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Things not looking good for lasers right now....

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lpfthings

Sun Apr 13 2008, 01:13PM

Registered Member #1361 Joined: Thu Feb 28 2008, 10:57AM
Location: Cairns, Australia
Posts: 305

the 10mw red and 10mw greens from jaycar are in module form, and as far as im aware, module form is legal. As far as i'm concerned, they will only be banning pointers, since lasers are used in LOTS of things, such as DVD burners/laser printers/ cd players etc. If they decided to ban ALL forms of lasers, they would have to ban all them too, which i dont see happening. Most of the people that shine lasers at planes dont have the knowledge to make a working pointer out of a module, i think thats what the government is relying on.

Avi

Sun Apr 13 2008, 01:23PM

Registered Member #580 Joined: Mon Mar 12 2007, 03:17PM
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Posts: 410

but jaycars price for a green laser is ridiculous, but if im going to import one for a better price i don't wanna receive an empty package! or get in trouble with the law.

quicksilver

Sun Apr 13 2008, 05:08PM

Registered Member #1408 Joined: Fri Mar 21 2008, 03:49PM
Location: Oracle, AZ
Posts: 679

Tesladownunder wrote ...

BTW inanimate does not equal safe with any number of examples from explosives to electrical to biologicals to chemicals.

Unfortunately this would be too of topic but it's a fascinating point of discussion. While I couldn't disagree with the statement that inanimate doesn't equal safe, no object commits crime in and of itself. I also believe it's intelligent to regulate potentially dangerous or easily abused materials, the question arises at where to begin and end.... & please understand that while I consider myself to be a mature, law abiding adult but I also know that there are those who are not so.

My point basically is that western society has gone beyond the point of regulating potentially abusive materials to a point of using legislation to enhance a political perspective. That it's easier to regulate an item than deal with root causation & methods to further mature, community oriented thinking in the common man - appears to be the temptation of the lazy politician. However......I would not want a teenager to be in possession of a hand grenade nor a madman, a bio weapon.

lpfthings

Sat Apr 19 2008, 02:16PM

Registered Member #1361 Joined: Thu Feb 28 2008, 10:57AM
Location: Cairns, Australia
Posts: 305

Yeah Avi, i agree. Actually, i have though of importing laser modules EXACTLY like the ones jaycar sells, but for 3/4 the price.....

quicksilver

Sat Apr 19 2008, 02:59PM

Registered Member #1408 Joined: Fri Mar 21 2008, 03:49PM
Location: Oracle, AZ
Posts: 679

When attempting to salvage laser modules from items that use them are there any codes that are used consistently on the modules to identify what you have?

Working from a generality that most are milliwatt modules used in items like older printers, etc I have seen some that have a simple numeric stamp but would a HP Laser III or the big old Panasonic from 1995 use a 3 mw module??? (the unit had a "3" stamped on it and no documentation from something that old)

Has there been ANY format standards used with lasers?

lpfthings

Mon Apr 21 2008, 06:57AM

Registered Member #1361 Joined: Thu Feb 28 2008, 10:57AM
Location: Cairns, Australia
Posts: 305

They are usually rated in Classes, Class 1 is like <1mw, Class 2 may be something like <50mw, Class 3 could be <500mw, and possibly Class 4 >500mw. I am pretty sure those classes are incorrect though.

quicksilver

Tue Apr 22 2008, 04:53PM

Registered Member #1408 Joined: Fri Mar 21 2008, 03:49PM
Location: Oracle, AZ
Posts: 679

I salvaged a very old & large laser printer. In it I found a very decent looking laser which also had several quality lenses (also a neat HV supply that had what looked like a tiny flyback). I wonder if there was some code (like on electronic components) that indicates what a laser runs on, what it's power is, etc. I searched a few places thus far and - no luck.
Is there a way to determine what voltage/current it runs on? I pulled the boards from surrounding infrastructure but got no hint as the voltage. Is there a "typical" voltage for small brass laser units such as that?

Conundrum

Tue Apr 22 2008, 06:32PM

Registered Member #96 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 05:37PM
Location: CI, Earth
Posts: 4061

hehe... yeah that could well be an infrared HeNe laser. Old printers used these as diodes weren't powerful enough.

IIRC (see sam's laser faq) they need a controlled current at a couple of KV or so, with a ballast resistor to prevent the laser going unstable and melting the bore.

Does it look like a large glass tube with a pair of mirrors?

regards, -A

quicksilver

Tue Apr 22 2008, 07:44PM

Registered Member #1408 Joined: Fri Mar 21 2008, 03:49PM
Location: Oracle, AZ
Posts: 679

It appears to be a 1x2 cm of brass, thick, solid construction a blacken slit at the bore. It is wired to a small circuit jumping to a larger one. The lenses & mirrors used were of comparatively high quality. The manufacturer was Panasonic (KX-P4450), And the unit was a moderately high priced one when it sold.

From what I could guess at, the HV supplies use 5.3Kv @ 300ma..... Is that what feeds the beast?

...

Tue Apr 22 2008, 10:15PM

Registered Member #56 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 05:02AM
Location: Southern Califorina, USA
Posts: 2445

I would say that the laser is a simple diode laser, and that the HV supply is actually unrelated to the laser and is only to charge up the toner.

BTW, a HeNe laser won't run more than 10ma tops for something you would find in a printer/laser disk player, so don't even think of hooking a HeNe up to that supply

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