Thanks Kipkay!

[deliveryguy]

This thing is rad. It's the laser diode from the broken DVD burner I bought from Charcoal a while back... It heats up my hand in about 20 seconds...haven't tested balloons yet. I've played with the lens a little and I can't get a super-concentrated beam (it's more concentrated than the photo shows), but I'm happy.

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x218/carnage2048/thankskipkay.jpg
http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x218/carnage2048/thankskipkay2.jpg

[ice992]

lol ive built like 10 of those for friends... haha... i need to build one for me! haha

[deliveryguy]

Did you have trouble focusing the laser? Mine is about 1/8th of an inch at it's finest, but there's a ton of...I can't think of the word...like the snow on the TV screen...lots of little light beams scattered around the focused one. Noise! that's it...there's some noise around mine. :facepalm:

[ice992]

yes I did have that problem but only on 2 of the ones I built, its been about a year since ive messed with them but IIRC I only had that problem with a certain brand of diode (ie the diode of out burner brand xx vice xz)

[20cougar01]

What exactly do these things your building do? I have never seen anything I can think of like this. And the tv stuff is sometimes called White Noise as well and that was a movie too.

[deliveryguy]

You know those laser pointers that you can buy at the dollar store? Well this is like one of those, just powered by 2 AA batteries and about 300 times more powerful.

[20cougar01]

Sounds super are they easy to make? If so what all do you need to make them? I may get bored and make one

[deliveryguy]

Check out kipkay.com :biggrin:

[ice992]

yea he gives you all the directions to make a million nifty lil gadgets... or make things you already have better... basically this laser is strong enough to pop balloons or light a match if done right...