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ArcticMyst Security by Avery

30mw ir laser danger

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Feb 9, 2015
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Hello.
Can anyone explain to me just how dangerous is pulsed 30mw IR laser beam to human eye? I understand that it is more dangerous than visible light because our eyes dont react to it. Still, my question is just how dangerous it is for an eye to be exposed to a short (few ms max) 30mw IR pulse without wearing safety goggles?

Thanks,

PS. Whole reason for this question is because i cant seem to find a 5mw IR laser with TTL modulation, so if you could recommend any, that would solve the problem as well :)
 





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What nm is your laser?

https://www.reed.edu/ehs/Laser_Safety/4laser_effects.html
Sounds pretty bad if you ask me. You should wear safety goggles for any laser over 5mW, especially with an IR laser since your eyes don't even realize that it's there. On that website it never says what mW they based their tests on. It's hard to say. I don't have much experience with IR lasers.

Eagle Pair® 190-540nm Standard Laser Safety Goggles

Those goggles are rated for 190nm to 540nm.

^Im on a phone so can't post links, but those goggles won't help against IR wavelengths, those protect agaisnt UV(part of it) up to the green spectrum.

-Alex
 
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Feb 9, 2015
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Thanks, im using 980nm laser
Yeah, thats what I am worried about :)
As I understand, almost any decent 2+OD 980nm goggles will do.

What I am teally curious about is, could I go without glasses (since i would need many of them) if i only have to deal with accidental shortt pulses at worst.
According to this site, 1,33 OD glasses are required. Isnt that close to nothing?
https://www.lia.org/evaluator/od.php
 
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Depends on whether it is focused or not, but even if just raw unfocused IR energy, the lens in your eye can happen to focus it to a burning spot on the back of your eye too.
 
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since i would need many of them

Some kind of a laser tagging game?

OD 1.3 will reduce more than 10x. It might be sufficient if you would not point directly in to faces. Maybe your application can work with expanded beams thus reducing effecting power.
 
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Yes, something similar to that.
That was my mistake. 1OD is 1/10 of incoming light, not 1/1.
I guess I will stick to glasses then.
Thanks
 
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Can you or a manufacturer reduce power of your laser? It is simpler than increase above specs :)

You can place a filter in the front of your laser to reduce power to a safe level.
 
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You can place a filter in the front of your laser to reduce power to a safe level.[/QUOTE]

Ahh, thats a great idea. will look into that
 
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I always wear goggles while using lasers >5mw, pulsed or not. I know this isn't necessary on some pulsed lasers, but I just don't care. I value my eyes too much. Once, long ago I was using a little green pointer that put out ~7mw, and I was an idiot and kept staring into the dot. Eventually I got this little after-image that simply wouldn't go away in the center of my vision. It went away over night (I had my eyes checked, no damage) but that day I was completely losing it. I kept trying to "accept that this little dot would always be in my vision forever". It was scary as hell when it happened. Goggles don't even have to be that expensive, especially for just 30mw, just get some. Better safe than sorry. :D
 




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