can someone help with a little project i want to start?

This is not for a child. My gf hula hoops who is 19 years old. I am a photographer who is 23 years old. Look up led hula hoops on YouTube and you will not see many children.

SnugNuts said:

This is not for a child. My gf hula hoops who is 19 years old. I am a photographer who is 23 years old. Look up led hula hoops on YouTube and you will not see many children.

Click to expand...

Thanks for clarifying your age...:beer:

Jerry

If you just stick to <5 mW lasers, i think the risk would be fairly minimal. As long as the hula hoop is in motion there would be little risk as the beams just sweep around quickly and cannot hit a bystander in the eye with dangerous results. This logic would even apply for more powerful lasers.

The problem is once you drop the hula hoop for some reason. At that point there is no way to tell if anyone is going to be lasered in the face, and since its stationary at that point, anything over 1 mW would be a hazard.

So stick to the cat toy lasers, don't even thing of putting a few 100 mW lasers on it unless you don't have any audience and everyone in the room is wearing goggles... though those lasers will destroy your camera too - but those are more easily replaced than retinas.

A cheap motion sensor could stop the Lasers when the
Hula-Hoop stops spinning.. It could be as simple as the
centripetal switches in some $$ store LED yo-yos...


Jerry

Ok. So will this work? Do I simply need a power source and a laser diode will work. Or do I need a driver for each laser? I don't know much about lasers.

Tho only and main thing you need to know
about Lasers is...... They are DANGEROUS
to your eyes if not protected....

That being said....
It depends....
If you are going to use <5mW $$ Store Lasers...
they already have a driver. All you need to do is
supply 4.5 to 5.0 VDC at about 50mA per Laser...

Jerry

i read the GF part from the OP... Maybe the rest of you laser veterans need to find better goggles.

Photoshop/AfterEffects is alot easier, and I bet you have them already...
Jussayin.

GoolGaul said:

i read the GF part from the OP... Maybe the rest of you laser veterans need to find better goggles.

Photoshop/AfterEffects is alot easier, and I bet you have them already...
Jussayin.

Click to expand...

WHAT ?????? :undecided:

What makes you think that the veterans DON'T have
proper and appropriate Laser Safety Goggles/Glasses...:thinking:

Jerry

To OP:

First, decide on one of these three courses of action:
1: Safest and easiest - buy 2 sets of these
Red laser safety goggles/590-780nm protective goggles [OLRLG650] - $14.99 : Welcome to O-Like.com, Your source for laser products
and never use the hoop unless both of you are wearing them

OR

2: More expensive, but probably more fun since you can see it with your own eyes and producing of the safest finished product - Products buy one of these and measure the output of ALL of the lasers coming off your hoop. As long as they're significantly below 5mW (say, 2-3 max) you should be fine. If any aren't, chop 'em out and solder in a different one.

OR

3: Most complicated, but also probably cheapest. Use a motion sensor to make the lasers shut off as soon as the hoop stops moving. I'm afraid you'll have to discuss that with someone other than me though, as idk too much about non-laser electronics.

Use these:
10pcs 5mW red laser module/dot/adjustable lens [OLRLM05] - $25.00 : Welcome to O-Like.com, Your source for laser products

Parallel or series? I'll need some input here, but my understanding is that if it's in series you'll need a higher Voltage source and parallel you'll need a higher current source. These can be obtained by putting either more batteries in series or in parallel respectively. Pushing in more Volts will make the drivers heat up faster and therefore will reduce duty cycles, but with 5mW modules you probably needn't worry about duty cycles.

Also, look into oscillator circuits, using pulsed lasers would look awesome. Definitely upload your pictures & videos when you finish it!

Jerry, an ounce of sarcasm is worth a ton of missing the point...