Set Phasers To “blind”

November 12, 2009 by Mike Szczys 30 Comments

[Directive0] added a 200mW laser to his Enterprise Phase Pistol toy. This joins the ranks of hand-held laser hacks that we’ve seen around here lately. His build makes use of the stun and kill settings of the toy to switch between different modes. The built-in 9 volt battery holder is tapped into for power. When set to stun, the stun LED indicator is illuminated and a trigger pull sends current limited electricity to the laser diode. When the kill (or blind) setting is selected, the appropriate LED is illuminated and the trigger sends the full current from the battery to the laser diode. Power regulation is managed by the driver circuit for the laser.

This build preserves the unmodded look of the toy gun. [Directive0’s] inclusion of protective glass should fend off the warnings we usually see in the comments of these types of hacks.

Laser Etching Fruit

November 5, 2009 by Caleb Kraft 22 Comments

laserlable-ed02 (Custom)

Ever annoyed by those pesky stickers on your fruit? They never seem to pull off in one piece and they always leave a little glue behind. Well, the industry might be moving away from them in favor of laser etching each piece of fruit. They are using a low energy carbon dioxide laser to etch the skin. The FDA is in the final stages of approval for using this in the states. It is already in use in New Zealand. We might find this a bit weird, but we’ve seen weirder.

[via slashdot]

DIY Plotter With Laser

October 25, 2009 by Mike Szczys 39 Comments

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[Viacheslav] built a plotter that is fast and accurate. He wanted to take it one step further and added a laser in place of the pen. The 300 mW unit does a nice job of wood-burning any pattern sent to it, but isn’t strong enough to serve as a laser cutter for anything other than thin-film. We wonder if it can be used to cut solder paste stencils for surface mount PCB production.

In the video after the break you can see some plotting that uses a pen. In addition to writing on paper, [Viacheslav] has tested this as a method of applying etch resist to a copper clad board for PCB production. He’s able to achieve 0.8 mm pitch but the production process is limited by the resist pen’s tendency to wear out quickly and to only prevent etching for a short period of time (compared to toner transfer resist).

Just like with his touch sensitive keypad project, he’s taken the time to thoroughly document his work. Build notes, pictures, CAD files, and source code are all available for your perusal and hackage.

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Laser Raygun Boasts 300mW, Hunts Klingons

October 18, 2009 by Mike Szczys 39 Comments

Phasers come with two settings: stun and kill. [Luke] took this seriously when he put two Blu-ray lasers into a toy raygun. He picked up the toy from Amazon for about twenty bucks and set to work.

The laser diodes are both pulled out of a 6x BD-R burner, which we think is a pretty expensive source to scavenge from. [Luke] removed the toy circuitry, reusing the trigger, top switch, and battery pack. The two diodes are mounted on a swiveling carriage which is turned 180 degrees to switch between the two diodes. A boost driver converts the 3v from the batteries up to 7v for the diodes.

This is a skillful conversion and [Luke] should be proud. Don’t miss the video after the break and if you’re thirsty for more take a look at the last hand held laser we featured.

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Underwater Laser, Just Add Shark

October 12, 2009 by Mike Szczys 30 Comments

underwater-laser-beam

[iskor12] put together a blu-ray laser that is waterproof and packs quite a punch. At 182 mW there is enough power here to pop dark colored balloons (see the video after the break). To make this happen, he found an LED flashlight that has rubber o-rings for waterproofing. Although small, there is enough space in the case to house the battery, driver, and laser diode. A thick ring of aluminum is placed around the laser diode to act as heat sink.

We’ll admit, we don’t know that much about lasers. This is probably the wrong question to ask, but now that he has this what do you do with it? Leave us a comment about your plans for this diabolical creation.

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RGB Laser

October 4, 2009 by Jakob Griffith 22 Comments

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Last month we had the pleasure of bringing you [FireMyLaser’s] green laser spirograph. Just green is great for a while, but why not add red and blue for a full spectrum of color! [c4r0] steps in at this point to bring us his red green blue laser.

(Editor’s note: the old forum doesn’t seem to exist in 2023, but the project moved here. Thanks, [Rolson]!)

He dug around inside Blu-ray players and DVD drives until he had a collection of lasers, refractors, and other filters that fit his needs. With some careful toothpick alignment and glue, his setup was complete.

But then he went further by modified his galvo scanner to accept the RGB laser; requiring a custom circuit board and new software, both available on his site. The original is in Polish, but Google does a decent translation. Check after the jump for a video.

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Laser Triggered Photography

September 30, 2009 by Jakob Griffith 9 Comments

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Popped balloons or bullets fired into apples, anyone can photograph with a quick sound based camera rig. Lasers have been used forever in motion detection. And even door bell chimes have been used before for remote camera shutter releases. No, [SaskView] wanted to go further and created his Laser Triggered High-Speed Photography setup, to photograph (of all things) milk splashes. We liked the simplicity of the project however; requiring no programmed microchips or overly complicated circuitry – rather he took a quick trip to the local dollar shop, used the amazing CHDK firmware, and he produced perfect results every time.

[Update: CHDK, not CHKD firmware. My mind must be elsewhere. Thanks jbot and agent smith]