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Question: The laser on the Wurkkos HD01 (discuss.tchncs.de)

submitted 5 months ago by [email protected] to c/flashlight

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Is the laser on the Wurkkos HD01 safe to use to play with pets? I've got a dog that loves to chase the laser but my Nebo Slim+ 1200 died when it fell off of my backpack strap.

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[–] Zak 5 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

This review actually tested the laser's output and found it to be 2mW, which should be fine for pets if you're not pointing it directly into their eyes (which I assume you wouldn't).

My one concern is that green lasers are actually diode pumped solid state lasers which produce green light by frequency-doubling infrared, and some designs can actually emit much more infrared than green. I'm not sure if the author tested for infrared.

Edit: I asked the author about IR and they got 2.1mW@1064nm, with the caveat that the laser power meter may not be very precise at low power levels. That's probably not dangerous.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

Edit: I asked the author about IR and they got 2.1mW@1064nm, with the caveat that the laser power meter may not be very precise at low power levels. That’s probably not dangerous.

so even if it has a little bit of IR, it's still not dangerous if it accidently reflects off something and hits someone in the eye?

what wattage does it have to get up to to be dangerous?

Okay, I just used brave search to ask what wattage of lasers are dangerous, the figures you gave me don't seem to be dangerous as long as there's no prolonged exposure.

[–] Zak 2 points 5 months ago

One of the things that makes IR dangerous is that there's no blink reflex, but that's a problem when it's IR-only, or the IR is much more powerful than the visible light. There have been cases of green lasers where the IR significantly exceeds the visible light and the advertised power level, but that's not what was measured here.

The total power is under 5mW, which is low-risk even with a brief, accidental direct eye exposure.