Hello from coastal Croatia

[lajoswinkler]

Hi, everyone.

I'm not a true laser enthusiast because if I start with one more hobby I'm going bancrupt.
Lasers are a tool for me, and occasional toy.
I've registered at LPF to find answers on more powerful lasers for amateur astronomy purposes, and also to keep myself updated on the legal issues. Something tells me portable lasers will be banned here in the next 5 years. We've already had at least one noted incident with an airplane landing. Luckily, no one was hurt.
Green lasers of increasing false power are becoming more and more abundant here, meaning there will most certainly be a rise in ophtalmological problems as time goes by. Those Chinese IR leaking devices, as I like to call them, are very attractive to stupid kids and it's a matter of time before someone looses their sight.

As for my lasers, I've owned two of those typical <5 mW red laser pointers for a long time (the first one was given to my by a friend during the late nineties), and a <50 mW green laser for a couple of months.

I doubt I'll be a frequent visitor and poster, but I'm glad to be here, anyway.

 

[Eudaimonium]

Eee prika, šta ima?

Yup, been at seaside this year and was surprised to find quite a large number of street vendors selling greens lasers of powers I'd estimate between 20-30 mW, and a large number of these pointers in hands of little kids.

Everybody stood in awe and gave a few Croatian compliments (i.e. cursing) when me and my buddies produced 1W blue and 100mW greens and 12x bluray

Enjoy your stay, and if there's anything you need, you can always PM me with questions of all sorts.

Uživaj, prijatelju

 

[lasersbee]

to the Forum....
Don't forget to read the FAQs...the Stickies
and the Forum Rules..

If you plan on buying anything on the Forum....
PLEASE read this first...

6 Steps To Prevent You From Getting Scammed

and this....

33 Reasons NOT to Buy From Wicked Lasers

Enjoy your stay...


Jerry

 

[lajoswinkler]

Eudaimonium, wrong region. It's: "Di si?"

Nice to see more fellow nationals here.
I don't really remember seeing street vendors selling green lasers. But the ads... completely different thing. They're everywhere.
I'd be quite scared to walk near bunch of little kids goofing around with those things.


lasersbee, already read that during lurking, but :thanks:.
Don't worry, I won't buy from WL, I don't have enough money.
BTW, when does one get the right to use an avatar?

 

[Eudaimonium]

Well you said coastal, I figured seaside

I'm actually in "Kaj ima?" region.

I don't think there's any restriction when to use an avatar... or maybe it was 10 posts. Not sure, 'twas a long time ago.

 

[lajoswinkler]

Well it is seaside. There are lots of towns. Afterall, the coast line is 1,777 km long.

10 posts, you say... Well, let's start posting.

BTW, do you know any real company in Croatia that sells >5 mW lasers? Or are we doomed with online puchase? As I figured out, not many people know about lasers, except the astronomy community.

 

[Eudaimonium]

I don't know what kind of ultra-advanced astronomy community you've came across, but so far the highest end lasers, for somebody who actually is aware of green lasers, are DX "200mW pens" cheapos.

And yeah, doomed to online purchasing, all the way. Sorry.

But hey, you can always get heatsinks from me at least

 

[lajoswinkler]

Let's just say that some amateur astronomers have learned to respect and love The LASER. :bowdown:
Thanks for the heatsink offer (at least the shipping would be cheap), but before I make any decisions for my proper laser, I need to buy one. :yh:

Before I go to bed, just one info. I've removed the lens from one lousy laser I've managed to drop on the floor (detached diode, probably FUBAR) and screwed it to my pen 532 nm 50 mW that could never ever heat up anything. And now it burns. :drool:
The dot is tiny, and the heat is lousy, but it can burn black plastic.

I think I'm getting addicted to this. Dear Santa... :san:

 

[ed69]

Kak ide Eudaimonium

Nikaj ni slaše ne čuje se rajše...

Pozdrav dečki iz Australia.

 

[Eudaimonium]

Ide ide, preživljavamo nekak.

Australia, a? Blago tebi, da vidiš sranja ovdje... bum i ja moral kufere pakirat uskoro reklo bi se.

Živjeli ljudi, ako kaj treba, znate gdi sam

 

[ed69]

Just a quick one guys.

I just received my 400mW bluray from o-like and have noticed
that when you shine it at an object such as a wall the dot appears
to look like smaller dots. But when you walk up closer to the wall it
turns into a single dot.

I'm just wondering if this normal it's almost like an illusion.

 

[Eudaimonium]

Actually yeah, it's how the light diffracts from the lens in your eye, see the 405nm is at the edge of the visible spectrum and focal point for that particular wavelenght is a bit different distance from your retina than other colors, so it's why it appears to be out of focus in your image, even if the surface the dot is on is in the focus.

Don't worry, nothing is wrong with your laser, it's just an illusion.

 

[lajoswinkler]

Hm, I don't think that's it, Eudaimonium. You're talking about the difficulty of focusing small wavelengths, which is particularly visible while driving through road tunnels equipped with those deep blue LEDs which look blurred no matter how strongly you try to adapt. Similar thing happens with blacklight tubes in night clubs. Even worse, actually. They look like blurred lines.

I think he's talking about speckle pattern.
ed69, do the tiny dots move when you move your head relative to the fixed dot on the wall? If they don't, and they look like they're floating on a fixed screen right in front of you, that's speckle pattern.

If you point the laser to your ceiling during the night, and hold it very steady, fixed against something, you'll see the pattern all over the room. Something like this.

 

[ed69]

Thanks for the feedback boys.

To answer your question Lajoswinkler the dots do move when I tilt my head when the laser is pointing at the wall. If I rotate the laser in my hand whilest pouting at the wall the dots don't move.