Hacking a laser tape measure

MY concern would be whether or not the optics would support the longer distance. After all the trouble, you might have just a piece of landfill.

A Bosch device capable of that 150 feet is about US$60 these days, or less. And a cheaper off-brand device may be had for less than US$30.

Peter Wieck Melrose Park, PA

Its optics I'm playing around at the moment with this 17GBP 50m (150ft) not poking around inside yet. Just in the process of boring/grinding a hole through a 150mm glass 3 dioptre magnifying glass to try passing the the transmit beam thru the centre and then larger capture area for the focussed received, to see how that works at 50m initially, ie how much darker a "reflector" would be the new minimum .

So far , so good. 5mm hole ground in the centre and simply holding unit in line with the hole, can produce a 5m reading without forcing errors from its operational window , across the room. Now to mount in a rigid tube , to try outdoors, over 50m span.

return power on the detector will be 81 times less than it is right now, (twice the square law), so I think you are out of luck.

hence the larger window, 100x the area.

NT

You might consider using a retroreflective surface as your target (there's corner-cubes, bike reflectors, or Scotchlite products available).

Perhaps that depends on whether the target being ranged is barely intended to be aware of the red dot on forehead! (I have not been reading all this thread...)

BTW Does the bigger window have a lens to concentrate the flux onto the same sensor?

Mike.

Whatever the intent - this is a perfect example of running down the proverbial rabbit-hole. Even if entirely possible, the results are dubious and the utility of the equipment destroyed except as a curiosity.

Peter Wieck Melrose Park, PA

We don't know yet if the laser measure will work. Whether its utility is destroyed or not. In fact, it seems to be working so far. I'm glad he is posting his experiments. Eric

That reminded me one of these was laying neglected in the store, broken power supply ISTR.

the 14 version. I dug it out and opened it up before trying to power up.

Eric:

I am writing from the perspective of one who must rely on accurate measurements for revenue, and whose instruments are calibrated to this end.

For the purposes of a hobby - that is an entirely different matter.

Peter Wieck Melrose Park, PA