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FrozenGate by Avery

Bad to keep laser pointer running?

E

evrugg

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May 14, 2013
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hey guys, i was just wondering if it is bad to keep a handheld laser pointer on for too long, i have heard people say you should only have it on for a max of 10 seconds and other people telling me that its fine to have it on for 2-3 minutes.

I just wanted to check with you guys
Thanks in advance
 





All Laser Diode devices that draw a large current are prone
to degradation due to heat. We run our Lasers OVER the design
specs to get the most power out of our Laser builds.

That creates heat. That heat will build up and lower the life
expectancy of the said Laser Diode.

To prevent or at least lower the chance of this happening
we use an ON : OFF ratio. The ratio is different for different
Laser builds depending on Current and the host's heat sinking
ability.

All this could have been found on the Forum by doing a little
research.


Jerry
 
Last edited:
Depends on the amount of heat sinking and how hot it gets, that in turn will depend on the current the diode is being run and the efficiency of the particular diode.

What laser is it, what host is it in and whats it being run at?

:beer:
 
The eBay 1-5mW Lasers are always overspec.
Get yourself some appropriate Laser Safety
Goggles/Glasses so that you don't need to invest
in a white cane or seeing eye dog in the future.

The only way you will know the output of your
laser is with a calibrated LPM.


Jerry
 
Depends on how much heatsink is in the laser and the actual power of the laser itself, I have 2.5w laser with a huge heatsink but I can only have it on for maybe 1 minute else it will get way to hot.
 
So the low watts are over spec and the high watts are mostly under spec what's watt. Lol
 
Well the laser i bought on ebay says its a class iii 1mw green laser, but i can pop a ballon with a black spot on it, so i really dont know how strong it is and i have no way of testing it
Click to expand...

Your laser most probably has excess IR laser radiation, so follow laserbee's advice and be careful, your laser is most definitely a Class IIIb due to the amount of 532nm and 1064nm radiation passing through. As for duty cycle, it is always safe to have one even for low power lasers, just so you can get in the habit of saving the life of your diodes when needed. It could save yourself a lot of money when you go onto higher diodes such as gymdiver426's 2.5W laser. For your "1mW" laser you should just use a 120s [ON]:30s [OFF] ratio, just in case your laser is low efficiency and has a higher powered diode inside. You should be fine regardless and why would you need to keep a low powered pointer on for a long period of time anyway.
 
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