Site is inaccessible for me, Google cache link: https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:Ylgqkr...

Consumer lasers will be the spray paint of the next century. One small segment of the population will see them as an overly expensive way to accomplish tasks slightly more conveniently than the alternatives, and another larger segment of the population will use them mostly to trash their environment, leading to all kinds of weird attempts at legal restrictions.

No one has mentioned the obvious terrorism related issues with lasers. The worst body counts won't be individual random "makers" with poor coding skills and their bystanders, or even the cops, it'll likely be, say, an entire stadium instantly blinded, or really any public location, such as interstate highway overpasses or airport security lines. I suspect we'll soon have discussion on the topic of "weapons of mass destruction" as applies to lasers. Based on past experience, if some Saudi citizens snuck something in to the stadium (drone delivered?) then blinded everyone attending the Superbowl, would we invade Venezuela conventionally or nuke Iran?

On that note, does anyone have good resources on building laser powered products? I figured it would make sense to start by reading an optics textbook. [1]

Something like Building Electro-Optical Systems by Hobbs. First problem is that I wouldn't even know which ones good.

The next problem I see and which the article touches on is that the wrong setting might cause irreparable tissue damage. Which by extension means that making sure that the variance is power must have a bunch of failsafe circuitry more so than the average meditation eeg startup.

I believe there are reliability test scenarios for electrical equipment in space, so i assume there's similar things for this use case. Would anyone be able to point in the right direction?

[1]: http://eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0470402296...

I work with lasers and we get a yearly security training on staying safe with lasers (the whole shebang, videos of cow-eyes exploding from diffuse scattering of a cutting laser, cutting pizza, photos of scars of accidents, post-trauma photos of retinas etc).

It is indeed terrifying to see how easily you can get tools that can cripple people without people being aware of the danger.

Interesting that he compares them to firearms, and all that entails. With power levels increasing, we may see a viable laser rifle soon, and with it, a need for a new regulatory structure (or adoption and expansion of an existing one, atf, etc.) They seem to have many of the same public safety aspects, but will someone popularize a legitimate 'Sporting Use' for these devices before they are sold as 'Death Rays to Blind Everyone and Set the World on Fire', And deemed unsutable for mere mortals to own? I hope so. I guess based on this article, you could sell a kit without much liability.

I don't know, looks like an advertisement to me. Fun, dangerous, barely legal -- what's not to like?

Hmmm - one serious thought - 'makers' thinking of playing with 1+ watts should also seek out videos of what happens to normal consumer and better non laser grade optics when used as focusing or steering elements - I knew of a lab that basically had very fine powered optical glass blown into the nearby walls (it was empty during the test) - and one less serious thought, from the same lab where I first encountered this sign... "Do not look in the laser with your good eye" :-)

The Cubiio (which is at the focal point for this hard-to-browse article) also gets the AvE treatment here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7WmUXtizEA [video]). Not so good PR there, either.

I've got a 4x8 CNC router with a small 4W laser diode that I can add on for light engraving work. Discussions of safety, protective eyewear, interlocks, shielding are all very valid. the stray reflections cutting wood in open air mean that there is significant scatter. The other day I attempted to engrave cork and found the scatter to be terrible.

BUT, all of that can be managed with shielding, eye protection, and walls. When the laser is on, I've rigged mach 3 (CNC control) to turn on some lights at the top of my staircase so that nobody comes into the garage without protective eyewear. It is absolutely possible to be safe without also limiting all your freedoms. In general, safety standards and workshop use-cases are well aligned, and if safety is too much work then a lack of safety is not about freedom, it's about laziness.

AvE has also taken a crack at Cubiio, and I think it is worth repeating some of his points, and my own observations here.

1. Diode lasers for engraving are VERY sensitive to focal length changes. If my surface that I am engraving changes more than 1-2mm in height, I try to compensate for that in the engraving tool path. My minimum line width is .01" with the laser/lens combo I have, and if I am out of focus even .125" (3mm), the line width will probably double.

2. many materials reflect terribly while cutting. Especially pre-finished light colored woods like maple. There is practically no way to avoid this. If I cut those I'll often end up with uncut areas in the piece because 100% of the beam ended up scattered, and didn't manage to burn the piece at all.

3. the idea is very tempting. It would be very nice to have this functionality, but, for the average maker, I think you would be pretty unhappy with the power this can make. I frequently want a LOT more than 4W, this appears to be about 1/4 of that. Most commercial systems from Epilog start at 20-40w. The Cubiio would probably produce shallow, uneven cuts at very slow feed rates with really long run times to produce anything useably deep. If you ran it at faster feed rates it would probably produce a laser engraving so shallow that it would rub off.

4. I want their app. The ability to turn scanned art into vectors for G code is something I would pay for. AFAIK there is NO good commercial solution for this. I have tons of line art that I would love to laser engrave but have no way to produce simple paths from it.

Edit: this is the laser I have - https://jtechphotonics.com/?product=3-8w-laser-and-2-5amp-sa... - I can vouch that it is well made and the vendor is great to work with - he assembles these himself and takes safety seriously.

So in addition to the Class 1-4, there should be Class "What remaining eye?"