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Red or Green Laser. But I want Blue.

9K views 16 replies 13 participants last post by  rhildinger 
#1 ·
I don't know how far this will go but I'm keeping my eyes out for a decent broken laser sight for my xdm. My goal is to retro fit it and still keep it spot on but with a blue laser. I know a bit about electronics and different aspects. I am confident I can build it. but the question remains. 1. will it be durable enough for pistol mount. 2. will it be able to hold its sight. My search has begun and hopefully ill be posting some range proven pictures before you know it.
 
#3 ·
Some special purpose project that only a blue laser can be used? You may have the electronic part covered, but what about the optical aspects. Can you give me the top 3 reasons that in a highly competitive market, there is no commercial gun laser available in blue? Is it possible to obtain a tightly focused visible beam at any distance with the 5mW Federal power output limits for civilian lasers on firearms. (assuming a firearm laser as this is posted in the accessories section of XDTalk). Have you looked at the eye damage potential of this wave length laser?

Or is this just for tacticoool to match your light sabre?

for the daring: http://www.dealextreme.com/p/5mw-405nm-blue-violet-royal-purple-laser-pen-2-aaa-28901 less than $20 or

http://www.dealextreme.com/p/5mw-47...e-kit-included-1-18650-free-ems-express-13770

for a bit better quality. Should light up anyone in a white shirt (fluorescent bluing-whiteners for detergents).
 
#5 ·
Blue is an extremely tough color. Acquaintance was working on one for their employer a few years ago, and they couldn't get the package size down to an acceptable level. IRC there were two issues, one it used substantially more power, and two, the wave length was too long. I almost talked them into letting me have one of the engineering samples :(
 
#10 ·
Falcon, you still out there? The same site (dealextreme) also lists some purple laser pointers as well as the blue I linked. Just have to stay at or under 5mW. No importing the 200-500mW 'wood burner' lasers on the site.
 
#11 ·
Im still here. It was a thought that came to me. and for anything but show its a BAD idea. Uses way to much power and is dangerous. If I am looking at these correctly it can cut threw electrical tape and do things like light cigerates and matches with it. It was a thought. Maybe one of these crazy ideas will actually be a great one.
 
#12 ·
If you just want to learn about low power lasers and laser modifications for applications that are mostly NOT gun related, take a look at laserpointerforums.com. Quite a collection of facts and ideas, especially mods and adaptations. Keep you busy for awhile.

note: the higher power (over 5mW) lasers are not available for import to the US, so don't worry too much about buying wood burners or steel etching lasers without a permit or some such legal appliction.
 
#13 ·
Blue is an extremely tough color. Acquaintance was working on one for their employer a few years ago, and they couldn't get the package size down to an acceptable level. IRC there were two issues, one it used substantially more power, and two, the wave length was too long. I almost talked them into letting me have one of the engineering samples :(
Love to have a blue laser pointer but the prices are still way too high for the cool factor. A blue laser sight, would look cool but probably harder to see at a distance.

Maybe someone will make those blue neon tubes that can be rail-mounted and highlight the slide/sides of the gun -- could be a whole new market for this!

Just for the record though, blue is the shortest visible light wavelength, with red being the longest wavelength.
 
#14 ·
Why would you put a laser on your handgun?
It's like providing the enemy with a laser designator for their sniper or smart bomb.

I guess it's a the "gimmicky guy" thing. If you can't hit it with sights, what makes you think that aiming a laser at it will help?

Save your money, invest in some good quality tritium sights for your pistol and a high quality flashlight.

Spend the rest of your money on practice ammo & training!

Long live Jeff Cooper!
 
#15 ·
If you just want to learn about low power lasers and laser modifications for applications that are mostly NOT gun related, take a look at laserpointerforums.com. Quite a collection of facts and ideas, especially mods and adaptations. Keep you busy for awhile.

note: the higher power (over 5mW) lasers are not available for import to the US, so don't worry too much about buying wood burners or steel etching lasers without a permit or some such legal appliction.

Except there are places that will sell you anything and you can "hope" it will make it past customs. An acquaintance of a neighbor ordered a 3D cell green laser with a key lock that is rated at 500 mw. Came from overseas. He apparently didn't know that it wasn't okey dokey to have.
 
#16 ·
interesting topic, i'm an electronics guy and understand it comes down to power consumption and frequency of the wavelength. i just assumed with technology today that they could potentially have any colored laser with driving components small enough to fit on a gun, but they only use red and green because the other colors didn't show up as bright in tests.
 
#17 ·
Actually, lasers that are higher then 5mw in power aren't illegal in the US, they just can't be imported unless they have an FDA-approved five-point safety system. Most of your cheap chinese high power lasers either don't have this, or it's not recognized by the FDA as acceptable.

Incidentally, for those of you keeping score, this is one of those cases where a government body (FDA) is enacting defacto laws without congressional oversight.

---

Moving on to the topic of blue lasers, and their use as a laser sight...

There are a few different commercially available lasers in blue wavelengths:

473 nm - True blue color, but DPSS and VERY inefficient. Generally high visibility
447 nm - Violet-blue color, direct diode laser, fairly efficient, not as visible as 473nm
405 nm - Violet color, direct diode laser, fairly efficient, even less visible then 447nm except on reactive surface

As far as usage in a laser sight is concerned, 447 nm and 405 nm lasers are your only real choices. They are both direct diode lasers, no extra optics required other than collimating lens. The 473 nm DPSS lasers are very similar to green lasers in that they use an IR laser as a light pump to excite crystals to lase at different frequencies along with frequency dividing crystals and IR filters. The reason 473 nm DPSS lasers are not viable is that they are incredibly inefficient and you would need much larger batteries to power the laser.

The 405 nm laser might actually be the best choice because it has a high UV content in the beam, causing the surface at the point of beam contact to fluoresce slightly. Unfortunately, this doesn't happen on every surface.
 
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