quick review of O-like 400 mw 405 nm.

OK, so this is my first post and short qualitative review on the O-like 400mw 405nm torch that can be found at o-like.com for $109 plus $5 for regular shipping. I ordered this laser on 3/17, it was shipped on 3/24 and arrived on 4/9, not too bad.

The laser came in a black cardboard box with a nice UltraFire 18650 battery and charger and the packaging had it labeled as a "flashlight" so no customs issues. The laser itself has a nice weight to it and the host is well made and sturdy although it appears to have minimal heat sinking ability as the laser will warm up considerably after ~30 seconds of use. The focusing ability is very nice, although the focus ring is a bit tight at first but will become more friendly to deal with after some use.
Also included with the laser was a handwritten note from Susie: "Dear Sir, Pls ensure battery "+" towards tail cap duty cycle is 30-50 seconds on and 3 minutes off."

OK, so I don't have a LPM but Susie said that these lasers all tested to be over 350mw and based on it's performance I don't think that she is lying. So, what can it do? Well the answer to that is pretty much burn anything when focused. Light matches, cut plastic, burn skin, light cigarettes, etc. Lighting matches from across the room is no problem, this thing is powerful. I was also impressed with the range on this laser, when focused to ∞ it was putting a dot on the cloud cover and I could easily see the beam hitting a tall building that is ~ 1 mile from my house. The beam is faintly visible during the day and in lit rooms but at night and outside it becomes a solid bright line.

Overall I am very happy with this laser and with o-like.com, I haven't bought anything else from them, but their customer service seems very nice, Susie answered all of my e-mail questions within 24 hrs. If anyone is interested and responds to this thread and would like to see some pictures I would be glad to post some.

VERDICT: If you want a high-powered 405 nm laser, this is a solid choice.

later, Matt

burning skin.. did you try it on your skin... haha anyway, you should put a picture of it.

burn skin eh??? i burnt skin trying to lpm my 1.7W 445. left a clean round black dot...stung like a m#%@&.

on topic, I was seriously considering getting that laser. one question though? how mod-able is that laser. can you take apart the whole thing easily and get access to all the components?? This laser is good, but all my 12X builds are like 600-700mW but i would like a professional looking laser already at good strength. I just would like to modify it sometime in the futre (if i get one that is)

steviedezie said:

burn skin eh??? i burnt skin trying to lpm my 1.7W 445. left a clean round black dot...stung like a m#%@&.

on topic, I was seriously considering getting that laser. one question though? how mod-able is that laser. can you take apart the whole thing easily and get access to all the components?? This laser is good, but all my 12X builds are like 600-700mW but i would like a professional looking laser already at good strength. I just would like to modify it sometime in the futre (if i get one that is)

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Good to know that your 1.6-1.7W 445 can burn skin. :angel: The one you are sending to me is not this 1.7W? But I am not going to do that. 405nm, try not to get it on your skin even fully defocused (still extremely intense! More so than any UV flashlight though nm is different).

I have on order that laser, actually I have 3 on the way (other 2 are 200mW). Don't think such china stuff can be easily dismantled, they usually glue it nice and tight.

From youtube, some of the 100-200mW from certain chinese companies can burn matches quite fast. I don't think those low-grade hosts would be 400mW.
Anyway I don't have a LPM, but I can spot them on distant objects and check out the intensities (ie nett system power)

I'm not really sure on the mod-ability of this laser as I'm not sure what you would want to do to it. Maybe more heatsinking ability? Someone else did a review with some very nice pictures showing the disassembly (screws apart into three sections) here: http://laserpointerforums.com/f52/o-like-405nm-400mw-blu-ray-61265.html

For $100 I think that it's worth the money, as for power susie says they are at or over 350mw, I would agree with this because when properly focused it will burn pretty much anything regardless of its color and at night has a beam range of a least a mile.

how mod-able is that laser

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I have taken my o-like 405 completely apart and i don't think it is very mod-able. the diode is pressed into the heat sink and where the driver is soldered to the diode there is some type of resin or epoxy holding those components together. The driver looks kinda like the 1W 445 driver that they have on their site, so no pot. The lens can easily be replaced though. Other than that unless you want to try and remove that resin you are stuck.

wow... that weak. the heatsinking is horrid!!! thats a smaller sink than what i used for my 6x aw210 build. Hows that gonna properly cool a 350-400mW beast. Oh does this thing use standard size lenses?? cuz if it does, then the only real upgrade i can do is stick in one of my 405-g2 lenses to see how high i can get the output.

^^ in my experience, the 405's dont generate a fraction of the heat of the 445s , i have one running @ 345mA in a dilda v2 host from odic, barely notice a difference in temp after a 3 minuet run.

ohh...thats about right. My 700mW gets warm after 1 minute. kind of hot after 1:30 min. then again...its like 500mA so thats the killer. I was hoping to mod one of those olikes to about 600mW or so. Thats the concern. But if I can get at least 500mW with my g2 lens then i guess thats totally worth the 109 + shipping.

Yes the lens is standard. I put an Aixiz glass lens in there and it fit fine.

Your right about the heat sink being so tiny. O-like recommends 1 min runtimes but I have run it for a lot longer probably over 5 min and it doesn't get noticeably warmer. I think holding it in my hand for 5 min makes it warmer than just running it.

cool good to know. Yea its funny that your hand gets the laser more warm than it being on. Im probably gonna end up getting this olike laser next.

If you are going for power I would recommend popping out the waterproofing piece of glass in the focusing ring. You should LPM this laser after you modify it and post your results.

steviedezie said:

wow... that weak. the heatsinking is horrid!!! thats a smaller sink than what i used for my 6x aw210 build. Hows that gonna properly cool a 350-400mW beast. Oh does this thing use standard size lenses?? cuz if it does, then the only real upgrade i can do is stick in one of my 405-g2 lenses to see how high i can get the output.

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Damn, if you said that is weak I'd believe you. :crackup:

BTW payment sent. Relax, no hurry to send it over.

Can you do a 800mW 405 for me? :eg: I like the way it fluorescences things, a pretty defocused 405 is gonna be fun as a flashlight from 10m and up. I'm beginning to like the colour of 405, even though its only just as visible as a 650. Seriously, what is the most powerful 405 available nowadays, SOTA?

Anyway just for status update for others, O-Like got my order on Monday morning, 4 days later they sent it out via registered Airmail in the late afternoon. This is accurate as of 15th April.

Don't waste your time checking the tracking for updates, you won't hear anything else about it until it comes into the US, 1-2 before it shows up at your door.

Ibuprofen200mg said:

Don't waste your time checking the tracking for updates, you won't hear anything else about it until it comes into the US, 1-2 before it shows up at your door.

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Well the thing is I'm not in the USA.
EMS works for me and I really can see all my packages arriving in SG (and then I get ready someone to be at home the next day to be on the lookout). HK Post is decent, it shows you when it leaves HK and then I factor in 5-6 biz days. China Air is slow, but still ok I can see the updates on their int183 website. (come to think of it, in total I have about 20 packages from China now)

The thing is, at least I know its been shipped, and there is a finite air mail time from CN to SG.

I ordred one of these, but still waiting for payment to clear. I am not certain though if I really want it after reading about the durability of that connection.