PS3 Violet laser fun

Yes folks, violet laser diodes are now affordable, courtesy of PS3 laser assemblies available on ebay for around £40

See this page for full info on the PS3 violet laser diode ( and some cool X-Ray pics!)

As soon as I heard about this on the alt.lasers newsgroup, I had to get one... It arrived about lunchtime on the day I was going to be doing a dorkbot presentation, so it just HAD to be very hastily pointer-ized...

Battery is 12V car-alarm type cell in plastic holder - life is pitifully short but was the only thing I had to hand that fitted a small box. Diode was transplanted into an old red laser pointer collimator assembly.

Shining through a uranium glass marble..

Other fun things to try :

Write messages in those glow-in-the-dark signs (emergency exit, fire extinquisher etc.), Glow Stars etc.
Only the really bright blue/white in the image below is the laser moving with the shutter open - the rest is real lag, visible for up to 30 seconds depending on ambient light level

Also, the stuff on this page will work with a violet laser

The little LCD cell in the optical assembly got me curious - I sandwiched it between 2 polarisers and poked the connections to the driver chip with a signal generator..

Note that the colours have no significance - they just represent the different amounts of polarisation twist caused by the different applied voltages. The laser is monochromatic, and the LCD cell has no polarisers so it has the effect of attenuating the polarised beam.
They do however look pretty and illustrate the segment pattern.