Laser Flyswatter
 

Once upon a time, I invented a new way to swat houseflies. I took a red laser pointer and zapped them in the eyes. They seemed immobilized so long as the beam was in their eyes. But as soon as I shut off the beam and raised the flyswatter, they detected me and took off, then continued their miserable fly lives with no apparent ill effects. Why did my invention, and dreams of late night TV infomercial wealth, fail? Surely having a laser beam in the eyes for a solid minute should leave one at least temporarily blinded? Perhaps I should upgrade to a more powerful laser? Where to get one at a reasonable cost? Don't even think of stealing my idea or the yacht and bunnies that come with it, I have filed a method of use patent for the "laser-assisted flyswatter."

Could be that the blinding that you or I experience is related to having pupils that dialate. Flys, no pupils, no problems. Interesting idea, the lazer fly swatter.

Try a green laser pointer.

compound eyes

"no ho ho ho ho, mister fly, I expect you to die ha ha ha ha"

Can I affordably and legally buy a laser powerful enough to burn out those compound eyes?

I saw a Youtube video once on how to make a pretty powerful laser using one from a DVD player and putting it in a mini-maglight. It would pop a helium balloon in a second.

Yup, pretty easy to make from optical drives.

Curse you - I have enough projects to work on!

But that is just too cool to NOT do... I even have a spare dead mini-Maglite. Excellent!

Let me know how it turns out Jeff. Can it be done without buying anything?

I only had a CD-ROM RW to donate. The laser light is really dull. I did not have a spare pointer to use as the optics, but pointing the thing at my skin did nothing.

I do have a spare mini-Maglite and a spare DVD-ROM. I think I'll need to order that housing though (or maybe Radio Shack has it?) *shrug* Can't be all that much though.

I'd love to see how much power one of these could make with more batteries and at a higher frequency (think blue-ray). Heh, heh, heh...

It has to be a burner, not ROM. I tried an old 9V battery that was putting out 8v and it would not make the laser go. I have to burn a DVD. I'm tempted to take it apart after the DVD is burned...

Hmmm... Good news is those can be had cheaply enough. I'd love to know if it works with a blue-ray unit and gives better results due to the shorter wavelength, but I'm not going to go blow $200 on one to mess around with.

How about using one of those high power, green, laser pointers that can set things on fire after being pointed at an object for a certain period of time.....

I did a little search. Try buying a laser pointer of higher power. I guess it doesn't really matter if it's red or green, but needs to be adequate power. You can buy a 50 mW laser on Amazon for $17, or a 100 mW for $40. I suspect either of those would do the trick. Actually, if you use the 100 mW, you may not need the flyswatter at all. You may be able to just fry the little suckers.

Try these links for parts:
www.LaserDIY.com
http://mfgcn.com/


Then, build your fly zapper like a true geek:

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Be careful, some of these diodes operate in the near-infrared and although they look dull, can be pretty powerful. That being said, I guess it's time for a DVD upgrade. :D