CDBeam 777 History with Laser Light
Lives in Monroe, Michigan USA
Custome Builds my speciality

1) First Laser-Metrologic 0.5mW Gas HeNe from Edmonds Scientific in 1973
2) First pointer….” The Spot “….640nm LD @ 3mW approx. from Mid West Lasers in 1990
3) Purchased Argon Gas Laser from Mid West Laser in 1998
4) Multiple 640nm pointer DIY Units built from components from Mid West Lasers-1990 thru 2005
5) Purchased Portable 532 nm 500mW DPSS from Lasever 2005
6) Purchaser Dual Red unit from Marconi/Kcar for Projector Build in 2006
7) Joined Photon Lexicon in 2007
8) Purchased Blue 473 nm DPSS from MechEng3 in 2007
9) Modified 532 DPSS for DIY Projector in 2007
10) Joined LPF in 2007
11) First Light Laser RGB DIY Projector in 2008
12) Upgrade Red on DIY Projector from CT Lasers 2010
13) Upgraded to DIY 450nm Blue on DIY Projector in 2010
14) Join X-Laser as contractor for Experimental Builds in 2010
15) Join Illuminatus Laser Show Company (Specializing in Lumia Shows) in 2010 and continue to work shows with them
16) Build several Multi Diode units for Illuminatus Laser Show Company from 2011 thru 2020
17) Started experiments with 450nm LD in 2012
18) First on LPF to construct HH Anamorphic corrected 450nm in 2012
19) Built several commission custome HH Pointer units starting 2013 - 2018
20) First on LPF to construct a Knife Edge, Three (3) 455nm LD HH unit, the “ Tridentis “ in 2013
21) First on LPF to construct Red/Blue Combiner C-Lens Corrected HH unit, the “Purple pHaze” in 2014
22) First on LPF to construct Red C-Lens Corrected HH unit, the “Dragon’s Head” in 2014
23) First on LPF to construct Sky Blue 465nm C-Lens Corrected HH unit, the “Sky Blue Ramjet” in 2015
24) First on LPF to construct Blue/Green Combiner C-Lens Corrected HH unit, the “Cyan Cannon” in 2018
25) Ran two (2) C-Lens Group Buys 2018 and 2020
26) First on LPF to construct Blue 450 nm C-Lens Corrected , Single 26650 LiPo powered HH EDC, the “Supercar EDC” in 2019
27) First on LPF to construct Radial Knife Edge geometry, Eight (8) Diode 520nm HH, the “ Green Kraken” projected in 2020
28) Purchased “ Radiator “ Abstract Shape Generator in 2020

Until you shared this I had no idea your interest and work with lasers goes back so far, or is so extensive. My laser history is far shorter, five years! But, I'm learning and building this forum with you I will learn much more. I'm having to do research to get the information correct I bring here. Labor of love, something fun to do. I hope this group fills a nitch for those who are interested in far more than pointers alone, otherwise I wouldn't have gone this far. Realistically, it may take years to get this site up to speed with users, but I will be working on it. I just branded a laser hobbyist youtube channel to go along with it.

Thanks for sharing, I could share my RF background which goes back that far, but it would be too far off topic.

I have been a lifelong laser fanatic ever since I was very young and saw my 1st laser show @ Stone Mountain Park which is East of Atlanta Georgia, I didn't get to see the actual laser heads behind the dark window tint but I could walk up to the projection box where there was a small square of AR coating and get close enough to almost touch the beams, that emerald green rod sparkling in the night air was magic and I have been addicted ever since, it's been 30 years and that show is still ongoing during the summer months, sure it's changed a lot and the beams are not as tightly focused, however my memory is still sharp and I remember those beams used to be really tight and intoxicatingly brilliant.......I'm certain people can't get that close to the beam window anymore but I will never forget the 1st time I did and how amazing that beam was to see as it stood idle and then as it swirled around making images, I remember the small image on the AR window same as the large image projected onto the face of the mountain.......at any rate I am and always will be a laser fanatic and hope to share the love and enjoyment I have known here with others, I am hopeful our lasing futures will be bright and exciting.

Here's some of my background.

My first exposure to lasers was as a teen at an observatory many years ago in San Francisco. It was awesome, but I never went further to look into the technology until much later. At the age of about 30 I bought my first laser, it was a 5 mw output HeNe red laser which I particularly delighted in using during snow storms where I could see the beam much brighter. After that, I didn't buy another one until the age of over 50 when working in Afghanistan supporting the US Army. I found one online which was claimed to be 1 watt, the price was very low for the advertised output power, I think 50 dollars, but it would produce over 100 milliwatts and to me was super bright compared to the HeNe red laser I had before. Well, anyone would agree, 100 mw of green is far, far brighter than 5 milliwatts of red is to our eyes, power for power, red at about 650 nm is about 15 percent as bright.

A couple of months later I went looking on Alibaba for a BIG 532 nm green LASER. I found one listed for 10 watts! Paid my 300 dollars and eagerly awaited for one which turned out to be about 200 milliwatt! Chinese got me! That was in 2010, quite a long time ago. After that I moved on to a 800 milliwatt Jetlasers 532 nm DPSS which was awesome, but I found where I was living in Alaska, quite temperature sensitive, it would swing from 400 mw to over 800 mw output, depending on how long I used it outside. That laser could also go far below 400 milliwatt if I did an extended run outside with it, but now I know more about DPSS, it is amazing the pointer performed that well without something inside to control the temperature of the KTP crystal.

Since then, my interests have progressed to where I am interested in much higher power DPSS lasers, just bought a 10 watt 532 nm laser a couple of months ago, now working on getting a yellow output laser of more than 1 watt output power.

I am currently supporting the US military on a base in the middle east area of the world, high temps here, quite a difference from Alaska, just went through some 43 degree C. temperatures for several weeks during the day, hot enough. When someone here asks me how I am doing, I often respond with one word; hot. I work as a satellite telecommunications technician/engineer, but mostly working on small stuff here, small VSAT terminals for the military, not the big 100 foot diameter parabolic dish earth stations I supported while with AT&T for 20 years.

TBD and LP....Very interesting !!! There are a select group...IN THE WORLD...that are....for some unknown genetic combination...drawn to the light of Lasers. Only the Internet has allowed us to find one another and share !!!
Albeit antecedal...I believe we have more than one shared interest....hence the " Synergy " area on LH !! This is NOT surprising to me !! Anyway....good to read of your passion !! Bob

This is a ghost forum, no one comes, no one goes...