r/lasers

Hey Girls and Guys!

I build what probably is the smallest full color analog laser pointer. It’s lighter sized and has an integrated lipo with USB-C charging port.
I has fully corrected single mode diodes: 455nm + 520nm + 638nm packing a total of roughly 400mW of output.

Due to the beam being prism formed, it’s completely round at the near and far field.

It even got some nice color changing modes that allow you to draw POV colored shapes.

Last two pictures show the far field beam at roughly 20m before and after alignment. All colors are nicely aligned and show almost the same divergence!

Hay guys, I recently found an old BTC100-S2 spectrometer (Old medical surplus part pull from a Raman Spectrometer) and decided to play with it. The original software... isn't great and only runs on windows so I threw together a nice python UI for it (fully works in command line with virtually no required libraries.)

It also has command line options but I wanted a GUI for testing. The spectrometers are available for around $200 on Ebay (Or like $700 for the full raman setup with a nice blue laser.)

Anyone have any suggested features to add before I release it on github?

I just got this bad boy in the mail. Supposedly 1kw, infrared. I need to put an FC/ACP connector on the end of the fiber. Is this something I can do myself without expensive equipment?

Some people out there really need to read this message and let it sink in! The amount of posts/videos/pictures we see where the people operating or watching aren’t even wearing basic eye protection is astounding! This is a fairly new field in many places and I get that, but as an industry we need to all be better and safer so that it is viable for the future, and so that government and insurance regulations don’t try and intervene because people are being needlessly hurt which leads to lawsuits and life altering outcomes sadly.. /rantover

My girlfriend and I just finished building a laser projector based around a cheap X/Y galvo kit, 200mW RGB laser module, and an ESP32 microcontroller. It's surprisingly capable and was a lot of fun to build! It can display vector art, and we've implemented a few basic demos like a simple version of Asteroids or an interactive/scrollable map. There's also a 3.5mm audio input for using it as a music visualizer.

Writeup with all the details is here: https://breq.dev/projects/laser-projector

FORT POLK, LOUISIANA, 04.16.2026

The MAWL-X1 is the military variant of the first weapon aiming laser utilizing VCSEL illuminator technology, resulting in superior beam clarity for illumination. With multiple fixed divergence diodes, easily controlled/activated by an ergonomic selector, soldiers get useful IR energy that results in better, and longer distances for positive identification and precise targeting.

Seeing the MAWL-X1 in recent US Army public releases is certainly a point of pride for our company

*The appearance of U.S. Department of Defense (DoW) visual information does not imply or constitute DoW endorsement.

so a few years back i got this laser pointer that came with a lens that dispersed the light into a bunch of dots, i haven't been able to take it off for a bit, it's supposed to come of when you twist it like a bottle lid but it just wont come off, it just spins

has anyone else had this laser and come across this issue?

So i was looking for a red And Green lasers on Allegro And found these two for $14 each when translated to USD, live in Czech so we use CZK currency. The Green one can light a match after a couple of seconds and Is uncomfortable for the eyes in the dark but the red one can't light a match and doesent bother my eyes in the dark, both of them are waaay weaker than my 2000mW blue monster laser but they still are strong both are bright in the dark And both make a visible beam so from my experience so far got these for 1 week now my rough estimate Is the red one is about 60-120mW And the green one 130-250mW (green looks the brightest for the human eye so i downed my estimate from the original 400mW estimate for the green one because at 400mW it should light a match in one second but you have to hold it there for a few seconds but also depends on how focused the Beam is). For just $14 both of these laser pointers are great. They say class 3 laser but dont specify the power but it means 1 - 500mW So that doesent tell anything Its a verry wide range

So what do you think Is the true power of these two mystery lasers?

My flatmate let me borrow her little astronaut shaped galaxy projector that also had a green laser projecting a million little stars across a wide field into the room. She apparently got it off Amazon.

I have ADHD and was entirely captivated by the display for at least like 30min to an hour, but then I noticed that the brightest stars kinda felt a bit uncomfortably bright, as if I was looking straight at a light source rather than a light. Twice, I accidentally got the laser straight into my eye for like a second, because it was projected out across the room.

I turned the stars off so there's just the galaxy light being projected now, but my near vision looks almost a little bit blurry as I type this, and I'm generally far sighted. Then again, I'm wearing contacts and I'm tired and paranoid. However, it is on my right eye, which was the one that got the accidental direct laser.

I noticed, after turning it off, that it has a small yellow label reading "Warning: Don't look into the light", with a warning triangle for the laser next to it. This product is allowed to be imported to the UK, apparently, but it is from Amazon.

Do you think I'm just being paranoid?

Picture of the label and video included here, and will post a video on my profile so you can go see what it looks like - a bit into the video, you can also see what it looks like when the camera is pointed directly at the lights as it turns on.

Everything kinda looks a little bit less sharp through my right eye atm, but it could just be tiredness/dry contact/overthinking, and I actually really enjoyed the starfield till I got paranoid about the lasers, so lmk! Thanks 😊

Im trying to build a laser illuminator can anyone tell me if its hard or give me any advice?

I got a laser module from DTR's (on laserpointerforums) Ebay store, it's a Ushio HL63193 diode (638nm, 700mW, 5.6mm TO-18) pressed into a nice copper module with a threaded lens.

This is my first multimode laser, so I wasn't really sure what to expect. The divergence pattern is nothing out of the ordinary for a multimode diode, if pictures of other divergence patterns are anything to go off of.

Burning power:

It is less powerful than I expected to be honest. I knew it would be less powerful than a single-mode diode of the same power because of fast and slow axes, but it seemed to have only slightly more burning power than one of my single-mode 650nm 100mW diodes while seeming much brighter.

It couldn't even touch a bright white piece of paper at all, no matter how long I held it in the beam. But when I held the beam on a spot in the paper I had written on with a pencil, it burned through pretty quickly, so that was cool to see. Brown cardboard was slow but it eventually made it.

Brightness:

At full power, just looking at the diffuse dot from a meter away off a piece of brown cardboard requires safety glasses in my opinion. It starts to leave an afterimage in fractions of a second. The glasses I use blocked out almost all the light, I was just barely able to see the diffuse dot on the cardboard.

Unfocused, I could use this thing as a flashlight in dark environments. In fact I could probably use the diffuse reflection as a flashlight.

Driving the diode:

It's advertised at 810mA.

I don't have any real driving mechanism on hand, so I built a sketchy circuit to drive it off my adjustable DC power supply. It just limits the current with a 2 ohm resistor, and smooths it out with a 1000uF electrolytic capacitor and an additional 1uF film capacitor (which has a lower ESR).

Since the capacitors are after the resistor in the circuit (so they are as close as possible to the diode), if I disconnect the diode (charging up the capacitors) and then reconnect it while the driver is powered, the full current from the capacitors goes straight through the diode and could kill it. So not recommended, but worked for testing.

Module build quality:

I was honestly shocked with the build quality of the module. DTR has a good reputation on laserpointerforums but I really wasn't expecting it to be this good.

Inside the copper module, the diode seems to be pressed in very evenly and nicely. The pre-soldered wires on this module are secured to the diode with heat shrink tubing, which is very impressive, I was not expecting that. The wires are super flexible, they seem to be silicone insulated. It's crazy to see this much effort go into the build quality of these modules. I have had problems in the past with leads breaking off of diodes so I really appreciate the silicone wire and heat shrink.

The copper rear part of the module (which doesn't house the diode) is mostly just a hollow tube which the wire goes through.

It is my understanding that DTR offers different rear pieces: long, short, and hollow. I believe I have the hollow one. The long and short ones are solid copper pieces which I seem to make direct contact with the rear of the diode package for better thermals. The only difference between those two are their length, I guess you'd want the longer one if you want more thermal mass. The hollow rear piece still makes contact with the front piece for thermal transfer, but that's obviously not as good as direct contact with the diode.

The threads on the lens aren't super tight and the lens can jiggle a little bit, but there is a pretty stiff spring constantly applying pressure from the main module to the lens, which makes it mostly stay put (but can also fling the lens across a table if you disassemble it carelessly).

One issue I had with the module is the lens part coming apart. In the third picture, you can see the thumb screw component and the black lens component. The lens component is supposed to be permanently screwed inside the thumb screw component. When I was trying to unscrew the lens to change the focus, the thumb screw component unscrewed from the lens component, leaving the lens on the module. I could easily still unscrew the bare lens component from the module, but it'd be better if the thumb screw stayed on. I am unable to screw the lens back into the thumb screw in any permanent way, so it will occasionally just come loose.

Heat:

I didn't use this in my hands for too long, but for the brief time I did, it definitely got above room temperature. I don't have an actual temperature reading, nor do I have the amount of time I was running it for (but it was likely less than a minute), nor do I have the current I was driving it at. I clamped it in a smooth-jaw milling vise most of the time just to keep it more secure for additional safety, which also conducted away more heat, keeping it at room temperature.

I would definitely be a bit concerned if I were trying to build a portable laser pointer with this, it would definitely heat up, at least without a different rear module piece.

tengo este puntero laser y no se por que esta asi, alguien sabe como se arregla? Solo lo intente limpiar y se puso asi

I bought a Laserworld RGB DS-1800 recently.

I believe it is some kind of older version, as the backside is a bit different from the ones I found on the internet.

I see absolutely no laser light whatsoever, with or without ILDA input...

I tried all possible combinations on the DMX/linking switches.

I even tried driving it from my modular synth through an ILDA interface. When I click the shutter switch on it it does a sound, but no response to interlock.

I attached a photo of the backside of the laser.

Any advice?

Thanks