Hi folks!
Its been a good 10 years since I was last involved in the laser hobby (innocent 12-year old back then).
Seems like a lot of cool affordable diodes have come onto the market in the last few years and that makes me really want to put together a new cool pointer.
I am looking to make a laser for pointing at the night sky and generally just have (safe) fun with.
I want something that is low power and usable without glasses but still has a proper visible beam at night.
I love the violet lasers (used to have a blue-ray one I really enjoyed) but since the perceived brightness of these are quite low relative to their output power it would not be optimal for this build and regular GLPs are a tad boring imo (and they have the IR issue).
The mint/turquoise diodes around 488nm look cool and seem like a good compromise for visibility/power/safety (correct me if I am wrong here).
Ive been looking around ebay for 488nm diodes and found 30mw no name modules around 30eur and these 60mw sharp diodes around the same price.
Im open to buying a complete module with driver or buying separate diode/module/driver (perhaps solder up my own driver).
Really whatever is cheap is good for my needs.
I have an old bosch air-drill I wanna use as a housing.
My questions are:
Is the beam visibility of turquoise lasers comparable to GLPs? Do they also produce dangerous IR?
Any recommendations for diodes/drivers/modules around the mint/turquoise spectrum (does not have to be exactly 488nm)? (Where to buy from? I am in the EU)
Is it possible to run 30-60mw laser diodes at a lower output power? Looking for an output suitable for star gazing/playing around in the forest at night.
Would you consider using a laser over 5mw at all without glasses?
Any recommendations for optics? (not too expensive)
Happy to be back in the hobby!
Cheers
Its been a good 10 years since I was last involved in the laser hobby (innocent 12-year old back then).
Seems like a lot of cool affordable diodes have come onto the market in the last few years and that makes me really want to put together a new cool pointer.
I am looking to make a laser for pointing at the night sky and generally just have (safe) fun with.
I want something that is low power and usable without glasses but still has a proper visible beam at night.
I love the violet lasers (used to have a blue-ray one I really enjoyed) but since the perceived brightness of these are quite low relative to their output power it would not be optimal for this build and regular GLPs are a tad boring imo (and they have the IR issue).
The mint/turquoise diodes around 488nm look cool and seem like a good compromise for visibility/power/safety (correct me if I am wrong here).
Ive been looking around ebay for 488nm diodes and found 30mw no name modules around 30eur and these 60mw sharp diodes around the same price.
Im open to buying a complete module with driver or buying separate diode/module/driver (perhaps solder up my own driver).
Really whatever is cheap is good for my needs.
I have an old bosch air-drill I wanna use as a housing.
My questions are:
Is the beam visibility of turquoise lasers comparable to GLPs? Do they also produce dangerous IR?
Any recommendations for diodes/drivers/modules around the mint/turquoise spectrum (does not have to be exactly 488nm)? (Where to buy from? I am in the EU)
Is it possible to run 30-60mw laser diodes at a lower output power? Looking for an output suitable for star gazing/playing around in the forest at night.
Would you consider using a laser over 5mw at all without glasses?
Any recommendations for optics? (not too expensive)
Happy to be back in the hobby!
Cheers
