Well I guess I'm supposed to post here, so hello everybody! I've been lurking for many years, signed up last year, and only really been active recently.
I've been into lasers since I was a kid, always had a Radio Shack pointer of some kind since I was about 9-10. I used to be stupid with them as a kid, intentionally shining them in my eye and everything. I'm thankful now that all I had were little 2-4mW pointers because I suffered no notable damage from it all. I'm much more careful now, especially since I've had some other close calls with my eyes as well. Always wear eye protection!
I stumbled on DTR's shop by accident maybe 10-ish years ago and built a really sweet little 445nm 1W laser with a stainless 18650 mod with a side e-switch. At some point, something I couldn't diagnose happened that I assumed was the emitter dying (couldn't get more than a milliwatt out of it, beam looked funny). I replaced it with a 450nm diode and set it for about 650-700mW and have had that up until around this time last year when I discovered Sanwu.
Flashlights are also a hobby of mine, I'm moderately experienced with building and modifying high power LED lights and am a member over at budgetlightforum as well. I consider myself versed in LED and battery technology, and electronics in general.
There is a considerable crossover between the two but I've found quite a lot of new stuff to learn about lasers. I'm looking forward to learning even more here, and expanding my collection with some uncommon and homemade examples.
I've been into lasers since I was a kid, always had a Radio Shack pointer of some kind since I was about 9-10. I used to be stupid with them as a kid, intentionally shining them in my eye and everything. I'm thankful now that all I had were little 2-4mW pointers because I suffered no notable damage from it all. I'm much more careful now, especially since I've had some other close calls with my eyes as well. Always wear eye protection!
I stumbled on DTR's shop by accident maybe 10-ish years ago and built a really sweet little 445nm 1W laser with a stainless 18650 mod with a side e-switch. At some point, something I couldn't diagnose happened that I assumed was the emitter dying (couldn't get more than a milliwatt out of it, beam looked funny). I replaced it with a 450nm diode and set it for about 650-700mW and have had that up until around this time last year when I discovered Sanwu.
Flashlights are also a hobby of mine, I'm moderately experienced with building and modifying high power LED lights and am a member over at budgetlightforum as well. I consider myself versed in LED and battery technology, and electronics in general.
There is a considerable crossover between the two but I've found quite a lot of new stuff to learn about lasers. I'm looking forward to learning even more here, and expanding my collection with some uncommon and homemade examples.
I've been after a yellow laser ever since I found out about colors other than red green and blue. Sad I missed that 570 from a few years back also, that looks really cool. I also really want to make a ~420nm pointer as well so I can say I have indigo, but the diodes seem impossible to actually find.
