Hi Alexis,

I while back I suggested using steppers and micro-stepping rather than gear steppers.

Anyway, I knocked up a turret using two cheap NEMA 17 0.9 degree steppers and a cheap Nano CNC board.

The results were quite good with an accuracy of better than 0.1 degrees.

With some tweaking I should get a rotational speed of 120 RPM (using a Arduino Nano).

Here is the project: https://hackaday.io/project/28478-a-better-turret/files.

Regards AlanX

How powerful a laser is needed to kill a mosquito?  I'd imagine it has to be enough that it's dangerous to human vision.  Then you'll be flailing that around in lots of directions quickly.  Seems like a bad idea.

In fact, to use this outside seems dangerous and reckless.  What happens if it decides a passing airplane is a mosquito and aims at it constantly for a minute?  Pilots with impaired vision, and criminal charges for you.  Even if you get lucky and that doesn't happen, you could blind wildlife as well.  Taking a project like this outside the lab is just begging for trouble.

Lasers aren't toys.  Lasers that are powerful enough to kill small insects even less so.  Please don't do anything irresponsible with them.

I will not use a laser capable to kill the mosquito in one shot because it's too expensive, instead I'm using a 300mw laser, If I can keep the laser on the mosquito for 3 seconds then it will kill it.

I do not plan to use this outdoor, bacause of what you said. and I will use security goggles when operating it with a 300mw laser indoor (for now it's a 1mw laser, no need to use a powerfull laser during the experimentation phase)

But even If I were to use it outdoors, I'm using 2 cameras to compute the position in space and size of the objects in view, so I can detect an airplane/bird/helicopter getting in the line of fire and stop the laser.

Furthermore after 10 meters the beam spreads quite a lot (for a standard 300mw laser), I think it's eye safe after 20 meters for short exposure and safe after 100 meters.