobby that you truly loved won't ever completely die, that's my take on it.

Hook up a gas laser... and run that through lumia ALL DAY LONG. I have a constant aurora in my room and i never get sick of it, although it has limited my productivity.

bdgreenb said:

Hook up a gas laser... and run that through lumia ALL DAY LONG. I have a constant aurora in my room and i never get sick of it, although it has limited my productivity.

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How hot does your room get? Lol. If I ran my Argon all day long I'd be dropping pounds from all the sweating I would be doing. Also, are you worried at all about putting that many hours on the system?

well its an NEC3030, which when i got it had >150 hrs of use(up to ~400 now), and its air cooled, the blower itself is NUTS. By "all day long" i really mean the recommended argon exercise time(1-2 Hrs), then i switch on the HeNe 543, before reading a fair amount of a dune book and hitting the sack. zzz.

wannaburnstuff said:

How hot does your room get? Lol. If I ran my Argon all day long I'd be dropping pounds from all the sweating I would be doing. Also, are you worried at all about putting that many hours on the system?

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My ALC 60X draws about 4 to 5 amps at low current setting and will pop a 15 amp outlet strip
when cranked all the way up. It will produce about 125mw of cool blue light and lases in 9 lines (see avatar).
Cranked up the blower produces heat like a space heater!!!! Gets a little expense to run it for long periods. :>(

Hum...so many choices haha. I definitely think I should get a small HeNE gas laser, that could be interesting. I almost bought one a few months ago but got confused on the whole power supply thing

Nice thing I like about pointers is you just add batteries 'n' play

-Alex

My interest has been flagging a little, but I blame that on winter and bad weather. Feeling more into it now that the weather is warming back up and I can go out at night without freezing half to death. Plus the humidity is coming back up too, which means more haze at night, and that makes for prettier beams I should be able to do some rainbow / chemistry stand setups this summer once the weather gets really good, so I'm looking forward to that.

I rebuilt one laser and built two new ones using DTR's plug-and-lase units, and that was encouraging. It's a good feeling to know that you can repair a damaged unit if you have to, and it's also good to have control over what parts go into it, the configuration, etc.