Laser for Wildfire, Forestry, and Arboriculture applications?

[PineyTinecones]

Hello everyone!

My name’s Ryan and I’m from Texas. First and foremost, there’s certainly a lot of valuable information on this forum and as far as I’m concerned it’s the best resource for someone wanting to get into lasers, at least that I have found. I appreciate in advance y’alls time in reading this, and especially the time anyone takes to respond.

I’m brand spankin’ new, but I did read the stickies and have poured through the forum the past couple of days trying to educate myself and answer my own questions with pre-existing threads. I tend to hyperfocus on stuff. I’ve always had good luck immersing myself into new subject matter and absorbing as much as possible in a short time through the use of forums and (more specifically) the often-helpful and generous people who dwell in them.

This is somewhat of a “hi im new which green layzer should i get” post in a sense, but I’m hoping it’s perceived as something more or different than that, because as far as I’m concerned it is.

I would like to purchase a laser to use at work, for arboriculture and forestry purposes, as well as on wildfires.
I need something that will make an easily visible dot in daylight on limbs and trunks of trees so that I can clearly communicate things like pruning cuts to customers. In a forestry application, the sunlight will often be less intense and be dappled or even shaded, and I will really just need it to communicate a particular tree or where the merchantable height cutoff is. On wildfires I need it to make a visible dot on trees during the day to communicate with dozer operators, and a visible beam will come in real handy in thick smoke or evening/night applications, or for emergency/rescue scenarios in thick smoke or at night. Because of the nature of the setting I will be using the laser in, I need something that will be reliable and hold up to some abuse, including temperature fluctuations and sweat.

After doing quite a bit of reading, and also factoring in my limited budget, I have settled on the 520nm 150mw Sanwu Pocket laser. Do y’all think this will adequately accomplish my goals?
Is there something at that price point and quality that would serve me better?

I heartily appreciate any and all input. I just wanted to make sure I’ve picked the right one for my purposes.

Also, I apologize for any faux pas. Hopefully I avoided them. It was my intention to.

Thanks!
Ryan

 

[icecruncher]

green is going to be a pain in the forest

You might also look at an LEP flashlight and see if that might work for you.

 

[hakzaw1]

for ~$10 you can get(free ship) three aaa pointers-red green and purple..try them and get more power ONLY if you need it.
they do not have much heat sinking so many (including me) have allowed (mostly the green) to overheat-- I think the red and purple withstand the extra a heat better. IF the pointer feels quite hot--you need to dial it back-allow time to cool. When I overheated a green they were about $40-- now $4.

The '300' host uses rechargeable batts-- it is a bit bigger but IMHO also had not enough mass to cool-- The 'numbers' on pointers had little to do with actual output-- it is a required 'Class'= one that is supposed to be less than 5mW--however aaa pointers are hardly ever spec- always much more-- True 5mW 532 lasers are about 140$ usd-& are used to calibrate other lasers. etc. The $4usd 532s are generally more than 40 or 50mW --same with the red and purple pointers--much more than just 5mW. so NOT toys.

I am not sure you really need to 'point' so long you get over-heat issues.
also while they would be good to own--(green laser)eye protection for your uses is not really needed.--
Let us know which wavelength worked best out for you--I am betting on green.
IF you are thinking about a laser to start back fires --forget that.


----Thank you very much for what you do. we all hope you and your people will be safe. You will be in our thoughts.

VR---hak (son of a firefighter)

 

[PineyTinecones]

Thanks so much for the input, y’all!

As far as green being a pain to see in the forest, I was wondering about that myself. I assumed that since chlorophyll absorbs other colors and reflects green, that a green laser would shine much more brightly when hitting foliage.

So, before I sent this initial post I ordered 4x cheap 532nm “303” lasers from eBay. The ones with the little lock and key that come with the removal patterned lenses. I got em for $8 a piece and they came with battery and charger.

I bought them before asking for advice because a couple of my coworkers needed them for presentations next week and I wasn’t sure how long the shipping would take. Not indoor presentations, mind you, these are for a timber theft presentation. They’ll be pointing out certain places on trees to the folks in the class. I just got them in today and charged up, and they work surprisingly well. No telling what the wattage is, but I can clearly see the dot on trees that are 100 yards away in the sun, IF I know where to look. It’s not like the dot would “catch my eye” in my peripheral vision at that distance. They’ll work fine for forestry and arboriculture because the people I’m trying to communicate to will know the general direction or specific tree I’m trying to communicate things about.

Can’t wait to try them out tonight.

BUT! With that said, I still want a higher end laser for myself. The more I read and learn about lasers, and the more I hyperfocus on the subject, the more I start wanting to “play” with them, and not just have them for pragmatic reasons. On top of that, my financial situation changed slightly today where I can much more comfortably afford to spend $100-$200 on my first laser, without consequently thinking “should I really have spent that at this time”.

With that said, I watched a video today featuring Sanwu’s Pocket 445nm 800mw laser, and I’m totally enamored with it.

So, with the following in mind:

•I am for sure going to buy a nicer (a relative term, I know, but I mean in the $100-$200 range) laser.

•I now already own a green laser and want the nice one I buy to be a different color, at least slightly

•I now have a hankering to do “fun” stuff with the laser, like stare at and play with the beam at night, as well as possibly some burning

•I would still like to be able to use the laser for pragmatic purposes, including communicating my location on wildfires in smoke or at night by shining the beam up in the air, as well as to help with communicating things over the radio to other fire dozer operators such as “that tree over there” or “watch out for that pipeline there” by waving a bright dot on the object and preferably a visible beam leading to it that’s visible at night (we get a lot of night fires).

•It would be nice if it was pocketable, but not an absolute requirement. As long as I can fit it in a flashlight type pouch on my fire pack belt I’m good with it.

•I would still like to also be able to use this laser for arboriculture and forestry purposes, although it seems as though the cheap eBay 532nm lasers will do the trick for that if necessary

—will the Sanwu Pocket 445nm 800mw laser serve me well? Should I be looking at something nicer/hardier like a Jet PL-E mini? I’m sorry if this seems like a redundant question, but some of the parameters have changed, and I really do value y’alls input.

Also, thanks for the kind words, hakzaw1!
And no, I don’t intend to use it for any firing operations.

 

[icecruncher]

Well, chalk one up for honesty
Nice to see1

You will probably love the sanwu, just be sure you get goggles and be an adult about where you point it and how you use it.

 

[Commander J. Bloodmaker]

Thanks so much for the input, y’all!

As far as green being a pain to see in the forest, I was wondering about that myself. I assumed that since chlorophyll absorbs other colors and reflects green, that a green laser would shine much more brightly when hitting foliage.

So, before I sent this initial post I ordered 4x cheap 532nm “303” lasers from eBay. The ones with the little lock and key that come with the removal patterned lenses. I got em for $8 a piece and they came with battery and charger.

I bought them before asking for advice because a couple of my coworkers needed them for presentations next week and I wasn’t sure how long the shipping would take. Not indoor presentations, mind you, these are for a timber theft presentation. They’ll be pointing out certain places on trees to the folks in the class. I just got them in today and charged up, and they work surprisingly well. No telling what the wattage is, but I can clearly see the dot on trees that are 100 yards away in the sun, IF I know where to look. It’s not like the dot would “catch my eye” in my peripheral vision at that distance. They’ll work fine for forestry and arboriculture because the people I’m trying to communicate to will know the general direction or specific tree I’m trying to communicate things about.

Can’t wait to try them out tonight.

BUT! With that said, I still want a higher end laser for myself. The more I read and learn about lasers, and the more I hyperfocus on the subject, the more I start wanting to “play” with them, and not just have them for pragmatic reasons. On top of that, my financial situation changed slightly today where I can much more comfortably afford to spend $100-$200 on my first laser, without consequently thinking “should I really have spent that at this time”.

With that said, I watched a video today featuring Sanwu’s Pocket 445nm 800mw laser, and I’m totally enamored with it.

So, with the following in mind:

•I am for sure going to buy a nicer (a relative term, I know, but I mean in the $100-$200 range) laser.

•I now already own a green laser and want the nice one I buy to be a different color, at least slightly

•I now have a hankering to do “fun” stuff with the laser, like stare at and play with the beam at night, as well as possibly some burning

•I would still like to be able to use the laser for pragmatic purposes, including communicating my location on wildfires in smoke or at night by shining the beam up in the air, as well as to help with communicating things over the radio to other fire dozer operators such as “that tree over there” or “watch out for that pipeline there” by waving a bright dot on the object and preferably a visible beam leading to it that’s visible at night (we get a lot of night fires).

•It would be nice if it was pocketable, but not an absolute requirement. As long as I can fit it in a flashlight type pouch on my fire pack belt I’m good with it.

•I would still like to also be able to use this laser for arboriculture and forestry purposes, although it seems as though the cheap eBay 532nm lasers will do the trick for that if necessary

—will the Sanwu Pocket 445nm 800mw laser serve me well? Should I be looking at something nicer/hardier like a Jet PL-E mini? I’m sorry if this seems like a redundant question, but some of the parameters have changed, and I really do value y’alls input.

Also, thanks for the kind words, hakzaw1!
And no, I don’t intend to use it for any firing operations.

if you want a nice, and awesomely priced high powered 445-450nm torch. get the DIY kit from " pm me fore the seller name I'm not trying to plug or advertise for someone " in ebay. DIY refers to opening the box and placing the battery's in yourself. You will not be disappointed with the kit. A $60 laser that is worth well over twice that and again in quality. The kits I buy for my friends are the 2w. I think they have up to 4w or 5w kits too. just figure 2w kits will shine longer than a 5w or a 4w, with a lot longer of a duty cycle. Over 5 mins I've ran mine and it barely got warm. An again DIY refers to putting in battery's. lol