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Joined 3 years ago
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Cake day: July 3rd, 2023

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  • Honestly, I’ve got no idea what price range is plausible these days. What I do know is, that I would only buy from someone who knows what they’re doing, and who can provide a proper datasheet. But then again I come at this from an electronics angle, so I’d want a datasheet with stats on the beam, like wavelength composition, and heat dissipation etc, and not just forward voltage and current.

    If you’re looking to buy a finished product, then figure out what regulatory markings it should have, like UL, CSA, CE, and TÜV. Personally I may be European, but I wouldn’t be satisfied with a CE marking, it must at least have TÜV before I’d mess with it, and I’d prefer it to be UL listed as well. Anybody can slap CE on a product, but UL and TÜV are actual testing institutions.


  • lots of these are pulsed, primarily to avoid excessive local heating (burning) of the tissue being lased. these can have peak powers in the kilowatt range!

    I just wrote “weird” because trying to explain 250mJ delivered in 15ns became too much math to put into a comment I wanted people to read.

    also your point of output contamination is spot on! +1 to avoiding cheap “powerful” lasers :)

    That’s what fucking around finds out for you. Luckily I never got to the stage in my project where I put on my budget non-certified goggles, and powered on el cheapo laser diode. But if I can help somebody else to not trust the nominal values, then I’ll chime in when this is brought up.


  • Suitable applications of 1w lasers

    • light engraving
    • ultra light cutting
    • mischief and miscellaneous shenanigans
    • medical (I guess it’s in the range for tattoo removal, but power rating for these lasers are stated weirdly)
    • fiber optic communications

    Tasks 1w lasers are unsuitable for

    • any kind of pointing, besides cases where you wish to permanently damage your audience.

    As I recall the cheap lasers have an issue with the quality of their wavelength. Both in contamination and precision. Which leads glasses not being effective.