Opnext HL6545MG Diodes

[steve-o]

PN-
ok you know what your doing.
Ya never know who's on the other end of the line--for example, this guy:
http://photonlexicon.com/forums/show...1058#post21058

[PNjunction]

Ah... so since the wider, but better collimated beam will wind up being more intense at the longer distances, that will translate into it appearing to "reach out" further, so to speak?

Or, am I barking up the wrong tree altogether? For example, when pointing either my red or green into the sky, the beam simply "ends" at some point. The beam remains bright up to a certain point, then just terminates without any appearance of a gradual fade... like a very long light saber. Without knowing why this happens, I assume this is an effect imposed by the human eye. Will this effect happen at approx. the same visual distance no matter what lens I use? If so, then perhaps the attempt for a "longer" looking beam is moot.

Sorry for the OT... really should've started a seperate thread for all this.

Edit: Steve-o... Jeez, that guy's gonna' tan his retina. One lesson I learned early on was to do a little research into something potentially dangerous before I start screwing around with it. When I was about 5, I stuck a screwdriver into a the socket of a little incandescent, AC powered nightlight, and got an explosion of sparks in my face. Quite lucky to have walked away with just a bunch of brown spots on my face from the sparks, which wiped off with a towel (mom cleaned them off after freaking out at my appearance...lol.)

It's always amazing to me when people play around with things, with nary a clue about any potential dangers.

[The_Doctor]

Ah... so since the wider, but better collimated beam will wind up being more intense at the longer distances, that will translate into it appearing to "reach out" further, so to speak?

Yes, but it depends on who's watching. It will seem to reach better to those viewing it from the side, at greater distances from source.

When pointing either my red or green into the sky, the beam simply "ends" at some point. The beam remains bright up to a certain point, then just terminates without any appearance of a gradual fade... like a very long (light saber. Without knowing why this happens, I assume this is an effect imposed by the human eye. Will this effect happen at approx. the same visual distance no matter what lens I use? If so, then perhaps the attempt for a "longer" looking beam is moot.

That's perspective. It's partly eye, partly mind and interpretation. And actually has interesting implications regarding our dimensional perception, but that's way way off topic. The lens won't make a difference to you, at the source, even a fairly divergent laser will appear to reach the vanishing point, but if you're making a rod-like beacon for others to see, use all the collimation you can, ideally one big aspheric lens.

================================================== ========

(Re dangers for people who don't know lasers, it might be good to have a large red sticky thread at the main page. Something that will draw people to look because they can't help themselves. The tricky bit is working out what to say so info is there without being hard to follow. I think the essential point is that green lasers are now common, and involve extremely dangerous levels of light that is hard or impossible to see.)

[steve-o]

Good idea Doctor.

[The_Doctor]

Ty I'll try to write something later, and put it out for edit, review, whatever. Unlike coding, this is something I can do...

[steve-o]

PN-
Yeh I had the same dangerous curious streak when I was a kid -hell I still do I guess -

[PNjunction]

Awesome answers, Doctor! Thanks! Definitely helps clear up a number of items.

Good idea for the safety sticky as well.

[Hemlock Mike]

PN -

WRONG -- Pi are round - Cornbread are square.

Mike

[PNjunction]

PN -

WRONG -- Pi are round - Cornbread are square.

Very true! And if you sliced the cornbread diagonally from two corners, you could figure the area of each half using Pythagorean Theorem.

HOWEVER... after taking a bite of the cornbread, I believe you need differential calculus to determine the area of the bite, just like you would with pi.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong. I'm hungry all of a sudden.

[steve-o]

corn-pie-bread
corn-bread-pie
corn-bread-pudding
bread-pudding
pie-pudding
corn-bread-pie-pudding

If you got a CNC laser-cutter I bet you could perfectly slice a pie into 8 exact sized pieces or cornbread in under 200 ms