Making a one-off laser (12v)

sarabande

Well-Known Member
Joined
6 May 2005
Messages
36,182
Visit site
I want to have a laser made for a specific agricultural repetitive task. It's beyond my skill set.

Something like a 10mW laser, bright enough to be seen in daylight in a forest.

Any clever electronics people fancy a one-off job please ?
 
If you give a little more detail of what's purpose .. don't forget that Laser even of small power should never be used to shine in eyes etc.

Low power such as you quote are many in the 'gunsight' and laser pointer range. I have a couple - one was for my Air-rifle and another looks like a pen .. used for pointing at items.

CORRECTION : The Gunsight lasers and Pens I have are actually significantly less power than OP wants .. but still carry Warning Labels about Eye Damage.
 
Last edited:
This used to be my sort of area 20 years ago. What you describe is probably a Class 3B laser. They have a significant risk of eye damage and there's no way you'd get approval for a product that was firing it round a forest.

Realistically (almost) nobody gets a laser "made" for them - you buy an off the shelf component and put it into a system with optics that do what you want. To do that you need to know the wavelength you want, the power output, beam diameter (and quality), pulse duration and frequency, power source, potentially cooling etc. Oh and budget, lasers can cost from less than a pound to over £100,000!
 
10mW is a 3B Laser which
"may have sufficient power to cause an eye injury, both from the direct beam and from reflections"
"are therefore considered hazardous to the eye"
"may produce minor skin injuries or even pose a risk of igniting flammable materials"
"not suitable for general use by consumers."
 
The only use l can think of would be for laying land drainage in which case you can hire suitable kit.
I used to use the old fashioned dumpy levels when we were doing schemes in the Cambridgeshire fens. It's not as flat as you may think.
 
The actual purpose the OP has in mind is not clear. I suspect his guess at 10mw is all wrong and he could use a much lower power. Simple answer is to buy a laser pointer and see if that will do the job he has in mind. Not difficult to connect a voltage regualtor to provide the voltage for supply that pointer needs. (ie 3v). ol'will
 
Top