How To Turn a Mini Maglite Into a Laser

Lucas123 writes "Using the laser from a DVD burner, this instructional video shows you how to create a hand-held laser that is powerful enough to light a match and pop a balloon. There's some soldering involved and the Maglite's bulb housing needs to be drilled out to fit the new laser diode, but with some basic skill, most people could do this. Just plain cool." Update: 07/09 12:23 GMT by KD : Warning, the device that results from following these instructions will blind you if you look into it.

Re:Uhhh...

[Anonymous Coward]

They're making a hand-held laser and the keyword is "hand-held" not "laser".

Re:Sure

[Anonymous Coward]

A shorter wavelength laser will have more energy. Ultraviolet would be the best. Unless you modify the laser module's circuit, using bigger batteries would not make any difference to the output other than the fact that they will last longer before going flat.

Re:Mods, wake up!

[Opportunist]

No. Decidedly, no. Information has never and will never cause harm. It cannot. I do agree that some information, like certain pictures, can cause bodily harm because they induce the reproduction of your last meal, but you're free to ignore said information and keep your ham and eggs with you.

If someone is dumb enough to use the information and blinds himself, he's the only one to blame for it. That something like this is harmful should be obvious. If it's not, this is due to the person having not enough information on the subject to see the problem.

Re:Dangerous

[mgabrys_sf]

re:special goggles can be obtained for specific wavelengths

Anyone know the wavelength for a DVD diode? Would suck to buy protection and then be wearing the wrong ones before getting clobbered by an errant beam.

(seriously, I like the idea of safety, but want a little more info)

Re:Dangerous

[Anonymous Coward]

I totally agree. This is an exceedingly dangerous post and should really be removed.
I'm not too worried about idiots blinding themselves. I'm far more worried about malicious idiots blinding loads of innocent people without ever being caught.

Re:Dangerous

[NeverVotedBush]

I think the point here is that a little itty bitty laser diode doesn't seem intrinsically dangerous to a lot of people. A knife, for some reason, is easier to understand that it can and will cut you if it is mishandled. But a little self-education on the dangers of a knife generally doesn't result in blindness.

The only saving grace in this article and video is that the beam will hopefully not be that well collimated over a longer distance and when idiots shine it at other people, the damage will be less and the people will have time to look away before they get serious damage.

Also, a laser like this would probably leave lines or dots burned into the retina. It isn't as bad as a pulsed laser that can literally rip the retina off the back wall of the eye because of what are essentially sonic booms in the eye due to the fast rise times and heating pulses. But if it can burn a hole in a piece of paper, imagine what it can do to all your rods and cones when your eye focusses the beam into an even smaller and more intense spot in your eye.

I agree with all the other posters who say the video should be removed and that this article should be pulled.

Re:Dangerous

[vrmlguy]

As of five minutes ago, I don't want your stupid goggles, I want freaking DVD-frequency contact lens that can be worn 24x7. In a few hours, there are going to be jokers wandering the streets with these things blinding random victims, and I want to be protected, damn it. On a more serious note (yes, the above is intended to be modded "funny"), could a contact lens work? If it blocks the light via absorption, then you've just moved the hot-spot from the retina to the cornea. Still, I guess that corneal transplants are more practical than retinal.

Re:As much as I hate lawuits...

[LiNKz]

Why does everything boil down to the word "terrorism" these days? The new buzzword for the fear department.

I agree, I was thinking the same thing -- I could just imagine some kid thinking it would be funny to shoot somebody in the eye with one of these things, and there is nothing I can do to protect myself from it.

I definitely didn't think of 'terrorism', though.

Re:Dangerous

[rbb]

I agree with all the other posters who say the video should be removed and that this article should be pulled.

I was with you all the way on your comment until you said that.

Removing the article (or the video) won't make this go away, a clear warning however might at least stop some people from getting hurt.

Re:Dangerous

[IndustrialComplex]

They can block wavelengths and there are brands out there that are designed with the intent to block certain wavelengths.

However, I am not aware of any that are designed as laser protection.

Re:As much as I hate lawuits...

[chuckymonkey]

So? By the time I was 13 I could build so many different kinds of bombs out of things you can get out of the hardware store that I should have been called a terrorist by today's standards. Here's one for you, know what happens when you mix acetylene with oil? No? Try it sometime pretty fun if you ask me also extremely deadly, there's a reason that acetylene bottles say not to oil the threads of the valve cap. There are so many much worse things that you could do that are well documented on the internet now that I didn't have access to, I actually had to work at stuff like this but these days you don't it's all there for the taking. So really this is pretty small potatoes and you're just having a knee jerk reaction like so many people do. You want to know what was the key instrument of me not hurting myself or others when I started to get really interested in blowing shit up? My father quickly realized that I was going to find a way to do it one way or the other so he taught me the safe way to do it, the same can be applied to lasers. Kids need to be allowed to experiment with stuff that's how you learn and better yourself, keeping kids and teenagers locked up in an iron box and not letting them do dangerous things that are also very educational just churns out the next generation of factory workers. For instance my fascination with explosives led me to make my own brand of rocket fuel, then that led me to want to make a rocket. Since I wanted to make a rocket I learned about CAD and Drafting then made drawings and took them to a machine shop to make said rocket. I launched and guess what? It flew! Amazing! Look at all that I learned along the way! Now take a laser for instance, imagine if a kid saw this and realized that he could do a little engraving with something like this. It may eventually lead him to FAB@home and maybe just maybe he/she would build on of these machines, imagine what they would learn along the way. It's attitudes like yours that stifle the creativity and imagination of future generations. Knee-jerk reactions like ZOMG! teh t'rrists can blind someone serve no one only breed the already stifling culture of fear that we live in now. This could be a great teaching tool, it's fun, cool, and has visible results as well as being inexpensive. I think all physics classes in school should be encouraged to have students build things like this, it leads to interest in the subject and you know what that makes? Wow! You guessed it, a smarted more creative generation of forward thinkers. I could go on for hours but I'm going to quit now before I get all worked up.

Re:Mods, wake up!

[MightyYar]

Information can most certainly cause harm when it is incomplete. This video makes it look like harmless fun - hey, kids, take apart your DVD burner and pop a balloon! Not one mention that you should be wearing goggles, that even partial reflections can blind you or others. Using this thing anywhere except a windowless room where everyone inside the room is in protective eyewear is irresponsible and dangerous.

Teaching someone how to make a tool without also showing them how to use it properly is irresponsible, especially if you neglect to even tell the person that the tool is very dangerous. I think you are right in that anyone stupid enough to look into the beam deserves to be blinded, but this thing will also blind anyone who's exposure to the beam is less than 1 ms - shorter than the blinking reflex. Even a 10% reflection is more powerful than a some laser pointers. Common sense may keep you from staring into it, but it might not occur to you just how dangerous it is.

Re:Um, *excuse* me!?

[Ihlosi]

It's pretty obvious that a laser that can light a match is seriously dangerous if miss-used.

No, it's not. If you don't know about the properties of laser light (monochromatic, coherent, low divergence) and what happens when laser light passes through a lens, you will seriously underestimate how dangerous this stuff is. This is a few steps above using the sun and a magnifying glass.

Re:Dangerous

[llevity]

It's not so much the idiots blinding themselves, as a previous poster pointed out. It's them blinding everyone else around them that's more worrying. You know, the ones that bring laser points to movie theaters? One malicious person could go to the front and start randomly shining it over the crowd.

Re:Dangerous

[Pig Hogger]

I'm increasingly of the opinion that the only proper way to pounish somone who intentionally wounds/maims someone is to do the same thing to them. Only withplenty of warning so they have time to get really fucking scared. No other punishment really means anything in the end.

And therefore, you will apply the same theorem to teeth???

Eye protection

[phorm]

A lot of people here have mentioned how dangerous this laser is in terms of the ability to fry eyes and/or cause blindness. Is there anyone here who can indicate what the proper safety gear would be when dealing with lasers of this variety? I'm guessing that anti-UV sun-glasses aren't quite good enough... and welders goggles perhaps a bit too dark to accomplish any work?

Re:MOMMY!

[dintech]

It's important to be made aware of the mind control tactics used by our government. The only problem I've had with them is that I'm not sure if the contact lenses work or not.

Re:Dangerous

[yourlord]

Naa.. Then the rapist would sue the victom, and win..

Re:Dangerous

[ceoyoyo]

It's interesting the number of people here who are worried about others running around with home made high power lasers (which you can buy pre-made for about $100 anyway) who live in a country where it's a constitutionally granted right to run around with whatever sort of gun you prefer.

Re:Dangerous

[theshowmecanuck]

You mean to teach people with such crippled intellect and no social or emotional control that they would take from or harm people for their own fun ... well to teach them that there is no consequence to their actions? Good idea, that'll stop them.

Please, pull your head out of your ass. The lack of oxygen is causing brain damage. You are confusing a nice ideas with the reality of human nature. There will always be asshats who don't and won't care about others, will take from others or harm others to satisfy their own pleasures, and only avoid these avenues when they cause discomfort for themselves. So good idea, let's remove consequences for bad behaviour.

Re:Dangerous

[Reziac]

Which is pretty much the way it used to work. But nowadays, it's equal treatment for all, equal rights for all, no matter how they treated others or how they trampled the rights of others, the nanny state will protect them all!!

I'm with you. Beat and then neuter the fuckers.

Re:Um, *excuse* me!?

[Anonymous Coward]

This is cheap, small, easily portable, easily concealable, very effective, and usable at a distance.

You know there's a difference, but you refuse to admit it because it makes it easier for you to dismiss the complaints about the dissemination of the information.

Re:To repeat an old warning

[LarsG]

The difference is that most people know that pins and eyes don't mix. Numbtards don't run around with consumer grade pins and stick them in peoples eyes, but they don't think twice about fooling around with laser pointers.

The legal power limit on laser pointers is set so that they eye's natural blink reflex will protect the retina from permanent damage. This thing is 50 * the limit, and will cause permanent damage at less than 1/100 second. Blink reflex is at about 1/10 second. Even partial reflection off something like a milk glass might cause permanent blind spots (and you are unlikely to realize it at the time, the brain interpolates). An instructable like this without a warning to use laser safety glasses and treat it like you would a .22 gun is an accident waiting to happen.

Also, if you use a diode rated at say 200mW@2.5V it will output a lot more if run at 3V. And someone is bound to make one with a CD-burner diode; while they are lower powered, they output IR so you won't see where you're pointing it and it won't trigger the blink reflex.