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How To Turn a Mini Maglite Into a Laser
Lucas123 writes "Using the laser from a DVD burner, this instructional video shows you how to create a hand-held laser that is powerful enough to light a match and pop a balloon. There's some soldering involved and the Maglite's bulb housing needs to be drilled out to fit the new laser diode, but with some basic skill, most people could do this. Just plain cool." Update: 07/09 12:23 GMT by KD : Warning, the device that results from following these instructions will blind you if you look into it.
So basically you're not making a laser, you're just moving a laser from a drive into a flashlight case.
Video Production Support
Know what I'm doing this weekend :) now if only this could be modified for Laser tag
actually ignite a match like that? I didn't know that 2 AA batteries could put out that much power in a laser beam... this is clearly a lot more powerful than your standard run-of-the-mill laser pointer used in presentations. I'm so tempted on doing this.
~ In Trust, We Trust ~
Now when I go to the movies, instead of worrying about Brad Pitt having a red dot on his face, I have to worry about the screen igniting. Good times.
In the words of Rainier Wolfcastle:
My eyes! The goggles do nothing!
So where did I put those frikin sharks?
Ok, so where do I get the shark ? and where is the manual on how to mount it on the shark ?
Now instead of just hitting the neighbor's cat with a sling shot, Jimmy can set it on fire.
The sun beams down on a brand new day, No more welfare tax to pay, Unsightly slums gone up in flashing light...
"Do not look into Laser with remaining eye!"
"To those who are overly cautious, everything is impossible. "
Nope. None of those things.
Articles about making lasers? Yes! Yes! It can light things on fire too?
Excuse me. I think I may have just wet my pants.
Custom, hands-free Linux installs. Instalinux
DVD players use a red laser; presumably Blu-Ray players use a blue laser (though why you're cannibalizing the operative piece of a $1k+ piece of... oh, wait, maybe you already converted your PS3 into a grill)... but there isn't anything that uses a green laser that's readily obtainable, is there?
"Is that necessary? Is it just a metal tube or does it serve a more substantial purpose."
Yes.
Now do you understand why they don't allow optical media writers in your carry-ons?
Next week...how to turn a laser into a repeating rifle - all part of our DIY Firearms Convergence Series, here on the 'Defending the Homefront' Channel. Brought to you by 'Ahmed's Security Stuff' - at ASS, we pick up on the first ring!
It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye... or at least an eyebrow!
Seriously though I know the perfect use for this -- long distance fly swatter!
Two words: personal responsibility
If you build it, nerds will come. Soylentnews.org
I feel a great disturbance in the internets. Like a thousand LG drives cried out in pain and were suddenly silenced. ...
Join the dark side, hack your mini-mag. Seriously sweet.
There's going to be a lot of blind hackers in the next couple of weeks. If you're smart, you'll figure out how to wrangle this as workmans comp before you build the thing.
I like music
Because, Slashdot is FREE SPEECH, free speech necessarily is harmful to kids, little geek sisters, and old people crossing the road at a slow pace by default. Otherwise it wouldn't be free. Plus its O.K. if laser shark armies blind us! I for one welcome our new Laser Shark Overlords! LSO's FTW!!!
The problem isn't the current draw - it is the heat. The big laser pointers tend to ensure there is better thermal coupling to the case so the waste heat is removed. With this, it will tend to heat up the module until pssst... and your laser is dead. Should be ok for less than a minute or so.
I just found a beat up mini mag with some old stuff of mine. Damn thing still worked too, their durability is legendary. I've also got a burner sitting here not being used. It's not a 16x and the article specifically mentions that, would other speed burners still work? Otherwise I'm going to buy a 16x just to rip out the diode. I don't own a soldering iron (I know, I know turn in my geek card and gun). Guess I'm going to radioshack this weekend. This should be pretty damn fun.
If you build it, nerds will come. Soylentnews.org
I see you have constructed a new lightsaber. Your skills are complete, indeed you are powerful as the emperor has foreseen. - Darth Vader
Sorry about the writing. Robot fingers, you know? Cliff Steele in DOOM PATROL #23
Is that a strange way of pronouncing 'soldering'?
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
Laser pointers (green ones at least) aren't limited in power because of their batteries, they are limited in power because of safety. Because of the concentrated nature of the beam, you can do some real damage. As such all pointers are limited to 5mW. For red, that's not a big deal as the diode caps out around there anyhow. However green diode lasers can be easily made to go more.
Think of (all?) the people who now have a good use for their BluRay players. ;P
What part of "This product contains a Class 2 laser. Do not power on without enclosure" did you not understand? This has the potential for causing serious bodily harm, including but not limited to permanent blindness!
"No problem. I have the capacity to do infinite work so long as you don't mind that my quality approaches zero."-Dilbert
If you can pop a balloon with it, it is probably in the 100mw range which is enough to do permanent eye damage in 1/100th of a second. That's faster than you can blink. You won't go blind instantly, you'll just burn out a bunch of optic nerves, producing a 'hole' in your vision. Chances are, your brain will correct for the hole and you won't even know its there, unless an object ends up right at that point in your field of view, at which point it will 'magically' disappear.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
Sure, cool and simple it is, but do you want to start placing bets on how many people are seriously going to think before pointing this at a mirror? This is the kind of article you'd expect to have a page of safety instructions in big flashing letters before ANY instructions. Free speech it is, but the author AND editor need to have some fscking sense of responsibility, too.
. . .but read and understand the safety FAQ first:
http://www.laserfaq.org/sam/lasersaf.htm#safssl2
Torben
WOOOOOOOOSH!!!
It's always a long day... 86400 doesn't fit into a short.
Yeah. But CD burner lasers are infrared so they won't look as cool (and you won't know that you are aiming it at your eye until you hear the boiling sound).
And be very very careful with these lasers, they are strong enough to cause permanent eye damage and blindness even at very short exposure times.
If J.K.R wrote Windows: Puteulanus fenestra mortalis!
How long will 2 AA batteries last shooting so much power ?
My
For some reason, there is a real genius out there who will get the Darwin Award for building this device and looking straight into to it for a prolonged period of time, with both eyes.
Now do you understand why they don't allow optical media writers in your carry-ons?
They don't?
What about laptops? Presentation mice?
Heck, I even brought two external DVD-RW drives from Portland to Boston and back in my carry-on, in addition to two laptops!
Use the IR diode :)
Can someone tell me what this post says? I think I burned my eye.
I'd be very interested to use this as a wire stripper, just like in the movie Executive Decision. I imagine most of the wires will need to be black or green and will require a few seconds of exposure before the insulation could be burned away, but having a perfectly stripped wire would be worth it. Even better is being able to strip any segment of the wire, not just the ends. Another good use would be to pop those annoying mylar balloons that litter vaulted ceilings after special occasions. I've searched Mouser.com and Digikey for laser diodes that are 150-200 mW, but to no avail. It would be great if anyone knows where to order only the diode.
nothing new here I've seen this before
http://reprap.org/bin/view/Main/LaserEtchTool
http://www.felesmagus.com/pages/lasers-howto.html
the above has more detail including a circuit diagram
MY EYES! The googles do nothing!
"Things are more moderner than before- bigger, and yet smaller- it's computers-- San Dimas High School football RULES!"
Re: Is the metal housing really necessary? ....Yes, for the most part.
....Mine didn't work because I could not find a way to get the laser diode out of the original steel heatsink it came in. It was glued inside a hole about 6mm deep in a odd-shaped steel heatsink. You could maybe grind the heatsink away a bit at a time with a Dremel & cutoff wheel, but laser diodes are sensitive to heat, so you cant let the laser get too hot. I tried using mine still in its heatsink with other optics (telescope objectives and whatnot), and with those set in front of it, it would melt a garbage bag a little but wouldn't do much else.
I tried this some time back, and it didn't quite work, but I'll relate what I know anyway:
1. There's TWO laser diodes in a DVD burner--remove them both out carefully, preserving as much of the leads already-soldered-on as you can! The leads of the laser diodes are very short (maybe 2mm) and only about a half-millimeter apart, it's damn tough to get the longer leads soldered back on if you cut them off, and there's no need to cut them off and then attempt to solder them back on anyway.
2. Inside the DVD burner you will find TWO laser diodes, with mirrors that feed them both into the same beam. Each will be glued inside its own heatsink, a piece of metal that may be a very odd shape, and then these are attached to a bigger copper plate. To tell them apart, just test them--try applying 1.5V power to both diodes one at a time, the CD one is IR and won't appear to do anything. The DVD one will light up visible red. (if all the lenses are removed from them at this point, you cannot burn your eyes out, that's in the next step...)
3. The bare laser diodes don't put out a laser "beam", they just create a pinpoint light (that's safe to look at!). To get the beam, you must mount a fisheye lens with its concave side set very close to the diode, almost touching it.
4. The laser housing is a metal tube with a fisheye lense set in it. The laser diode will get warm with 1.5V on it, and will get too hot to hold in ~30 seconds with 3V on it. The laser housing serves partly as a heatsink, and also as a way to hold the lens without melting (the DVD-drive optics will have a fisheye lense, but those optics are usually set into little plastic frames, and they may melt in this use).
IF you manage to get one out and do this, don't run it for more than ~20 seconds at a time without letting it cool down for a minute or so. The laser diode will work with 3V batteries hooked straight to it, but you're definitely not going to get that 100,000 hour lifetime. You'd be lucky to get 1000 hours. The DVD laser output power is typically around 210mW, and more than 150mW is enough to burn stuff (the CD laser won't burn stuff because it's only around 40-50mW max).
~
Is there enough that it could be harmful? (I mean in general, not pointed at eye(s))
This is not Cool... actually it's quite hot.
-:) Oh no - not again.
www.rednebula.com
You are wrong! Great freedom comes with great responsibility, and freedom of speech does not have to be harmful.
Freedom of speech or not, it is irresponsible to tempt people with limited or no knowledge to mess with technology that is likely to blind them or others. There is no age limit for readers of this site, so you have to assume that you might be speaking to teenagers or even kids. I would have thought that americans, with their love of lawsuits, would have learnt that by now.
Especially IR lasers (invisible lasers) are dangerous, because they will damage your eyes and you will not even blink or know what happened. The first thing that happens is you feel pain, and the damage is done.
Kids, have a game of soccer instead.... you might actually get a tan and some friends
Pepper spray? My balls! Nothing to teach an assailant a lesson like losing vision in one eye.
actually the one thing I am VERY interested in is if can produce enough pinpoint heat to start a flammable liquid on fire from a distance...oh.. I think I just came.
"Thank you for using Stop-n-Drop, America's favorite suicide booth since 2008"
Assuming this is laser is actually capable of blinding someone (which it rather looks like it is) then technically it's banned by the Geneva convention. And all with equipment that you can find in your own home... awesome!
Move along nothing to see here. Oh wait maybe there is, just don't look into it directly, or using a mirror of anykind.
Since when did being blind remove you from the gene pool? ...ouch!
I can think of somewhere you could aim it to become eligible for a Darwin Award...
(captcha: "treasure", as in jewels, as in OUCH!)
And be very very careful with these lasers, they are strong enough to cause permanent eye damage and blindness even at very short exposure times.
And now all we need is one asshole who'll set out to blind people with an infrared laser.
You don't know what he's done until you're already blind, and then it's too late... And good luck finding him, too.
Ignore this signature. By order.
What the article doesn't, and should say:
This is a very dangerous toy
IT WILL BLIND YOU IMMEDIATELY IF:
- You look at it
- You shine it on a reflective surface that shines it back into your eye
No joke, people. Don't try this at home. I'd actually argue that this video is irresponsible since it does not mention the dangers of the item being built at any point. It will probably be uploaded on Youtube and a lot of innocent, curious kids will end up with one fewer eye as a result of this video.
DO NOT USE UNSAFE LASERS WITHOUT WEARING THE APPROPRIATE PROTECTIVE GEAR (special goggles can be obtained for specific wavelengths, which will ensure that you cannot see the laser - and hence it can't hurt you).
Daniel (who was paying attention during the Physics Dept 'laser safety' lecture)
Carpe Diem
So what stops evildoers from blinding their favourite objects of hate from afar on a wide scale now?
How long until people start wearing eye-burners in their keychain for "protection"?
C'mon, do you really think terrorists need slashdot as a source for weapons? That's like saying malware writers use public webpages as a source for their 0day attacks.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
It has a collimating lens. Laser diodes produce highly divergent beams which aren't much use to anyone - so any laser diode to be useful will need a lens (either to focus the beam on a disk, or to produce a collimated beam for something like a laser pointer).
Oolite: Elite-like game. For Mac, Linux and Windows
That's gone out of fashion. You think guns would still be allowed in the US if the possession wasn't in the constitution? Personal responsibility has been replaced with nanny state.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Professional asswipes would use UV lasers. If you miss the target's eyes you give him a heightened chance of skin cancer instead.
If J.K.R wrote Windows: Puteulanus fenestra mortalis!
oh, right about now: http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=264967&cid=201 67001
"200 mW will lead to permanent eye damage within 1 microsecond (!) of exposure" Hm perhaps it is dangerous to mention on /. but you can get a very high power out of this diodes with current source chopped so that effective power stays still in limits from the manufacturer. Something like 5W or more can be achieved for a short period of time on a 200 mW diode. Now this laser has a much higher range. You can probably blind Martians with such device :) Anyway this involves some more knowledge of electronics so not every kid can do that...that's why I think it's safe to mention it here. They use this technique in medicine for healing (not eyes)
I seriously hope someone sues the fuck out of this guy SO badly that he'll never be able to afford a flashlight or a DVD burner again.
I'd rather get shot with a gun than be blinded with that thing. And unlike guns, any asshole (or kid) can assemble one from parts, with absolutely no regulation, and leave me permanently blind.
Don't realize how bad this is? OK, imagine this: Someone brings this to a disco and points it towards the revolving sphere = dozens blinded, permanently. This is not a joke. This can be used for terrorism, pure and simple.
I'm surprised the USA hasn't built a tank designed to permanently blind all of the enemy soldiers.
Of course, that would lead to all of the enemy soldiers investing in protective eyewear after a single encounter or two, but most of the countries we pick on can barely afford guns as it is.
Additionally, even the remote possibility of being permanently blinded during battle by a tank that spews out laser grids would do wonders to crush enemy morale.
Of course, you might say that the enemy will just start carrying around full-length mirrors, but that's a mute point if we give our own soldiers protective eye wear to wear into battle. Additionally, having to carry a big mirror around all the time would really hinder your ability to fight.
Two more words: Americans don't have it
I have been trying to make a point-matrix or grid projector starting from a very similar intstructable.
The only option I found for the optics is this: http://www.novalasers.com/NOVAstore/pc/viewCategor ies.asp?idCategory=6.
Does anybody know of a better place where to find these kind of optics? (I'm a software guy, I don't know the field very much.)
That would make it less dangerous and more useful for computer vision experiments and the like.
By the way, I think the author should have mentioned this other article: http://www.felesmagus.com/pages/lasers-howto.html from which he seems to derive. It also gives you another alternative for the diode casing (DigiKey).
Such weapons are illegal under the Geneva Convention, as is any other weapon expressly designed only to maim. Laser weapons also have further clarification in the form of The UN Protocol on Blinding Laser Weapons.
Weapons that do maim are undeniably effective, since it not only deprives your enemy of the soldier, but also the resources required to provide him with medical attention, and to support him when he is no longer able to be productive. Anti-personnel land mines are the chief example of weapons which fall into a grey area here - most of them are potentially lethal, but most often fall short and leave their targets maimed.
There have been various plans to produce merely incapacitating light-weapons, but in practice, it is difficult to produce a device than can dazzle your opponent without at least some chance of permanent damage.
Which is only possible with informed consent.
Telling people, and encouraging them, to do something that is clearly dangerous without warning them of the dangers is utterly irresponsible. I'm amazed this is on the front page of Slashdot. Yes, 90% of "nerds" may technically know that lasers may harm eyesight, but there's the other 10%, not to mention the (probably high) proportion of the 90% that might assume that the lasers being discussed pose less dangers by virtue of the fact someone might post articles encouraging building them without warning them of the high likelihood of accidental blinding themselves.
Or worse, blinding others.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
Bush: We've go to do something to get rid of all those dangerous hackers.
Vader: Perhaps we could post a video showing them how to make a dangerous weapon that they would accidentally use on themselves.
Jobs: Hmmm... there's a dangerous laser in DVD burners.
Gates: Yeah, let's hope that works better than your plan to make them all deaf with your stupid iPod, or get them run over walking across the street, playing with their iPhone.
Place nail here >+
Or do you think a DVD reader or CD writer will do?
> C'mon, do you really think terrorists need slashdot as a source for weapons?
I think it's just part of this myth that terrorists are stupid in some way, and that we can give them ideas just by idly posting to Slashdot (or wherever). Clearly this is untrue, otherwise there wouldn't be a problem with terrorism. (The same thing crops up with crime/criminals from time to time).
http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,2 2215301-5005962,00.html
Definately double plus ungood!!!
But then a fighter jet aiming a laser at a car is not good either!!!
My ism, it's full of beliefs.
Bad way to start out an article on lasers.
boycott slashdot February 10th - 17th check out: altSlashdot.org
Laser diodes generally require some type of current limiting to prevent damage. In the DVD burner circuit, that is the function of the third pin on the diode package (that the article simply blows off as "not used"). This pin connects to an internal photodiode, which is used to measure output power, and provide feedback through an external driver circuit to continuously control the current applied to the laser diode junction.
The article simply places the laser diode directly across the 3V battery supply, with not even a ballast resistor to limit the current. You might get away with this with AA batteries, but if someone were to try this trick with a D-cell maglite, they would most likely let the magic smoke out of the laser very quickly.
Remember "News for Nerds, Stuff that Matters"? Help make it a reality again! http://soylentnews.org
I'm surprised no one has made reference to Val Kilmer yet. "Needless to say, I was a little despondent about the meltdown. But then, in the midst of my preparation for hari-kari, it came to me: it is possible to synthesize excited bromide in an argon matrix. Yes, its an exomer, frozen in its excited state."
Is anyone else having trouble seeing after watching the video?
Meh. I think it's just evidence that these "terrorists" simply don't exist. The fact that so much "terror" can be generated by anyone with half a brain, and yet virtual none is, shows that the claim that there are people aiming to cause such is false.
How we know is more important than what we know.
Sincerely. I watched the thing before I came here to read the comments and what-not. I'll admit that I was somewhat jazzed to do this one myself... the first thing that popped into my head was zapping people's asses from a distance. :) But the very real threat of blinding someone (accidentally or otherwise) has given me enough pause to not actually do this project. The information is still in my head, of course... I may want to recall this some day when terrorists take over our country or something. But otherwise, I'm generally convinced not to do this... (this may change if a broken DVD writer falls into my hands)
Anyone know an inexpensive source for protective gear (ie goggles) for those amateurs who will insist on playing with something like this, but would like to do so responsibly?
(And thanks to dhalgren for the very helpful Safety FAQ.)
Parent is absolutely right, period.
:D
:D . . .
:(
Now, do you think 245 mw is enough to burn through balsa wood?
I so desire to make a CNC(as in x-y table), non contact cutter to make the wing section ribs for my planes, and now that the laser for that is just one busted DVD burner away from me . . .
With this device, and a personal fabricator like the one in fab @ home We can be frickin' Leo DaVincis
. . . If we don't end blind in the process of making the first one, that is.
A laser from a DVD burner is 200-250mW or thereabouts. You can legally (in the US, anyway) buy ready-made laser "pointers" of comparable power. For example, wickedlasers.com sells the handheld 200-300mW Spyder II GX green laser with 1.5mm diameter beam and beam divergence below 0.8 mrad. Red lasers up to 125mW and blue lasers up to 30mW are also available.
No, I don't have one. They're almost certainly illegal in my country.
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
The problem is the kind of people who are stupid enough to blind themselves are also stupid enough to point one of these at other people. I can't say i'd be thrilled if some moron child (or adult) blinded me waving one around and I certainly don't think *I* deserve it.
Go ahead and ride your bike with no helmet. I don't care. Here's the deal though. When you blow a tire, hit an obstacle, or fall down and crack your cranium because your head was not protected; don't you DARE be unable to pay EVERY DIME OF YOUR MEDICAL BILLS OUT OF POCKET.
If you screw up your head and need care for the rest of your life, or care that costs more than your brain-damaged body can earn enough money to pay for because you want to protect your right to not wear a helmet, then you damned well be prepared to take responsibility for your own care.
You see, if you can't pay, the hospital system eats the cost, which means I pay.
As long as I have to pay, you can wear the damn helmet thank you very much.
Your rights STOP when they impact my wallet.
The fact that you were lucky as a kid is irrelevant. My brother in law did the same stuff you did as a kid and now as an adult still has brain damage and a metal plate in his head. We should have compelled helmets when I was a kid. I'm glad that they are compelled now.
But Herr Heisenberg, how does the electron know when I'm looking?
...until someone looses an eye. Another point - If you use a DL-DVD Drive laser - can you take out both eyes at once ?
Navy Tim www.navytim.com
Laser Standard Operating Procedures
Laser Safety
Check your particular DVD Rom, chances are fairly good that it's rated as a class I laser (non hazardous, but try not to stare directly at it...because like everything else it's probably made in china I wouldn't be surprised if to save a penny they underclassy the mW output to skip a safety inspection over in the usa heh)
However, if it's a class II....
The reason I am offering these links is because I doubt many people know that a class II laser beam will cause eye damage within as little as .026 seconds?
1-2 seconds could be more than enough to cause snow blindness style affects, headaches, and temporary eye tissue scarring?
I got caught not wearing my ansi rated safety goggles at corning from a light gun and I couldn't see for about 3 days (snow blindness from intense UV exposure for 2 seconds). So let's practice some good sense people.
Was it in the middle of Don't Fear the Reaper?
I think I'm more worried about the borderline retarded kids shining this into other peoples' eyes. If you're stupid or 'weak' enough to blind yourself with it then you will in all likelihood have no problem blinding some innocent bystanders as well, whether those bystanders can think for themselves or not.
Most of those 93 warning labels aren't there to actually warn you about anything, they're there to reduce the manufacturer's legal exposure to the lawsuits of stupid people. Though in the case of 245mW lasers, you might consider paying attention to them.
And speaking of Darwin, I'm with you--I'm all for repealing mandatory helmet laws. Just as long as my taxes or increasing health insurance premiums don't have to pay for your long, brain-damaged life. If you don't want to wear one, you clearly don't value what it protects.
steampunk web design
[so much for the modding I'd done in this thread.]
Due to an infection I obtained when I was 2, I've got partial blindness in both eyes. The infection caused scar tissue to form on my retina smack in the good part (center of the optic nerve junction) of my left eye. I can see objects and make out large things but I can't read with that eye at all. Think of it like your peripheral vision. Try this: put a page of text a foot from your ear and try to read it--while looking straight ahead. That's what my vision is like when I close my right eye.
The right eye has some similar damage, but luckily the scar tissue formed only over a smaller area which is not positioned over the center of the optic nerve junction. So back to the parent's comment about your brain compensating, I can tell you from experience--it depends on how much damage there is. I can read, I can drive and so on, but my brain has to work a bit harder to make a complete image. I don't have 20/20 vision (even with glasses), it's more like 20/50. (I can read text at 20 feet that you can read at 50 feet.) I have to hold things closer to read them than most people, and it's pretty hard to read road signs while driving.
So the moral to the story is twofold:
1. Sandboxes are bad, toxoplasmosis bacteria likes to grow there and kids that play in sandboxes inevitably will rub their eyes.
2. Don't mess with lasers. Holes in your vision--not cool.
(I almost died laughing when I saw the "donotlookatlaserwithremainingeye" tag. I have a special place in my heart/right-eye for that line.)
Or... see if you can give yourself a tan of your own design with an IR laser!
BTW, the article isn't talking about IR lasers. DVD burners use red lasers. CD burners use IR lasers.
Not just that - laser light is also monochromatic, coherent and has a very low divergence (things that don't apply to sunlight). This means that it will be focused into an extremely small spot by a lens (such as the one in your eye, which will ideally focus it into an extremely small spot directly on your fscking retina).
Sounds to me like the problem is people assuming that anything they read must be safe.
Perhaps if people didn't abdicate responsibility for the actions ahead of time, we wouldn't have to worry about this. What part of "posted on slashdot" rationally translates to "must be safe to do?"
Obviously, no part of it. "I was just following orders" was deemed to not be an excuse a long time ago. "It's not my fault, the internet told me to do it" is no better.
Reality has a conservative bias: it conserves mass, energy, momentum...
Is it just me or is it really irresponsible for slashdot to link to this story? The last one I remember seeing posted was how to easily get sodium metal... I guess after hitting 30, the part of my brain that recognizes danger is finally fully formed.
I had a sucky sig.
What will happen if I put 8 of these in a death star-esque laser array and point them all at the same place. Because I am thinking about doing this :)
Here's another 100mw from a DVD burner starting a fire (with the help of some gun powder). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RS_nF7t6feE
Honestly, I don't care about terrorists. I'm worried about shithead 13 year old boys who wouldn't think once about using this for practical jokes. But hey, Slashdot is only reporting this, not making it up.
"No problem. I have the capacity to do infinite work so long as you don't mind that my quality approaches zero."-Dilbert
I was wondering if I ever injured myself using a product where the one non-intuitive/important warning was #47/93 or so, if I could sue them for FUBARing my S/N ratio, thus eliminating the efficacy of that warning.
Your ad here. Ask me how!
I believe it depends on the coherence length of the laser. The coherence length defines how large an object you can make a hologram.
No, I don't trust in god. He'll have to pay up front, like everybody else.
A lot of people here have mentioned how dangerous this laser is in terms of the ability to fry eyes and/or cause blindness. Is there anyone here who can indicate what the proper safety gear would be when dealing with lasers of this variety? I'm guessing that anti-UV sun-glasses aren't quite good enough... and welders goggles perhaps a bit too dark to accomplish any work?
informative?
Funny, mayhaps. But informative? No.
God have mercy on their heathen souls.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
"Hi, I'm Johnny Knoxville, and this is a homemade laser."
Great, now we'll be forbidden to board a plane with
- a pocket flashlight
- a discman
- a laptop with a CD/DVD drive
because it could be used as a weapon. Welcome to the world of airport security.
In general, yes, in this particular case - no. Diodes meant for DVD burners typically don't have a feedback diode (These things are supposed to be run closed-loop with the read sensor). Also, these things are actually rated for even higher peak powers - a 130mW continuous laser is spec'd to run at 300mW for pulses, and will run even higher if you don't mind killing it faster. The short of it is that these things seem to be "relatively" robust to catastrophic optical damage (i.e. smoked mirror), but do need some serious heatsinking.
o des_visible/hitachi_visible_ds/hl6545mg.pdf
Ref: HL6545MG Hitachi laser diode
http://www.photonic-products.com/products/laserdi
The trouble with this thing is that it can bite you in unexpected ways. You may know not to stare into the beam, like you may know not to look down the barrel of a loaded handgun. But unlike the handgun, you may accidentally aim the beam at something shiny you didn't notice, and it gets reflected back at you - you're blind. Most people, while they may think to not look into the beam - if they have no experience with lasers may not consider that specular reflection can blind them (or some random bystander).
Oolite: Elite-like game. For Mac, Linux and Windows
Did you know that if you break of the head of a gizillion wooden matches and stuff them into a glass bottle you cam make a rocket? Well maybe. But on the other hand you will likely loose both eyes and both hands trying to get this to work.
What other great advice can we post... Here's one. Remember you mother telling you not to cross the street if you see a car coming? Here a loop hole. Close your eyes. If you cover your eyes you will never see a car coming so it will be OK to cross the street.
I've heard you can put a cigarette out by dunking it in a cup on gasoline. If you do it fast enough the gas will suck the heat out of the flame before the cigarette has time to vaporize and ignite the gas. It's all about timing and being quick.
Five out of six Russian Roulette players "win". Your changes are pretty good.
Compared to the above the laser trick sounds safe. Blind in one eye is not nearly so bad as being covered with burning gasoline or a bullet through the head,
Ramen.
Also, remember kiddies, if you want to be able to see, buy some goggles: http://www.wickedlasers.com/Goggles-16-1.html $39 ain't that expensive when it comes to being able to see!
The truth shall always be free: Boris Floricic is Tron.
The key is the energy density, not the total amount of energy. Sunlight can't light a match normally but focus it with a magnifying glass and it is no problem at all.
The "sharks with lasers" jokes.
Badges!?! We don't need no stinking badges!
The American public is sure to do this, and is sure to cause an accident. With 80,000 slashdot hits, this is sure to cause a liability. When I was in 8th grade I made a stun gun, at that age I was not able to comprehend the potential for permanent eye damage. I would pull this article.
400+ comments and no one's made a comment about how we can now build The Master's Laser Screwdriver?
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
Just hit 'em with a hammer!
SAFETY WARNING: Don't hit bullets with hammers!!
SECOND SAFETY WARNING: Because hitting a bullet with a hammer can cause it to explode!!
THIRD SAFETY WARNING: A bullet moves very fast and can kill or injure anything in its path!!!
FOURTH SAFETY WARNING: YOU COULD EVEN YOUR EYE OUT DOING THIS!
Give a man a fish and you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish, and he'll say "WHERE'S MY FISH, YOU IDIOT?"
The optical DRIVE is class I, because it's enclosed by a metal box and has interlocks, thus posing no danger if operated normally. The diode inside can be class II, III, IV, or whatever. Every DVD drive would have similar power output, since that's what it takes to burn DVDs.
A short flash in the eye is not gonna blind you. You will likely close your eyes or look away way before any real permanent damage is done. Most of those warnings on lasers are a little on the overkill side...mostly for the really really stupid people that would force themselves to stare into painful laser light for amusement.
I swear, the US is turning into a country of emasculated pansies. We defeated England (with help), then Germany and Japan (again, with help), and stood nose-to-nose with the USSR for years, but we now duck and cover if you bring more than 3 fl. oz. of liquids onto a plane! How sad is that?
But, back on topic... Very cool hardware hack. We need someone to rig up an array of these enclosed in a box for a super-fast oven: Block of ice to boeuf bourguignon in eight seconds.
Method of processing duck feet
It's not the surface structures of the eye we're worrying about here; it's the extremely delicate retina -- the part of the eye that actually takes the "impact" of incoming light. The frontal structures (cornea, lens) are meant to *transmit* light, and are considerably tougher as well.
Don't think it's a risk? I have a small blind spot in one eye from being momentarily caught square-on by a supermarket scanning laser.
~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
Depends on a few different things such as what kind of lens it has and what sort of sensor it uses. My guess is you could damage it in fairly sort order. I don't know that you'd completely burn it out but you could burn a blind spot in it rather quickly.
If you are really interested, I'd get a cheap CCD camera and try. Just order a cheapie security camera (you can get them for less than $100) hook it up to your TV and lase the thing, see what happens.
dremel? use a plasma cutter.
A plasma torch to cut a 1/8 plank of balsa wood??????
Like bringing a Ferrari Enzo to compete in a go-kart championship, maybe?
"Care a for a cigarette old man?"
One night, as I was driving along a crowded highway with my wife and kids in the car, a red dot scanned across my dashboard, assumedly from the car driving next to me. Not knowing if it was some idiot kid with a pointer, or some psycho with an AimPoint, I clenched so hard that a head-on collision wouldn't have dislodged me.
:-( )
Now I have to worry about THIS too?!!?! What a world...
I'm not worried about blinding myself, as I would NEVER attempt to make this. I'm worried about someone showing my son and saying "look here"....
(And although I do agree that information -- including the usual bomb-making stuff -- is not harmful in and of itself, I do sometimes wish not so many people knew about it
I agree wholeheartedly with your comment. But the person I was responded to literally "flamed" or "attacked" the slashdot editors. There have been MANY other posts expounding on the dangers of lasers, and laser safety already in these comments that sufficiently argue the point. Perhaps I was in err and should have been less sarcastic and said: "I do not think the editors are intentionally trying to blind people, perhaps simply suggesting that they provide a warning with the article that sufficiently portrays the danger involved in using these lasers would have been more appropriate." But sarcasm and cynicism is the mode of speech that I favor =P I think any rational sane human being would have looked at my comment and realized I was being facetious. I do not pander to the ignorant. All hail the Laser Shark Overlords (******kids please do not attach these to the sharks at the local aquarium, you could blind yourself, others, and oppress the human race, as well as get bitten by a shark, or possibly maimed and killed********).
I just use a V Chip for that.
If you shine the beam into your eye - on purpose, by accident - or by bouncing it off of something shiny, it will burn holes in your retina. That's not "may" that's "will". We're talking about permanent eye damage, the kind that makes people blind.
Operating one of these in your house or outdoors is dangerous not only to yourself but to others. Our world is full of shiny things; even imperfect "mirrors" can reflect enough beam energy to harm yourself or an innocent bystander; just one quick "flash" sighting of the beam's reflection is enough to cause permanent eye damage.
I know that there's too many of you who will say "it'll never happen to me" and go happily waving your new super laser pointer around. I have one helpful tip for you: if you have a "wow, that's bright!" experience followed by things getting darker - get yourself to the hospital RIGHT NOW and tell them you got a look at a class IIIb laser. They'll know what to do and can probably save your eye if you get there soon enough.
Laser safety goggles are a great idea - but only if you're playing with your laser indoors in a room with all windows covered and all shiny / reflective things removed or covered. If you take it outdoors and start waving it around, someone's going to get hurt.
now I just need to figure out how to turn my cat into a shark
"You'll shoot your eye out, kid!"
or just require a permit and registration before purchase?
Should we ban CRT displays because you can use the flyback transformer to build a stun gun?
Remember "News for Nerds, Stuff that Matters"? Help make it a reality again! http://soylentnews.org
I'm with you there. Someone will be driving down the freeway, or walking through a mall, suddenly see a flash of light, and find they've lost a big part of their vision, 'cause some kids were playing around with one of these.
In high school a buddy of mine was the son of a chemistry teacher and we managed to buy at the university supply shop by piggybacking on the school's purchases.
Potassium chlorate, white phosphorus, concentrated sulfuric and nitric acid... No problem.
You get my drift. I'd be so in jail these days.
Good old 70s... No surprise that no kids are interested in science any more. He became a chemist but I discovered computers a few years later.
thegodmovie.com - watch it
DIY directed energy weapons projects on /.
C'mon folks, there's a fine line between casemodding and the Anarchist's Cookbook, and we just flew way the Hell over it.
Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
Visible means little when you're blind.
Warning: Do not look into LASER with remaining eye.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
One of my buddies was partially blinded during a training accident involving a tank-mounted targeting laser. (Protective goggles were not securely fastened in place when some goober fired up the laser, wouldn't ya know.) He's recovered a good percentage of his vision, but color remains a problem for him; unfortunately, since he's an artist, he now has to rely on friends to pick his prismacolor markers for him when he's doing coloring work.
Back in the 50s or so, during the cold-war spy movie craze, there was a Mattel toy called a "Johnny 7-in-1". This was a little briefcase with pieces of a toy gun that could be assembled into seven different toy weapons for playing spy/saboteur.
Then the crooks in Detroit figured out that it was also able to fire a 20-guage shotgun shell (once) without blowing up. And it became "the weapon of choice" for stickups for a few months.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
Folks, it's a trap! Don't test this by looking into lens-less laser diodes!
Tsunami -- You can't bring a good wave down!
An American president will be blinded by a laser-flashlight before the decade ends. Easily. You know it's going to happen.
the class of a laser product is not the same thing as the class of the laser inside. Afaict if the laser is completely enclosed then the product is class 1 regardless of the class of the laser inside.
from the power of this laser it sounds like the laser itself is well into the class III range even though the product is class I (the product in question being a DVD burner).
note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
Update: 07/09 12:23 GMT by KD
So, was this updated on 7 September or 9 July? I suspect the update script is a bit, well, wrong.
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
Running with scissors finally comes into the 21st century.
I don't have stats, but in Amsterdam we consider tourists on rental bikes to be rather dangerous. :) I've lost balance at high speed (30+ km/h) a couple of times and once had a collision with a car that launched my body across the street. All times without even touching my heads and just a few scratches and bruises. The trick is to convert the momentum into a rolling motion rather than trying to absorb it with your arms. I developed reflexes for falling in the judo martial arts lessons I had as a kid. It probably wouldn't help me in a frontal collision with a car or, worse, SUV.
See also Some links on bicycle helmet safety
Avantslash: low-bandwidth mobile slashdot.
Not paying medical bills yourself decreases a sense of personal responsibility for risk taking activities. Glad the state is taking away your accountability. That will make for a hardy people group up north.
Do you read? My brother in law "played" as you described, and has brain damage! The fact that you didn't sustain a serious injury is fortuitous for you, but I don't think that society should count on luck.
But Herr Heisenberg, how does the electron know when I'm looking?
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Whoever has modded these subliminal blocker-lenses informative should be controlled immediately and report at hangar 52! thanks!
..
This won't hurt a bit... I promise
--- I am known for the ones who want to find me on the net. Is that a privacy risk or a privilege? One might wonder..