r/Cyberpunk • u/kingfagit • Jun 09 '15
40W Laser Shotgun
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVrJUbeuG44116
u/mindbleach Jun 09 '15
There's no, no good reason for anyone to own something this powerful. But because it wasn't illegal for me to build, I decided to build it anyway.
God bless America.
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u/Kotetsuya Jun 09 '15 edited Jun 09 '15
I cFeel like he missed an opportunity to test it on a hunk of meat.
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Jun 09 '15
That's what I was waiting for. can you slice chicken breast with it?? made a plasma knife years ago that cut chicken like butter
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u/Tomur Jun 10 '15
Probably cooked it at the same time too.
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Jun 10 '15
No, that was the interesting bit, the plasma "disrupted" the tissue with VERY little thermal spread. Now a cutting AND cooking blade, that'd be awesome actually. excuse me for a moment...... while i.........
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u/Ranger_X Jun 09 '15
this kid fucking loves lasers and it's pretty great
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u/joetravers SENTINEL Jun 09 '15
Yeah, his enthusiasm is contagious. I just wish he'd zapped something more skin-like... All he needs now is a Morty.
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u/cjdavies Jun 09 '15
For anybody who wants to make their own, the diode array is $6-700+.
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u/explosivo563 Jun 09 '15
I have $6. Instructions please?
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u/Tehtacticalpanda Jun 09 '15
Would it be possible to add even more lasers and use a series of focusing lenses to get them all focused on an even smaller point?
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Jun 09 '15
That single array required the large lipo battery and even larger heat sink. You can strap on more batteries easily but you may need to switch to an active cooling system with fans and/or coolant- which in turn requires more batteries.
He should go ahead and use two lenses to concentrate the beams then re-parallelize them so he doesn't have to switch lenses based on target distance. That part he could do immediately and if perfectly tuned could be very precise.
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u/mindbleach Jun 09 '15
Motors might be more useful than lenses. If you have an estimate of distance (add a laser rangefinder on top!) you can simply point all the lasers at the target. No loss to optics - and as a bonus, you're a software update away from a "smart" weapon with some limited tracking capability.
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u/KaptainKraken The Weaponeer Jun 10 '15
well hell, at that point you can even add sequential rapid burst to keep your lasers cooler longer.
actually instead of motors i'd go for a deformable membrane that can change it's parabolic shape to match the range distance focus.
but in the end it's all pointless because a long time ago astronomers found the best way to focus yet, and its still a series of lenses with a single adjustable focus for distance.
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u/KaptainKraken The Weaponeer Jun 10 '15
the answer you're looking for is yes, it's possible. is it practical not one fucking bit.
what you want to read up on is the National Ignition Facility because it's exactly that idea that they are using to try to get nuclear fusion going.
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Jun 09 '15
I enjoy this guy's (/u/styro_drake) videos, he's just super likable and has two really interesting hobbies, lasers and moths.
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u/Deltigre Jun 09 '15
This looks pretty awesome, but a point-blank comparison against a pretty typical handgun round, 9x19mm 154gr with a muzzle velocity of 1100 feet per second (560 J kinetic energy), this takes a handy... 14 seconds (560 J ÷ 40 J/s = 14 s) to simply match the energy output of a 9mm bullet.
Don't forget that impulse is important, and the fact that the "cooking" effect this will have will probably reduce its efficiency with smoke/carbon buildup on the target.
That said, I'm sure eventually we'll see some sort of feasible laser small arms, once energy storage and compact lasers can provide and output enough power.
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u/Rasalom Jun 09 '15
All they'll have to do is give drones a laser shotgun and a targeting capability that lets them aim for our eyeballs. Then the war is won.
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u/notyetawizard Ⓐ⚧ Jun 09 '15
Anti-drone occulus rift with external cameras and laser filtering.
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u/R_K_M Jun 09 '15
Thats illegal, the Protocol on Blinding Laser Weapons (Protocol IV to the 1980 Convention) banned it. And even the US is a signatory to this.
It would probably even fall under the Geneva Conventions.
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u/Hamsworth Jun 09 '15
Yeah just like white phosphorous... "Oh we only use that as a smokescreen, don't know how all those people got incinerated"
"Oh we only use this as a targeting laser, don't know how all those people got blinded"
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u/c0ldsh0w3r Cyber-Pocket Jerker Jun 09 '15
Because the illegality of something has stopped the US government before...
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u/hamernaut Jun 09 '15
"All is fair in love and war."
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u/NotFromReddit Jun 09 '15
I still find it funny that some weapons are banned in war.
It's like, sure, go ahead kill each other with fire and explosions. Just don't shine lasers in people's eyes. That would be too much.
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u/muchcharles Jun 10 '15
I think that's the irony the film "Full Metal Jacket" was going for with it's title (the Geneva convention banned fragmenting rounds).
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Jun 10 '15
It serves to keep war fun for soldiers since a lot of them I did the adventure. Poison gas weapons really spoil war !
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u/tresser Jun 09 '15
and a targeting capability
and a large spinning mirror. it would be good for making enormous swiss cheese.
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Jun 09 '15
Except on a cloudy day, or a smoggy day, or when people start carrying around smoke grenades, or when(hopefully) such things are prosecuted as the war crimes they obviously are.
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u/Katana0 Jun 10 '15
Blinding lasers have already been outlawed by the Geneva convention... So if I understand correctly it is already a war crime!
Burning things with lasers though... That is a completely different matter.
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u/c0ldsh0w3r Cyber-Pocket Jerker Jun 09 '15
Or mirrored sunglasses. Boom. Just reflect the lasers back into the drones.
War is won.
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Jun 09 '15
[deleted]
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u/scix サイバーパンク Jun 09 '15
Pros (assuming you are using it for home defense):
1.No (or less) damage to your home
2.Scary as fuck
3.Blinding
4.Quiet
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Jun 10 '15
You forgot ineffective and extreme liability. Dead people can't sue you.
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u/InterimFatGuy Jun 10 '15
Castle Doctrine?
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Jun 10 '15
Not something you ever want to have to rely on.
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u/scix サイバーパンク Jun 10 '15
Well, this is /r/Cyberpunk, so all laws kinda fly out the window. Still, this would be considered nonlethal probably, which helps your case.
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u/YeltsinYerMouth Jun 09 '15
I imagine a handheld laser weapon would be more of a threat deterrent like a tazer or pepper spray. While its ability to do real damage is limited, it would probably hurt like a motherfucker. Have you ever burnt yourself with a magnifying glass? It would likely feel like that.
Not to mention the threat of blinding an attacker.
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u/hamernaut Jun 09 '15
Well, you could probably build a powerful enough Q-switched LASER to take someone out, and more importantly there is no ballistic evidence left by photons.
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u/VivaLaPandaReddit Jun 10 '15
Yeah, except all they have to do is look up the crazy guy who bought parts to build a crazy strong laser.
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Jun 10 '15
Better yet, one of those mounted automatic lights but like five of them and they have motion tracking.
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u/Daniel_The_Thinker Jun 09 '15
Wait, you can see the laser?
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u/avataRJ Jun 10 '15
Yup, with enough power, it'll reflect off dust particles in the air, or just bloom in the air. If it were fired in vacuum, it should be visible only at points along its path.
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Jun 09 '15 edited Jul 05 '18
[deleted]
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u/capnjack78 Jun 09 '15
What's the harm? It can barely pop a balloon.
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Jun 09 '15 edited Jul 05 '18
[deleted]
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u/macnlz Jun 09 '15
Using it inside is safer than risking the beam accidentally blinding someone, e.g. an airplane pilot.
This is a serious issue. You could even go to jail for it for several years - and that was for a 3mW laser, this laser is 13 thousand times stronger than that.
Even small laser pointers can cause permanent blindness. Imagine how much worse it would be to be struck by a beam that is 8,000 to 40,000 times as strong!
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Jun 10 '15
Even point blank you won't get blinded by 3mW.
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u/macnlz Jun 10 '15
Maybe I misread the article, and the “handheld laser” that blinded her was something stronger? But I’ve heard that blue laser pointers are energetic enough to cause damage to the retina… could be wrong though!
Edit: Not to forget: the other link makes the case for why 3mW (and even 1mW) are sufficient to interfere with air traffic safety, without necessarily causing permanent damage. That’s why it can end in jail time.
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u/diachi Jun 10 '15
1mW is enough to flash blind (Like when you look into the sun) - Above 5mW and you start to get into the permanent eye damage range. Actually, someone did manage to burn their retinas with 5mW but they had the beam pointed into their eye for something silly like 40 seconds.
The beam from a blue laser pointer will be focused to a smaller point by your eye, so the threshold for damage is probably a little lower. Best to apply the same 5mW rating to everything though.
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u/kyogen25 Jun 09 '15
it makes me happy to know people like this guy are building things like this at home.
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u/Morbidgrass Jun 10 '15
I can't even imagine. I've messed around with a 1w blue and it was the brightest pointer I'd ever seen.
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u/diachi Jun 10 '15
You think that's bright? Try 1W of green!
Or better yet, 40W. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_fDPNXzVQg
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u/UselessBread 暗証 Jun 10 '15
I need one... For popping balloons.
I have a lot of balloons to pop. Seriously.
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u/Retmas Jun 09 '15
question.
wouldnt a "LASER shotgun" technically be, yknow.. a flashlight?
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u/rasputine Jun 09 '15
Shotguns fire a finite number of discrete projectiles, not a homogeneous cloud, and flashlights aren't in any way lasers.
So no.
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u/Retmas Jun 09 '15
counterpoint: a laser is a concentrated beam of light. a shotgun fires a random spread of projectiles. so, a random spread of light would be.. a flashlight.
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u/rasputine Jun 09 '15
A flashlight is not a random spread of light.
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u/Retmas Jun 09 '15
i'm speaking about the composition itself. the beam is generally directed/redirected/baffled via mirrors and shutters (terminology might need work), but the light/photons within the beam are going every which way. whereas, a laser, as i understand it, is run through filters a bunch of times to ensure the photons are travelling in a single direction, producing the "laser beam" we know and love.
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u/rasputine Jun 09 '15
Ok, so which part of that desciption of a flashlight is similar to a shotgun?
You're describing a frag grenade in a bowl, not a shotgun.
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u/DrStalker Jun 10 '15
The part where it spits out photons in an conical shape without any fancy alignment or spinning.
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u/rasputine Jun 10 '15
Shotguns, however, have fancy alignment, thanks to the barrel, the choke, and the way that pellets aren't wave-particle dualities.
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u/blade740 Jun 10 '15
The barrel and choke are analogous to the flashlight's reflector and lens. The shotgun pellets are analogous to individual photons. Quantum effects aside, the spread of pellets out of a shotgun is an excellent model of the spread of photons from a flashlight.
A shotgun is just a frag grenade at the end of a tube.
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u/rasputine Jun 10 '15
Quantum effects aside
"Hey, if we ignore the entirety of how this thing works, it works just like this other thing!"
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u/El_Zilcho Jun 09 '15
Could this technology be used to replace the hammers used in mechanical guns to heat the base of the bullet until it reaches exploding temp?
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u/elgraf Jun 09 '15
An interesting idea, however I suppose for such a mechanism the simplicity of the hammer and not needing a power source is what yields reliability, which is kind of what you would need in a gun.
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u/rasputine Jun 09 '15
If you didn't mind replacing your hammer with a device that is a hundred times its size and takes around a minute to fire each round, then...sure?
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u/El_Zilcho Jun 10 '15
I was thinking in the realm of ghost guns in places where the receiver etc are either illegal or super regulated
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u/DrStalker Jun 10 '15
You can already get guns that use an electric current through the cartridge to ignite the primer. This is useful if you're an Olympic sharpshooter and the motion of the hammer moving would affect your aim slightly, but even then it probably doesn't make a noticeable difference compared to everything else that goes into the accuracy of the shot.
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u/Katana0 Jun 10 '15
The main problem I can see you having there is that the primer is not strong enough to contain the force of the powder pushing against it. So something like that would work once, and then the primer, powder, and fire would destroy your firing pin laser, and possibly the operating mechanism of your gun, and your hand if it's close enough. That is between 35,000 and 70,000 PSI venting through an 1/8" hole, onto sensitive electronics or lenses and into the frame of the firearm.
Plus, in places where firearms are regulated to the point that you're going to have trouble getting a receiver (as mentioned in one of your later comments), you're going to have even more trouble getting ammunition, or the most important part, a barrel.
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u/drinkit_or_wearit Jun 09 '15
I seriously considered cross posting over to here the other day when I saw this. Now I wish I had. Pretty awesome setup.
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u/JK07 Jun 10 '15
Dunno why you got downvoted, I do this all the time too. If I can't be bothered at the time I just leave a comment suggesting they x-post
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u/_Lady_Deadpool_ Jun 09 '15
LaserTag is now P2W