ANTIFA: Lasers and Eye Protection

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  • Flametamer

    Active Member
    MDS Supporter
    Mar 6, 2014
    796
    Frederick County

    eruby

    Confederate Jew
    MDS Supporter
    What about mirrored lenses?

    th
     

    MigraineMan

    Ultimate Member
    Jun 9, 2011
    19,109
    Frederick County
    Can we narrow down this consideration to the kind of handheld units reasonably available--in terms of availability and realistic cost--to Antifa types? Consider thye user and his/her intended use and sought-after results?

    Not really. As noted above, handheld units are readily available in colors/wavelengths that span the visible spectrum. Blue is short wavelength (400nm) while red is long wavelength (700nm). Green is middle-ish, at 535nm or so.

    The ones I linked above are fairly small, and are likely to be 1mW-class devices. However, you can get D-cell-Maglite-sized "laser pointers" with 18650 LiIon batteries in them with similar markings. Uh huh ... manufactured in China, so take the label specs with a grain of salt.

    We use a lot of Thor Labs gear, and you can take a look at their eyewear offerings as an example. You'll note from the graphs that all let some chunk of the visible spectrum through (graph is attenuation, so "lower" is more transmissive.) If we are working with UV or deep-blue lasers, we might choose the first or third products, as they do a good job blocking those wavelengths. But red lasers will go right through (and is the reason the lenses in the third one look orangey-red.)

    Since meatbag optical sensors are only responsive to 400-700nm wavelengths, completely blocking that chunk of spectrum from all possible laser hazards results in a completely opaque lens ... which is "not useful" for what I hope are obvious reasons.
     

    Glaron

    Camp pureblood 13R
    BANNED!!!
    MDS Supporter
    Mar 20, 2013
    12,752
    Virginia
    My preliminary research indicates that simple mirrored coatings aren't effective in blocking the rays. That's where my preliminary research started, and what led me to open this thread.

    I just tried my mirrored glasses vs my crimson trace green laser. They acted like a prism. I had a green dot passed through and a green dot reflected.
     

    Flametamer

    Active Member
    MDS Supporter
    Mar 6, 2014
    796
    Frederick County
    My preliminary research indicates that simple mirrored coatings aren't effective in blocking the rays. That's where my preliminary research started, and what led me to open this thread.

    Mirrored glasses allow visible light to pass through. Most of the lasers available on ebay, etc. fall into the visible portion of the spectrum, the mirror coating, which appears to be solid, is in fact not a solid coating.
     

    Steel Hunter

    Active Member
    Nov 10, 2019
    548
    Can we narrow down this consideration to the kind of handheld units reasonably available--in terms of availability and realistic cost--to Antifa types? Consider thye user and his/her intended use and sought-after results?

    Here are your rough power outputs you need to be able to withstand. All of these can be found for relatively cheap (<$200 each and less than $100 for most)

    500mW+ in 405nm (purple)
    3W+ in 445nm (blue)
    500mW+ in 520nm (green diode)
    1W+ in 532nm (green from IR diode passed through crystals, these often leak IR)
    750mW+ in 635nm (red)
     

    Flametamer

    Active Member
    MDS Supporter
    Mar 6, 2014
    796
    Frederick County
    Here's a site that does a respectable job of presenting the various parameters that impact the hazard to vision by laser light for some commonly available lasers:
    • laser power (output in mW), a function of the design of the emitter
    • color (wavelength in nm), a function of the design of the emitter
    • beam spread (divergence in mrads), also a function of the emitter design and the lens used and atmospheric contaminants (i.e., fog, smoke), and
    • distance (attenuation) between the emitter and the eye

    Lots of clarity here about the various parameters. No simple answer, as stated above.

    https://lasersafetyfacts.com/hazard_distance_chart.html
     

    BeoBill

    Crank in the Third Row
    MDS Supporter
    Oct 3, 2013
    27,064
    南馬里蘭州鮑伊
    Take a quick look on ebay. Red, Green, Purple, and some other colors are readily and cheaply available. Quite a few are more powerful than the 5mW limit; they state 5mW in the listing, but they are much more powerful-some will pop a balloon or light a match. Don't ask how I know :innocent0

    I think those would require internal modification to become powerful enough to pop a balloon. I've seen the videos on YT, and they explicitly state that an off the shelf consumer laser does not have enough oomph to do that. As for eye damage, I'll leave that to the much more qualified.

    Not really. As noted above, handheld units are readily available in colors/wavelengths that span the visible spectrum. Blue is short wavelength (400nm) while red is long wavelength (700nm). Green is middle-ish, at 535nm or so.

    I doubt that a typical basement dwelling ANTIFA SJW would be solvent and sober enough to source and pay for an industrial laser. So we're back to cheap laser pointers, IMO. If they wanted to do extensive permanent damage they'd use a baseball bat, black iron pipe or a gun.

    And I still like the "Gas N Go" strategy if I was in that situation.
     

    hillbilly grandpa

    Active Member
    Jan 26, 2013
    962
    Arnold
    Cases being reported of law enforcement personnel in Portland being blinded. That, along with reports of signal jammers being used against law enforcement communication seems to point to increasingly "professional" profiles of the criminals. We discount their ability to do harm at our own peril

    I'm still trying to zero in on the kind of eyeware I should carry in my vehicles.
     

    Alphabrew

    Binary male Lesbian
    MDS Supporter
    Jan 27, 2013
    40,749
    Woodbine
    Cases being reported of law enforcement personnel in Portland being blinded. That, along with reports of signal jammers being used against law enforcement communication seems to point to increasingly "professional" profiles of the criminals. We discount their ability to do harm at our own peril

    I'm still trying to zero in on the kind of eyeware I should carry in my vehicles.

    Agreed. We all need to protect our eyes from this new attack.
     

    Threeband

    The M1 Does My Talking
    MDS Supporter
    Dec 30, 2006
    25,234
    Carroll County
    ...

    I doubt that a typical basement dwelling ANTIFA SJW would be solvent and sober enough to source and pay for an industrial laser. So we're back to cheap laser pointers, IMO. If they wanted to do extensive permanent damage they'd use a baseball bat, black iron pipe or a gun.

    And I still like the "Gas N Go" strategy if I was in that situation.


    Cases being reported of law enforcement personnel in Portland being blinded. That, along with reports of signal jammers being used against law enforcement communication seems to point to increasingly "professional" profiles of the criminals. We discount their ability to do harm at our own peril

    I'm still trying to zero in on the kind of eyeware I should carry in my vehicles.


    We've spent 40 or 50 years laughing and sneering at these silly "basement dwellers", while their organizers infiltrate, undermine, and destroy our society.

    Now the infestation has reached a critical mass within government, media, private corporations, and the military. There is no knowing just how badly our society has already been undermined, but I don't think Trump can count on the military to uphold the constitution. I think it's that bad.


    Time to stop laughing at those silly, silly hippies.
     

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