*head asplode*

So the future’s finally here. Took it long enough.

In all seriousness, this is utterly awesome.

A W E S O M E !!

1MW for 100ns is about 0.1 joules. It’s a really nice case for an off the shelf laser module, but it’s no more a laser weapon than looking into the laser of a BD-R drive. A BD drive laser will comfortably sustain 20mW, so a 5 second beam will equal the pulsed energy output by this laser, for a lot less outlay than the pulsed Q-switched laser module.

If it is only a KW module, then a half-second BD laser beam will match the energy output.

If he can make the batteries into clip form its usability would go up 10 fold.

Looks like the site is down right now… I wonder if he used aerogel capacitors? Aren’t they supposed to be thousands of times more dense then electrolytic capacitors at the same size? Might be able to shoot a more powerful laser with them….

So is it a kW or MW? videos say MW, forum says kW…kinda a huge difference between the two.

I’m afraid to ask how well this would work on an inflated car tire…my guess is, “very well”. Errr. Looks like a viable self-defense item, since it’s probably quite effective on human skin.

LOL, How many laser pointers will I need to do something like this?

HAD + /. = site down

Yawn. Lasers have to be focused. This isn’t a weapon it’s a toy – at best. Still dangerous but also still a toy. Notice the sci-fi fanboys creaming their pants though.

Great technical achievement and gorgeous build, but…

more than half the people who are asking this guy to build one for them are bullied teens who will bring it at school to take revenge and impress friends the wrong way, or idiots who will point it to the neighbor’s dog because it barks too much. Others will use it to pop vehicles tires, etc.

This thing is seriously dangerous. The author should publish free plans but refuse to build it for strangers. Being able to understand the electronics behind this device and building it succesfully usually means one has enough maturity, both in age and brain, to be able to use it with extreme caution.
But offering it with no check for the buyer’s age and attitude is plainly stupid.

He said it took him 70 hours to build not counting parts. To me that says it’ll have a several thousand dollar price tag to have him build one. at $100/hr thats $7000 which I wouldn’t think is overpriced for freelance hand built EE work… he should throw them up for $10,000 and if people are willing / able to pay that who cares what they do with it (maybe make them sign a waiver)

Looks like it uses the SSY1 laser assembly I have. Sams Laser guide has all the details to make power supplies for these. My intent was to hook it up to a 2-axis CNC and blast copper off PCBs but a gun is much more fun and dangerous.

@mt11 What does phase coherency have to do with wave dispersion? You are confusing things, check your physics book.

Coherent light means all the wavefronts are aligned in phase, thats it.

Really don’t think things like this should be sold on the open market. Everybody pretty much understands how dangerous firearms are and how to hurt/kill with them. It’s a lot less obvious with lasers.

You really don’t want an entire family getting permanently blinded because some douchebag next door was shooting their “toy” at shiny objects. And the more powerful the laser the less shiny it really has to be for that kind of crap.

@CutThroughStuffGuy
user, not Maker.

Now put some Ewok decals on it and maybe he’s got something.

@DigitalKlepto I wouldn’t worry about the original site it just had a short 2 paragraphs and a video. There actually more information about the build in HAD’s description (taken from the video I assume) then on the original site

Perfect for keeping the squirrals out of my garden.

@mt11

Laser Coherence has nothing to do with divergence. Divergence is a property of laser cavity design. The laser diodes used in BD drives typically diverge at 30 degrees and thus need a lens for focusing. Coherence is something completely different, check out the wiki article for the best possible graphical explaination http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coherence_(physics)

@Leon

Not likely. If this laser can punch through a razor it can likely punch through the reflective layer on the back of a mirror too. This is why high power lasers are directed not by mirrors but by penta-prisms using the principles of total internal reflection, just like optic fibres.

lol@ psuedonymous

you’re jelly.

Also, you don’t seem to grasp the difference between power and energy.

This becomes important with high intensity light and small timescales.

Very expensive lighter.

This has another danger that makes it even more dangerous. Pulsed lasers can have really sharp rise times on the output. A near-IR laser is going to cause heating – that’s what it does – in the target.

Get even a small amount of stray light from a pulse in your eye and the sharp rise time on the pulse means a sharp rise time on the shock wave that forms in the eye due to the heating.

The shock wave can rip the retina loose from the back of the eye.

Pulsed lasers have a much lower power threshold for eye damage than continuous wave (CW) lasers because of the shock wave effects.

Anyone playing with these should wear protective laser goggles. They should not be used anywhere where people without proper protection or notice are present.

This is neat but it can easily blind. Anyone watching any of the shots in person that were in the video, without proper protection, would probably have suffered eye damage.

Garbz – you don’t usually use pentaprisms for steering high power lasers either. It’s usually done with dielectric front surface mirrors. Prisms tend to dissipate way too much power in the bulk and that really degrades beam quality from thermal effects, but it is true that metallic mirrors are avoided as well.
I agree that the reason it’s not visible is the wavelength – conventional digital cameras will not respond very well to 1064 nm, although they will work at shorter IR wavelengths. The pulse duration is really irrelevant to whether the imager can see it since the exposure is much, much longer than the pulse duration.

For anybody that wants to build one of these, search “SSY-1″ on ebay.
With that said, this is a very dangerous thing to have and could easily blind you, or anybody in close proximity to you regardless of what it’s being shot at.
iirc, these laser assemblies were originally used for range-finding on M1 tanks.

Measuring a 100ns pulse in watts is nonsense, what it matters is the energy delivered in a single pulse (measured in Joules)

My job involves Q-Switched lasers, likes those used for tattoo removal. These deliver up to 1.5 Joules, in pulses no longer than 10ns, that is 100MW (yes, 100 Megawatt) but just during that small amount of time. It does not go through almost anything but thin (and black!) paper.

But someone could be killed by a spork. Not very easily, but if the person was quite determined a spork could be used to do harm. The spork, hammer, laser, ballpoint pen, axe, scissors, pipe wrench, etc becomes a weapon when it is used as such…

He seems to avoid answering the question about how he calculated 1MW: (from youtube comments)
–
#

what about a power of pulse ? it’s rather 1mW than 1 MW, is’t it ?
R0SYN 10 hours ago
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@R0SYN

I wont delete this, because I want other to have a laugh today ;-)

Seriously: 1mW pulse…1mW constant should slicce a bydriving train then?

THINK before posting….no offense ;-)
AnselmoFanZero 10 hours ago
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@AnselmoFanZero

you did say 1 MEGA watt pulse in the video though
OKtheband 10 hours ago
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@OKtheband

Not even Tony Stark can calculate without havin all values needed. Some say its ONLY 10kW…others estimate 800kW.

It blasts holes in stuff…who cares :)
AnselmoFanZero 9 hours ago
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@AnselmoFanZero I’m a physicist so i do, a 1 milliwatt laser can cut through plastic if you use it right, a 1 MEGA watt laster is 1,000,000 times more powerful, so which one is it?
OKtheband 9 hours ago
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@OKtheband

Well I am not! Never heard you can cut something with 1mW….whats the pulse-duration? What kind of laser?
AnselmoFanZero 9 hours ago
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@AnselmoFanZero

- well, tell me then what is a source of that “mega” power, 4 li-jon battery ? How much of water can boil this all of power 4 li-jon battery ?
R0SYN 9 hours ago
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@R0SYN

You know the difference between both of us? I have answers to YOUR question. A physician answering with a question….I am sceptical.

The energy is stored in capacitors…then released in a <100ns PULSE. Go ahead and calculate.
AnselmoFanZero 8 hours ago

–
He's also mixing up the two users posting, that's why he complains to R0SYN about being a "physician" (sic) when it's OKtheband who is the physicist. Frustrating/skeptical that he won't explain his 1MW calculations.

Laser weapons very much like this are produced by the north koreans and chinese. Automatic sniper blinding systems effective for miles are available for sale on international arms markets also. Slight problem in that their use as blinding systems is against the laws of war.

Shoot something practical.

Being in the laser business, it’s always fun to see these projects come out. I think what’s more fun is to see all of the largely imaginative claims and counter-claims to the capabilities of these devices. That said, I have enjoyed this release probably more than any of the others to date.

For those who wish to build this: Meredith Instruments sells the laser head used in this project for [currently] $195. On the same website, you will see a more accurate representation of what the laser head is capable of [150-200-milli-joules, or 50kW at 4nS 1064nm at 15-Joules of electrical input, 4mm beam].

My only complaint with this device is that I think it would be more effective if a LBO crystal were aligned at the output to produce a green pulse. Maybe I’m over-thinking it though.

It’s the Aperture Science Handheld Target Obliteration Device!

Other home made weapons use pig carcasses to demonstrate their lethality. I’d love to see this thing try to cook bacon from across the room.

Seriously, why wouldnt you make this inside a cordless drill case? The decent ones cost $100, and often come with 2 18v lipo packs.

Amazing build, I think the lower end models will become more popular however…

om, nom,nom,nom…i can haz!…

Schweet!! What’s Patrick Priebe’s email address so I can ask him how to build one of these suckers??

Bernard

Actually it couldn’t be used as a ‘sniper rifle’ because of the atmospheric conditions that degrade a laser over distances.

research your claims on military weaponry again. naval ships of the US are employing high power rail guns as well as laser weaponry. though the laser is used to shoot missles outa the sky it has yet to be used for ship to ship.

So What’s the email to send requests to?