mmmmm Chello

[Shady At Best]

Sup guys, and hopefully girls.
I just wanted to say hi and introduce myself. I have recently gotten interested in a high power laser after seeing a friends 1.8w laser that he bought from another member here. I just spent 40 bucks on 2-200mw lasers from lazerpoint.com but I have now read that might have been a waste of money. Its all good though.
I eventually want to build something high power. I am pretty handy with tools and know a little about electronics. I know enough to read a schematic and solder up a driver. Now I just need to understand exactly what a driver does.

I am under the impression that one needs a driver, a diode, and a battery. I suppose some sort of housing would be nice also but couldnt I just solder those items up on a table and have a working laser?

I am looking to buy an inexpensive laser under 1w but well over 5mw. I currently have a few of the <5mw red lasers for the cats. Cant wait to play with the cats using a 2w laser. I love the smell of burnt fur. Yes, kidding, I hate the smell.
I have a viridian green laser site for my handgun and the quality of that <5mw laser is far better than the red cat/dog toys. I cant wait to get my hands on something 200mw and higher.

I will be reading as much as I can but does anyone have a recommend site for low$$$ but decent quality laserpointers?

 

[IsaacT]

Laserbtb is the lowest quality site I would recommend. If you don't want to be stuck with a paperweight order from that or a better site. Or a member here.

You will want to avoid firing up a diode without a heatsink as a lot of the energy used up is waste, and ends up being released as heat. This heat can destroy your diode relatively quickly.

The driver is a current limiter as far as function goes. The laser diode is a current hungry component and will pull as many milliamps from your battery as possible. In the case of the Lithium Ion batteries we work with here, that ends up being many amps of electricity at about 3.7V. Your average diode wouldn't handle it for more than a second.

Welcome aboard! If you have any other questions feel free to post them here or PM me. Always glad to help.
-Isaac

 

[ru124t]

Don't forget the safety glasses and welcome to the forum!


LPF - Fueling your laser fire

 

[NightExplorer96]

Welcome to the forums!

 

[Shadowsix]

Welcome to the forum!

I'm new here myself. Another newbie (BobDiaz) pointed out an excellent laser safety seminar that was posted on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KblAdc6PrE

It is a must see!

Also I think as far as your project laser you don't want to forget a collimator or beam lens or your laser output wont look very well.

 

[Shady At Best]

I will check out the vid. I have no plans of wrecking my eyes with my new hobby.
Thanks for the link to Laserbtb. I will check out some stuff. I hope lazerpopint comes through before the end of the month. I have a snowshoe/backpacking trip that I would like to bring the lasers on

 

[xirrious]

They will most likely send your laser. The problem isn't normally not receiving the product but the product being s total pos. I did made the mistake of purchasing from lucklaser before reading the forums and now have a couple really lame lasers as a result.

 

[hakzaw1]

Nice to have another member from ????-

edit- SAB listed his loaction --TY-- lots of members on the west coast and 2 or 3 LEMs every year

Please make the search function your new 'bestie' here--

In each section there are 'stickies' those stay at ther top so you can find/use them anytime-
some of the answers you seek are here for you to find and read.

sent you A +5 REP. BUMP-- ENJOY lpf

HAK IN texas!!

 

[xirrious]

Woot plus five rep! I've reas the stickies on rep but still dont get it fully. Lol. ApprecIate that from you too the other night hakzaw :yh:

 

[hakzaw1]

It not complicated really- when you are new with no or little rep or posts a neg or a +rep does not make much difference but you DO get to leave a comment- OK (somewhat) to do this (+rep)any any old thread or post--HOWEVER negging somebody by just finding any old post is NOT allowed- your bump, if neg- needs to be placed in the post or thread wence your 'complaint' comes from.. -- Negging 'back' just because you got negged is not a good thing-

Where I am at presently allows me to bump you up or down as many as 4 or 5 points-(a green bump is posditive a red is neg and the blue ones means you have too little rep/postcount to make any diff. As you get more reps & comments the older ones get bumped off the rep in your profile page- once there the open forum AFAIK can no longer read them..--

However a high or low post count or rep...can sometimes mean nothing- some of our brightest minds here have low counts-- and likewise some with 4000+pots in as little as a year or two may just be post whores--and not really experts in any field..

So before yoiu get into an argument or make a new post be sure to check the dates- members since 2006 may not have a high count- but are vets all the same-
posting in an old dead thread is to be avoided- so check the date of the last few posts- and do not NECROPOST needlessly..

hak

 

[xirrious]

Have I necroposted? It wasn't intentional. What I dont get it the guy you repped has more green bars then me but less rep points thia s where my confusion comes in. Im a bit of a post whore I believe but only because I enjoy interacting on lpf. I've never sought rep and tbh it doesnt really matter for all the reasons you mentioned .. but as far as I know I've never revived a dead thread and certainly not on purpose.. so whys he have more bars but less points?

To clarify im simply looking for well... clarification lol and and in no way seeking unwarranted or undeserved rep points. Ill earn them in due time when I can offer more of a contribution to lpf because at the moment you guys sre really helping me a hundred times more then I help the community. Although I do try to offer good advice based on solid knowledge I've gained either here or elsewhere as long as I know it to be accurate. I try my best not to post out my ass so to speak :yh:

 

[hakzaw1]

Have I necroposted? It wasn't intentional. What I dont get it the guy you repped has more green bars then me but less rep points thia s where my confusion comes in. Im a bit of a post whore I believe but only because I enjoy interacting on lpf. I've never sought rep and tbh it doesnt really matter for all the reasons you mentioned .. but as far as I know I've never revived a dead thread and certainly not on purpose.. so whys he have more bars but less points?

To clarify im simply looking for well... clarification lol and and in no way seeking unwarranted or undeserved rep points. Ill earn them in due time when I can offer more of a contribution to lpf because at the moment you guys sre really helping me a hundred times more then I help the community. Although I do try to offer good advice based on solid knowledge I've gained either here or elsewhere as long as I know it to be accurate. I try my best not to post out my ass so to speak :yh:

Sorry you must have mis-understood my post- none was aimed at you- just speaking generally

IIRC the green bars are what we see until you get enough rep to make a single rep. point-

afaik we are 'born' here with one light green bar
as you get more+reps that grows- until you have ten bars
at that point gaining more =re- maked tjhe shadew of green change-to the point where you have 5 green bars at the left habd end- and IIRC that is where that then stays--


BUT if someone got a lot of neg rep the bars are then red when they fall below zero-- one red bars bad- many red bars more than one neg reps( you dont get a -4 showing )

sorry for the misunderstood post--hk

I have been guilty of making these same mistakes w/ no exception..

 

[xirrious]

Gotcha.. Thanks for clarification on all that. You've always been very helpful

 

[KapHn8d]

hakzaw is a wealth of knowledge

There are tons of folks here that can help you out... welcome to the forum and to the hobby.

Cheers!

c

 

[Shady At Best]

Thanks guys