Search results

Apologies, I meant to say 1-bit DAC. PWM with RC filter is just a 1-bit DAC

I think I get what you're trying to do, but it simply amounts to a 2-bit DAC. The price and complexity required for MHz PWM exceeds the price and complexity for a superior DAC.

Large lasers make rather poor pointers, even if you were to dial back the power. Not only are they inherently unwieldy, the laser spot is not small and well-defined. The efficiency also goes to sh:)t when you drop a high power diode to low power, since threshold current (which is the minimal...

Unless there's some obvious piece of light physics I'm overlooking (and would be happy to hear about), PWM is for dimming. Most people have no interest in making the laser appear less bright. The goal is typically the contrary.

It's also known as a TS plug. A TRS plug may also be used with one terminal ignored. Short for tip-sleeve, and tip-ring-sleeve respectively. Short the pins together.

It's hard to tell without being able to poke it with a multimeter, but that indeed looks like an oscillating solenoid. Presumably it operates something like this: Applying current draws the plunger into the tube, the momentum of the plunger strikes the switch in the rear, which opens the switch...

Oh sweet! I love old-school medical quackery gadgets. I'd guess it uses a vibrator (no, not that kind, THIS kind). Google tells me a no6 is 1.5V so a AA should bring it back to life if you want a bit of tingle in your life :sneaky:

The mixing thing is tenuous, given our logarithmic response to brightness. My question remains how does a laser save 5 minutes per bead?

Jim, you missed the part where it was said: A black light is a hands-off approach that makes glow pigments plenty visible immediately. No eye hazards or fiddling with battery power required.

What does a pointer accomplish that working under a black light does not?

Using a laser for illumination might be fun, but it is wildly impractical. LEDs are cheaper, safer, and far more effective as a general light source.

Oh yeah? I've got a CO2, a flashlamp-pumped YAG, a couple argon ion, and a couple helium neon, and even ostensibly several dozen DPSS lasers that emphatically disagree with you. Moreover, if you use LED interchangeably with "laser diode", you're not being clever, you're obfuscating your message.

Is there any reason this can't be done with an old toaster oven?

Or here's several different pinks my projector can produce with various ratios of 638nm and 462nm (both images from 2009)

The Google term you're looking for is: Line lens

The color is about what you'd expect, but I don't have the gender to describe it. I did it once on the floor with a prism like a decade ago. I'll try to dig up the picture later tonight if I remember.

"really bad" is not quantitative, and therefore useless at making a quantitative prediction about increased runtime. Have you measured the capacity or the ESR? However, if the cells you linked actually have a capacity of 850mAh and actually have an esr under 65mΩ, they will indeed power a 1W...

Okay, well High power CW YAG isn't cheap. Probably 5 figures. Unless you get lucky and find a scrap medical laser, I would consider living with the 'low' efficiency of LEDs.

Why 25 watts and why 1064nm specifically? We can help you a lot better if you tell us what your project is rather than giving only specifications.

Saturating a photocell doesn't destroy anything. Chill.