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Blu-ray Laser Gadget
i4u writes, "Wicked Lasers has done the unthinkable. They took the sparse blue laser diodes used in Blu-ray Disc drives and are making cool laser gadgets out of them, called Sonar. You can own one of these very limited edition lasers for $1,999.99. The price is that high because Wicked Lasers buys Blu-ray Disc players and removes the Blu-ray diode for the Sonar laser."
OK, so it seems pretty crazy to junk a blu-ray just to grab the laser, but there must be some reason they are doing this other than the publicity, right? Can someone explain the importance of a blue laser over a regular handheld red laser of the same power that sells for ~$20? Or is it just supposed to be cool looking?
... are these so expensive just because they're expensive to make, or is there massive demand that keeps that the price up (and if so, what is that demand based on)?
Looking online, I see that the standard price for blue laser pointers is over $1000 (here's the cheapest I found, which has a longer wavelength and lower power than the Blu-ray)
Crack - Free with every butt and set of boobs
"The cost of a new Blu-ray disc player combined with international shipping, and import taxes raises the cost of obtaining a 405nm diode in China to approximately $1,500." I smell a lie... why don't they go down the street to the Chinese factory churning out these diodes for $5/unit and leave the marketing BS to Sony?
Don't you know that there's a shortage of blue ray laser diodes?! Every diode you have is another PS3 that some poor kid who is willing to spend $600 doesn't have. Won't you think of the children? Or at least your fellow gamer.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
Yes, but its terrible ackward to point with at the meetings.
How feasible is a handheld laser weapon? (Say, a few watts?) I realize that the key issue is that the laser does very little damage as it passes through an object. (Actually, it leaves a hole the diameter of the beam. Not very large.) However, I could see the laser rotating through a small arc during fire. That would at least carve out a centimeter or two from the target
That's an interesting question. I suppose carving a hole in someone's brain or heart could cause serious problems almost immediately, but if the wound is cauterized as it is made, it may be a relatively ineffective weapon.
Other "blue" lasers are in the range of 473nm. Given the color responsiveness of the eye these already appear darker than their Red and Green cousins even at similar power output. And you can't really get high power blue lasers.
So given that these are only 20mw and super low on the spectrum, I'd expect these are hardly visible in comparison with other pointers. A unique color, if you can see the damned thing.
Seems pretty pointless to me really... why would anyone buy one?!
"They do not preach that their god will rouse them, a little before the Nuts work loose." Kipling, 'The Sons of Martha'
Using blu-ray hardware just to get the laser out of it? Won't the manufacturers sell them lasers instead? This seems utterly backwards.
I took apart a double layer DVD player for the laser. Output is something over 200mW. The beam puts out some heat and can be used as a tool. You won't find this laser pointer in a store for obvious reasons. Its a $50 cutting torch.
The narrow wavelength from this laser may be more interesting as things can fluoresce.
Well we are being told that it has a 3 Volt lithium battery in it and a 20 mW blue laser, so we can take guesses how long you can play with this blue laser thingie before the battery runs down.
Honestly, this is one of the most hollow slashvertisments I have seen in a long time. They are selling something, but we are not told why it is so good to spend 2K on it. My gues is they have bought 0 (zero) BlueRay players and created a mockup so somebody would pay them to take a blueray player apart (and put it's laser into a useless thingie).
This space is intentionally staring blankly at you
Do not look directly into laser with remaining eye!
Why bother.
the wavelength of 405nm is right on the edge of the visible spectrum. i'm not even sure you can display that color on a typical RGB monitor.
$2k for a laser to show off to your friends.
$10k for corrected surgery to attempt to salvage vision after someone peeks at the source.
-Rick
"Most people in the U.S. wouldn't know they live in a tyrannical state if it walked up and grabbed their junk." - MyFirs
But can it be mounted on a shark?
Humblest Friend,
My name is Kwame Ebola, attorney at Law and I have been referred to your esteemed self as a person of outstanding character who will help, my client, Mrs A Ohura, Widow of the late Mr Kim Ohura, founder of the highly successful company known as Wei-Kid Lasers. Mr Ohura founded his company not long ago with the aim to take apart fairly cheap laser-based products and use a small quantity of the parts to make something smaller that sells for a lot more money. Mr Ohura's business was very successful with many happy fool^h^h^h^h customers purchasing his noble products.
Sadly, Mr Ohura suffered an untimely death when his private plane crashed while landing at his personal retreat near the delightful city of Lagos, Nigeria, when the pilot was blinded by a mysterious blue light - possibly due to witchcraft used by a rival company. Mr Ohura left the bulk of his fortune - some FIFTY SIX MILLION DOLLARS and TWENTY-FIVE BLUE LASER DIODES to his, wife, my client, but due to the complex inheritance laws in this country, my client needs a person outside the country to claim the estate to avoid Sony claming the diodes.
Etc..
AT&ROFLMAO
Explain how to make something that actually cuts out of a DL-DVD laser, for a non-electronics geek, please? I'd like to mess with one.
I see another person did it too!
http://www.felesmagus.com/pages/lasers-howto.html
When you take the laser assembly out, you'll notice two of them mounted to little heatsinks. One of the two puts out light well into the visible red spectrum and the other is useless.
You can use the usual optical feedback supply to run at peak output, but since this dvd laser application used no feedback, neither did I. I hooked it directly up to the 5 volts from a USB cable through a 10 ohm resistor. You might want to steal a lens off another laser or a camera. If you don't use a lens, the beam spread will light up half the room.
This would be a good time to consider buying some eyewear that will filter out the red, because an accidental burst can get focused onto your retina. That would be bad.
From TFA:
"The cost of the Sonar is mainly due to the high price of laser diodes which are taken from Blu-ray disc players. The cost of a new Blu-ray disc player combined with international shipping, and import taxes raises the cost of obtaining a 405nm diode in China to approximately $1,500."
Either these guys a clinically stupid, or they're totally full of shit.
You can buy a brand new, already-imported, Sony BD-RW drive for under $500 according to the PC Connection catalog that is on my desk right now, and you can get a Sony standalone player for $799. They're paying $1500 for them? I bet they making the whole thing up and he's just holding a piece of (poorly) machined aluminum or a regular laser pointer in the picture. It's a ploy to get you to go to their website that you wouldn't have ever heard of otherwise. They priced it at $2k so that nobody would buy one, and they're hoping you'll pick up an overpriced green pointer while you're there.