Need waterproof 1.5mw laser built

This question may or maynot be appropriate here but since we are talking water proof, what do you guys use to cover the end of your units when it's raining or swowing outside? I've seen plenty of vids but I'm a bit paranoid about actually going out in the wet and having moisture get inside the cap (have shined form inside my doorway or garage etc... of course.
I can see how you could makeshift a glass flashlight head over it but is their some easier way or is it just a bad idea all around?
Thanks guys. Live in upstate NY and the snow will be arriving soon.
Pete

The whole idea of submerging the laser is to be able to direct the full power of the beam at the pests so you can burn them. If the laser doesn't have enough power to burn a plastic bag it certainly wouldn't have enough power to burn pests under water.

After thinking about this I have an idea that's very similar to the whole waterproof camera case thing. Use a waterproof project box and add a waterproofed glass window on one side for the beam to exit through. Then stick a standard 1-2W 445nm inside and mount it using some Velcro tape or something similar and rig a waterproof switch on the box to replace the tail cap. This would IMO be the cheapest way to make an effective waterproof laser. I know there would be a little bit of the beam reflected back off the window but it likely wouldn't be an issue and could be dealt with if it was easy enough.

EDIT: about the rain/snow thing with lasers, I don't know about everyone else but when I use a laser in the rain I don't actually take it into the rain but rather stand at the edge of an overhang to avoid water hitting it at all. Once I used an umbrella to block the rain so I could stand out away from things. Either way, I don't let water touch them at all.

Yeah, that's what I have been doing with the precipitation thing. I'm not too interested in all the potential issues with anything getting inside my more expensive units. Have plenty of under 100mw lasers that I paid no more than 20 bucks for that I have for experimental purposes (if they break...oh well...take apart and scavenge).
Pete

^^Same as my idea at post #13

Nice use of colors... message within is THE answer

^Thanks! I agree!

Hi All,
Thanks for the great advise and some interesting ideas for sure! As far as putting a laser in a project box... There is not much room to manuver around in the fish tank. The many many pest aiptasia that I'm trying to kill are in some tight locations, so something about the size of a small flash light would be perfect.
The idea of using a ziplock bag is not a bad one, although I don't know if the laser would burn the plastic, but with all the sharp jagged rocks and corals, the thin plastic bag would be torn to shredds pretty quickly.
Also, how would you focus the laser if it was in a project box?
I'm starting to think it will probably just be easier to order a waterproof laser from OX Lasers or maybe O-Line. Has anyone had any good experience with either of these brands?

Not sure how I missed you 777

^^Did you mean O-like, not O-Line? If so their good according to THIS thread and a lot others. Just search "O-Like review" on the forum.

jhunt269 said:

Hi All,
Thanks for the great advise and some interesting ideas for sure! As far as putting a laser in a project box... There is not much room to manuver around in the fish tank. The many many pest aiptasia that I'm trying to kill are in some tight locations, so something about the size of a small flash light would be perfect.
The idea of using a ziplock bag is not a bad one, although I don't know if the laser would burn the plastic, but with all the sharp jagged rocks and corals, the thin plastic bag would be torn to shredds pretty quickly.
Also, how would you focus the laser if it was in a project box?
I'm starting to think it will probably just be easier to order a waterproof laser from OX Lasers or maybe O-Line. Has anyone had any good experience with either of these brands?

Click to expand...

What about a two part design? If the power source is kept external to the laser it would allow the box to be significantly smaller. If the power source is external the only thing that would limit how small the box could be is heat. If the heatsink could be designed to actually pass externally to the box it could dissipate heat directly into the water. Doing this would mean the heatsink could be far smaller and duty cycle could be much longer to possibly infinite.

^I know about some aluminum project boxes on eBay that would pass the heat on to the water. You can then have a very long duty cycle!

A little thermal epoxy to mount the heatsink to the box and the heat would go directly into the water. An aluminum box would still be easy enough to get a window cut into and sealed as well.

How about an optical cable to deliver the beam at the target? That way the laser canbe ket outside the water. No idea on how to connet the cable, though.

Very interesting ideas in here... I've subscribed

why not use (zoidberg) Glass Fibre cabels?
you hvae to be somewhat carefull with them though.

Wouldn't the fiber ruin the beams collimation? The important thing is to have the beam focused into a very very tiny spot to maximize the heat and I think a fiber would scatter the beam and not allow it to be focused. Even if optics could fix the beam exiting the fiber it would completely defeat the point to using a fiber to begin with.