YouTuber Drake Anthony (styropyro) has gone where no geek has gone before and built himself a handheld laser gun with some real firepower.
Featuring a 250 watt blue-diode array laser, he claims it is the most powerful handheld laser ever filmed.
My guess is there are more powerful within the shadowy world of Ratheon and Darpa etc, but I digress.
The laser uses 20 high-power diodes. These diodes are known for their high output in the blue wavelength range. A buck converter, an electronic circuit that reduces voltage while increasing current, powers these diodes.
His driver bank provides 30 volts at 10 amps and a PC water-cooling system manages the substantial heat that is generated. The laser gun casing is a modified police radar gun enclosure.
The gun is fitted with a focus lens that allows the beam output to be adjusted between a 3mm spot for cutting and a 30mm flood beam for broader applications.
OK, so this is hardly in Star Wars pew-pew-pew territory (yet), but still Anthony demonstrated the laser's power:
- Instantly igniting paper and plastic
- Scorching wood in under two seconds
- Melting aluminum cans, copper, and titanium
- Briefly igniting a penny
- Creating synthetic rubies by melting and recrystallizing aluminum oxide and chromium pellets
- Blackening and fracturing lab-grown diamonds
Although building such a laser is probably not itself illegal, my guess is selling these lasers, or extremely dumb stuff like aiming them at aircraft is likely to get you a visit from a letter-agency.
Lots of potential for injury there. I just think that the Star Wars guns can't be lasers as you can see it takes time to get from gun to target and so the Jedi can deflect it.
I seem to recall the star wars guns do fire projectiles 🤔
Oh!
Aha! Much as I like Star Wars I don't know all the trivia.
Yes, the whole Steampunk look using an old police radar gun casing is very cool.
Israel has just announced its Iron Beam laser defensive weapon is operational and has shot down over 40 terrorist drones.
Rafael are marketing a 10kW version with a 10km range; a 5kW version with a 5km range that can be truck mounted and a 2.5kW version that can be mounted on an armoured vehicle.
So SciFi has become real.
Whole drone swarms can be zapped for far less than the cost of a single drone.
Amazing how far we have come! I recall the ones just a couple of years ago were mainly limited by the fact they had to keep heating the same spot for several seconds
Iron Beam uses hundreds of lower power beams (less attenuation by atmosphere) which converge on the target in real time. The lasers are part of the detection system with the first one intersecting the target then causing the others to immediately converge.
Wow that's impressive... If a normal person could build this, figures behind the scenes what they have like the army
Indeed!