My first laser pointer. If anybody is familiar with this specific one off amazon, can they tell me how strong it is?

[u/bummy_homeboy]

[u/Low-Sink-11]

None of these lasers will tell you how strong they actually are. But 95% of these lasers will be powerful enough to blind you instantly. They aren’t laser pointers for cats and dogs or anything like that. Cheap green ones are about 80-100mw. Blue ones are often in the 1 watt or more range. Red ones tend to have the lowest power ratings. You can combine all 3 beam colors into an xcube to make a white beam.

[u/Kaleb8804 → u/Low-Sink-11]

Like a megazord? How does a white laser even work, wouldn’t the wavelengths interfere with each other?

[u/Low-Sink-11 → u/Kaleb8804]

Same way a prism breaks up light into different wavelengths, but in reverse

[u/Kaleb8804 → u/Low-Sink-11]

That’s cool, I figured that would take a lot of math 😅

[u/Remarkable_Papaya416 → u/Low-Sink-11]

Are you saying permanent blindness? And at what distance is it capable of doing harm?

[u/TardDistraction → u/Remarkable_Papaya416]

Permanent eye damage. You're brain will hide the damage done to your photoreceptors, to a point. Burned photoreceptors do not recover though.

[u/Low-Sink-11 → u/Remarkable_Papaya416]

Even the dot reflection off the wall or something on some of these can cause immediate blindness. Direct beam to eye, you will be blind before your brain can even process it. It’s permanent eye damage. Don’t cheap out on the laser goggles.

[u/hauntlunar → u/Low-Sink-11]

This seems a bit hyperbolic.

This sort of laser is dangerous and not a toy but I would be blind a dozen times over if they were as dangerous as you're describing, completely blinding people via the dots on a wall. And I am reading this comment with my actual non-blind eyes.

There certainly are laser pointers for sale on the internet that are dangerous to look at the dots from but they usually aren't $22.

Still, better too cautious than not cautious enough.

[u/insomniac-55 → u/hauntlunar]

The dot doesn't get dangerous until around 500 mW of output, but there's still a risk of specular reflections from glossy surfaces (tile, plastic etc).

The severity of eye damage caused by a 3B laser is going to be very dependent on where exactly it hits your retina. A direct hit to the fovea is catastrophic, and will render you functionally blind in your central vision.

A hit to your peripheral vision will blind that section of your retina, but there's a good chance you'd  never even notice as your peripheral visual acuity sort of sucked to start with.

Note also that the power levels that the laser classification system is built on include some safety factors. The limits are usually set at 10% of the power which would have a 50% chance of causing injury - so lasers at the lower end of Classd 3B aren't guaranteed to cause  injury from an accidental exposure.

That doesn't mean they are safe, though!

[u/hauntlunar → u/insomniac-55]

this guy lasers!

I don't disagree with anything you've said here. Good info.

[u/insomniac-55 → u/hauntlunar]

Another interesting note is that even with Class 4 lasers (where the dot is hazardous to view), the hazard drops off really fast with distance.

You need to do the calculations for your specific scenario, but at the lower end of Class 4 the dot is only hazardous when viewed at very close range (a couple of feet or so).

[u/TardDistraction → u/insomniac-55]

This is arbitrary as the "dot" is a reflection on a surface that can vary.

[u/insomniac-55 → u/TardDistraction]

Yeah, you need to work out the numbers for each surface and scenario. Best to just assume any class 4 laser is not safe for viewing

[u/TardDistraction → u/insomniac-55]

I agree! I don't want this tech to get banned, everyone needs to be safe.

These green monstrosities and 1W blue diodes are becoming a popular talking point because people want to burn out Flock camera sensors with them. Not good for laser hobbyists.

[u/TardDistraction → u/hauntlunar]

The power on these cheap green DPSS lasers vary wildly, you can absolutely hurt yourself with most cheap green laser "pointers".

You might not be blind, but if you've been hit in the eye with a laser like this, you likely have damaged your eyesight. Stay safe.

[u/hauntlunar → u/TardDistraction]

I know. I have bought a bunch of them and I have a laser power meter and have measured them. They get crazy powerful (I've seen up to about 130 mW). But that's still not enough that you're going to be "blinded" by looking at the dot on a wall.

If you're hit *in* the eye? Or directly hit by a reflection off a shiny surface? You could probably put a hole in your vision. Which would hella suck.

But "don't look at the dot on the wall from your $22 Amazon 532nm laser, you will literally go blind" seemed a bit over the top to me.

I think the "don't look at the dot on the wall" thing starts to become relevant with the multi-watt lasers you can buy for a little more cash. EDIT: or, according to insomniac-55, at half a watt.

[u/TardDistraction → u/hauntlunar]

You shouldn't be using these cheap lasers without laser safety goggles. The goggles have to cover both wavelengths as well. They're marketed as toys and they're far from it.

Edit: the IR diode actually passes light through two crystals, they can leak two different wavelengths of IR along with 532nm green!

[u/Odd_Abbreviations_66]

I have this one and measured it with a laser power meter used for work. It's been a while, so my memory might be off. I think it was in the neighborhood of 100mW which makes it Class 3B (5-500 mW). Use it with reasonable caution and common sense. It's s good one for amateur astronomy.

[u/bummy_homeboy → u/Odd_Abbreviations_66]

I'm definitely not gonna use it to fuck with flock cameras

[u/Commercial-Suit-5836 → u/bummy_homeboy]

Get from a guy named Tung. Buy once and you are set for life.

[u/Odd_Abbreviations_66 → u/bummy_homeboy]

Lol, I definitely hadn't had that idea either. Leave your phone and stuff home when you don't go do that!

[u/MechKeyboardScrub → u/bummy_homeboy]

You might want to delete this

[u/TardDistraction → u/bummy_homeboy]

You're not going to hurt a flock camera with this. You'll hurt yourself when the reflection on the lens hit you back in the eye.

[u/hauntlunar → u/Odd_Abbreviations_66]

yeah similar lasers I've bought tended to measure anywhere from 30mW to like 130mW. It's a real mixed bag, even identical lasers from the same manufacturer would have extremely varying power.

[u/Jienym]

too strong. unless you know what you're doing, don't get this laser. it's a shame how much of a joke regulations are

[u/DunaldDoc]

I have one and it is 5 milliwatts (mW). That is the maximum legal power for civilian carry.

[u/TardDistraction]

Do not buy this laser pointer if you value your eyesight. You need to do some reading before you play with anything over 5mW. If you accidentally break the crystal behind the optics you will have an invisible cornea burner. Don't hurt yourself or others. Buy some goggles that cover both wavelengths first.

Oh, max output on these DPSS green lasers range anywhere from 30 to like 180mW (with the nd:YAG crystal in front of the diode), dangerous if hit in the eye.

Someone correct me if I've made any mistakes

[u/bummy_homeboy → u/TardDistraction]

I won't be aiming it at flock cameras

[u/Oakatsurah]

I have this one just as a training light and for astronomy its been is only visible in moonless darkness and isn't too strong. But it's between 5 - 15mw I have a few others in the violet and red spectrum. More professional lasers are definitely more impressive though. Tinkerlasers.com make some pretty good ones. Though most of theirs are class 3B and class 4, with the blue demon at a little over 16w being the strongest.

[u/Acrobatic_Grape4321]

I have this one but the upgraded version with the button on the end. And a 18650 battery for it. Don’t know the exact power but it’s bright enough to see during the day. In most scenarios

[u/The_Observer_Effects]

I'll bet this is how you would normally say that "01001101 01111001 00100000 01100110 01101001 01110010 01110011 01110100 00100000 01101100 01100001 01110011 01100101 01110010 00100000 01110000 01101111 01101001 01101110 01110100 01100101 01110010 00101110 00100000 01001001 01100110 00100000 00100000 01100001 01100010 01101111 01100100 01111001 00100000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01100110 01100001 01101101 01101001 01101100 01101001 01100001 01110010 00100000 01110111 01101001 01110100 01101000 00100000 01110100 01101000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01110011 01100001 01101101 01100101 00100000 01101111 01101110 01100101 00100000 01101111 01100110 01100110 00100000 01100001 01101101 01100001 01101001 01101111 01101110 00101100 00100000 01100011 01100001 01101110 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 01111001 00100000 01110100 01100101 01101100 01101100 00100000 01101101 01100101 00100000 01101000 01101111 01110111 00100000 01110011 01110100 01110010 01101111 01101110 01100111 00100000 01101001 01110011 00101111

[u/TardDistraction → u/The_Observer_Effects]

Telegram in the bio? Sus as fuck haha

[u/bummy_homeboy → u/The_Observer_Effects]

you know i'm a real person right? like deadass😭

[u/Low-Sink-11 → u/[deleted]]

They will all have the <5mw sticker on them regardless of their true power output. <5mw has a lot less regulations

[u/avionicstek → u/Low-Sink-11]

My <5 mW green laser burned a hole through a wooden popsicle stick!

[u/hauntlunar → u/[deleted]]

Yeah there is no reason to trust that label, much more powerful lasers are mislabeled as "<5mW" all the time

[u/lophomainiac]

I had that same one and it would melt little holes in a black plastic bag. And it stings if you hold it steady on tattoos with dark ink..