Introducing myself.

[Davidlang]

Hi I am David. I am a construction electrician. I am familiar with 120v and higher. Some of this small stuff is new to me. During the apprenticeship we did have a semester on solid state electronics where I learned a little. I am interested in some projects where I will be conducting some experiments.

 

[CurtisOliver]

Welcome to the forum David.
Enjoy your stay!

 

[Immo1282]

Welcome! I hope you learn a lot while you're here

 

[BowtieGuy]

Welcome to LPF, David!

Have fun, stay safe, and enjoy your stay.

 

[hakzaw1]

WELCOME at some point you will want to know the power of your laser(s)
The cost of LPMs had dropped while the quality gets better.
We have a map of members with LPMs and any will freely meters yours.
For that and other reasons. You WILL need to share your general location (zipcode is fine)-put that in your profile and your intro title and no doubt we have a member nearby who can help in person and also understands that lasers are an ADDICTION...OR run, run away quick and do not look back. DER a lot like Lay's Potater chips.

Great 'Intro' BTW.. please enjoy our forum and one way you can help is to come to this section.. join is in our 'welcomes' to new members even tho you are new.. its a good way to meet members for you as well
Feel free also to making nice suggestions to them that will make fitting in a very easy and painless procedure... like location.... double posting or double threads etc .. and please try hard to 'necro=post' not too often. Paul busted me last week when I posted in a thread that was not only dead but the OP had become a non active member and thus same as actually being dead!!! imo.
So check last post date and a few more as one necro breeds more.. Paul goes the the members home pages to see last activity etc. very telling.

. We have many thousands of 'members' who either never posted or posted only once or twice LONG AGO. (TY VM WL most was yr fault) there is like 9 pages of LPF usernames that start with 'Laser'...


also by dropping in there often you may see a new thread on a member near you. IF they use their location in the intro title or at the very least in the intro itself. ( so) no mention anywhere of our locations is not going to help anyone. I have read thousands of welcome intros and replied to many.
Sometimes about location.
I guess the very best would also have location in the Username and some do.
reminds me...
I was thinking about a name change (to Stan). And Moving.
New job too.. selling from a fruit stand.. in Afganistand.
how does this sound.






STAN'S AFHGANISTAN BANANA STAND. (& free wifi)
>(o_o)<

 

[PhaserBoy]

Welcome from the second newest member

 

[paul1598419]

Hello, David. Welcome to the LPF. Working with laser diodes and solid state lasers is much different than what you encounter at work. There are some very inexpensive lasers you can buy on eBay to get you started on learning how they operate. It is not a cheap hobby, however, if you decide to expand your collection into different wavelengths and more powerful lasers.

 

[Davidlang]

Thank you all for your support. I hope to make some videos demonstrating the wave and particle nature of light. An important experiment I hope to achieve is destructive interference with a interferometer. I know this won’t be easy or cheap. Hopefully I can achieve this. Thanks again.

 

[paul1598419]

I have been a holographer since 1980 and I have set up countless Michelson interferometers to test the coherence length of lasers and to test the stability of my optical benches. It is not that difficult to do. Get a HeNe laser and a couple of first surface mirrors and a beam splitter. Piece of cake.

 

[Davidlang]

Thank you for the reply. I started a thread discussing my goals and the equipment I have.
https://laserpointerforums.com/threads/michelson-morley-interferometer-project-help.103984/
I have seen some hene lasers on eBay for $200-300. Will any 1-5 mw hene laser work or will I need some sort of special one? Is a micrometer translation stage recommended or will my Thorlabs kinetic mount be precise enough. My goal is to at least achieve total blackness for a short period of time. Thanks

 

[paul1598419]

Light does not work that way. The destructive interference is always next to constructive interference, so you get either a Fresnel bullseye pattern or a series of lines. You will get a better coherence length with longer tubes than shorter ones. But, you should be able to get an interference pattern with most any HeNe as long as you set it up correctly. Your Thorlabs mounts should be sufficient to get the pattern, but it won't be a total blacked out screen.

 

[Davidlang]

In my other thread I posted a video from mit courseware on YouTube. Somehow he is able to make it completely black. He even makes it look easy. I was wondering how he did it?

 

[William Johnson]

Welcome, David, I am also a newcomer and a laser fan, thanks for your review

 

[lasersbee]

A belated... Welcome to the Forum David.
Enjoy your stay.

Jerry

 

[hakzaw1]

I am selling a few HeNes... what is your budget?

 

[Davidlang]

Honestly I have gone way over budget. If you have something that can give me better results in my experiment I will definitely give it some thought..