New School VS. Old School

[allthatwhichis]

...
style is not the way you pick your nose...its where you put the buggar!

I bet under the drivers seat of a Farrari is nice... I merely had a 74 Monte Carlo with the lil 350. And I will admit, without some of y'all fogeys and all yer gas, we wouldn't have toys like this...

[Laser Zone]

Oh God !!! The Kvant has her close off !!! Oh Ya !!!

[ImageLight]

Yer Kvant projector is really nice, can't wait to see it in person.

Mark

[mikkojay]

I built this one out of 3 different cars, 4 if you count the 455, and it did 13 flat in the quarter mile. I am sure it would have run 12's if I had ANY traction whatsoever. Total cop-magnet. That one is gone, but my uncle has a '67 Malibu convertible, bone stock, and he is the original owner. If I can ever score that one I would restore it very carefully. Oh, and my first laser was a HeNe from a grocery store scanner circa 1992. Can that squeak me into the old-school category since it's technically gas
-Mike

[heroic]

I can not go into details, but there is a IR handheld gas being developed for less then lethal weapons.

Aside: please don't use the term "less than lethal". These weapons- Taser and CS spray included- are not "less than lethal". They are just "less lethal". There's a huge difference, and the people making the damned things are framing the discussion by including that extra word.

-J.,
who has been hit by a taser,
and did not enjoy the experience

[White-Light]

Gas lasers are a work of art. That said their fragility and other longer term problems make them less of a wise choice.

Their main attraction to me is their colour lines, some of which are unachievable on solid state despite the seemingly endless colour pattern.

However, I have to say this is all changing. An increasing number of colours are becoming available solid state so I think its only a matter of time before gas becomes truly obsolete except in the higher powers where solid state are just too expensive.

Once we see a watt of solid state blue or red for £500, gas's days are numbered.

[buffo]

Right now I have some hope that the laser TV tech will be useable after some modifications. TVs are a mass market, but the laser TV has stiff competition with OLED as a future TV technology.

They demo'd these lasers on the ILDA cruise, and I actually held one in my hand. Only problem with the solid state lasers they've developed for TV applications is that they max out at around 3 watts, which is *more* than they need for TV's up to 60 inches across. (Well, there's the massive divergence issue too, but that has hope of being tamed.) The trouble is that there's nothing driving the development of higher power solid state lasers, and that's where Ion Lasers really have an advantage.

Until someone comes up with a killer app that needs 10 watts of solid state red, or 20 watts of solid state blue, Ion lasers are always going to be king of that high power market, if for no other reason than they're the only game in town at that power level.

Once we see a watt of solid state blue or red for £500, gas's days are numbered.

While I'd *love* to see a watt of DPSS blue for £500, that won't put a dent in the sale of large frame ion lasers. Because even a watt of blue (or red, for that matter) isn't enough for the really big shows.

Ever see the laser show they do every night at Disney? Even on TV? That's 20 watts or more right there. You're not going to get 20 watts of blue from a solid state laser. (At least not without spending a tremendously stupid amount of money, and living with a TEM4,4 beam - or worse!)

I think that because this forum is so focused on the hobbyist perspective, we sometimes lose sight of the bigger picture where laser shows are performed outside in football stadiums for 80,000 + people. You can't pull off a show like that with a 1 watt solid state projector, or even with a 10 watt solid state projector. Big shows need big power, and big power means ion lasers - period.

I don't deny that *most* laser shows are done indoors for far fewer people, and in those cases a solid state projector is ideal. But the *big* money in lasers has always been with the blockbuster shows, and those shows need the high power that can only be reached with ion lasers. (With the noted exception of a green-only show using a converted laserscope or similar... But lets face it - green only is lame!)

Adam

[keeperx]

well you have successfully ostracized everyone with a green only projector..

No laser is lame lasers, only lame people

[buffo]

well you have successfully ostracized everyone with a green only projector..

I was talking about a commercial show, Alec. There aren't too many hobbyists with a 40 wat laserscope in their basement!

No laser is lame lasers, only lame people

Wrong. A lame laser is when you have 3000 + people and you try to fill the venue with laser light using a 100 mw projector. THAT is a lame laser.

Don't get me wrong - even a 10 mw laser can be cool under the right circumstances (perfect darkness, small room, and lots of fog). But try to do a big show with a small laser and you *will* come off looking lame as hell.

Likewise, try to do a huge professional show with just one color looks lame. At least, when the same show last year had a full-color whitelight projector, that is.

Adam

[keeperx]

Why are you putting my name at the end of your sentences, Adam. (j/k)

i agree.. too little is bad but too MUCH can be worse.. at least too little isn't gonna blind you...

so i guess a pulsed 40W in a tent with crowd scanning could also be considered lame.

i think ill be happy once i get my 1 watt all put together..

thats big enough for me and my basement/back yard/small club..