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Thread: Poor student beam shows

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Nov 2005
    Location
    Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    Posts
    80

    Default Poor student beam shows

    Would I be correct in assuming I'll need >200mW to do effective beam shows for an audience within a 50' radius of the stage?

    Being a poor student, who has the cheapest lasers that will work reliably?

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    Norway
    Posts
    1,303

    Default

    hi there

    I have a 200mW, and that can easy make a nice show indoor !
    BUT, if you have ALOT of smoke the laser will feels like 800mW

    I did put my laser out my window once with a show going on !
    And toghether with snow falling from the sky, there was no problem to se the laser and the effect from 5-10 meeters away

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
    Location
    Charleston, SC
    Posts
    2,147,489,446

    Default

    I'd agree that 200 mw is the minimum for a decent beamshow, so long as the crowd is within 50 feet of the scanner... You're going to need a good bit of fog or haze to pull it off, but you can do it so long as the room is reasonably dark to begin with.

    I get pretty good results with just 100 mw in my living room (26 feet long), but I can make that room completely dark, so that helps a lot!

    Cheap and lasers are two words that are almost never found together in the same sentence! But there are some deals to be found.

    You can find new, 200mw DPSS green lasers on E-bay for around $600 or so. (100 mw units are around $300.) Just be careful who you buy from.

    There are a few other sites that offer deals as well. I found these guys about a month ago: http://mfgcn.com/index.html I haven't ordered anything from them, and I haven't spoken to anyone that has either, so I honestly can't speak for their reliability at all. But their prices look pretty good.

    I think there are a few people here on this board that are distributors for some of the Chinese laser manufacturers as well. Might want to wait around a bit and see if someone decides to do a group order. (That usually gives you a great price!)

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    Norway
    Posts
    1,303

    Default

    Hi again..

    I have byed some lasers in my lifetime.. (ehm from 1 year and untill now)
    I have ordred directly from CNI china, and from eBay ..

    But the best buy I ever have done is from spec green DPSS.

    If you want to buy Blue\green DPSS = buy from spec
    And if you want RED module = buy from marcroni they have NICE red ones..

    the 2 ppl i mention above is users on this forum, and not some eBay "guys" that want to ripp you off all the money you got


    But i guess spec can get a better price if we buy toghether !?!
    So maybe one day we can buy a blue dpss togheter and get a nice price

    I need a RED and blue dpss..

    If anybody want to trade any "laser" stuff let me know..
    I have 2 red 100mW modules, and 2 red 10mW modules that i actually dont need !!

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
    Location
    Charleston, SC
    Posts
    2,147,489,446

    Default

    D'oh! </me smacks forhead>

    I knew that Spec sold DPSS units! Completely forgot to post that. ops: (Sorry Spec!)

    I've got a feeling that he'll stand behind his products a bit better than your average E-bay seller, too!

    I still buy a lot on E-bay, and I have to admit that I've had really good luck so far. Only had 1 laser ever arrive DOA. (And this is out of probably 30 lasers that I've bought on E-bay.) It was a large HeNe that I bought from CTR-Surplus. They refunded ALL my money (including shipping) and let me keep the laser head!

    I ended up sending the head to Sam Goldwasser (Of Sam's Laser FAQ fame) and he managed to salvage the mirrors out of it for some project of his... He sent me the end cap back with the ballast resistor and the alden connector. (The monkeys at UPS must have dropped it pretty hard; the reason it was DOA at my door was because the capilary tube had sheared off inside!)

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