Well for all those people that struggle to think of presents for me, I jumped on the growing bandwagon and made a wishlist! Its linked from the top of this page or alternatively you can click here.
Cool list, especially the laser pointer. Just one safety note regarding pumped IR lasers (of which the green diode is a type):
"Yet Another caution note on DPSS laser pointers: One thing to be wary of if you think you can attenuate the beam of a green, blue or yellow (orange-yellow) laser pointer to a power level safe to stare into: The beam may have a significant infrared component. These laser pointers are known as "DPSS lasers", or diode pumped solid state lasers. The diode pumped solid state part produces infrared, at 1064 nm and/or at a longer infrared wavelength. Many DPSS laser pointers have special filters that block the infrared, but test for infrared output before being sure.
If you want to try blocking any infrared output yourself, use a "dielectric interference" bandpass filter for the wavelength that you want to use. Too may other filter types pass the infrared wavelengths in question, including many dichroic filters, nearly enough all stage lighting filter gels, and most to nearly all colored transparent acrylic sheets such as colored "Plexiglas" or colored "Lucite".
DO NOT STARE INTO A DPSS LASER POINTER WITH VISIBLE OUTPUT ATTENUATED BY A FILTER UNLESS INFRARED CONTENT IS KNOWN TO NOT EXIST AT AN EYE-HAZARDOUS LEVEL!"
So don't stare into it - there is a lot of IR-band energy that you simply cannot see :)
Cool list, especially the laser pointer. Just one safety note regarding pumped IR lasers (of which the green diode is a type):
ReplyDelete"Yet Another caution note on DPSS laser pointers:
One thing to be wary of if you think you can attenuate the beam of a green, blue or yellow (orange-yellow) laser pointer to a power level safe to stare into: The beam may have a significant infrared component. These laser pointers are known as "DPSS lasers", or diode pumped solid state lasers. The diode pumped solid state part produces infrared, at 1064 nm and/or at a longer infrared wavelength. Many DPSS laser pointers have special filters that block the infrared, but test for infrared output before being sure.
If you want to try blocking any infrared output yourself, use a "dielectric interference" bandpass filter for the wavelength that you want to use. Too may other filter types pass the infrared wavelengths in question, including many dichroic filters, nearly enough all stage lighting filter gels, and most to nearly all colored transparent acrylic sheets such as colored "Plexiglas" or colored "Lucite".
DO NOT STARE INTO A DPSS LASER POINTER WITH VISIBLE OUTPUT ATTENUATED BY A FILTER UNLESS INFRARED CONTENT IS KNOWN TO NOT EXIST AT AN EYE-HAZARDOUS LEVEL!"
So don't stare into it - there is a lot of IR-band energy that you simply cannot see :)