failure and first shots in the tower
Added 2023-12-24 01:03:10 +0000 UTCtoday was super foggy, and i was bummed because i wanted to take distant shots and figured the fog would ruin the beam. i got in the tower anyway, and decided to run my camera in nightshot mode and see what it would look like. sure enough, the beam was quite visible, which was surprising to me considering this wavelength is on the fringes of what my camera can pick up, but I guess 2kW of light can make up for it.
now for the story of the tele cope: it blew up and what you are seeing here is a worse version i threw together. the mirror position in the welder head reset for some reason and redirected the powerful beam to the PVC walls of the scope, sending it up in smoke. so, i clipped the wires to the mirror motor and permanently fixed the mirror in place in the head, and now that i don't have to worry about it hitting anything as it no longer scans, i was able to actually get the beam to leave the welder straight and centered. i replaced the optics with lenses i had on hand, and although the expansion is quite a bit weaker than the first version, I can still set the leaves on fire on the furthest hill almost 300m away from me. even so, I ordered more optics to rebuild it to its original glory.
Comments
yikes that's even scarier than some of the worst recipes in the chemical formulary!
styropyro
2023-12-31 01:35:25 +0000 UTCThis may be out of your wheel house but when I was a kid in elementary school in the 1960's I found a book in the school library on DIY science projects. One brilliant one had a chapter on how to make your own x-ray machine. I remember it used a cathode ray tube ubiquitous in every TV back then but probably still available on EBAY. It looked like a few steps and soon you could X-ray Fish, your dog, your baby sister. Great idea (not) . I did not have the skills but I really wanted my own x-ray machine!
Duane Day
2023-12-31 00:18:32 +0000 UTCthis is actually sick. 300m is really far, but in the final video will we be calculating the maximum combustion distance?
3xion
2023-12-29 05:29:37 +0000 UTCfog and refractive index.
@L0ngt1M3F@n!
2023-12-27 06:09:47 +0000 UTCI appreciate how you want it to be perfect. But these shots are already awesome. Take your time and make a great video!
Hyperballad Eyes
2023-12-26 04:13:21 +0000 UTCThere is lots of fog here tonight as well. You can see everybody's laser projector beams. Nice work with the telescope.
Jeff Larson
2023-12-24 02:23:39 +0000 UTCAmazing man, can't wait.
SJC
2023-12-24 01:10:33 +0000 UTCthe nightshot mode on the camera removes the IR filter that's normally present, so that's why the beam is visible here. and yes there are plenty more experiments planned with the batteries, i just need to settle on which ones.
styropyro
2023-12-24 01:09:38 +0000 UTCHoly shit man! That's badass dude! I wish I could make one, definitely don't have the funds for the same setup. I'm guessing you have a filter on your camera, right? Can't wait for this video to come out. Any more plans for the batteries?
SJC
2023-12-24 01:06:34 +0000 UTC
