Hello all,
First and foremost I must say that this forum is great. I have been reading it for some time now and finally decided to register and take a stab at this stuff myself. Second I do not take any claim to good grammar skills, thus let me apologize in advance for my atrocious grammar skills.
I have a decent technical background, I am a ham radio operator, I am a MECP certified car audio installer and work for a major online electronics retailer as an install/troubleshooting and sometimes repair technician. I can do a few basic things with electrical schematics, but when it comes to reading something other than a vehicle's wiring schematic for info req'd to install an alarm system I can be a bit slow, so bear with me.
This being said, I will most likely require assistance but for the most part should be competent enough to do a project of my own. I am looking to build a low powered laser as my first project and then move on to higher powered units that would be capable of burning and/or very visible in the night sky. I have considered purchasing one from Nova or Laserglow, but it would be more enjoyable for me to build one to share with my family.
I do have a series of questions that will most likely point me in the right direction which are as follows:
1) Type of laser - I would like to construct a green laser as I do some novice astronomy and would like to be able to use it for that type of purpose, where would I obtain a green diode (and by obtain I mean where would I scavenge one from) and would this be a good choice?
2) Capabilities - Would this type of laser be capable of actually burning through thin plastic, balloons, light matches etc. by building one vs. buying from nova and/or laserglow. Not that this is important but I would like to impress/entertain the young ones.
3) Visibility - I do not fully understand the whole "visible beam" thing. I have had the el cheapo pointers from radio shack in the past that only produce a red dot on the wall (or show a faint beam in smoke/steam. Will most of the "high grade" bought and/or built lasers actually produce a beam that will be visible in the night sky and/or inside a dark room? This will be ideal for the ole' telescope if I am able to build one.
4) Pros/Cons - Which would be a better overall design for my purpose, I do understand the blue-ray diodes can be higher powered for cutting/burning to the best of my knowledge, but I feel that they may not be as visible as far as the beam is concerned. Would a green laser be advisable over a blue laser? Should I consider something entirely different?
5) Experience based question - I am 110% sure that my first attempt will not go without flaws and/or complete failure. On average how many lasers would a first time builder expect to construct and/or tweek before getting moderately decent results?
6) Technical know-how - as mentioned previously, I can usually do a decent job with electronics but have never really built my own devices, usually just repaired or scrapped units for viable components. How would the community rate the overall difficulty per-say of building a simple unit from the ground up (setting aside physical difficulty for tearing drives apart, knowing how to solder, use a DMM etc.) ? I can do a damn good job at soldering as I do it every day and with a bit of guidance should be able to build a complete controller circuit without much difficulty, but seeing as how I have never done it I would just like to know what I am getting into.
7) Materials - I could care less what the actual unit will end up looking like, that being said I will not be using Duct tape and toothpics to make a MacGyver death ray. I guess my real question is have any of you had any bad results by simple constructing the controller board and just simply mounting everything in a radio shack project box vs. the fancy looking Maglite housings? The cheaper I can get by the better because I will most likely end up with several attempts before getting a working laser which can be expected.
8) Motorized mounts - I have also considered building a motorized mount to interface with my laptop via RS232 or USB, but that is neither here nor there. Just as a side question, has anybody ever done this in order to control where the laser points without physically touching the unit? I should have a friend or two that can write up software to do this, but the biggest worry I can think of would be is it even worth this much work to make it look "cool"? I will most likely just end up machining an aluminum mount to attach to my telescope or just get lazy and zip tie it, so no worries.
Lastly, I would like to so say thanks in advance for any and all replies to this matter. Even if I get no replies I would like to say thanks for such a wonderful forum, the knowledge is endless on here if you are willing to do the reading. I am sorry for such a long post and hope to get to know you guys with the countless other questions I will most likely have.
Lets hope this goes for the best so I can share my creation with others.
Regards,
-Jon
First and foremost I must say that this forum is great. I have been reading it for some time now and finally decided to register and take a stab at this stuff myself. Second I do not take any claim to good grammar skills, thus let me apologize in advance for my atrocious grammar skills.
I have a decent technical background, I am a ham radio operator, I am a MECP certified car audio installer and work for a major online electronics retailer as an install/troubleshooting and sometimes repair technician. I can do a few basic things with electrical schematics, but when it comes to reading something other than a vehicle's wiring schematic for info req'd to install an alarm system I can be a bit slow, so bear with me.
This being said, I will most likely require assistance but for the most part should be competent enough to do a project of my own. I am looking to build a low powered laser as my first project and then move on to higher powered units that would be capable of burning and/or very visible in the night sky. I have considered purchasing one from Nova or Laserglow, but it would be more enjoyable for me to build one to share with my family.
I do have a series of questions that will most likely point me in the right direction which are as follows:
1) Type of laser - I would like to construct a green laser as I do some novice astronomy and would like to be able to use it for that type of purpose, where would I obtain a green diode (and by obtain I mean where would I scavenge one from) and would this be a good choice?
2) Capabilities - Would this type of laser be capable of actually burning through thin plastic, balloons, light matches etc. by building one vs. buying from nova and/or laserglow. Not that this is important but I would like to impress/entertain the young ones.
3) Visibility - I do not fully understand the whole "visible beam" thing. I have had the el cheapo pointers from radio shack in the past that only produce a red dot on the wall (or show a faint beam in smoke/steam. Will most of the "high grade" bought and/or built lasers actually produce a beam that will be visible in the night sky and/or inside a dark room? This will be ideal for the ole' telescope if I am able to build one.
4) Pros/Cons - Which would be a better overall design for my purpose, I do understand the blue-ray diodes can be higher powered for cutting/burning to the best of my knowledge, but I feel that they may not be as visible as far as the beam is concerned. Would a green laser be advisable over a blue laser? Should I consider something entirely different?
5) Experience based question - I am 110% sure that my first attempt will not go without flaws and/or complete failure. On average how many lasers would a first time builder expect to construct and/or tweek before getting moderately decent results?
6) Technical know-how - as mentioned previously, I can usually do a decent job with electronics but have never really built my own devices, usually just repaired or scrapped units for viable components. How would the community rate the overall difficulty per-say of building a simple unit from the ground up (setting aside physical difficulty for tearing drives apart, knowing how to solder, use a DMM etc.) ? I can do a damn good job at soldering as I do it every day and with a bit of guidance should be able to build a complete controller circuit without much difficulty, but seeing as how I have never done it I would just like to know what I am getting into.
7) Materials - I could care less what the actual unit will end up looking like, that being said I will not be using Duct tape and toothpics to make a MacGyver death ray. I guess my real question is have any of you had any bad results by simple constructing the controller board and just simply mounting everything in a radio shack project box vs. the fancy looking Maglite housings? The cheaper I can get by the better because I will most likely end up with several attempts before getting a working laser which can be expected.
8) Motorized mounts - I have also considered building a motorized mount to interface with my laptop via RS232 or USB, but that is neither here nor there. Just as a side question, has anybody ever done this in order to control where the laser points without physically touching the unit? I should have a friend or two that can write up software to do this, but the biggest worry I can think of would be is it even worth this much work to make it look "cool"? I will most likely just end up machining an aluminum mount to attach to my telescope or just get lazy and zip tie it, so no worries.
Lastly, I would like to so say thanks in advance for any and all replies to this matter. Even if I get no replies I would like to say thanks for such a wonderful forum, the knowledge is endless on here if you are willing to do the reading. I am sorry for such a long post and hope to get to know you guys with the countless other questions I will most likely have.
Lets hope this goes for the best so I can share my creation with others.
Regards,
-Jon