Went to a friends barbeque last night and they had two of these in the garden, one pointing up at rear house wall (including windows), and another up to a tree at the end of the garden. Looked amazing.
(American site, but available in UK via Amazon and others).
Are these safe and legal, eg. if you happen to look at one from a few metres away, and what about aircraft if it pointing upwards, given all the recent problems with handheld lasers around airports?
Well obviously I cannot see the pictures, but most lasers sold for home use are safe, its often people pointing them at drivers and pilots that causes issues. I can well recall in the 80s at a Cliff concert lots of lasers were aimed just above the heads of the audience to make the dry Ice smoke look more weird for devil Woman, and several of us stood up and got eyefulls of blue green laser light and though it was obviously momentarily dazzling it did no harm. Brian
There are specific rules & required procedures for laser show lighting, and 5 watts pointed where people can look into it is a definite no. I doubt it is 5w, but we have no easy way to know what power it is.
NT
There will be a small m missing, 5mW 0.005W rather than 5W, 5.00W which wouold be a hazard.
Power density is low, get considerably more exposure to harmful radiation on a sunny day.
Certainly would! They should also state the class (one of four) this laser falls into.
I tend to distrust products which quote irrelevant alphabet soup such as "Safe: With certificates of FDA, CE, FCC, ROHS and IP65 Test Report, UL IP44 Power Supply, this laser light is safe and environment-friendly." Of those "certificates" none are to do with laser safety. I assume their "5W" should be 5mW but anything is possible.
Of the two lasers the green is potentially the more harmful as the green light is produced by a standard laser diode first generating near infrared light with a wavelength of 808nm. This is focused onto a neodymium crystal that converts the light into infrared with a wavelength of 1064nm. In the final step, the light passes into a frequency doubling crystal that emits green light at a wavelength of
532nm. The beam is reflected back and forward in this process and to prevent any IR in the beam escaping the laser should incorporate an IR filter. Many do not.As IR is invisible the normal blink reflex which gives protection against direct viewing at low power and visible frequencies doesn't work. Moreover a green laser with no IR filter may well be below the
5mW limit for visible light but emitting far higher levels of IR.There is no simple way of testing whether either laser is safe. (it is possible using a CD as a diffraction grating and a web cam with the IR filter removed but not easy). Given the number of Chinese lasers which, when formally tested, fail to meet safety standards (often by a factor of 10 times or more) the probability is that these are not safe. There is a strong incentive for manufacturers and online sellers to produce higher power lasers and label them as 5mW. The labeling deceives the user into thinking they are safe, the higher power produces brighter effects and gets them better user reviews.
The problems with lasers and aircraft is not only the potential for direct eye damage but the potential for distraction during crucial phases of flight. Any laser, no matter what colour or power, would be a distraction shining into the cockpit so if you had one regularly decorating flight paths around you you should expect a visit from the constabulary sooner or later. (Article 222 of the Air Navigation Order 2009 " A person must not in the United Kingdom direct or shine any light at any aircraft in flight so as to dazzle or distract the pilot of the aircraft. ").
In the advert you quote there are some other things that would point to the lack of likelihood of the thing ever meeting any safety standard. For example the use of Chinglish and technobabble :-
"Why your Laser Projector not come with a remote?
Compared to other similar items with remote controls, ours have better quality and more stable.To use the remote control, you have to aim it directly at the Infrared sensors or RF sensor, which is not healthy for naked eye. Based on this, we decided to not include the remote control for this item."
(Real answer - it would have cost us 50 cents more).
IF the power is in fact 5mW, then the claim of 5W surely means it is erroneously advertised. Strike one. If it is really 5W, as clearly stated in the advert., then I don't want to be anywhere near it.
It's not in the same category but I bought one of the LED automatic nightlights Lidl is currently selling.
The unit consumes 3W but the LED is only 0.6W of that.
Which probably means it takes more power in the daytime to run the unit (with no light) than the bulb takes when it is illuminated.
It would be cheaper to get a non-auto 0.6W nightlight and leave it on permanently.
Other adverts for the same/similar product have a Class IIIa label stuck besides the optical output lens. This doesn't mean that it is limited to 5mW on some Chinese made equipment. The optics after the laser are obviously spreading the beam so it is probably safe. The more honest adverts suggests that 3m from the source the beam is so de-focused that the effect degrades.
However, none of the 6 adverts for the same/similar products, even from UK sellers, suggest that the product is eye safe or give any meaningful details about the laser power. One supplier only quotes the BS standard for a UK 3 pin mains plug!
It's a tiltable garden light of the peg it in the soil variety and costs 42 dollars (out of stock.) No idea how much they are when they have them in.
So how much does the jewellery involved cost or have they managed to refine quartz crystals to do them with?
Around the same cost when in stock, they are not the only place selling them.
You can buy the 5mW (red) laser diode modules for around 20 cents (US). Chinese sellers can supply you with one each of red, blue and green 5mW laser pointers for a total of around $7 US (including shipping) . These will be the same type of component used in these projection lamps.
s 42 dollars (out of stock.) No idea how much they are when they have them in.
Wow what a surprise.
fine quartz crystals to do them with?
I looked up some stuff about the crystals. I have no idea what they dope th em with but presume it is a relatively simple electrical process that can b e mass produced. I gathered that the gems required for blinding people are some of the cheapest.
I dare say that most superpowers are already stocked with such things, the average US Marine squad seem to have one for fighting naughty Transformers with. I am surprised that they hadn't found out about such things before th ey came here having wiped out biological life forms on their home planet bu t what do you expect from sentient machines? Eh?
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