This is an interesting post - the inventor uses a laser as a point light source for a projector. Essentially, a lens is used to increase the beam divergence. A slide is inserted between the slide and the laser and the result is a large, sharp image projected. It is monochrome but neat…

Read the rest of this entry »

For those of you who are not familiar, one of the best laser resources - covering everything from theory to safety, is Sam’s Laser FAQ. I have attached the table of contents here, but the document itself is huge.

From: http://www.repairfaq.org/sam/laserfaq.htm

Table of Contents….

Read the rest of this entry »

I wanted to show off with some detail how I operate my laser scanner. This isn’t a nice, pre-built box of any kind. Things are mostly held together with zip ties and propped up with coins and paper. Read the post for more….

Read the rest of this entry »

This author has some helpful tips with how to write using laser light and a digital camera. I’ve tried this with limited success. For something like this, a lower-power laser works best. I’ve foudn that something like a Nexus overpowers the timed exposure on the camera.

Read the rest of this entry »

Gadgetell has a side by side comparison of a Wicked Lasers Elite series versus a Dragon Lasers product. The review is a little light on details but the Dragon lasers product seems to be a CNI product whereas the Wicked Lasers product is much more custom looking. Based on aesthetics alone, I would go with the Wicked Laser.

While I can’t vouch for their products personally, I have head of some issues with reliability regarding the Dragon Laser products. Again, I have never used them personally so take it for what it’s worth.

Read the rest of this entry »

This has got to be one of my favorite beam effects. It is achieved by guiding the beam in a circular pattern. This draws a cone around the camera with the point converging at the light source. Any particulate matter that crosses the border where the light is being projected glows brilliantly causing the illusionist of a long tunnel. Check it out after the jump.

Here is a great video showing the intensity of a Wicked Lasers Pulsar 125 mW laser. There is only a little bit of smoke used but the beam just jumps out. The only editing that was done to this video was the cropping and fading - colors are as my camera picked them up.

I wanted to share some great beam effects possible using only Wicked Lasers products. View the post to see more photos.

I wanted to provide everyone with a quick reference to color as expressed as a wavelength. I found a great reference online that may be help to some readers. This is a chart that illustrates the approximate wavelength of a given color of light.

Wicked Lasers just released their Reference Series of lab-style modules. These things put out an incredibly amount of power (1W green, 500mW red, 200 mW blue). I haven’t been able to get my hands on one yet, but based on the specs online, these things look pretty cool.