Now here's an interesting accessory for modding

[Krusty]

laser

Anyone think they could find a use for it? It runs off of +5v and -12v DC, so it could probably be spliced right into the psu.

EDIT: d'oh, just realized its an infrared laser.

 

[Iron Hawk]

you could hook it up like a burgler alarm, so if somone crosses the beam it triggers a screen saver that is password protected. they wouldnt be able to see the laser and would just think that the SS came on due to a idle time. it would be a great way to protect your PC

 

[Diggrr]

Like these?
The top unit is a HeNe (Helium/Neon) laser and lights up way better than any neon tube I've seen. The attached power supply is 12vDC in and 1400vDC out...play carefully! It will easily attach to a psu, and only draws .58 amps. Beautifull round beam though, and a 2,000 foot range in bright daylight. No collumating lens required.

The lower left is a 5mW visible and the one on the lower right is a 10mW visible. Both units have their own regulator board on them, and can be powered from 3~7 volts DC (D-cells last for days). They each use a seperate collumating lens too.

Supervising over, and working with these is how I learned about soldering, and static precautions. Darn lay-off...I used to play with the neatest toys, and get the best mod supplies free

 

[Über~PhLuBB]

I tried to find a way I could get a laser pointer to bounce back and forth INSIDE the window in my computer. I succeeded with a series of mirrors, but because the Lexan is perfectly smooth and has no internal imperfections, the laser light just passes through without being refracted. I tried scuffing up a little bit, but it didnt work the way I wanted.

Oh well, it was a good idea, just poorly implimented. =P

 

[Krusty]

I tried to find a way I could get a laser pointer to bounce back and forth INSIDE the window in my computer. I succeeded with a series of mirrors, but because the Lexan is perfectly smooth and has no internal imperfections, the laser light just passes through without being refracted. I tried scuffing up a little bit, but it didnt work the way I wanted.

Oh well, it was a good idea, just poorly implimented. =P

If you aim the laser at the lexan at a shallow enough angle, it should reflect nicely. I am unsure of the reflective properties of lexan though, so I couldn't tell you what angle to do it at.

That is pretty much what I thought of when I saw the laser there.

Hmm...perhaps several of those tiny lasers of diggrrs each mounted on a small dc motor to make it spin. With 10 or so of those moving around all over the components in sight of the window, you could have a little Disco club inside your computer

Ooh! That just gave me an idea! A couple of tiny disco ball type things on slowly moving DC motors with orange and red LEDs aimed at them just might give an interesting fire effect inside the case...

 

[Über~PhLuBB]

If you aim the laser at the lexan at a shallow enough angle, it should reflect nicely. I am unsure of the reflective properties of lexan though, so I couldn't tell you what angle to do it at.

That is pretty much what I thought of when I saw the laser there.

Hmm...perhaps several of those tiny lasers of diggrrs each mounted on a small dc motor to make it spin. With 10 or so of those moving around all over the components in sight of the window, you could have a little Disco club inside your computer

Ooh! That just gave me an idea! A couple of tiny disco ball type things on slowly moving DC motors with orange and red LEDs aimed at them just might give an interesting fire effect inside the case...

Wow... That's nuts. That was my second thought, right after I figured out that a stationary laser wouldn't work. I figured that a disco ball wouldn't work not because of size (There are little 2" disco ball keychains made from real mirror pieces, like a real disco ball) but because there would only be one dot per laser emitter.

I had the idea of using several of these placed in well hidden key areas of the case. I just didnt want to end up with 5 of the things and find out that it wouldn't look good. =)

You could run any of 'em off a 1.5 or 3.1 volt source, depending on how many 1.6v batteries they run on.

 

[Tbird man]

how about one laser pointed at a high speed spinning mirror thingy like this that way the laser bounces all over the place

 

[Crazy Jayhawk]

You could run any of 'em off a 1.5 or 3.1 volt source, depending on how many 1.6v batteries they run on.

With a small resistor inline, you could power them off the 3.3V line from the PSU.

 

[Krusty]

With a small resistor inline, you could power them off the 3.3V line from the PSU.

Or run several of em in serial off of the 12v line. You could run 8 1.5v lasers in serial like that.

 

[Über~PhLuBB]

Or run several of em in serial off of the 12v line. You could run 8 1.5v lasers in serial like that.

Series.

 

[Krusty]

Series.

That's what I said. I swear!