This is far from idiot proof which means 98% of the DIY crowd will suffer damages and bring lawsuits and the company will die a miserable death in court. Pity, it looks like an amazing tool in the proper, trained hands.
I love this tool! But in an odd way it reminds me of a lovely lighter I once had. It was equipped with a platinum wire spiral that catalyzed butane combustion. As a result, it 1) lit first time every time and 2) would stay lit even in very windy conditions. Thing is, I don't smoke. The lighter was used almost exclusively for lighting visco, something I did a lot back then. (??)
In no time at all, the spit of the fuse (containing potassium carbonate, potassium sulfate, potassium sulfide, sulfur, etc) contaminated the platinum wire until the lighter was almost completely useless. I would have imagined the incandescent temperature at which the platinum operated would have burned off all contaminants. Not so.
So I can't watch this video without imagining the trouble of keeping the optics clean. Very clean. And if you didn't, I can imagine the optics cracking or melting.
Hmmm ... removing graffiti art might work here. Still without some sort of reflection hood this seems to be a reckless use of a laser. That much power and hitting a surface you "thought" wasn't as reflective as it actually is could cause irreversible trouble.
I doubt its 1000 W CW ,,,,,,, it has to be pulsed at that power and that size .
Yes Peter it is pulsed.
You can see the pulses in the video where it produces lines when moved rapidly.
Safety, ya that would be a problem.
They have done some things to help alleviate this by essentially defocusing the laser into a wide short focal length aperture line.
Unlike what one normally thinks about lasers with tight beam apertures this defocused laser's power density drops rapidly a few feet away. Of course laser goggles are mandatory.
BTW, I'm a member of the group "Kansas City Space Pirates" grabbed the world flight record of 25 hours for beamed power last weekend. This used a tracked 500W neodymium laser 90 feet away. "Laser Powered Flight Record attempt"
We are extremely safety conscious when doing these things. But this is a tightly focused beam.
I remember in my younger days attending an outdoor "Blue Oyster Cult" light show before the concert. Wonderful effects with a water cooled CW green gas laser of about 1000W, as I was told. Now that was quite dangerous in my opinion! This was just before heavy safety restrictions were placed doing such things.
Duane I saw a Blue Oyster Cult concert around 1980? that some of the laser effects actually hit the audience eyes.
Yes, that is what I saw too.
The effects were wonderful to see especially some of the dancing patterns totally enveloping the radiance and roof of the auditorium.
They had some trouble with the outdoor free show. It was in a park in the dead of winter and it gets cold here in Minnesota. They broke one of their lasers due to freezing the cooling water.
As I recall these were argon gas lasers about 8 feet long. I was about 25 feet away. The output was through 1" or so fiber optic waveguides.
I always wondered how night clubs get away with all the lasers pointing into the crowd. I guess they're moving so fast that it wouldn't be able to hit your eye long enough?
So, like James Bond, the next time I'm trapped in a Soviet-era iron locomotive, I can use this thing to burn a hole into the floor so I can get out with the beautiful girl that I just saved.
So, like James Bond, the next time I'm trapped in a Soviet-era iron locomotive, I can use this thing to burn a hole into the floor so I can get out with the beautiful girl that I just saved.
I'll buy two of these lasers, please.
Worse case, the locomotive will be ready for a paint job!!
I always wondered how night clubs get away with all the lasers pointing into the crowd. I guess they're moving so fast that it wouldn't be able to hit your eye long enough?
Bingo! and the other part is the watts per CM ^2 is low as they use fat beams ..
I have a small ND:YAG here . and one day Ill have a ruby ( If I ever get of my duff and make it work )
The CO2 in the college lab needs the HR and OC and Ill have a 60 watt baby ....
The lab has quite a few 808nm pulsed systems ... last year I fixed the 50 watt one .
I always wondered how night clubs get away with all the lasers pointing into the crowd. I guess they're moving so fast that it wouldn't be able to hit your eye long enough?
As Peter mentions, they use a beam with a wide waist, so the effective power is spread out. The beam sweeps across the eye in just a few microseconds. In the US, these things are tightly controlled, and all laser installations over X milliwatts in public places must be accompanied by a variance that permits their use.
And as important, the beams are all well within the visible spectrum. The most damaging are near infrared. They are close enough to visible light to still be directly focusable onto the retina, and because they are invisible or very dim, don't cause the normal reflexive protection when a bright light shines into the eye.
"Power scaling. .... For directed energy weapons, the company has charted a development pathway that leads to a nearly diffraction limited, free-space 100 kW system."
the eye peaks near 550 nm . this is why I use 3-5 mW DPSS green lasers for all my stuff in my home lab.
The 10 mW HeNe is only used for stuff where the beam MUST be TEM 00 .
Diodes still are poor beams ( or at least they are at the price point I can afford them.)
With the eye that much more sensitive to green I can " do more with less"
power is power and /// power is what eats eyes ... ( grantaed deep UV and far IR do muck with differnt parts of the eye ..
but in the Vis spectum for all practical reasons .... green burns retnas as bad as red.... so really DPSS Green at 532nm is great for my use.
As far as IR ..... So true ! ....... If you can " see " 808 nm you are well on your way to a dead eye .
the red 650 nm was 25 mW
the 532 green was 15 ish mW
the Blue 445 was 40 mW
Granted CCDs and CMOS are NOT eyes but I can attest that the pic is the same britghtness as what I saw.
the lasers here were for a galvo project last year ..
back when I was still in LA in cali I met up with one of the worlds most well respected SS/ DPSS laser gurus at TRW ..
Dr. Hagop Injeyan.
W9GFO
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Comments
I do wonder how it might do at tatoo removal (ouch... ouch.. oooouch..)
This is far from idiot proof which means 98% of the DIY crowd will suffer damages and bring lawsuits and the company will die a miserable death in court. Pity, it looks like an amazing tool in the proper, trained hands.
In no time at all, the spit of the fuse (containing potassium carbonate, potassium sulfate, potassium sulfide, sulfur, etc) contaminated the platinum wire until the lighter was almost completely useless. I would have imagined the incandescent temperature at which the platinum operated would have burned off all contaminants. Not so.
So I can't watch this video without imagining the trouble of keeping the optics clean. Very clean. And if you didn't, I can imagine the optics cracking or melting.
So I looked up 'visco'...
I guess that's another entry in my NSA file...
C.W.
The video posted appears to be a copy by someone posting a bunch of spam on YouTube.
Edit: Thanks Rich.
Oh, Smile!
...it seemed like a good idea in the boardroom...
C.W.
That ought to really test their fume extractor.......wonder if they have a fire suppressor attachment for situations like this?
http://teradiode.com/
You can see the pulses in the video where it produces lines when moved rapidly.
Safety, ya that would be a problem.
They have done some things to help alleviate this by essentially defocusing the laser into a wide short focal length aperture line.
Unlike what one normally thinks about lasers with tight beam apertures this defocused laser's power density drops rapidly a few feet away. Of course laser goggles are mandatory.
BTW, I'm a member of the group "Kansas City Space Pirates" grabbed the world flight record of 25 hours for beamed power last weekend. This used a tracked 500W neodymium laser 90 feet away.
"Laser Powered Flight Record attempt"
We are extremely safety conscious when doing these things. But this is a tightly focused beam.
I remember in my younger days attending an outdoor "Blue Oyster Cult" light show before the concert. Wonderful effects with a water cooled CW green gas laser of about 1000W, as I was told. Now that was quite dangerous in my opinion! This was just before heavy safety restrictions were placed doing such things.
Duane J
The effects were wonderful to see especially some of the dancing patterns totally enveloping the radiance and roof of the auditorium.
They had some trouble with the outdoor free show. It was in a park in the dead of winter and it gets cold here in Minnesota. They broke one of their lasers due to freezing the cooling water.
As I recall these were argon gas lasers about 8 feet long. I was about 25 feet away. The output was through 1" or so fiber optic waveguides.
Oh to be young and stupid again.
Duane J
Yeah, 'cuz now that I'm old and stupid it just isn't near as much fun!
I'll buy two of these lasers, please.
Worse case, the locomotive will be ready for a paint job!!
Bingo! and the other part is the watts per CM ^2 is low as they use fat beams ..
I have a small ND:YAG here . and one day Ill have a ruby ( If I ever get of my duff and make it work )
The CO2 in the college lab needs the HR and OC and Ill have a 60 watt baby ....
The lab has quite a few 808nm pulsed systems ... last year I fixed the 50 watt one .
As Peter mentions, they use a beam with a wide waist, so the effective power is spread out. The beam sweeps across the eye in just a few microseconds. In the US, these things are tightly controlled, and all laser installations over X milliwatts in public places must be accompanied by a variance that permits their use.
And as important, the beams are all well within the visible spectrum. The most damaging are near infrared. They are close enough to visible light to still be directly focusable onto the retina, and because they are invisible or very dim, don't cause the normal reflexive protection when a bright light shines into the eye.
http://teradiode.com/technology/
"Power scaling. .... For directed energy weapons, the company has charted a development pathway that leads to a nearly diffraction limited, free-space 100 kW system."
Does this mean I can finally have my phaser?
the eye peaks near 550 nm . this is why I use 3-5 mW DPSS green lasers for all my stuff in my home lab.
The 10 mW HeNe is only used for stuff where the beam MUST be TEM 00 .
Diodes still are poor beams ( or at least they are at the price point I can afford them.)
With the eye that much more sensitive to green I can " do more with less"
power is power and /// power is what eats eyes ... ( grantaed deep UV and far IR do muck with differnt parts of the eye ..
but in the Vis spectum for all practical reasons .... green burns retnas as bad as red.... so really DPSS Green at 532nm is great for my use.
As far as IR ..... So true ! ....... If you can " see " 808 nm you are well on your way to a dead eye .
the red 650 nm was 25 mW
the 532 green was 15 ish mW
the Blue 445 was 40 mW
Granted CCDs and CMOS are NOT eyes but I can attest that the pic is the same britghtness as what I saw.
the lasers here were for a galvo project last year ..
back when I was still in LA in cali I met up with one of the worlds most well respected SS/ DPSS laser gurus at TRW ..
Dr. Hagop Injeyan.
I got to meet the Son ( the unit on a 8x10 foot optics table ) of TEHL and M-THEL http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tactical_High_Energy_Laser
50 Watt bar diodes pulsed to I have no clue how high peak wattage .... then it pumped YAG slabs (
It was a honor to touch and be near such a beast .......
I surprised to learn many (most?) camera sensors use groups of four sensors. One red, one blue and two green.
Images are often encoded with higher resolution in green than the other colors.