A scale modeler in need of you LP experts

[Modeler]

I’m building a 1/350 Star Trek Model of the Enterprise spaceship. I want to add a laser to simulate the photo torpedoes and phasers the ship fires. As you might guess the laser size must be small. I see some on Amazon that will work for size but the actual light beam of a laser is really pretty much invisible until it hits a surface. Unless smoke or dust as example hits the beam.
Is there any type of laser that shows the stream of light?

 

[WizardG]

Moar power!

But seriously, more power=brighter beam. The problem is that anything that gives you a nice visible beam will be a danger to the eyes. If the beam reflects back towards someone, or is pointed at them them, the potential exists for instant (before you can blink) eye damage.

Green, broadly speaking, is the color our eyes are most sensitive to, so a green laser will appear brighter than the same power red or blue. If you're going for the look of TOS though then you want blue or red. The issue here is not only risk of eye damage but that for a red or blue laser to show you a nice visible beam w/o smoke or fog you'll need enough power that whatever the beam hits had better be fireproof. No joke.

(I'm shoehorning a red module into my pickle Rick)

 

[Modeler]

Well, that’s pretty scary. Guess I will not do that. I looked for like a flashlight that has a concentrated beam, but my GOOGLE bait doesnt have the right bait or the pond is devoid of fish.

Regardless, thanks for the sensible warning!

 

[WizardG]

Well, that’s pretty scary. Guess I will not do that. I looked for like a flashlight that has a concentrated beam, but my GOOGLE bait doesnt have the right bait or the pond is devoid of fish.

Regardless, thanks for the sensible warning!

Your project sounds really cool. I'd love to see the finished ship with low power beams in a light fog.

 

[paul1598419]

You could probably get a Sharp 505 nm laser diode which is single mode and you can drive over 100 mW of output power. This diode appears green and doesn't need a great deal of heat sinking. I too would love to see photos of your finished product. Which "Enterprise" are you building as there are several?

 

[kecked]

EL wire. Forget the lasers. Led string that lights up as it moves away from ship.

 

[hakzaw1]

^^^ what he said.
Its said that our eyes see 555nm best. Does not need to a lot of power-- fog.smoke is needed to see the beams. YOU can open any RGB/V pointers and adapted to run from 3/4 vdc. BUT green 532nm is very often pos to the rear and the others not. best luck to you....hak

 

[paul1598419]

All of my 532 nm DPSS lasers are case positive. The 808 nm pump diodes are all setup this way.