Recent content by Buffo

Welcome, Jay-son! You mentioned living in the South Eastern US... I'm in Charleston, SC, and there are several laserists in NC near Charlotte, Raleigh, and Lexington. So you may have a kindred spirit living close to you. :) Regarding the host you're getting from Lifetime17, I can say that...

I suppose that would also work, but it seems like a lot of extra work to source the capacitor. I changed the battery in my Lasercheck shortly after I removed the bleed resistor. I had already owned it for about 2 years and wanted to swap out the battery before it died. To maintain power to...

Big thanks to Tim Walsh for putting this show together to spotlight the issue. Laserists have been hit hard, along with everyone in the live entertainment industry, as a result of Covid-19. I've heard some companies say that it could be 2 to 3 years before the industry recovers to pre-covid...

I can't really comment on either the Sanwo or the LaserGlow, but you should know that an IR filter is only relevant if the green laser pointer you're looking at is a DPSS laser. If it is a direct-injection diode laser, it will not have an IR filter as there is no need for one. DPSS green...

Thanks for sharing the results of your fog test. Although I'll caution you that the water fog performance in your kitchen (where the air is still) will not reflect the performance in your garden (where there will likely be some wind). Regarding the visibility of different laser colors, red is...

Thanks for the extra info. OK, so there goes my idea for an RGB Phosphor coated TV wall. :rolleyes: The H2S and H2Se sound pretty nasty! Hopefully next time a top coat of acrylic will seal out the water and prevent that. Adam

I applaud your ambition, but given how much other light you will have in your planned garden show I am concerned that 5 mw of red is not going to be nearly enough. Also, using water-mist fog is going to make things worse, as the fog dissipates very quickly. And without some scattering medium...

I don't think he is using a driver, and yeah, that's why the diode failed. It was pointed out earlier in the thread that using the voltage boost circuit alone was insufficient to protect the diode from over-current spikes and that he should include a constant-current driver after the voltage...

He had a few lasers with him, but honestly I think he was so overwhelmed by everything else that he didn't really have time to do anything with the stuff he brought. I remember that he had plans to assemble something during the event, but he got so distracted that he actually ended up leaving...

Are you talking about the ubiquitous 12 mm nickel-plated-brass modules from Aixis? I've done a few builds with them back in the day (mostly the early A140 445 nm diodes that were harvested from Ca$io projectors). I would stick the assembled module in one of the Z-bolt heat sinks with a...

I didn't experience any thermal issues, no. Bear in mind it is only rated up to 1 watt though. Mostly I use it for the low-end stuff. I have two other power meters, one that tops out at 6.5 watts and one that goes to 15 watts, so most of the time the Lasercheck is seeing Class 3B stuff only...

I've had a Coherent Lasercheck for quite a while. It is reasonably accurate, although you do need to be sure you set the wavelength before you measure as the sensor has a complicated calibration curve that changes based on wavelength. If you buy a Lasercheck wand, be sure to crack it open as...

It is possible to activate both the short-persistence zinc sulfide materials as well as the long-persistence strontium aluminate materials using a standard blu-ray diode at 405 nm. However, this results in a visible spot of bright light on the surface when you are drawing. (The spot appears...

When you think about the damage you can do with the measly output of your SSY-1 (because all the energy is delivered in a short pulse), it really gives you pause when you think about the sort of mayhem one could cause with a Q-switched laserscope if you removed the KTP and just blasted away with...

There are drivers available that can power laser diodes with high forward voltage requirements from lower voltage DC sources. These drivers include a boost circuit to raise the voltage to the proper range. I know DTR's shop sells them, but I'm sure you can find other suppliers too. If you...