Laser Pointer Fun

[Abray]

So, today, I was at my friends house, and we were extremely bored. So we decided to put a laser pointer on his bb gun for a laser sight. It didn't work that great, but we started shining it around and we lazed it on the fence all the way across his (fairly large) yard. And it was dark all this time, so that made it even cooler. I went over and looked at the dot. It was about 3 inches in diameter, and the dot was a huge mess. I don't know if the laser has some serious mode issues (which I doubt, it is a 5 mW red pointer, and it doesn't even get warm at all) or if it is reflecting off the cap or anything. But we decided to take the cap off and look. Well one thing led to another, and the whole laser was disassembled eventually. we even unscrewed the whole module out. It was pretty cool.

Well when we took out the module, we ended up either unscrewing or screwing in the lens. It made the divergence negative at first. Then we fooled around with it for a while, making it focus really small and then really huge. Finally we collimated it better than it had been in the first place, and put it back together.

It was all really cool because that is the first time I have actually messed around with a laser like that! Now I REALLY can't wait to get my blu-ray stuff in the mail!

 

[Switch]

Yea those cheapo red laser pointers usually have crap divergence because it's not even focused right due to the fact that their built on chinese boats by mexicans on tequila, while being shipped.... : You can usually get way better beam specs with the same lens.
I don't think it has to have mode issues, the diode sucks so much, it's hard to find one with a nice round dot.It sure isn't reflecting from the cap, at 5mW or red at a considerable distance, any reflections would be pretty much invisible even in the dark.
Making the divergence negative(well basicly making the beam converge) is the way to burn!!(but not with 5mW).

I think I have a video of my DVD DIY mounted on my BB M4A1 taking out some matchboxes(after I lit all the matches inside ;D) somewhere in the depths of my computer....Just tell me if you want to see it, I got it pretty acurate.

 

[RA_pierce]

I'd like to see that video!