Slashdot Mirror
Wicked Lasers Introduces Handheld One-Watt Green Laser
First time accepted submitter (and Slashdot coder) cogent writes "Wicked Lasers, famous for last year's 1000mW handheld blue laser, and infamous for its handling of six-month-long backorders, is now selling a green version. There are three power levels, each priced at $1/mW (300mW, 500mW, 1000mW). Since the eye is far more sensitive to green than to blue, this is pretty much the state of the art in putting-dots-on-stuff technology. Wicked Lasers sent out an email promising to handle backorders much better this time."
Adds reader whitedsepdivine: "There is currently no disclaimer that this is not a lightsaber on their site, so we can only assume that this version is."
I see your schwartz is as big as mine.
We will be right back, after this commercial for a $1000 laser submission from one of our sponsors
Do these things come with a stun setting?
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
Might add a warning that at 1W (1000mW) your eye is 'sensitive' to just about anything in terms of damage from them, whatever color.
Be sure you get good laser protective glasses with one of these things, and whatever you do *do not* aim it or reflect it into anyone's (or any animal's) eyes... its not a "toy".
At least it costs a kilobuck, so that the idiots who buy these things can also lose a bit of dosh while losing an eye.
And since green also shows up in the atmosphere better, the cops can better locate you when you shine it on their helicopter.
"Do not look into laser aperture with remaining good eye"
--
BMO
Wow. Nothing like fucking with the guys on the ISS for lulz. Maybe spot that new Air Force mini spy shuttle, or whatever it is.
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
It took forever to get. Then the charger didn't work, I emailed and got one in 3 days. (The repair department is much better than the order department where you wait and wait)
Anyway, it's awesome. It burns things, It's fun. I love it.
I also bought a Torch flashlight from them and waited months, actually given up ever seeing it, then it finally arrived. It's cool too.
* Carthago Delenda Est *
As cool as this is, you really don't want one. Specular reflections off other surfaces can blind you instantly. There's no way to actually hand hold it with it powered in any remotely safe manner. If it doesn't terrify you, you don't know what you're dealing with, and if it does, you probably don't want one.
No popcorn for me :(
"All great wisdom is contained in .signature files"
1 watt lasers have been around for years. You can buy the diodes. This is just cute packaging. It's not powerful enough to be a useful weapon or cutting tool, and it's too powerful in a narrow beam to be a useful illumination source.
In the CNC laser cutter world, this is viewed as a very weak laser. Commercial laser cutters start around 30 watts (for thin plastic and wood) and go up to about 5KW (sheet steel).
Since the eye is far more sensitive to green than to blue, this is pretty much the state of the art in putting-dots-on-stuff technology.
So anything green is state of the art?
Cool... but at the same time pointless. Seriously what is the point of this laser?
It'll keep those damn kids off of my lawn and in the ER where they belong.
Wow, the animated Slashdot ad at the page header shows "Wicked Lasers". How appropriate.
You mean "Wicked Lasers 10% off!"
Cool... but at the same time pointless.
A pointless pointer? Hmm...
Only a matter of time before some dumb idiot shines it at an airplane or into a person or animals eye.
If you shine me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine!
The more you know, the more you have to say and the more you should listen.
WTF? The title of the page says "Green Laser Pointer" and then in the page itself they have this bit "The S3 Krypton is too powerful to be used as a laser pointer or a gunsight." I'm sure Average Joe is going to still treat this as a powerfule Green Laser pointer to impress and blind his friends with.
I'm very curious to hear about what people actually do with these lasers. Being around Lasers for several years and currently working in the photonics field, I just don't understand what people are using these lasers for in their homes? Funnily enough, this very laser model made it into our EH&S laser safety training material last week.
Nice friggin' lasers. Now we just need some friggin' sharks to go with them.
What, exactly, can one do with a hand-held laser of this power? By their own admission it's too powerful to be used as a laser pointer. I understand the utility of powerful bench-mounted lasers. This thing just seems like a novelty... an expensive, dangerous, novelty...
You can combine it with a rotating mirror and a DLP and make monochrome pictures on a wall a long way away? You can fire it at a spinning screen and make Star Wars Holonet-style images?
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
I'm pretty sure wicked has been selling the 1W green lasers for a while now, certainly before the blue one. Looks like another ad made it to the frontpage...
From TFA: "With it's intergalactic range of 85 miles, the S3 Krypton is the first and only handheld laser visible from outer space." Maybe it's different here but I'd hardly call 85 miles "intergalactic."
I use a Laser Genetics model on my bow for hog hunting. It is admittedly less powerful than this model, but it is great for illuminating targets.
Honestly, I can't think of a personal use for one like this.
Caution! Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
You can combine it with a rotating mirror and a DLP and make monochrome pictures on a wall a long way away? You can fire it at a spinning screen and make Star Wars Holonet-style images?
A sixty foot image of Princess Lea in the middle of the park?
What's not to like?
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
I understand longer wavelength light (i.e. -> infra red) but blue photons have higher energy than green ones, so would a blue laser be better or worse than a green laser for burning/meltng stuff?
Given we know that exposing your eyes to any laser light is a bad idea, and that blue light has more energy but your eyes are way more sensitive to green, which color laser would potentially be a higher risk for damaging your eyes (say from specular reflections)?
A sixty foot image of Princess Lea in the middle of the park?
What's not to like?
I've heard her beauty can blind a man.
Oooh, like they did in 1967! How amazing!
http://www.teravolt.org/microlaser.php
When I used this laser for my Power Point presentation, the projection screen ended up looking like a kiddy's scissor class had cut it up for a paper doll!
my power level's always hidden.
That's plane-crashingly awesome!
Can any explain why they want one of these exceedingly dangerous "toys" lying around? This seems like the kind of thing that felony reckless depraved indifference assault charges was designed for.
So with blue and green 1w handheld lasers... are there Red ones available? With that we could get white!
Maybe they're using Wicked Lasers? http://idle.slashdot.org/story/11/09/06/1449203/BMW-Working-On-Laser-Headlamps
The video mentioned several times that this laser is "too powerful to be used as a gun-sight". I'm not a shooter, so I honestly don't know why... Couldn't having a potentially eye-frying, laser-pointer-of-the-gods be a handy thing to attach to a tool that you intend to utilize for inflicting grievous bodily harm or death?
Inquiry: what exactly are these things used for? I gather this is far too powerful to simply use as a pointer during a power point presentation.
So, what are these things used for? Surveying? Interrogating british spies?
I was in China a few months back, and these were being sold for 150RMB for a 500mw ($15) 400-500 RMB (about $70-$80) for a 1000mw version, and about 700 RMB for a 2000mw.
The salesmen in the markets demonstrated them by lighting matches with the 1000mw green ones from several feet away. Amazing. I bought a 100mw blue one for the equivalent of $9, hoping I'd be less likely to blind myself with that.
You can give them Money, but unless the FDA allows them into the country, you would need to buy an airline ticket to get one:
http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/cms_ia/importalert_254.html
unless they have resolved all the issues, which, I doubt.
No, no, no - blinding an opponent is against the Geneva Convention. You're only allowed to humanely kill them by ripping holes in them with supersonic slugs of heavy metal, or burning them alive and violently dismembering them with incendiary devices dropped gently from aerial craft.
What kind of cruel bastard are you?
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
Take care that this counts as a weapon in many countries and possession without a matching laser-permit can land you in jail. Here you need a permit for any laser class 3 or above, i.e. > 5mW. Also it is very easy to permanently blind someone with this thing by reflection only. If you are stupid enough to point it at a flying airplane or helicopter (quite a few people are), you will go down either as a terrorist or for attempted murder. Or with this thing likely for completed murder as most helicopters and quite a few airplanes do not have a second pilot. Pointing it at a moving car can have the same effect. It is quite amoral to sell these to normal people.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
*Only applies to very small galaxies.
It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
From TFA: "With it's intergalactic range of 85 miles, the S3 Krypton is the first and only handheld laser visible from outer space." Maybe it's different here but I'd hardly call 85 miles "intergalactic."
Maybe they meant intragalactic. Although a 1mW laser pointer would also qualify.
I don't know, but it works for me.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
What CAN it be used for?
A sixty foot image of slave girl Princess Lea in the middle of the park?
TFTFY
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
It really is just a novelty. Less practical and more of a collection piece. You could use it to point at stars or signal others at a distance to your location (this apparently comes with a built in SOS flicker mode), but I'd be too afraid to point it at the sky for fear of messing up some satellite or fail to notice some small plane in the sky and blind the pilot and/or passengers.
To be honest, I'm not sure how I feel about this being readily available to anyone since they are extremely dangerous. They don't carry the same sort of instant concept of danger that say a gun would, and while they won't directly kill anyone, they could certainly destroy someones life very easily with their even innocent misuse. Not that I'm suggesting they be regulated like guns or anything. I definitely don't think children should be able to purchase them or even use them.
I fully agree. I (being a physicist) can not imagine any purpose for this laser outside a firmly mounted case inside a lab or workshop.
Seems a green 1W laser would be pretty nice to have in a liferaft or if stranded on a mountain top. Signal flares are very time limited and heavy to transport ammo for.
That's just the first thing that came to mind though, though, there are probably many uses.
Also, it's best not to shoot a friend in the face with a signal flare. He a) won't be your friends anymore, and b) will probably be blinded.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
So how about the 300mw version. Is it also able to cause permanent vision damage from the backscatter off of a piece of paper or tv screen or something? Everyone is talking about the 1watt version, which is also $1000. Way out of the toy range for me, and hopefully others. But what about the version that is $300...
Or Seven Of Nine (star-trek:VOY) for that matter Hoshi Sato (Star-trek:ENT) ... Nice
You'll need to get a pair of shades to go with your white cane.
Should blinding anti-personnel lasers be used in future military conflicts, the casualties could be staggering. Its quite disturbing how cheap and effective such weapons could be.
Or, at the least, more fun.
but can it make toast?
signal others at a distance to your location (this apparently comes with a built in SOS flicker mode)
You know somebody's going to point it right at a town "to get help".
These things shouldn't even turn on if they're not pointed within 45 degrees of horizontal. On the other hand, some people who claim that that must mean these lasers are safe when pointed down or upward. No, there's no other way to put it: These things are to dangerous to be sold to amateurs.
Could this be used as an actual weapon ?
:)
For example, when a presidential candidate gives a speech, could one just point it in his eyes and blind him, and then walk away, while being at a safe distance ?
If so, sunglasses will be in vogue again
Take it from someone who owns a 1500mw blue hand held laser. The only safe uses are pointing it out in to the night sky (After checking for planes) and using it alone in a room with goggles on. They aren't as instantly eye damaging as they are made out to be though, a lot of it is people playing up the danger to keep people safe. The side affect of them playing up the safety issues so much is people start to think of them as weapons, they are not. Not even close. Most people who play around with them without goggles though end up with slow vision degeneration, even if they screw around and get hit by reflections. Sure, a prolonged reflection will kill some rods and cones, but a momentary flash causes some degeneration. As far as being a weapon though, its about as effective as a long range flash bang, minus the bang, and with law suits following from the people who have dim spots, holes, or otherwise damaged vision. YES it is dangerous, no it is not a weapon that instantly takes someones sight. The most likely scenario is you cost them partial vision in one eye and get sued.
Sweet! For $30 more you can also get the "disco-ball" accessory so you can put on a show for all your friends!
I'm not usually one to complain about advertising on Slashdot. Hell, I used to enjoy seeing what was new at ThinkGeek every now and then.
But this is just irresponsible. I like tinkering with 75mW lasers, but am very worried that some 13 year old is going to blind himself or his friends with one of these and our country will get similar restrictive legislation as Australia, Canada, USA, ruining it for the rest of us.
These "pop a balloon at 30 yards" lasers are extremely dangerous. As someone may have already stated here, a specular reflection from one of these will blind you quicker than your blink reflex.
Further, if this is a DPSS laser, then there will be a significant amount of undetectable-to-the-naked-eye unfocussed infra-red leakage, unless the IR filter is perfect (unlikely).
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
I consider these 'toys' much more dangerous then a machinegun. Why? Because while a nut with a machinegun can actually kill people, you cannot hide the fact that you are doing it. With a laser gun like this it is easy to blind people for life without anybody knowing who did it.
Repeat after me: We are all individuals
THE GOGGLES DO NOTHING
40 years ago men walked on the moon and 20 years ago a businessman could fly supersonically from Paris to NY on a scheduled airline. Today you can tweet and write on a facebook wall, and weep while reading /. how something that was the stuff of dreams even 5 years ago is now vilified by 278 sissies scared shitless.
I'm not a coward by any name.
My first thought was that this would make a great weapon. I do have firearms, but if you could effectively disable an attacker without killing them, why wouldn't you? Personal safety seems like it might be an issue, also in the current environment, one would probably be better off in the courts without a living but blind attacker.
Seems that the Air Force is actually working on a version of a laser weapon that should incapacitate, but not blind based on the distance to the target.
simple. mount it to your bow, and blind your prey before shooting it. little chance of escape, no issues of wounded game dying a slow death, etc.
Maybe the next story should be on arranging day care while you car pool to the Republican National Convention.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
Boring! Call me when they sell a handheld 5 Watt ruby laser.
That all of Slashdot seems to want these to be as heavily restricted as firearms. I mean, sure, a 1W laser is certainly dangerous and can certainly blind people if proper protection is not used. And people will probably do dumb things with them (hopefully to themselves before they hurt anyone else). But really, where should we draw the line?
What about people who need high powered lasers for amateur scientific experiments? Are they going to have to go through an arduous background check and waiting period to obtain a laser? Is the government going to say lasers over a certain power output are "assault lasers" and ban them from civilian use entirely? Is owning over a certain amount of lasers going to put someone on an FBI watchlist? Given our government's complete inability to understand any sort of technical concept, I find it hard to believe that their regulating of something like lasers would be friendly to amateur scientists and experimenters, to say nothing about effectiveness.
Don't get me wrong, someone who misuses a tool like this and causes injury to another person should be punished. Just as anyone who causes harm to another person either willfully or negligently should be punished. But if we get on the slippery slope and ban everything that could potentially cause harm to someone, then what will be left?
I grew up in the 80s, and one of the chemistry sets I had contained ferric cyanide as a reagent; I doubt that would be sold in a chemistry set today, even though I was responsible and learned a lot about chemistry at a young age thanks the experiments I did. I used to do a lot model rocketry also; model rockets can certainly cause someone injury if used in an irresponsible way, should those be restricted like firearms as well? What about the tesla coil I built? Should I have to register that with the government? After all, it could cause serious injury to someone if used irresponsibly.
Yes, I'm surprised that Slashdot would want to jump on this bandwagon of legislating everything to the lowest common denominator (ie. "some idiot could use this irresponsibly, let's ban/regulate it; who cares about the people who use it responsibly for legitimate purposes"), as this train of logic could be used to effectively kill a lot of interesting research that most slashdotters would probably enjoy.
You can buy parts for these lasers even cheaper.
Just the Laser Diode, or with a laser module all prewired ready to go.
ie: http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/1W-445nm-Blue-Laser-Module-W-Flexdrive-Aixiz-Glass-/180707971676?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2a1308d25c#ht_31219wt_1139
You can tell how powerful someone is by the magnitude of the crime they can commit and be able to get away with.
I will fully agree that there should be laws baring the use of lasers without an express permit, as someone else mentioned, class 3 or above. Honestly, no one who can't pass the test to get the permit to use one will need one. The only joyful fun that can be had from lasers this powerful is blinding someone and pointing it at cars close to a mile away. THIS IS VERY DANGEROUS. All kids ever need is a tiny one to try and get the cat to chase it around or use it as a 'ooh and aaah'.
This is coming from someone who had a laser shined in his eye TWICE while going through school. First when I was 9 when lasers were first becoming available, one of those small keychain types when I was on the bus, then again when I was in my senior year of highschool when my physics teacher had laser displays setup. Another asshole decided it would be a great idea to do exactly what the teacher said NOT TO DO EVER, disregard the laser warning on the side, and poked me in the eye while giggling like a fucking idiot. To this day I'm quite sad I was an adolescent teenager at the time that didn't know my limits or how I should exactly respond to something like that. I really should have walked up, punched him in the face, and made a huge scene out of it. This is coming from someone who is VERY laid back and will talk most everything out. I believe it would''ve been very well justified. I have partial blindness in my right eye, where that laser hit around my focal point. I am now 26, so this was roughly 9 years ago.
I don't know what the wattage was of the one in the classroom, but it definitely wasn't a small one. I will echo the concern that lasers are VERY DANGEROUS. Everyone hops on the OMG band wagon about terrorists, what if someone gets a high powered laser sits atop a very high point in a well occupied city and shines it into some sort of scattering device, such as a brilliant cut diamond or other jewel for instance? That could very easily blind anyone that it happens to hit and there is almost no way of knowing where it comes from if it is only done for a short instance.
Lasers are most definitely not toys when they go above a certain mW and should not be available to people without proper training and/or certification.
These lasers are banned in Australia because idiots point them at the cockpit as planes come in to land.
http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2008/04/22/australia_to_ban_laser_pointers/1
Are you fearful types aware of how these beams spread out to safe intensity in hundreds of feet?
The satellite or airplane thing is overwrought to the point of paranoid myth.
Learn a little Gaussian beam optics before pronouncing things as death rays.
I can only think of one good use for these 1W lasers. They would significantly reduce the exposure times for multi-colour holograms compared to the low milliwatt lasers most people can afford.
Of course with a multi-colour setup the usual filter goggles are pretty much useless, so I'd only use them in a suitably interlocked enclosure with a smoke detector system and video monitoring.
With no chemistry sets, model rockets, lasers, Hey I know, lets mount your surface mount electronics in solid epoxy
It's a conspiracy of Big Sis bullshit.
Don't play with the chemistry set it can burn your eyes.
Don't play with the model rocket it can burn your eyes.
Don't play with the laser it can burn your eyes
Or electronics, ham radios, lcds, mostly surface mount throw away crap now all ROHS garbage so cheap it fails under the slightest adverse condition.
It won't be long and our kids will be trained monkeys who can't think for themselves they can only babble on about their text book, it's like we are being setup for all the lights to be turned off at once, where outlawing everything of use, while destroying everything of value, just like the math which is going to bite the banksters in the ass, this police state of homeland security crap is going to drain the country of responsible thinking people. I look at kids growing up now and they have no clue how to safely build or contain a fire out in the woods. Their cartoons are fluffy bunnies. I see patterns in current actions of children, they just do things because they were brainwashed to behave that way, this isn't a ritual like brushing your teeth, or a moral like folding your hands on a desk, its more brainwashing.
george costanza
Hi,
I have worked with many types of lasers for over 35 years, Large frame ion lasers were strong enough to be a serious hazard, when the Laserscope ect. freq doubled yags " 532 nm 60 watts plus" came out , the game changed once again, have you HEARD a 60 watt average power laser hitting cini foil ? Just the fire hazard is impressive.
From my viewpoint the eye hazard really starts kicking in at about 1 watt, at 20 watts cw, eye damage can be faster than you can blink. A reflection from a screw driver will do it. I started using laser goggles religiously after a eyebrow burn. no retina burns for me yet, I was lucky in my early years with lasers.
I used to think the glasses were for wimps, trust me, they are very helpfull, and may save your eyesight, a unforseen reflection can happen. PUT on the safety glasses when working with high power. You will never regret it.
Hand held lasers over a 250mw are weapons, the fun hene/diode 5mw laser pointer days are over.
Laser Light Laser Bright, Let There Be a Beam tonight
Fred Lord
You can use this link to get 5% off any item at Wicked Lasers: http://zfer.us/NzgdD
They stole my money 2 years ago and continued to play games with saying "oh, we'll ship it to you", over and over and over, and I NEVER got my wicked laser from them, although they took the money, and by the time I finally had enough to file a dispute on the credit card charge, it was too late to get it reversed. I know, my bad. Warning to all: They are frauds and don't waste your money with them. They have one person in the US running their call center operation and I doubt that anyone really ever gets their order.....