more oomph please

[HalfCracked]

Hi,
I'm building a prop for "The Revenge of the Pink Panther" & I've managed to put toghether an ok death ray using a single mirror tunnel. the question is what can I do to punchup the visibility?

I'm currently using a laser pointer from Fry's. I have replaced the 2 AA batteries with a wall wart & I'm running the motor & laser at 3v. I've tried boosting the motor power to increase the rotation but that just made the tunnel steadier not brighter. I briefly fed the pointer 4.5v & didn't see any real change in brightness. I'm guessing there is some voltage regulation built in to the pointer but I really don't want to push it; this needs to be reliable. There's nothing worse than a stage effect that dosen't go off on que.

The cone shoots through a pvc tube wich acts as the "Doomsday Device's" (TM) barrel. I have a small fogger behind the laser enclosed in a highly pressurised box this forces the fog to blow out the barrel allong with the beam.

Hazing the theater is not really an option this is a short lived effect.

 

[HalfCracked]

Here's the effect as I have it working now. We are probably going to have to dim the stage lights durring performance but the less the better.

 

[Things]

how many mw is the laser? and what are you going to do to get the fog?
nice work BTW

 

[HalfCracked]

Yeah it's a 5 mw pointer... but the nice thing is I could buy it off the shelf.

the fog is from a small Gemmy fogger it shoots out the same place the beam comes out of.

I have the rig punched through the side of a sealed box. The fog machine is inside the box hehind the mirror. I have a high pressure squirrell cage blowing in the box this drives the fog past the laser & mirror & out the pvc pipe.

This setup lets me quickly fog up the shaft of air that the laser cone shoots through. The second picture is with fog leftovers. I messed around a bit blasting the fog then I decided to get my camera & take some pics.

I did figger out that too mutch fog kills the beam.

Hrmmm I wonder if I would be better served putting a hazer in the box rather than a fogger....

 

[Deleted member 13229]

For more brightness you're gonna need more power. The laser you have might be "pot moddable", take a look around on this forum to see how to pot mod a laser.

 

[HalfCracked]

Well blank me running!
I just blewup my greenie :'( :'(
If it had voltage protection not enough to deal w/ 12v. I went to do some tweaking to the mirror & plugged in the laser only I forgot that I had been using the brick to test some 12v stuff & still had it switched to 12v. ran vor about a min. then the laser went out & the mirror went screamming fast.

I'm guessing I fried it good.

 

[Things]

well it looks like you are going to need a new one! ;D well take a look at dealextreme.com, they have very cheap high powered greenies, and free shipping i think?

 

[HalfCracked]

I saw that.
The only thing I worry about is that there's no filter. I'm building this prop for a public presentation. I can't ask an audience to wear goggles.

The beam was to shoot over the main audience & below the balcony seats.

I'm guessing that with a scanning setup there's little likelyhood of burning objects with the beam on say a 20mw.

I also worry about running afoul of some regulation using a higher power laser.

 

[yew.sir-name]

Ir is not a factor on any dx true laser under 50mw. Plus it runs off aaa batterys so you need not fry it. And as you're making a tunnel the light wont be focused at one point so should cause no problems to health or safety. I'd say get a 20 or 30mw for the best effect.

 

[Thories]

personally i think IR is pretty much no problem whatsoever from a green laser unless ur sitting in a dark room with lasershades burning really close. Personal belief however. i mean IR generally diverges really rapidly and it just dont have the power to do much damage over any realistic distance. id be more worried about laws and regulations!

 

[HalfCracked]

Well I got Fry's to RMA the old laser. I have a 30 on order from DX but it won't get here before opening night