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Laser Hula Hoop

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sevensidedsilver

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New member here, soldering experience but have not built a laser
I hoop as a hobby (if you don't know, hula hoops have gained loads of popularity as performance props!)

An idea came to me one day to really enhance the visual aspect of my hooping... put lasers on it! This may sound crazy but bear with me!

I was thinking maybe a 250mw (too much? I don't want to blind the audience) green so I could have visible beams if its not to bright. This may have to only be a night time toy.

My plan so far is to take a hoop (they're made of poly irrigation tubing), cut it into quarters, and then in each quarter mount the power supply, the diode, casing (the hoop is casing so not exactly sure on this), and a charging cable.

Do you think this would work? After this model I'd like to do the same but with 2 diodes mounted in each quarter.

Update:

Alright. After more research, won't be able to have that bright of lasers pointing outwards.

I could get a firmer hoop, do the same sort of plan, and just have them point inwards towards the other side of the hoop. Then the performer could just wear some heavy eye protection.
edit: hell, I could completely cover my eyes.

As far as weight distribution goes, I spin hoops with fire wicks mounted on them and there's dozens of different circuitry layouts for the LED hoops. This is why I plan to do it the same of each quarter, it would be far more manageable than one of those fire hoops
 

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You do this and you'll have a few lawsuits on your hands. Lasers should never EVER be shown into someones face! Are you out of your mind??
 
Not even touching on the safety concerns, this would cause weight distribution problems along the hula hoop which could conceivably make it unusable as a hula hoop.
 
Alright. After more research, won't be able to have that bright of lasers pointing outwards.

I could get a firmer hoop, do the same sort of plan, and just have them point inwards towards the other side of the hoop. Then the performer could just wear some heavy eye protection.
edit: hell, I could completely cover my eyes.

As far as weight distribution goes, I spin hoops with fire wicks mounted on them and there's dozens of different circuitry layouts for the LED hoops. This is why I plan to do it the same of each quarter, it would be far more manageable than one of these
 

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I thought this was a joke at first. 250mW beams spinning around at unpredictable heights and elevation angles sounds a lot to me like the perfect plan to blind a lot of people in a very short amount of time. Unless that's your goal...?
 
yeah, after a little more research I'm thinking inward facing beams so they're never pointing at anything except the performer and the opposite side of the hoop.
 
sevensidedsilver said:
yeah, after a little more research I'm thinking inward facing beams so they're never pointing at anything except the performer and the opposite side of the hoop.
Click to expand...

You might as well just use LEDs since the space in between is so short no one will see single beams anyway.
It's not going to turn out the way you're imagining it.
 
I think downward facing beams would be cool, if anything. Inward facing, alignment is critical, and if you are off by a degree or two, it would overshoot the other side of the hoop and, at times, shoot outward again.


Even with downward facing lasers, it would still would be best to stick with very low power modules, though. To amplify the cool effect, hulahoop in the dark, with fog.

A word of caution, most 5mW green modules are only advertised as such, and actually put out more power than that.

This is definitely one of those ideas that would look really cool if done properly, but is still very hard for us to suggest someone actually do this.
 
250mw is way to much. Just get 5mw and some smoke machines and they will see them just fine as it is green.
 
Please post a video of it in action. I wanna see this :) . What will the risk be of the lasers breaking when or if the hoop hits the ground? Also thinking the hula hoop slapping around a persons body might damage some components. Good luck
 
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