How much would I have to spend to get something of any quality?
I am very much interested in a better quality host, but I really don’t care about being able to burn things or not. The one I had before was awful. It took 2xAAA and fitment was terrible so you would have to shake the thing to get it to work.
I was wondering if anyone had a specific listing they bought from that the host and laser were of known decent (won’t break in two days) quality.
Do people make lasers in P60 pills? That would cut out the cost of the host, but I imagine the cost of custom building the module would still make it much much more expensive.
Just wanted to add (as far as I understand) safety glasses are not just to protect you if the laser get pointed directly in your eyes. Damage can happen even when looking at the beam or the spot where the laser is pointing. You should always have them on when using them.
Green lasers are more expensive to produce than red or blue/violet, however the eye is more sensitive to green, so it takes a lower wattage to appear as bright. If your goal is to damage things with a laser on a budget, red seems to be the way to go.
Obligatory warning: a lot of people don’t realize just how easy it is to damage your eyes with these things. If it can start fires, there’s a good chance the reflection off of any surface (not just shiny ones) can damage your eyes. You may not even realize you’ve done it at the time, and there’s no repairing the damage once it’s done. Everyone nearby should wear safety glasses designed for the wavelength of that particular laser.
Edit: the other thing to be aware of with green lasers is that they work by using an IR laser diode to stimulate the emission of green light. Good green lasers have a filter that keeps any significant amount of IR from coming out the front. Bad ones sometimes don’t, and that IR can more easily cause eye injury than visible light if we’re talking about power levels that can burn things.
I don’t mean to come off as testy, but I didn’t make this thread to discuss glasses or even general laser safety. I care about that, but that’s not my question here.
So far I have gotten 1, maybe 2 replies that actually attempted to answer my question.
Does anybody other than M4X have a budget laser they can recommend?
Blue would probably be cool, but if the entire beam isn’t visible I expect it to be useless outdoors (and I expect to mainly use it outdoors). I assumed green would be the best candidate for a visibly bright beam.
I’m afraid I haven’t kept up with who’s the best sellers these days. There are a few other BLF members here that are from LPF and will give good advice. Some will probably chime in.
Laserbtb at least use to be very good quality. And you could request an IR filter.
Do you know, what the efficiency of one of that cheapo green 2*AA Laserpointers is?
Because if I put my one (I think I bought the 20mW Version from DX) on my bench power supply at 3.1V, it shows me over 1W of consumption, but burns nothing.
Do you think it’s save to use this thing with 4.2V (a 14500 + Dummy) for a longer time?
I tried it with that - 1.5W consumption. It gets warmer - but will it survive?
L4M4, its a green laser? How much current does it use when running on 2xAA?
Some cheap devices count on the limited current ability of the batteries. Run it from a bench power supply and it may run harder than its meant to.
Try with the 2xAAs in a separate battery holder. I suspect it will use less current powered with the batteries.
Most inexpensive green lasers produce green 532nm by starting with 808nm infrared and passing that light through crystals to get green. This process is inefficient. And if the crystals are poorly aligned it can be very inefficient. Lots of power in, very little green out. DX would not be a reliable place to buy lasers at all. The actual power of your laser could be anything.
If you can just double your budget, you may be glad you did.
You can get this Blue 445nm at 1000mW or 1W that looks like
Arnold’s Gatling gunin Terminator for the following price. Look at his
reviews - pretty high %. You’d just have to get some $11 new batteries instead of the 18650’s.
Ok, this maybe not be a budget suggestion. But i like to find where the limits are.
This guys store sells some of the craziest strong lasers money can buy.
And you are a accomplished modder pilotdog, so i know you could build something that burn stuff with components from there.
One good example is the 9mm 445nm laser diode that can be run up to 5W :bigsmile: ………. the X Drive seems to be the better of the driver options out there.
Hehe, i will just say, that i will never build or play with lasers, i know myself i like to build it as “hot” as i know how, BUT i also know i am not careful enough to use them safely. So NO lasers for me
I have a 1w blue Tmack laser, cost me about $250, can burn things, hardly ever gets used. Runs off a single 18650. The novelty wears off quickly and you can only use it in short bursts. Lasers can’t get hot like modded lights can, it damages them, only 30 second bursts.
