World's Largest <1mW Rechargeable Pointer

[daguin]

truly amazing! hard to decide what to do with it! a big arse burner would be awesome but then the laugh you get for having such a huge weak laser may be ranked above the previous!

It's part of the "collection" now. Someday, if I ever get around to it, I'm going to make a "museum type" display of laser tubes. I've got some cool ones. This is one of the cool ones.

Peace,
dave

 

[Switch]

Wow, after I saw the first pics I was sure it's gonna be a battery powered HeNe. :-?

 

[Schrecken_Licht]

[quote author=thesk8nmidget link=1215880170/20#31 date=1218819214]truly amazing! hard to decide what to do with it! a big arse burner would be awesome but then the laugh you get for having such a huge weak laser may be ranked above the previous!

It's part of the "collection" now. Someday, if I ever get around to it, I'm going to make a "museum type" display of laser tubes. I've got some cool ones. This is one of the cool ones.

Peace,
dave[/quote]

You know, some one really ought to start up a laser museum....after all - there's museums for all sorts of related things - LEDs, light bulbs, etc - but none for lasers...probably because lasers are such a seriously under-rated invention (well, not around here, of course!).

 

[Nordhavn]

That's probably older than some of you on this forum. ;D

Back in the 80's hene pointers were available, they were big, had short run times and very fragile. The diode replacement was welcome in the fact that it ran much longer and was very rugged. Of course <1mW at 670nm to human eyes is very DIM in comparison to a hene. I remember paying $400 for a <1mW 2xAA 670nm pointer from a company called Imatronic in Batavia, IL, back in 1989. Edmund's sold them. Having a self contained diode laser pointer slightly smaller than a mini mag was VERY cool nearly 20 years ago! Didn't last long though. I cranked up the current (it had an NEC 5mW gain guided diode) until it finally bit the dust. I replaced the diode with a Toshiba TOLD9201 and later a 9211. I was hooked on visible semiconductor lasers from then on. The collimator was a simple acrylic aspheric that provided a good circular beam with <1mR divergence but was discarding lots of power. A single element GRIN lens was far more efficient however the beam was elliptical and exhibited lots of aberrations. I finally found someone in Rochester NY that supplied me with four element glass collimators that circularized the beam and provided excellent beam quality with less loss than the single aspheric element.

 

[Chicxulub]

That's probably older than some of you on this forum. ;D

Back in the 80's hene pointers were available, they were big, had short run times and very fragile. The diode replacement was welcome in the fact that it ran much longer and was very rugged. Of course <1mW at 670nm to human eyes is very DIM in comparison to a hene. I remember paying $400 for a <1mW 2xAA 670nm pointer from a company called Imatronic in Batavia, IL, back in 1989. Edmund's sold them. Having a self contained diode laser pointer slightly smaller than a mini mag was VERY cool nearly 20 years ago! Didn't last long though. I cranked up the current (it had an NEC 5mW gain guided diode) until it finally bit the dust. I replaced the diode with a Toshiba TOLD9201 and later a 9211. I was hooked on visible semiconductor lasers from then on. The collimator was a simple acrylic aspheric that provided a good circular beam with <1mR divergence but was discarding lots of power. A single element GRIN lens was far more efficient however the beam was elliptical and exhibited lots of aberrations. I finally found someone in Rochester NY that supplied me with four element glass collimators that circularized the beam and provided excellent beam quality with less loss than the single aspheric element.

I love old lasers.

That story was fuckin cool.

+1

 

[gregorio87]

Whw, it's very big...
Date of manufactured?
Who had make this?

 

[Zom-B]

man, taht's the peeniz lasor.

Definitely the most ironic laser I know. This big, then that weak.

If it is really genuine (as opposed to a joke) it might have a very special diode which was state of the art back when it was made, unlike the mass produced diodes today.

 

[artix]

^BLASPHEMY!

.

 

[daguin]

[quote author=VillageIdiot link=1215880170/20#27 date=1216623705]^BLASPHEMY!

.[/quote]


Ooopsie . . .Did I just save that to my desktop? .. . .Darn! [smiley=evil.gif]

Peace,
dave