Greetings,
I am planning to build a laser pointer to be used as a signalling device. Ie in the woods/camping/etc
I do not own a laser currently and i have never built one either, hence my set of questions. The goal that i am trying to achieve is having a wide/thick enough beam to be visible from a far away distance. When the operator points the laser straight up to the sky, i need the beam to be wide enough so the observer (which is x miles away) to see it.
I emailed wicked lasers and asked about theier green kr\ypton laser ($1000) and they told me that the beam will be visible up to 50 meters away when pointed straight up (with no ex pander). Is this answer accurate? Seems like a very small distance.
My plan is to use a green laser (exact wavelength and power still undecided) with a x10 beam expander. I have been recommended 2 Sanwu Spiker 520nm 1W lasers and 2 Sanwu beam expanders. Here's a link: https://www.sanwulasers.com/product/spiker
and the expander: https://www.sanwulasers.com/product/x3beamexpander .
I am wondering how to approach this issue.
Should i use 1 really powerful laser?
or strap 2 less powerful together?
maybe even 4 lasers together? If i strap 4 lasers together do i need 4 separate beam expanders? is it possible to have 1 big beam expander?
again, the goal here is to use this as a signaling device out in the great outdoors, pointing up into the sky, not at each other .... so a few things to consider.... reliability, power consumption, duty cycle
budget - $0-1000 - for everything
any advice guys? thank you, n3wb
I am planning to build a laser pointer to be used as a signalling device. Ie in the woods/camping/etc
I do not own a laser currently and i have never built one either, hence my set of questions. The goal that i am trying to achieve is having a wide/thick enough beam to be visible from a far away distance. When the operator points the laser straight up to the sky, i need the beam to be wide enough so the observer (which is x miles away) to see it.
I emailed wicked lasers and asked about theier green kr\ypton laser ($1000) and they told me that the beam will be visible up to 50 meters away when pointed straight up (with no ex pander). Is this answer accurate? Seems like a very small distance.
My plan is to use a green laser (exact wavelength and power still undecided) with a x10 beam expander. I have been recommended 2 Sanwu Spiker 520nm 1W lasers and 2 Sanwu beam expanders. Here's a link: https://www.sanwulasers.com/product/spiker
and the expander: https://www.sanwulasers.com/product/x3beamexpander .
I am wondering how to approach this issue.
Should i use 1 really powerful laser?
or strap 2 less powerful together?
maybe even 4 lasers together? If i strap 4 lasers together do i need 4 separate beam expanders? is it possible to have 1 big beam expander?
again, the goal here is to use this as a signaling device out in the great outdoors, pointing up into the sky, not at each other .... so a few things to consider.... reliability, power consumption, duty cycle
budget - $0-1000 - for everything
any advice guys? thank you, n3wb