- #1
Artlav
- 162
- 1
"Laser Flashlight" possibility
Maybe some of you have seen the video, where they make a match-lighting capable laser pointer out of a DVD burner laser, like the youtube's video CgJ0EpxjZBU.
Now, it's well known that youtube's bogon emissions are off the charts, nevertheless, having an ample supply of used computer parts, I've tried to make one, putting apart an 8x DVD-R.
What it ended up is a very bright red flashlight, which is only identifiable as "laser" by the speckles in the light it gives, as the burner does not apparently have anything like a collimator in it. No problems along that line, a lens gets the thing focused in a tight 2-line-like point.
The diode itself heats up noticeably, yet neither it's light, not the lens-focused point gives any noticeable heat. The diode itself didn't lasted long either without a proper power supply - a couple of days later it suddenly lost all but a tiny speck of it's brightness, becoming less bright than most indicator LED's.
So, it neither burns, nor it is a laser in a "beam of light" capacity.
Bogosity proved.
That experiment left some questions nevertheless.
First, maybe i did something wrong? After all, the written DVD's are ejected significantly heated, and there are no other power sources in the burner that i know of, so the diode must have some appreciable heat output, no?
Second, what are the power required for a laser with a beam point the size of a typical laser pointer to light a match or burn thru a piece of paper? That is, what % of wattage inputted in a high-performance diode gets into the light, and what % of the light contributes to actual heating?
Maybe some of you have seen the video, where they make a match-lighting capable laser pointer out of a DVD burner laser, like the youtube's video CgJ0EpxjZBU.
Now, it's well known that youtube's bogon emissions are off the charts, nevertheless, having an ample supply of used computer parts, I've tried to make one, putting apart an 8x DVD-R.
What it ended up is a very bright red flashlight, which is only identifiable as "laser" by the speckles in the light it gives, as the burner does not apparently have anything like a collimator in it. No problems along that line, a lens gets the thing focused in a tight 2-line-like point.
The diode itself heats up noticeably, yet neither it's light, not the lens-focused point gives any noticeable heat. The diode itself didn't lasted long either without a proper power supply - a couple of days later it suddenly lost all but a tiny speck of it's brightness, becoming less bright than most indicator LED's.
So, it neither burns, nor it is a laser in a "beam of light" capacity.
Bogosity proved.
That experiment left some questions nevertheless.
First, maybe i did something wrong? After all, the written DVD's are ejected significantly heated, and there are no other power sources in the burner that i know of, so the diode must have some appreciable heat output, no?
Second, what are the power required for a laser with a beam point the size of a typical laser pointer to light a match or burn thru a piece of paper? That is, what % of wattage inputted in a high-performance diode gets into the light, and what % of the light contributes to actual heating?