- Joined
- Jun 13, 2007
- Messages
- 5,410
- Points
- 113
Decided to log back in and turns out I registered my account 10 years ago today! Can't believe it has been so long since I've joined. I figured I'd post some of my LPF milestones for y'all to enjoy. Avery, I'll take my solid gold LPF edition 495nm laser pointer that gets sent out to all the 10 year veterans... 
I joined here after the member SenKat sent me a PM on the Wicked Lasers forum and told me that this place had better discussions. He was not wrong.
After reading around a bit I decided to buy my first high power laser. I settled on the Nova Lasers X105, a 105mW green pen laser. I think I paid $220 for itm which was a LOT for then 14 year old me.
The first GB I participated in was run by SenKat. It was for bare 16x DVD burned diodes. They turned out to be a lot cheaper than buying a 16x DVD burner for the diode. My oldest DIY laser (that still works ) is a build using one of these diodes run from a wall wart and LM7805 driver.
At the time I joined the forum, Wicked Lasers was selling the world's first 405nm laser pointers for $2000. They were actually buying whole PS3 gaming systems to tear down for the ~10mW 405nm diode! Then a member here (Deadal IIRC) sourced sleds containing 405nm diodes for something around $50 a pop, can't remember exactly. I bought 3 sleds, and fried the first 2 before finally having a successful build on the third. I was AMAZED at the near UV light that fluoresced on nearly everything! Now my laser rainbow had red, green, and violet.
Before long the PHR-803T sled was "discovered" on LPF. It was a sled from the dead HD-DVD readers, and could output 80mW of 405nm. These were a very popular diode on the forums. I even hoted a couple GBs for these.
Then in 2010 the biggest event for our hobby happened. Before this, our only blue lasers were DPSS 473nm lasers. Only a few members here were lucky enough to have 5mW of 473nm. Then out of the blue, class IV 445nm diodes get dropped on us and the whole internet lights up with the sale of the Wicked Lasers Arctic. This was the first time that 1W visible laser diodes were offered at cheap prices. Obviously there was a lot of panic from people thinking it would be a disaster. The handheld laser hobby really exploded with these diodes.
The B&W 473nm units popped up on eBay not too long after that. These were cheap 473nm CNI lasers that were pulled from equipment and sold on eBay. I still have a pile of these that I need to do something with. I learned a TON about DPSS lasers while tearing these down and fixing them up.
I built my first 520nm build in 2013 with the release of green laser diodes. This was the first time we had non DPSS high powered green laser diodes available to us!
My favorite laser pointer of all was also built in 2013. I scored some Nichia engineering samples of 476nm diodes. When pushed hard they would output a second peak at 480nm!
The power of available laser diodes kept going up and up, leading to 5W blue and 1W green builds being a common occurrence. Then these diode bricks containing 8x 5W blue laser diodes started selling on eBay, so that prompted me to buy one and build my famous laser shotgun. This video was met with a lot of controversy on the forum as the video became viral, getting 5 million views in a week. Popular Science wrote an article on it and clips from my vid made it to many big TV shows. It is still currently my most viewed video.
I had a red laser diode that I ran continuously for 6 years to do a longevity test. It died at 52000 hours. http://laserpointerforums.com/f50/27000-hours-82269.html
I haven't done much on the side of handheld lasers recently, but I did build a big ass ruby laser.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BUpcZtzhAf2/
LPF has played a big role in my life, not just with lasers, but with science in general. I went to college and got a Bachelor's degree in chemistry, and spent two and a half years working in a research lab studying hyperpolarized NMR spectroscopy. My skills of working with laser diodes turned out to be very useful for my job there, as I often had to run >75W laser diode arrrays for experiments. I learned a ton from the website over the years. There are too many members here to thank for all of the advice I've gotten. Props to Avery and the mods for running a great forum. Here's to many more years of lazors. :beer:
I joined here after the member SenKat sent me a PM on the Wicked Lasers forum and told me that this place had better discussions. He was not wrong.
After reading around a bit I decided to buy my first high power laser. I settled on the Nova Lasers X105, a 105mW green pen laser. I think I paid $220 for itm which was a LOT for then 14 year old me.
The first GB I participated in was run by SenKat. It was for bare 16x DVD burned diodes. They turned out to be a lot cheaper than buying a 16x DVD burner for the diode. My oldest DIY laser (that still works
) is a build using one of these diodes run from a wall wart and LM7805 driver.At the time I joined the forum, Wicked Lasers was selling the world's first 405nm laser pointers for $2000. They were actually buying whole PS3 gaming systems to tear down for the ~10mW 405nm diode! Then a member here (Deadal IIRC) sourced sleds containing 405nm diodes for something around $50 a pop, can't remember exactly. I bought 3 sleds, and fried the first 2 before finally having a successful build on the third. I was AMAZED at the near UV light that fluoresced on nearly everything! Now my laser rainbow had red, green, and violet.
Before long the PHR-803T sled was "discovered" on LPF. It was a sled from the dead HD-DVD readers, and could output 80mW of 405nm. These were a very popular diode on the forums. I even hoted a couple GBs for these.
Then in 2010 the biggest event for our hobby happened. Before this, our only blue lasers were DPSS 473nm lasers. Only a few members here were lucky enough to have 5mW of 473nm. Then out of the blue, class IV 445nm diodes get dropped on us and the whole internet lights up with the sale of the Wicked Lasers Arctic. This was the first time that 1W visible laser diodes were offered at cheap prices. Obviously there was a lot of panic from people thinking it would be a disaster. The handheld laser hobby really exploded with these diodes.
The B&W 473nm units popped up on eBay not too long after that. These were cheap 473nm CNI lasers that were pulled from equipment and sold on eBay. I still have a pile of these that I need to do something with. I learned a TON about DPSS lasers while tearing these down and fixing them up.
I built my first 520nm build in 2013 with the release of green laser diodes. This was the first time we had non DPSS high powered green laser diodes available to us!
My favorite laser pointer of all was also built in 2013. I scored some Nichia engineering samples of 476nm diodes. When pushed hard they would output a second peak at 480nm!
The power of available laser diodes kept going up and up, leading to 5W blue and 1W green builds being a common occurrence. Then these diode bricks containing 8x 5W blue laser diodes started selling on eBay, so that prompted me to buy one and build my famous laser shotgun. This video was met with a lot of controversy on the forum as the video became viral, getting 5 million views in a week. Popular Science wrote an article on it and clips from my vid made it to many big TV shows. It is still currently my most viewed video.
I had a red laser diode that I ran continuously for 6 years to do a longevity test. It died at 52000 hours. http://laserpointerforums.com/f50/27000-hours-82269.html
I haven't done much on the side of handheld lasers recently, but I did build a big ass ruby laser.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BUpcZtzhAf2/
LPF has played a big role in my life, not just with lasers, but with science in general. I went to college and got a Bachelor's degree in chemistry, and spent two and a half years working in a research lab studying hyperpolarized NMR spectroscopy. My skills of working with laser diodes turned out to be very useful for my job there, as I often had to run >75W laser diode arrrays for experiments. I learned a ton from the website over the years. There are too many members here to thank for all of the advice I've gotten. Props to Avery and the mods for running a great forum. Here's to many more years of lazors. :beer:
