We don’t need to tell you: lasers are awesome. The tiny red beam isn’t just for frustrating cats, but can do real work, be a source of infinite beauty, or constitute a science project in its own right. 

And red lasers are only the beginning. If you have enough energy to move electrons into higher orbitals, you can make nearly anything lase. RGB setups can be breathtaking. Powerful IR and UV lasers are real tools. And the DIY side of lasering combines physics and electronics, with a spicy side of danger that needs to be contained.

We love laser builds of all sorts, and we’d like to see yours!  Open up a hackaday.io project that features what you’re working on, and we’ll pick our three favorites for a $150 gift certificate courtesy of this contest’s sponsor, Digikey.

Honorable Mention Categories:

  • Lightshow: A laser on its own makes a beam, but there’s so much more to a laser show than just a dot on the wall. If you’ve made your own projector, an RGB setup, or even something super simple with a spinning mirror, show it off here. We’re looking to see laser light beauty, and the machines that make it possible.
  • DIY: This category is for the laser DIYers out there. If you made your own laser or laser support equipment, be it a TEA laser from scratch, or just a constant current driver to run a diode you salvaged from a projector, we want to see it. Have you resurrected an esoteric old device? Mixed up your own dyes? This category is all about the laser.
  • With Remaining Eye: Lasers are not all fun and games; they can also do real work. If you’ve built a power laser project, or any functional device that relies on a laser to get the job done, it’s eligible here. Laser cutters, safety setups, data transfer over the light beam?  Any laser project that’s not about just looking good fits in here.  

Rules:

  • All entries must involve a laser at its heart. 
  • We want to learn from you. Document your project as well as you can so that we can follow along. 
  • All entrants must agree to have the design published on Hackaday.
  • Employees and contractors of DigiKey, Supply Frame, Siemens, Arduino, and their immediate family members are ineligible to win, but are still encouraged to enter.
  • Rules and categories are subject to change and judges' decisions are final.

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