Rail Road laser "cannon" stolen

[HIMNL9]

^ for this i said "beam expander" ..... probably is large just cause it include some beam expander and alignment screws ..... and probably the beam expander part worth more than all the rest of the laser (12000$ my a**, anyway )

Or maybe is just a long He-Ne tube, they already have a low divergence themselves, and more they are long, less is the divergence ..... :thinking:

 

[Tonga]

Well just how much more can they screw up? Lets just let them all know its dangerous!??? Laser Cannon!?? Maybe "slick" and his other buds need to be terminated for terminal stupidity!

 

[millirad]

Yeah, I think that is true about the laser cannon. It has a beam expander to get the divergence needed to be accurate and that makes the "cannon" host necessary.

^ for this i said "beam expander" ..... probably is large just cause it include some beam expander and alignment screws ..... and probably the beam expander part worth more than all the rest of the laser (12000$ my a**, anyway )

Or maybe is just a long He-Ne tube, they already have a low divergence themselves, and more they are long, less is the divergence ..... :thinking:

 

[ixfd64]

The article definitely reeks of sensationalism.

By the way, I agree that the railroad company probably got ripped off. A Hercules + beam expander + cheap tripod would make a laser "cannon" for a fraction of the price.

 

[willpine]

This was on the local news tonight. It was stolen out of a rail road maintenance truck ... the thieves probably didn't know what they had. It does look like a beast though.

Missing: Laser Cannon; If Found, Call FBI | NBC Dallas-Fort Worth

Thanks for posting this, i was going to but was slow doing it. I was wondering if it was visible spectrum laser or if they had some sort of filer or glasses they used to see it. But did you notice in the report the long tube looked a lot longer than the case? I thought the laser might be a gas laser b/c of how big it is, but i was going to ask what the boards thoughts were on it, or about the manufacturer. It makes me wary of using my lasers outside anytime soon though.

 

[Prototype]

I'm fairly sure that it's just a HeNe of larger length. I've got a 7mW tube in the mail that is a bit large, a tube that size would be 20-25mW most likely, the scope being so they can see the dot. A new HeNe in that power range isn't cheap but it's not $12,000. I'd like to know who manufactured it, to say the least.