Help me make this man understand...

+1 for being responsible and worrying about your nephew's safety. Who got him this gift in the first place?? Sounds like a cheap DX with no IR filter from the description (Black, silver tip). Good job taking initiative on this!

Oh, and welcome to the forum :beer:

-Chris

HIMNL9 said:

One ..... was four old type metal box capacitors, gray painted, sealed and filled of oil ..... of the size of a shoe box, approximatively , (with M8 terminals, insulated with flanged ceramic sockets, on the top ) ..... like this one, but more old (this one is 60uF, but they made also 400uF, if you need to filter out something more :eg

BTW, nice final stage you have there ..... i'm a bit envious, now

Click to expand...

Oil filled? Probably full of PCBs, too. lol! So they had those babies in a 400 mic variety @ 4KV? Those caps are just scary, man.

Sold the D250 a while ago. I'm using a pair of heavily modified Dynaco Stereo 70s wired as monoblocks now. Sound much better. ARC makes fine preamps... some of the best. Their amps leave something to be desired. Too complicated. Too much crap in the signal path. They'll never learn.

cmak said:

+1 for being responsible and worrying about your nephew's safety. Who got him this gift in the first place?? Sounds like a cheap DX with no IR filter from the description (Black, silver tip). Good job taking initiative on this!

Oh, and welcome to the forum :beer:

-Chris

Click to expand...

His father bought it from one of our local flea markets (if you can call them flea markets). It's basically people setup selling import Asian crap. You know, Louis Vooitton bags and A # one Rolexx watches. heh!

So, does most of the power this thing has come from the IR spectrum? How many mW actually come from the 532nm portion?

Thanks for the beer and the welcome! I'll have a Duvel. Just one, though. Duvel can sneak up on you.

The problem has been resolved, btw. Thanks for everybody's input. A private talk with my sister-in-law was all it took. Seems uncle broke the pointer. The youngin' was given the choice of a new one (safe one... shhhh... quiet) or a $50 Best Buy gift card. Guess which one he took.

--
Frank

If the Laser is not IR filtered (which would be the case with the cheap
IR Green Lasers) you are looking at 20% to 30% IR...
The WL 5mW unit for $30 would be much safer for your nephew... IMO

[EDIT]
Glad it was solved...
Good to know there are responsible adults out there...


Jerry

What's really sad is neither one of his parents will let him have a pellet gun, but daddy will buy him a dangerous ADULT device. After all, he might put his eye out with that pellet gun. What's really sad is the useless main stream media. They have no problem frothing and foaming about terrorist using lasers to blind pilots and bring planes down or teenagers causing mischief blinding automobile drivers. Rarely if ever do they mention the possibility of a young child being blinded. They'd much rather sensationalize and destroy the much loved hobby of good and responsible people. Lets get rid of those evil high powered lasers. Who wants to bet once our keystone cops government gets through with it little johnny will still be able to buy a 50mW laser? Will be safe from terrorists and crazed laser wackos, but little johnny can still fry his retinas. Regulation doesn't cure stupidity. Only education can do that. Excuse me while I go to Mc Donalds and spill a scalding hot cup of coffee on myself.

/end rant

Just like BB/pellet guns--there are no 'safe' ones-only safe or unsafe users.

We have some very young laser(imho) experts here on LPF- I have doubts that they share thier passion for lasers with many of thier peers.


My 2 cents-

-about all the cap dangers--a bit off topic- youngsters are 10X more likely to get an unhealthy interest in lasers. +rep to the OP--you are a great uncle.

hk

Pyroelectric said:

What's really sad is neither one of his parents will let him have a pellet gun, but daddy will buy him a dangerous ADULT device. After all, he might put his eye out with that pellet gun. What's really sad is the useless main stream media. They have no problem frothing and foaming about terrorist using lasers to blind pilots and bring planes down or teenagers causing mischief blinding automobile drivers. Rarely if ever do they mention the possibility of a young child being blinded. They'd much rather sensationalize and destroy the much loved hobby of good and responsible people. Lets get rid of those evil high powered lasers. Who wants to bet once our keystone cops government gets through with it little johnny will still be able to buy a 50mW laser? Will be safe from terrorists and crazed laser wackos, but little johnny can still fry his retinas. Regulation doesn't cure stupidity. Only education can do that. Excuse me while I go to Mc Donalds and spill a scalding hot cup of coffee on myself.

/end rant

Click to expand...

I understand your point of view and I agree with it in theory...
but it needs to be opened a bit for the people that use Lasers
responsibly...
We can't outlaw all Lasers to protect the innocent... we need
to inform the buying public as we do for other dangerous goods.

There is always a fine line between protecting the Uniformed moron
and the availability of the item to the responsible user..

Jerry

hakzaw1 said:

Just like BB/pellet guns--there are no 'safe' ones-only safe or unsafe users.

We have some very young laser(imho) experts here on LPF- I have doubts that they share thier passion for lasers with many of thier peers.

-about all the cap dangers--a bit off topic- youngsters are 10X more likely to get an unhealthy interest in lasers. +rep to the OP--you are a great uncle.

hk

Click to expand...

Totally agree. No reason why young people shouldn't have access to high powered lasers. Especially if they can articulate themselves as it applies to their hobby. These young people are not who I'm talking about. These young people understand they aren't playing with toys. Any bets on how many of them learned that from their parents and how many of them learned from resources like this?

Btw, about the cap thing. I often drift off topic. Rolled up newspaper usually will get me back on topic.

lasersbee said:

I understand your point of view and I agree with it in theory...
but it needs to be opened a bit for the people that use Lasers
responsibly...
We can't outlaw all Lasers to protect the innocent... we need
to inform the buying public as we do for other dangerous goods.

There is always a fine line between protecting the Uniformed moron
and the availability of the item to the responsible user..

Jerry

Click to expand...

You misread me. I don't think lasers should be outlawed. I was just rambling on about the mess the feds (and the states) would make of it if it even came to that and that it still wouldn't save the uninformed. That's all. Believe me, I'm a gun enthusiast.

GotCha...

Jerry

Xplorer877 said:

I've been shocked on one hand by my 200kv Tesla Coil my 9kv/30ma NST and a 30kv tazer. But the worst shock I've ever gotten was a two handed (current through the heart) shock from a 320v 440uf capacitor. I too woke up on the floor feeling like I just got punched in the gut. I was lucky I wasn't killed.

-Tony

Click to expand...

Why aren't you dead yet? lol
The only high voltage electric shock I've had was my 12kv 30ma NST with both hands when I was in the process of building my tesla coil. My chest felt like someone had hit it with a hammer afterwards. To be honest, it was probably one of the scariest moments in my life.

Ok how do you guys get shocked by the NST while working with tesla coils? I've built a few and rule #1=Don't go anywhere near the primary circuit with the coil turned on. Btw I love dangerous tube amps

Oh I never go near my Tesla Coil's LC circuit while it's running, and I've got bleed resistors on the caps too. I got shocked my by NST when I was messing around with some neon signs. It a dumb mistake. It was back in 2002 I was only thirteen. The I purposely touched my Tesla coil's streamers while I was isolated from ground. That actually didn't really hurt all that bad.

-Tony

I've been hit by my 15kV 30mA NST before, it really isn't pleasant! I got this cap the other day, kinda scared to even disconnect the shorting wire!



And yes, finding a lower powered version and giving him that would be the best option. By what you describe, it's just a generic newwish style pointer, Dealextreme has 5mW to 200mW versions of it ...

Is it possible to pot mod it down to a much lower power? That could save you some money.

Razako said:

Ok how do you guys get shocked by the NST while working with tesla coils? I've built a few and rule #1=Don't go anywhere near the primary circuit with the coil turned on. Btw I love dangerous tube amps

Click to expand...

Only transistor equipment I've every been able to stand was Spectral. Truly amazing components. I had a Spectral DMC-20 preamp for years. You would think god himself was whispering in your ear. Plus it was a work of art. The hand built circuit board was gorgeous:



...of course it should be for $10 grand. heh

Razako said:

Ok how do you guys get shocked by the NST while working with tesla coils? I've built a few and rule #1=Don't go anywhere near the primary circuit with the coil turned on. Btw I love dangerous tube amps

Click to expand...

Dynaco ST-70!!! Damn, I've got *4* of those that I have to restore. x_X ... Someday I really want to get around to it.. Mine are all 'working' but those twistlock caps are old, and need to replace the boards with ones that don't require those (7199 is it?) tubes that are made of unobtanium...

Things said:

I've been hit by my 15kV 30mA NST before, it really isn't pleasant! I got this cap the other day, kinda scared to even disconnect the shorting wire!

Click to expand...

Get yourself a nice 35v 100000 uF cap. Charge it up when you have a friend over and go, "here man, catch!" Works even better if you've been shooting hoops are something and you're all sweaty. :evil: