Took me ages to find that pic. I did really read much but I got the impression that blue lasers are ultra new technology and I think you'll have to wait quite a few years if you want one in pointer form. Apparently blue lasers could be used to store a whole lot more than on cds (I hope that means more than DVDs aswell) and also to get massively high resolution for laser printers . EDIT: Got this from a site: "Consumer electronics manufacturers have recently agreed on the next generation standard for DVDs, using blue wavelength lasers whose higher frequency can pack in the bits really tight. We're talking 50GB+ on a single side of a dual-layer disc!" 50gb!!!!! But it is dual layered (we could use dual layered DVDs at the moment to give about 8gb but a movie will usually fit onto 4.7gb - dunno if lord of the rings is on dual layered discs because if it isn't it should be!).
ive seen compact aquarium lasers, about 1" long, in walmart, im surer they are elsewhere, and if you sandwiched two pieces of 1/8" plexi, the inside surface sanded(to provide an etching effect) and put reflective tint on the edges you would only need one laser in one place. Yeah, bloo lasers use a smaller wavelength of light, therby being able to store the same in a smaller space, UV would be better, but who would want a 6 foot long supercooled carbon dioxide filled flashtube powered laser in their room.
yeah, i thought about that yesterday - just need to find somewhere that sells the stuff! (the town i live in is very small/quiet - not sure if plexi/perspex is available!!) Matt ps - that blue laser is sweet!
OK lads, here is the verdict. I just tried out my maplin lasers with two 1.5v batteries in series... i'm afraid you cannot see a beem, but they are plenty powerfull and make a hell of a dot. So refracting the light through pespex or something would be perfect alternativly, you could install a mini smoke machine in your case
just a note that has been previously stated about fog machines and a few comments. As i currently own 2 fog machines, and 1 smoke machine, they are basically the same, the way all 3 work is they take some type of fluid usually known as fog juice or smoke fluid, heat it up till it turns into vapor, then spew it out of the front at that temperature, typically around 214*F. there are two problems with this in your computer, first, it will raise your internal temperature like 90*F, unless you create a fog/smoke chiller, which is very simple, and since it is just a liquid vapor, most of it condenses onto your precious computer parts, causing them to short out, trust me, i have had experience, also, the smoke/fog tends to disperse and disappear quite quickly anytime there is wind present, so if you have some pretty strong fans, it is likely to go away pretty quickly, but if you can get past all these problems, i think it would be really neat to see a laser shining in your case good day and happy modding to all of you
You can pick up laser diodes about the diameter of a pencil and about 1.5 inches long at RadioShack for $10 but they aren't visible. The only place I've seen visible lasers was in an Edmund Scientific catalog. http://www.edmundoptics.com/IOD/DisplayProduct.cfm?productid=1961
That's exactly what i've said.... Smoke machine = Heat So let's get our brains runnin' and find a solution Anyway i've tought that u could use some lid plexi rods behind a frosted plexi panel, so that they seem to be laser beams and u don't risk several headaches.....
DUST!! aha - maybe that would work? make a 'chamber' (as you would if you were doing a waterfall effect) with one side left open. Fill it with a bit of dust and then attatch the side on (which is fitted with a slow rpm fan blowing into the chamber causing the dust particles to move about - obviously put a filter on the fan!)...voila? or, forget the laser and fill the chamber with other stuff (ie, coloured glitter, confetti, polystyrene balls, dead leaves (that would be interesting!)) another idea (not laser related) - behind your nice case window, attatch a peice of red/yellow, fabric to a fan (blowing up) - shine red/yellow leds onto the fabric to get a very naff illusion of 'flames' in yer case (you can buy lamps that already do this...) what d'ya think?
I would like to make a small correction which will hopefully help you guys in your search for visible lasers. They don't exist. Sorry, but you just won't find one and for one simple reason. A visible laser beam is impossible. Think for a moment how you are able to see to begin with. You can see the walls of the room you are in because light bounces off the walls and into your eyes. You are able to see your desk and computer because light bounces off these objects and into your eyes. You are able to see stars at night or your cold cathode tube because they generate light which enters your eyes. You see by detecting light which enters your eyes, either directly from the source or by bouncing off something. A laser beam of course is a beam of light, a very straight beam of light. You cannot see this light unless it enters your eyes, but because it is focused in such a straight line you cannot see it unless it is aimed into your eyes (this is obviously a bad situation). The only way to see the light from a laser is to shine it on (or through) something that will bounce and scatter the light. When you shine it at a wall some of the light bounces off and scatters and part of this scattered lights ends up in your eyes, which is how you see the dot on the wall. The only way to create a "visible laser" like you guys want is to have particles. Without them there is nothing for the light to bounce off and that means no light can find its way to your eyes for you to see. You simply must have the particles, they are the key to the whole thing. Unfortunately there is no easy way (that I can think of right now) to maintain a lot of little particles in the air like you'd need to do. It doesn't have to be air of course, you could use water or even a solid material like acrylic, but even then you have to find something that has enough particles to bounce the light from the laser but not so many that you can't see through the material. Unless you don't mind cloudy water or only a translucent material instead of transparent, but if you're getting into this type of thing you're better off just etching the window with a dremel/router and using a simple LED or neon to light it up. I wish I could tell you some better news but that's just how things work
if visible beam lasers don't exist, what's this: Above sold @ ww.thinkgeek.com and i've seen them being used in science experiments (ok, so the lights had to be dimmed a little, but the beam was definatly visible with no weird particle in the air...)
you guys can all correct me since i am still a n00b, but i have to agree with SoSilencer, in order to see something, light must be displaced by it, i am not very sure about this, but in order for a laser to be viewed, the beam must be displaced by a large enough particle, otherwise, due to the wavelength, the light will pass through it instead of being reflected, since that green laser has a lower wavelength then the red one, it is able to be displaced by smaller particles such as the dirt in the air resulting in it being reflected and you seeing it, so technically SoSilencer is correct in saying there are no visible beam lasers, just lasers that emit different wavelengths, enabling them to still be reflected off items good day and happy modding
I'm not sure I get you Shadow6363. Are you simply saying that a laser beam cannot be seem when shone through a vacuum (ie space)? I think SoSilencer was saying that you cannot see a laser beam unless it was shone through something as thick as smoke. You're on the right reack though. I think the reason the blue and green lasers are visible is that they have a wave length smaller than the dust particles in air. This means they can be reflected by the dust in the air whereas a longer wave length light such as red dimply diffracts around the particles and so not much light is actually absorbed and re-emmited by the air particles. my two p
Ok I'm not too sure what's been said already (far too long a read) but I do a lot of work with lasers and I'm a physicist, so it's my job to kick in Laser beams are only visible because of Rayleigh scattering of the light in the beam, this prodominantly happens in the forward direction so it's much easier to see a beam that's pointing in your direction that one that's pointing away from you. I use a 10W (green) laser at work and in the dark you can definitely see the beam, but 10W is 2,000 times the power needed to pop your eyes so you won't be putting one in your case To back this up I also have a 3.5mW red laser (just falling into class 3A) and you certainly have no hope of seeing its beam unless there's soemthing other than air to scatter the beam. I've seen the new generation of green laser pointers, they're much more visible than a red at the same power (because of the way your eye works, green wavelengths are more visible than red). You could see the beam if it was almost pointing into your eye, but not otherwise. So I guess as others have said frosting is probably the way to go, I certainly wouldn't pump smoke into your pc! Rob.
This sounds a mean idea, but damn tricky to get working. If you can't use a smoke machine how about a liquid or powder? Create a double glazed window and experiment with different liquids. One, probably a uv reactive one, will light with laser. Plan B would be to use the rayleigh scatering effect to light up a cosistently circulating powder. maybe like this. put a fan in the bottom of the window and sprinkle some talc in? so long as you get a blizzard effect then you'll see your laser. There is no such thing as a visible laser for reasons stated before. It's all rayliegh scattering. If you could get a visible laser it would be powerful enough to make the air glow, by exciting the electrons in the 02 / n2 mollecules. Mega Watt one shot chemical lasers anyone? This is AFAIK the stuff of sci-fi and super secret military projects (and Bond - natch) Boffin
