- Joined
- Sep 24, 2012
- Messages
- 7
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In fear of being the "noob" asking a stupid question (or a series of stupid questions) I have tried to do as much research on this topic as possible, but seeing as how I am new to the world of lasers and optics, I wanted to engage a savvy and informative group of individuals to make sure I did not overlook something simple or dangerous.
I recently saw an episode of the Big Bang Theory where they did a laser obstacle course (YouTube: "secret agent laser obstacle chess"), and I thought, wouldn't that be an amazing game for a youth event at my local church. Of course my first concern is for their safety, the second is how do I make this look awesome and have the kids talking about it for years to come. Who knows, it may inspire some future laser enthusiasts. I noticed two threads on this already, but they seem to have died off very quickly. If this idea is at all feasible I intend to make sure this thread is completed with schematics and pictures of the event.
The first thing I did is make sure I could design cheap receivers to detect if the beam has been broken. I have an electrical engineering background, so this was fairly easy to accomplish.
Next I checked on the safety of lasers, eyes, and crazy junior highers. My conclusion from what I have read so far is that for 5mW or below, our natural blink reflex will protect us from permanent damage. With the exception of green lasers, which may have a dangerous infrared component (if not properly filtered, as may be the case with many Chinese, cheap lasers) that will not trigger said reflex. Red and violet lasers appear to be generated directly, and therefore are safer as far as invisible components are concerned. So this leads me to my first question: how do I tell if my laser pointer is really <5mW? I have read up on DIY laser power meters, etc, but I was wondering if there are any ideas for how to do this at under 100 dollars. I would hate for this safety check to cost 10 times that of the rest of the project.
Well, that is probably a good starting point for this thread. At this point I am sure some of you have suggestions, questions, answers, or are screaming inside your heads (or out loud) "What is this idiot doing?" Any ways, let's discuss!
I recently saw an episode of the Big Bang Theory where they did a laser obstacle course (YouTube: "secret agent laser obstacle chess"), and I thought, wouldn't that be an amazing game for a youth event at my local church. Of course my first concern is for their safety, the second is how do I make this look awesome and have the kids talking about it for years to come. Who knows, it may inspire some future laser enthusiasts. I noticed two threads on this already, but they seem to have died off very quickly. If this idea is at all feasible I intend to make sure this thread is completed with schematics and pictures of the event.
The first thing I did is make sure I could design cheap receivers to detect if the beam has been broken. I have an electrical engineering background, so this was fairly easy to accomplish.
Next I checked on the safety of lasers, eyes, and crazy junior highers. My conclusion from what I have read so far is that for 5mW or below, our natural blink reflex will protect us from permanent damage. With the exception of green lasers, which may have a dangerous infrared component (if not properly filtered, as may be the case with many Chinese, cheap lasers) that will not trigger said reflex. Red and violet lasers appear to be generated directly, and therefore are safer as far as invisible components are concerned. So this leads me to my first question: how do I tell if my laser pointer is really <5mW? I have read up on DIY laser power meters, etc, but I was wondering if there are any ideas for how to do this at under 100 dollars. I would hate for this safety check to cost 10 times that of the rest of the project.
Well, that is probably a good starting point for this thread. At this point I am sure some of you have suggestions, questions, answers, or are screaming inside your heads (or out loud) "What is this idiot doing?" Any ways, let's discuss!