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ArcticMyst Security by Avery

Tiniest 365nm - 395nm simple setup

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Aug 19, 2010
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Hi all,
Anyone ever see a really small blue, purple, or (visible) uv pointer or anything with an easy switch?
Project in the works to mount one on a mini crossbow that I'm making ultra gliw in the dark ammo for.
Power is not an issue, just something that I can mount to serve as a combination aiming dot and way to charge the glow.
Thanks!
If it turns out good, I'm sure that the company would let me offer a discount code to the forums.
Permanent Waves
ElementalBreakdown.Com
 





CurtisOliver

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Package size isn't so much of an issue when it comes to the UV range. There are UV laser diodes out there. The problem is cost and safety. You could get 405nm which is near-UV. These are fairly inexpensive and fluoresce very well still. But the power level will need to exceed 5mW and therefore be needing safety considerations. UV laser diodes are also fairly expensive. Best offer i've seen so far by a business member here is 300€ per diode. And this is a bargain as far as i'm aware.
Check out this thread of a member getting to work with a 375nm laser diode.

 
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I can get pointers that work perfectly well on the auction site for $5. They usually measure pretty close to 5mw.

I haven't ever taken apart a pointer so not sure if it's possible to just gut one and still get it to focus.
 

CurtisOliver

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Yes, they are 405nm. You can get low power 405nm modules easily and inexpensively. As you mentioned 365-395nm in your title. I prewarned you that this avenue is expensive if you go for those wavelengths.
 

kecked

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I want 1watt 195nm single mode. 0.1mRad. My handheld lightning maker!
 

kecked

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Unlikely anytime soon. Better have a rotator, vacuum section, and unobtsnium lens material. Instant cancer.
 

CurtisOliver

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Unlikely anytime soon. Better have a rotator, vacuum section, and unobtsnium lens material. Instant cancer.
Of course it would be a highly dangerous laser. If anything was a portable cancer ray that would be it.
 
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Wow, you guys blow me away with your knowledge. Never imagined it would scale that fast with wavelength. So 405nm should work fine, this is one of those mini crossbow novelties. I would like to add it and make glow ammo as well as an aiming point. They don't shoot more than 25 M so I am hoping that even a 1" dot that isn't well focused at 25M would be OK.
I don't think I should make it run on anything that would draw too much or use exotic batteries, basically just shrink a pointer to fit on it placed to charge the glow and aim at the same time.
The glow stuff I am using is great, I am running experiments called the "Glowlympics" just as soon as I can figure out how to fund the $40,000 instrument I need to measure luminance of glow paints applied to paracord beads...basically need to count photons. The company that makes it is in Mahwah, NJ only about half an hour but I haven't really tried to convince them to let me buy some lab time with the instrument instead of purchasing it. I think I could do all the needed tests in an hour or two.
Off topic, but hoping you guys might have an idea on that too.
Thank you all!
 

CurtisOliver

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Things to be aware about if not already. What lighting conditions you intend to use this laser in will affect its brightness. This is the laser brightness and the fluorescence of certain colours. As you are using crossbows I am solely presuming that you are using well-lit settings. 405nm is very dim in bright conditions. At 25m 5mW 405nm may be very hard to gauge where the spot is. Fluorescence should still be bright enough to see, just it may be some blind aiming. But this was to be expected anyway if you originally intended in using UV wavelengths.
Also luckily 405nm diodes can have very good divergence. Just as well as a you couldn't have a laser diverging more than 0.9mRad to give you around a 1" spot like requested. Depending on the module quality you shouldn't have a problem with this. However cheap poor modules will not have optimum beam specs. A module consists of a pressed laser diode and driver in one small package. You can't get smaller than the module size. Then you have the power source, which can be mounted separately if needed. No exotic batteries are needed. You can power of AAA's in most cases.
 
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Great info! It's not as easy as taking apart a laser pointer and making sure the lens stays intact, is it?
 

CurtisOliver

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Put it this way, if you had a functioning pointer. Then you might as well keep in that form.
 

Encap

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You already have a prior thread with the only and best answers possible re: 365nm-395nm laser pointers.
There are no tiniest or for that matter largest 365-395nm pointers. There are no pointers period offered by anyone in that wavelength range - they don't exist--no demand/need for them meaning no market in the real world to support mass production of low cost diodes in that range .
You can troll LPF asking the same thing 100 times and the answer will be the same--they only exist in your imaginings/imagination other than a few made buy individuals who want to spend the $$$ on a very expensive diode. Read your own thread: https://laserpointerforums.com/thre...-glow-and-basic-forum-layout-question.107451/

Combination aiming dot and way to charge the glow for a mini-crossbow ammo by means of a 405nm laser illumination? Discount on a product that does not exist---really? lol
If for yourself and curiosity maybe would be OK as for being allowed by the FDA as a children's toy product or for that matter any type of product a complicated approval process . 2 strikes-- dangerous crossbow and dangerous laser. No company or manufacturer is going to bother with same -no reason to incur the liabilities associated same.
UV LEDs might fly on a mini-crossbow product--the whole thing is a weak idea anyway but maybe some company is desperate enough to entertain it.

One thing is for sure anything over 5mW would not be allowed by FDA Laws, rules, and regulations --would be illegal for any consumer product purpose in the USA. All of the lasers you see on ebay all say 5mW because anything over that is a violation of FDA law, rules , and regulations. You say "They usually measure pretty close to 5mw." Nonsense, everyone on LPF knows none of them are actually 5mW generally and even the $5 to $10 405nm lasers are typically 50mW-200mW. "Laser products promoted for pointing and demonstration purposes are limited to hazard Class IIIa by FDA regulation. 21 CFR 1040.11(b) and 1040.11(c), limit surveying, leveling, and alignment, and demonstration laser products to Class IIIa. This means that pointers are limited to 5 milliwatts output power in the visible wavelength range from 400 to 710 nanometers. There are also limits for any invisible wavelengths and for short pulses. Pointers may not exceed the accessible emission limits of CDRH Class IIIa or IEC1 Class 3R."
see: https://www.fda.gov/radiation-emitt...rtant-information-laser-pointer-manufacturers

All of the "glow"pigment makers can give you data on the materials particle size and "glow" output and whatever else they have.
People have eyes that adapt to the dark and are more than sensitive enough to determine which GID powder is brightest to their eyes and works for whatever they want to do with it.

$40,000 photon counting machine for unnecessary testing nonsense for a mostly meaningless frivolous purposes is pretty far "out in left field"/out there for anyone to buy into. I am sure you realize "the wake up call" evidenced by $0.00 since July 2020 on the GoFundMe site.
What is it you are actually doing that is worth more than maybe $100 worth of GID powder that is not a meaningless nonstarter waste of time that obviously nobody cares about as evidenced by the lack of funding?
What is the paracord bead thing in the real world, beyond $50 of beads, other than a mental obsession/daydream of some kind? There already exist GID paracord and several different GID beads that saturate the market for same , more are available than there is a market for so...?

Thousands of ideas are a dime per hundred and everything is possible in imagination---not so in the real world.
Be careful you don't jump off the high dive into a pool with no water--just saying.
 
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Wait, I have NOT put ANY effort into the gofundme- it was just to familiarize myself with it.
There are at least a dozen companies making claims about "brightest" and "longest lasting" backed by zero evidence.
The ideal pigment size is 50nm, and it may very well be that there are only a handful of manufacturers, but that in itself would be a "win" for me.
This isn't just about my pet project which I have not made any effort whatsoever to monetize, it's about understanding what- if anything besides particle size- makes for brighter glow.
This is relevant for lots of different reasons, including making an even better glow pigment.
I've done enough "homework" to say with certainty that no one in this country (USA) has any data on the objective luminance of their products. And there are now pigments in every color except yellow that deserve testing.
Either there is a standard manufacturing practice that produces uniform results at any given pigment size or there isn't- my point is that no one has done this testing and from little novelty things to OSHA regulations, it's a topic that deserves some research.


I get it. Has anyone seen an extremely compact laser pointer around 405nm? I don't want to go backwards and just use LED's for glow alone...
 
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