Hello.
I am pondering on the feasibility to hack the commercially available, of the shelf, laser rangefinder modules in to two way laser communication devices.
As I understand, the device itself has all the bits and pieces from the optical standpoint to support good 1 to 2 km communication, or more, considering communicators don't suffer from inverse square law both ways. The thing that is left is to change the circuit that is responsible for measuring in to something that can communicate and filter out its own signal reflections and environment noise while tracking its paired partner. Tracking part could be done with additional optic (some sort of collimation with simplest form of 4 lobe diode or go full steam and do a single sensor IR seeker like system) and some sort of light source on different frequency (or same, using some sort of "beacon" signal inserted in to communication signal) so that function is not crucial for rangefinder to preform. However, am I totally in the woods with my idea or is this even remotely feasible?