Finally, a little sanity...

[ElektroFreak]

Popping care tires? So what's the difference between someone with 12+ watts of blue or a person with 20+ watts of IR? Folks have had CO2 lasers and FAP diodes laying around for years that they could have been popping car tires with.. Damn, some people are acting like this is the first time in the history of the hobby that we've had this much power available in relatively small packages.. At least we can see a blue beam.

Try not to worry so much.. you'll go gray quick. It's not like you've got the slightest control over what other people will do.

[ElektroFreak]

That's true about the price, for sure.. The bar should have been set much higher or better yet, the commercial units should have been offered at reduced output.. There's no reason that the diode needs to be run at 1W.. it could be run at 100mW or less.

At any rate, the sequence of events beginning with the discovery of such an inexpensive source of these diodes has been extremely predictable. There would have been no other outcome. Now all we can do is see what happens. Personally, I'm keeping my faith in the statistics. I think the the people who will use these lasers irresponsibly will make up a very small minority of users, and I base this on the fact that dangerously high-powered laser pointers of all sorts have been around for some time now. It really doesn't seem like the issues that have been caused so far have been earth-shattering.

[mixedgas]

Popping care tires? So what's the difference between someone with 12+ watts of blue or a person with 20+ watts of IR? Folks have had CO2 lasers and FAP diodes laying around for years that they could have been popping car tires with.. Damn, some people are acting like this is the first time in the history of the hobby that we've had this much power available in relatively small packages.. At least we can see a blue beam.

Try not to worry so much.. you'll go gray quick. It's not like you've got the slightest control over what other people will do.

Co2 takes skill to use. The beams are fat, the lenses are expensive and fragile, and despite being very efficient, the power consumption is still huge. Not to mention a backpack of batteries and cooling water for the cheapies.


And there is little romance with the 808 of a FAP, again invisible, and again, needs some skill to hook up and use. Not to mention a ammo can of batteries and some form of cooling.

I have not seen FAPs or Co2s Slashdotted and Gizmodoed. FAPs don't have a marketing team selling raw FAPs.

Compare this to slapping one or two 13650s in a housing and "Our UAVs are GO", for 197.99, with 10% off using discount code PL10.

Steve

[allthatwhichis]

I'm waiting for someone to start poping peoples car tires...

I hate to say it but that will be an interesting video to watch... I would say "watch" but that ain't something I want to be near.

[mixedgas]

I hate to say it but that will be an interesting video to watch... I would say "watch" but that ain't something I want to be near.

Tires are 250$ each minus mounting for my little vehicle. It uses some rare tire, Chevy was not thinking, when they chose it. Please don't do it to mine!

BTW, I had my friend focus a 4 Kw co2 at a cup of water. He was not impressed. He got a little plasma ball at the surface. Now the video of the industrial YAG heating the coffee in 30 seconds, , that was impressive!

Steve

[dream beamz]

news now on CNN

http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/gaming....ex.html?hpt=C2

[ElektroFreak]

Tires are 250$ each minus mounting for my little vehicle. It uses some rare tire, Chevy was not thinking, when they chose it. Please don't do it to mine!

BTW, I had my friend focus a 4 Kw co2 at a cup of water. He was not impressed. He got a little plasma ball at the surface. Now the video of the industrial YAG heating the coffee in 30 seconds, , that was impressive!

Steve

Something tells me that we're not going to be popping any car tires with these diodes.. at least not unless someone is using a whole array of them and some pretty awesome custom optics to go with it to focus the energy at any given distance. Methinks that anyone with that kind of work invested ain't gonna be popping tires with their system.

I really do understand the dangers, but could we at least keep our hysterics in the realm of reality? There's no way in hell that a collimated single (or double) 1W laser diode is going to pop a car tire. You'd need a parked car, a stable mount, and some time to wait for the beam to melt through the tire. I think that most people are not going to invest that kind of time just to commit vandalism.

Regarding the idea that a person wielding one of these diodes is wielding a death ray that will instantly set fire to anything it comes in contact with, I have a few of these diodes running over 1W and sudden combustion has yet to be a problem for me. Hell, it takes several seconds to put a hole in a CD case with them. Again, lets keep our hysterics and sensationalism in the realm of reality please.

Again, I'm not saying there is no danger, and I'm not trying to minimize the danger that does exist, but popping car tires? Come on..

[heroic]

Regarding the idea that a person wielding one of these diodes is wielding a death ray that will instantly set fire to anything it comes in contact with, I have a few of these diodes running over 1W and sudden combustion has yet to be a problem for me.

Yesterday, in my lab.

"Hey honey, what's burning?"

"Uh.... OH SHIT"



Class 4 is not a toy.

[mixedgas]

Again, I'm not saying there is no danger, and I'm not trying to minimize the danger that does exist, but popping car tires? Come on..[/QUOTE]

I can't resist! The buzzing sound is a big Coherent passbank working into a low pressure tube at idle. Enjoy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIDei7clylY

The infamous DURASHINE video!

Aw, damn, its only the first few minutes of the laser.Wait till you see what happens to the "unprotected" red car later in the video... Goes right through the sheet metal! Of course they turn the power up for the red car.

Hint for the uninitiated, big argons are mostly blue at idle. The greenish 25 watt beam. not shown on the youtube clip, hits the red paint, starts burning, and goes right through the skin on the car door. White titainium dioxide paint plus idle = no damage.

Getting back to serious, I lit a club wall in Ybor city in Tampa on fire from 70 feet with about 6 watts. Never underestimate the power of a small laser, they can amaze you some times.

Steve

[kecked]

I did succeed in popping a bicycle tire. It took amost ten minutes at 3 inches away. Hence I stand corrected.