solar powered laser?

[Mohrenberg]

i was playing in radio shack and saw little solar panels....has anyone made a solar powered laser yet? i was thinking making one out of like 15 .4v solar panels (maybe more since it is like .4v max with direct sunlight.)

just for fun........was curious

 

[Cyparagon]

The amount of sunlight required to power a laser would drown out said laser.

 

[MarioMaster]

I've recharged batteries with solar power that I later used in my lasers... does that count?

 

[Helioplasma]

Hey,

How bout hook a solar panel up to a set of rechargable lithium at 720mAh.
And hook Li Batts up to a 120mA drawing laser (like a blu-ray).
Lets say the solar panel is 5 % efficient, and the battery charges 50% of the current applied to the terminals (2.5% total).

Put the solar panel in front of the laser.

The total power emitted to the solar panel (--60mW) which will add 3mAh to the battery each second, and will be reused then.
(x is time)

f(x)-> 720-120x+3x
f(x)-> -117x+720
x=80/13 = --6.15 hours

Assuming you use the laser for the sole purpose of charging itself (because using to burn or whatever blocks the beam and will stop charging itself  wont make itself be able to charge itself...) you will get 6 hours and 4 minutes of laser uselessness. (having not taken account of the duty cycle), which is equal to a 4 minutes more battery time.

In conclusion,

...

...

Dont bother.  
PS: I havent understood a word of what I said.
Anyway dont bother, a laser with solar panels is ugly.

 

[sad_sagi]

there was this video about how a guy got a led keychain light and hooked it up to a solar panel, and it stayed on forever because the light pointed at the panel
I believe it was the same site that had the "Turn your 5mw laser pointer into a burning laser"

I'd go with a solar powered charger unless you have a long wire to go from the panel outside to inside to play with the laser

 

[diachi]

That isn't actually possible, even with the addition of a battery that still could never work . The energy transfer wouldn't be 100% efficient so it couldn't power itself forever .

The only 100% efficient energy transformation is when you put anti-matter and normal matter together .

-Adam

 

[GooeyGus]

I'm working on a solar powered laser as we speak.

It will be 8 3" diameter lenses, pointed at the sun, each one focused into a fiber optic line.

The fiber optic lines lead into a reflective cavity. The lines will have small lenses at the ends inside the cavity, to diverge the sunlight.

This diverged sunlight will then pump a CW yag rod and hopefully give me a pretty strong 1064nm solar powered laser.

Right now I'm having trouble locating a CW yag rod for a decent price, and I'm just beginning to 'design' everything else. You could say it's in the very preliminary stages, but will hopefully manifest itself by early 2009.

 

[Cyparagon]

The fiber optic lines lead into a reflective cavity. The lines will have small lenses at the ends inside the cavity, to diverge the sunlight.

This diverged sunlight will then pump a CW yag rod and hopefully give me a pretty strong 1064nm solar powered laser.

That's solar pumping.

 

[GooeyGus]

[quote author=GooeyGus link=1221634276/0#6 date=1221708240]The fiber optic lines lead into a reflective cavity. The lines will have small lenses at the ends inside the cavity, to diverge the sunlight.

This diverged sunlight will then pump a CW yag rod and hopefully give me a pretty strong 1064nm solar powered laser.

That's solar pumping.  [/quote]

Still solar powered!!!  

Just gotta think outside the box!!!! Everyone saw the words 'solar powered' and assumed panels  

 

[Cyparagon]

diode powered solid state? I like the other way

 

[GooeyGus]

diode powered solid state? I like the other way  

;D

 

[laserlover]

ya i have 3! they are called "magnifying glasses" lol, jk