Shownotes:
You saw our excitement over the Wicked Laser we received a couple weeks ago, so imagine our excitement when we got the Spyder II GX in the mail! This laser is the one The Woz has used. The military grade casing is waterproof and airtight (and might I mention…it’s huge!). In Brief #481, we put the laser through some tests and fun experiments.
Be very careful with lasers! They can be dangerous, so avoid people’s eyes and planes in the sky!
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December 20th, 2008 at 1:41 am
Awesome! I’ve been ogling those Wicked Lasers for some time now. Way cool!
December 20th, 2008 at 9:30 am
Cool! Ummm…Should the safety glasses be green for a green laser?
December 20th, 2008 at 9:34 am
Just kidding about the green glasses. That would be the least protective against a green laser.
December 20th, 2008 at 9:36 am
That was a trick question. The green glasses would be the least protection with the green laser.
December 20th, 2008 at 12:11 pm
Wicked Laser meets NeoCube puts on quite a nice show.
December 20th, 2008 at 5:33 pm
Hi Cali
Just wanted to say I was always a little sceptical about the videos I saw on youtube with the green lazers but this was just cool wicked brief!!!
December 20th, 2008 at 6:26 pm
Lasers are cool! Especially one that’s powerful enough to do something useful like start fires… bwha ha ha!
But Cali, you should have told us that this bad boy is $1700!! Not exactly something that most of us will be jumping out the door to buy just to play around with.
December 20th, 2008 at 9:49 pm
The laser was amazing. The next time you try to pop a ballon you might want to use a smaller one. Since the laser is heating the air inside, a big ballon takes a long time.
As for lighting the candle, maybe one that had not been used yet would have worked better. The laser would take a lot longer to start string on fire than it would wax that is usually on a wick that has never been lit.
Mike has a good point about the price of the laser being mentioned. And you probably should mention the safety issue of not looking at the laser directly, especially one so powerful. But then again, don’t we all need LASIK!
Keep up the great work!
December 20th, 2008 at 10:39 pm
Jeremy, I did actually try with a brand new candle. Still nothing. I’m thinking the angle will matter in a big way, so I’m going to keep trying!
December 21st, 2008 at 12:53 am
Whats the name of the music playing while you were trying to light the candle?
December 21st, 2008 at 10:31 am
Wow Cali – I guess all the GoDaddy commercials are paying off – NICE kitchen!!!
December 21st, 2008 at 1:37 pm
While that sick laser can go for hundreds of miles…if popping balloons is your game it looks like you can pull a blue laser diode out of an hd-dvd player…I guess it pops things better because it has a short distance focus lens? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30bD8OS23Lg
December 21st, 2008 at 2:01 pm
Hey Cali,
Is that the same shirt that the kid in Voyagers wore? Here is a sample screenshot.
http://www.ultimatedisney.com/images/t-v/voyagers-cov.jpg
:)
December 21st, 2008 at 3:14 pm
Cali, remember what your mother told you about wearing a white shirt on a hot sunny day?
You need a dark colored, opaque balloon so it actually absorbs the light! Your balloon is not only lightly colored (which reflects light), even worse it is translucent! You can see the light passing right through it and then refracting all over the place on the interior of the balloon!
December 21st, 2008 at 3:19 pm
Oh and for everyone who wants a very high powered laser and doesn’t want to spend $500-$1000, let me let you in on a little secret:
DVD writable drives (you can find a new internal one for $40) use ~225 milliwatt red lasers, which is just about as powerful as the laser featured in this video! The instructions to remove the diode from a DVD-R drive and wire it to a battery pack (and place it in a hand-held shell from a flashlight) are available online. Google is your friend!
December 21st, 2008 at 4:00 pm
Yay! More Natural Cali with minimal makeup! Love that look! Cool laser also.
December 22nd, 2008 at 5:47 am
I don’t get it. The laser is good for what???/
December 22nd, 2008 at 1:59 pm
I was interested in the Addsonic (sp?) device that turned any USB device into a NAS device. Is there a link or dicount code for this item? I want Cali to get credit for this sale, and I also want to get a discount if thats an option. great show!
December 22nd, 2008 at 7:39 pm
Don’t care that much about the laser, but I love the glasses. Oh and if you want to burst balloons I can highly recommend an old school pin… works every time without fail!
December 23rd, 2008 at 3:59 am
Dean – the link for the Addonics NAS Adapter is here (from Brief #480):
http://www.ehomeupgrade.com/2008/12/12/addonics-intros-a-55-nas-adapter-for-usb-storage-drives/
No discount code, but thanks. :)
December 23rd, 2008 at 10:23 am
Safety First!
What is happened if it is red laser?
December 23rd, 2008 at 12:05 pm
Cali,
Is that your new kitchen? I love your countertop and the tile work under the cabinets. Very classy!
December 23rd, 2008 at 5:10 pm
You gotta see this Geek most powerful home laser http://tinyurl.com/6w26e4
December 24th, 2008 at 2:14 pm
That reminds me of the days of a magnifying glass and ants. Have you tried it on ants?
December 24th, 2008 at 8:20 pm
People should check their local laws before buying Lasers as you may need a permit to use laser pointers, you can thank the people that shine laser pointers at planes for that.
December 28th, 2008 at 12:37 pm
Well produced episode, but I’ve got a few words to say.
I’ve had lasers as an hobby for a while. As a member of a known laser community, I can assure you that WickedLasers has VERY BAD REPUTATION and currently the most powerful handheld laser pointer you can have is the Hercules from LaserGlow with a typical peak output of 500mW. Your laser has an peak output power of 300mW if I am not wrong. I’m not 100% sure but I can tell by that video that your laser is not even close to 300mW. Also WickedLasers is a known scamming laser company, sending out underpowered laser units to people who pay WAY OVERPRICE than they actually should. Trusted companies like Laserglow, Optotronics, Novalasers or Dragonlasers always send out up to spec or even more. They are known to send out units with up to 30mW higher peak output than they are sold as, and average output is often up to 20mW more than they are sold as. Also another thing is that WickedLasers’ customer support is awful. Yet another good thing to say about the other laser companies I mentoined: They are MUCH CHEAPER than WickedLasers overpriced lasers. I can’t stress this enough but this video is providing false information to us who watch them.
Another thing, use something to mark the balloons with black spots, same goes with the matches. Black absorbs heat much better than light colors (in this case, a pink balloon will reflect most of the heat). So, next time, use a colored balloon with a black spot, or eventually use a black balloon. I can use my cheap 50mW green laser pointer (for $20 shipped to my door) to pop a balloon in under two seconds with no problems aslong as the spot I am pointing at is black.
Other than that, this video is well produced and edited. Another good thing is that you used safety glasses. I have seen videos about high powered laser pointers with people not using safety glasses, not smart, it will fry your eyes. Keep on working but make sure you provide information that is not false in the future.
~ My two cents, and stay off WickedLasers.
Thanks, have a nice day.
Kind regards
Chris
October 4th, 2009 at 2:30 am
might start some experimenting for reversing my van into tight corners
January 9th, 2010 at 3:17 pm
Awesome…I’d definitely want one of those! I own one of their smaller models called fusion and I’ve been using it for two years now.