Using a laser to light a room

I did that in the dark with a 400mW green... using an expander. An unfocused 300mW red has the same effect. What I notice is the way the tiny dots show... They don't have a source exactly. What those dots are actually hitting the other layer of your eye. So it's as if the light source is coming from inside the eye. Extremely strange effect. Probably not safe...

Jazlikethat said:

I think the most efficient thing for me to do will get a light bulb and incorporate it into some sort of stand device that draws from a 120V AC . . .

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Yes! of course! An ingenious device that somehow powers some sort of fluorescent or incandescent bulb using energy that it draws from the mains 60Hz 120 VAC power outlet.The lamp would have to be constructed in such a way that it emits non-coherent radiation in all directions with a large divergence angle such that it would not represent an eye hazard. No one has made such a thing, I think that if you mass produce it and sell it in all kinds of shapes and sizes that it would become very popular lol. It would even solve huge problems like being able to see color at night!

So it's as if the light source is coming from inside the eye. Extremely strange effect. Probably not safe...

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Nah, it's probably normal laser speckle caused by interference.

It would take more electrical know-how than I have at the moment, but I think a cool lamp would be a base that shoots a ~50mW laser up from it into a suspended uranium marble. One would have to somehow get their head in between the marble and the base to see directly into the laser, and the base could incorporate a fan and heat sink. With the right tools and design this could be really classy . With a good transformer the fan and the laser could both be powered by a wall socket.

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A 12V or 9V cell phone/laptop/whatever charger , a main switch , laser driver(lm317, no point in using a boost driver) and fan connected in series to the output of the transformer and the electrical know-how part is solved.It's up to you to make the design

just get a green lab laser
problem solved.

man I came across a picture on somebodys photobucket from a (check out my build) thread who had a laser lamp they made. It looked about a foot long and the beam didnt escape the enclosed unit and was probably in some sort of tube. kinda looked like the ooze container from TMNT! It was a red laser and was pretty damn bright.
Yeah I know this doent help a whole lot...

That was a HeNe. The beam escaped, but the resonator itself emits more light than the OC mirror.

either way it was really cool

My highliter green DX new wish 5mW is very bright, and when I put the cap on, the light gets diffused and light up the room nicely. Hot glue, plastic and ice make good diffusers. That little module could be connected to a 5v wall adapter, and tada!!!

A nice lamp.

BTW, my greenie might be outputing <5mW. For pics of the build, see my album in my user profile.

A nice lamp that could be outperformed by even the shttiest of <$1 LED keychains from china.