Having done a bit of reading I bought a Sanwu 304 green for general amusement with the effects heads while camping out, but more for pointing out cut points on trees for tree reductions, both for the customer and the tree surgeon.
The laser that’s arrived doesn’t have a single, focussing beam, it has an effect. The only way to get the straight beam is to unscrew the focussing head (which holds a small square of plastic which is presumably the effect lens).
Is this usual? I’ve contacted Sanwu a couple of times and am waiting on a reply, but the blurb for the laser says it can be focussed to mark black tape or light a match.
Not sure if I’m answering your question or not, but …
My part-time retirement job is as a naturalist / guide for a company that does tours in the California desert. Several of the guides have purchased green “301”, “302”, or “303” lasers (this is the first I’ve heard of a “304”) to use on their tours. Different or no brand name, purchase prices between $6 for just the laser (me from Banggood) to over $20 for laser, battery, and charger (other guides from ebay or amazon).
I never researched what the different numbers are supposed to mean, but I can say it has nothing to do with actual brightness. I have a 301 that is brighter than other guides 302 or 303 model, and some of their 302 or 303’s are brighter than other 301’s. None of the 10 or so that I’ve seen can light a match / burn paper / melt plastic / whatever else is claimed.
I’ve only had one that came with the pattern or grid effect, and it worked like you said. Screw the focusing piece on and you get the grid, unscrew it and you get the single beam. I have no use for the pattern and didn’t want to leave the focuser off as it left threads unprotected, so I took a tweezer and removed the small plastic piece from the focuser then screwed it back on. This was irreversible, but I have no use for the pattern.
Don’t know if it’s true or not, but I was told the pattern is used by “ghost hunters” who believe a ghost can bend one or two of the beams if the pattern is projected on a wall.
Be very careful with these lasers BLFers, basically anything you buy is going to be over-spec’ed and probably significantly above the rated wattage. There is little to no testing of output on these cheapo lasers and usually its just a simple potentiometer setting the output with no consistency in that component or what it’s set to.
OP I hope you were wearing laser eye-pro for those pictures. IIRC the Sanwu 304s (which have better QC and/or are hand picked) are rated to 50mW minimum in every wavelength which is well past the point of being an eye hazard.
I just picked up a 100mW red gatling from LPS. Good fast service, tracking etc from them. It burns pretty good, but very hard to see unless there is something in the air to catch the deep red 650nm beam.
I want the 100mW 485nm gatling next. Sweet unusual turquoise/cyan beam. I think those emitters are pretty rare, reflected in the price.
I’ve been trying to figure out the best way to get a forward clicky into one of those gatling hosts. Not essential, but would make it more fun. I’d like to maybe swap out the rods for thin copper pipe as well.
The design of those hosts was copied from a high end flashlight originally, wasn’t it?
