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Comment by Jedd | Hacker News Reader

For anyone looking for a practical use for this type of technology with a large commercial base, global appeal, and the ability to have subjects corralled into an area for easier detection -- have a read up on the Small Hive Beetle aka SHB, which afflicts bee hives around the world.

They are about 4-5mm long, black, and do not piggy back on bees, instead flying in to hives, landing on the same pad the bees do, which could reasonably be extended or shaped into multiple corridors, etc.

Implementation would be a fixed, straight-down affair - covering an area of perhaps 30-50 square centimetres, inherently human-safe, etc.

Perhaps counter-intuitively, the hobbyist market for something that could detect & fry these would probably be much greater than the commercial installations, but that obviously depends ultimately on cost per unit.

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It's very unlikely any type of laser powerful enough to zap small beetles will be available for sale and use by the general public.

Or cost less than a few hundred thousand dollars after all the safety and liability costs.

I have one on my desk as part of a laser cutter that cost less than $200 in total.

If your claimed laser actually could zap a small beetle in under a second, then it's not legal to sell as part of a consumer product in Canada or the US without expensive interlocks and so on.

There are nonetheless lots of shady ways to buy these types of lasers without the necessary safety controls, but there also lots of shady ways to buy even more dangerous things such as landmines, dynamite, etc.

> There are nonetheless lots of shady ways to buy these types of lasers without the necessary safety controls, but there also lots of shady ways to buy even more dangerous things such as landmines, dynamite, etc.

I've never seen landmines or dynamite on AliExpress.

Somewhere deep in China: "Challenge accepted!"

Interlocks aren't necessarily expensive. It could be as simple as a switch on the door.

If the interlock fails and someone is permanently blinded, who will be bearing the costs of the inevitable multi million dollar lawsuit?

I can't see anyone other than the manufacturer doing so. So a $10 interlock in terms of hardware cost becomes a $10 000 interlock in terms of total costs.

Not really. That's what liability insurance is for. In order to be in business, the manufacturer has to have business insurance which covers these sorts of things.

Equating the cost of the interlock to the quality of its performance doesn't hold up. I suspect that your experience is from automation where things like laser light curtains and lidar sensors are common (and expensive). On things like a Haas milling machine the door switch interlock is $400-$1200 (https://parts.haascnc.com/haasparts/en/USD/search?q=*:*:allC...)

So in the case of a $400 laser etcher from China being sold on Amazon, they need to spend less money on their switch than Haas does. The nice thing is that the switches for Haas need to be waterproof, etc. as they get coolant and oil sprayed on them all day. In the laser cutter it's different, so they can use a less expensive more appropriate part.

The right part for the job it seems, more expensive isn't always better (or safer).

The Haas milling machine is a good example, this is an interlock for nearly ideally controlled conditions and the costs are still sizeable. Imagine for a completely uncontrolled outdoor environment, such as the entrance of a beehive, how much more expensive it would have to be.

Something this: https://www.amazon.com/Slamtec-RPLIDAR-Scanning-Avoidance-Na...

You linked to a small LIDAR? What relation does it have to interlocks for laser?

You've obviously never heard of styropyro who builds insanely strong lasers with basically salvaged junk electronics.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BeTq99LqUo

What does home made stuff have to do with a consumer product sold to the general public?

Folks obviously can't legally sell homemade alcohol, drugs, medical equipment, etc.

>It's very unlikely any type of laser powerful enough to zap small beetles will be available for sale and use by the general public.

>Or cost less than a few hundred thousand dollars after all the safety and liability costs.

The linked video shows a laser more than powerful enough that can be bought off ebay by anyone for < $2000

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2380057.m...

So both of your statements were wrong.

I'm seeing 'laser beauty machines', 'laser tattoo removal machine', etc., starting at $51.99 CAD. These definitely are not legit consumer products being sold on eBay.

>These definitely are not legit consumer products being sold on eBay

Not sure at all what you are trying to say. These are obviously real products that "Consumers" can purchase and as per the video I posted are more than powerful enough for the purpose being discussed.

You do realize not everything sold on eBay is legitimate right? There are counterfeits, grey market goods, rejects from the assembly line, plain old fraud, etc.

They lack warranties, and critically for our discussion, have not passed inspection authorities, such as those examining laser safety of potential products.

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