baloon popping

[ElGordito]

Hi guys, I pulled out my 120mw Greenie this evening because I was reading where folks were souping up there laser pointers hitting 30 and 40mw and were able to pop baloons.

I thought, cool I can impress the wife, if a 30mw laser would pop a baloon, certantly, a 120mw laser would be instant popping as if from a light saber. Really cool! :twisted:

Well it is such a stupid thing to be disapointed in, but here I sit. While my laser will pop the baloon, it takes several seconds concentrated in the same spot.

I checked the output power with a borrowed Coherent 210 power meter and I am reaching close to 150mw.

So I ask ya, am I simply expecting too much? I mean my laser is 3 to 4 times more powerful, shouldn't it be more... um.... distructful? Is that a word? :lol:

[liteglow]

Hi there !

Many people say that they pop a ballon easy as THAT !
But the truth is that the DOT from your laser need to be TINY as possible, and the ballon must be BLACK or any other dark colour !

And it`s not true that a 30mW laser pop a ballon !!!

I got a 60-80mW laser, and i must consentrate very much to pop a ballon with it !!

I also got a 240mW laser, but the beam is so "big" that popping a ballon with it is almost impossible !

[Groover]

At about 2' I can pop baloons with my 100mW green. But it's not instant and it only work with dark colored baloons.

[yaddatrance]

It takes 300mW with decent divergence to pop balloons reliably and scarily
at a reasonable distance But it still won't pop clear and white balloons.

[buffo]

Agreed... I can pop red, orange and pink ballons at 1-10 feet away from my 100 mw DPSS green. (Lasever unit) I can't even think about doing that with my Argons... (They're all single-line blue, at 488 nm, and only 40-50 mw.)

If I use a lens to focus the beam, I can pop other color balloons, but never white ones...

Also, with a lens, I can light a kitchen match with my argon. But my DPSS unit will light a match without a lens! (Cool!)

[ElGordito]

Agreed... I can pop red, orange and pink ballons at 1-10 feet away from my 100 mw DPSS green. (Lasever unit) I can't even think about doing that with my Argons... (They're all single-line blue, at 488 nm, and only 40-50 mw.)

If I use a lens to focus the beam, I can pop other color balloons, but never white ones...

Also, with a lens, I can light a kitchen match with my argon. But my DPSS unit will light a match without a lens! (Cool!)

I am soooo gonna try that tonight... Too cool.

[buffo]

I've got a picture of the match-lighting trick on my website:

http://home.sc.rr.com/buffo/optics.html

Like I said, with the argon's I need to use a lens, but my 100 mw DPSS lights a match without a lens in less than a second!

[liteglow]

http://home.monet.no/~bjornaro/diverse/

click the file: Film.wmv 31-Dec-2004 00:56 935k

That is a clip of me fire a match with my handheld DPSS 150mW

[buffo]

Liteglow;

You might want to hold the match a little farther away from the head of your laser when you do that. Some of that smoke and sulfur is probably getting on your optics at that close range!

Still - a very cool video!

Adam

[eric343]

That reminds me of a picture I saw in an ancient issue of National Geographic.

"Cigarettes taste better when lit by laser" was the caption, and they were using a large argon unit...