Best laser on the market

[Morepower]

if i wer lucky enough to have that budget on a laser i wouldnt think twice about deciding - rpl 350 without a shadow of a doubt.
its also more than half the size of the hercules

He wanted no duty cycle at full power.

 

[dr_pressure]

for me, the size of the herc adds to the cool factor.

sure, it may not be the most practical, esp if you're trying to hide it from a police officer.. but don't do anything stupid and it should be fine.



Apparently, they have Hercs which are more powerful than the 400... anyone have more info on this:

Higher output power levels also available while quantities last. Contact Us for more info!

More Power!
Due to overwhelming demand for high power Hercules Lasers, we have replaced the pump diode with a 2.5W unit and improved the efficiency of the KTP crystal. The result is that the world's most powerful portable laser is now available in sustained output power levels beyond 400mW!

As for budget -- I'm not even close to affording it atm.... Should be able to eventually though.

 

[dr_pressure]

Yeah if nothing else, no duty cycle at full power is a deciding factor for me.

Morepower, do you mean you saw green as in when the laser was shining at you... or for like the next 10 minutes everything was green?

I guess if I take enough care that reflections or direct hits never happen (and the goggles will be for worst case scenario), then I should be fine.

 

[marianne]

good luck with your laser! and actually if you shine it just into the sky at night or whatever you should be fine to look at the beam without goggles (it'll be real pretty!) - though isn't OD 6 a bit much? according to the stickied thread in the safety section, it'd transmit 0.0001% of the light... does that mean the 400mW hercules would essentially look like a 0.0004mW green laser? would the dot even still be visible?

 

[dr_pressure]

and actually if you shine it just into the sky at night or whatever you should be fine to look at the beam without goggles (it'll be real pretty!)

i was thinking along similar lines... the majority of problems seem to have happened because of people using the laser indoors or -- god forbid -- actually shined the beam on their eye intentionally!

though isn't OD 6 a bit much?

not sure... that's just what laserglow sells with the herc. i'll be sure to check out that thread in the safety section though.


and just for the record, i could quite easily imagine a scenario in which boobs might lead to a kernel panic.

 

[Aseras]

I use these with all my high powered green lasers http://www.toolbarn.com/product/dewalt/DW0714/ $10

I have plenty of OD3 and OD6 glasses. These are a bit darker but I like the fit and field of view better. Plus for what one pair of certified glasses costs, I can have 10 pairs when I need to do a demo.

I've checked them with a spectrometer and even shot them with the high powered lasers and they work as well as real OD6 glasses I comapred them too.

This is a pic of both a red laser and a green laser going through them. You can see the red laser passes, but there is nothing from the green laser. That's what you want.

I've hit the dewalts with 2.5 watts and they held up for over a minute and still blocked it ( although they got a nice big melted dimple in them )
Glasses are intended to block accidental reflected beams. they aren't really intended for you to stick your head intentionally into the beam, but if for some stupid reason that were to happen they should give you enough time to realize it blink and get the hell out of the way. They only buy you time to react, they are not invulnerable eye armor.

 

[Aseras]

OD3 glasses block 99.9% of light. OD6 glasses block 99.9999% of the light.

For those following along...
OD1 transmits 10%
OD2 transmits 1%
OD3 transmits 0.1%
OD4 transmits 0.01%
OD5 transmits 0.001%
OD6 transmits 0.0001%
etc.; etc..

You want at least OD3 with any highpowered laser. In fact going to higher is dangerous since it blocks so much that I often find myself peeking out of the OD6's to see what is going on. With a 300mw+laser there can be enough scatter coming out to dazzle you right away. It's dangerous. OD3 is good for most applications.

 

[laserterd]

So you can ruin your goggles by shining too much of the color it protects you from on it? I guess that would make sense. I have shown my lasers through my goggles while i wasnt wearing them but nothing really happened.

 

[Aseras]

if it blocks the light it's either reflecting it or absorbing it. if it absorbs, the energy has to go somewhere and it's going to become heat.. and if it's absorbing >99.9% of a laser than can light matches or melt plastics, what do you think happens to plastic goggles?

 

[dr_pressure]

To be honest the picture of the OD6's on the LaserGlow website don't look too dark at all -- sort of a transparent orange.

I really do like the price of those DeWalts, although there must be some difference in quality considering the ~$US 200+ price difference.

With a 300mw+laser there can be enough scatter coming out to dazzle you right away. It's dangerous.

So essentially what you're saying is that even if there are no reflective objects around, you should not look at the beam without glasses because of scatter. The OD6's are dangerous because they tempt you to do this.

Or am I reading that wrong? Please clarify!

 

[Morepower]

Morepower, do you mean you saw green as in when the laser was shining at you... or for like the next 10 minutes everything was green?

Basically one eye was filled with brightish green light, I couldn't see anything else but green in that eye at the time of the flash. I wasn't even really flash blinded by it(no after effects). So the goggles did what they where supposed to do. Even though it was a heart stopping moment it was good to know that I was protected.

 

[dr_pressure]

Ah I see. Damn good thing you had goggles on at the time.

 

[Aseras]

To be honest the picture of the OD6's on the LaserGlow website don't look too dark at all -- sort of a transparent orange.

I really do like the price of those DeWalts, although there must be some difference in quality considering the ~$US 200+ price difference.

With a 300mw+laser there can be enough scatter coming out to dazzle you right away. It's dangerous.

So essentially what you're saying is that even if there are no reflective objects around, you should not look at the beam without glasses because of scatter. The OD6's are dangerous because they tempt you to do this.

Or am I reading that wrong? Please clarify!

I like using the high pressure water hose analogy. If you shoot the hose at a wall it scatters. the further you are away from where it hits the less likely you are to get wet. Lasers are the same way, when they hit an object, they produce a diffuse reflection and the light scatters in all directions. The closer you are to the dot where it's scattering the more light there is. If you are too close and the laser is strong enough it will still cause damage. It depends on the reflectivity of the surface and color and lots of things.

 

[dr_pressure]

I imagine that could be dangerous even if you had glasses on. Say, if you were working close range for a long period of time.