New old guy on board!

[wlchase]

Howdy! I'm old enough that I recall watching the news release of the first viable LASER being demoed in the lab! Being a science fiction nut from the age of being able to select books on my own, I was hooked!

My evil, I mean, safe, sane, well-thought-out plan is to build a pistol-format laser with enough power to kill flies & roaches, but with a "standard" low-power mode for aiming. I will be moving quite slowly in this endeavor, due to, well, NO MONEY!

I've lurked for a while, and hope to start gathering parts soon.

BTW, found y'all from the now-defunct GeekBrief.TV. :cryyy:

Bill

 

[Burnsy]

Welcome on LPF! :wave:

And I've also had the same idea in mind but I thinks it's gonna be really hard.
To kill a fly quickly (not pointing almost a second on it till it burns) you need some hundred mW's but on the other hand it will also fly away when a beam of "only" maybe 30mW hits it. So for aiming you would have to get to 5mW down or less...
I don't know if there is a high power diode that starts lasing that early

 

[lasersbee]

to the forum New Old Guy....:beer:
Since you've been lurking for a while I guess I don't
need to tell you to read the FAQs... the Stickies and
the Forum Rules...

Enjoy your stay...

Jerry

 

[Hemlock_Mike]

Welcome to an old fart like me !!!
I've found that some bugs don't "see" some wavelengths so your gun will need selectable wavelengths.
Spiders see RED right now but a 405 might be a good bet. I haven't tested 445 on pests yet.

HMike

 

[Coherent Light]

Welcome to an old fart like me !!!
I've found that some bugs don't "see" some wavelengths so your gun will need selectable wavelengths.
Spiders see RED right now but a 405 might be a good bet. I haven't tested 445 on pests yet.

HMike

I have, and so far Mosquitoes, moths, gnats, lightning bugs, spiders, Beatles, and wasps all react to the 445nm wavelength either by sight or because of the heat. At 800mw the smaller vermin can be taken out when hit for less than a second. Larger Items need to be tracked for up 30 seconds for a hard shelled Beatles.

PETA Go F-Off if You don't like this.

Coherent: