Laser safety

Hi all

I recently purchased a 70mW 532 nm laser. My plan was to build a laser show to hook up to my speakers. Basically, I reflect the laser off of a mirror attached to a speaker. As the speaker vibrates, so does the laser beam. The beam, in turn, will go through a diffraction grating to split up the beam. This gives it a cool effect of vibrating to the music.

However, I'm starting to worry that I may have gone overboard with the power of my laser. I'm going to be bouncing it off of a mirror, and my original intent was to have the laser diffract in all directions... surrounding myself with vibrating lasers.

But since my laser is so powerful, I'm wondering how dangerous it will be. Since the laser will be diffracted in all directions, it increases the odds that I'll accidentally shine it into my eye.

Exactly how dangerous does my project sound?
Any advice on making it a little safer? (I'd rather not have to wear safety goggles every time I use my device.

Thanks!

70mW is too much. Go 5mw max

I feel like 5 mW wouldn't be bright enough. Remember, this is for a laser show. I need my laser to be bright.

What's the most powerful laser I can use which would still be somewhat safe in case it accidentally flashes past my eyes?

homesar said:

What's the most powerful laser I can use which would still be somewhat safe in case it accidentally flashes past my eyes?

Click to expand...

5mW.

-Trevor

Thanks for the help guys.

Next question:

Where is a good place to start looking for a 5mW green laser which I can keep on for extended periods of time (Several hours at a time)? I'm assuming it will need a heatsink of some sort, and I was planning on rigging up an AC/DC adapter to it so I won't need batteries.