1W DD "certified power" 808nm IR - MicroReview

This is (intentionally) going to be a rather short review. It's a Dino Direct laser. Claimed at 1W.
http://www.dinodirect.com/laser-pointer-pen-handheld-infrared-808nm-1000mw.html

The nutshell:

- Is it up to spec? Basically yes. It LPM'd at 850mW (EDIT: 900mW on further testing) using some batteries that were charged a few weeks ago but hadn't been used since. That's up to spec as far as I'm concerned.

- How much did it cost? $70. In fact, I'm becoming quite pro-Dino-Direct. I never thought those words would come out of my mouth. They may sell a lot of questionable stuff, and have questionable business ethics from time to time. However, I think their "certified power" line of lasers is a great bang for your buck. First a 532 rated at 300mw that hit 400mW, and I paid $130. Now a nearly 1W 808nm that cost just $70. They're making their way back towards my good books.

- What are my thoughts. It's an IR laser, so it's not very exciting in practice. It does what it does, and it scares the shit out of me. 850mW of power in a beam that basically looks like a 1mW 660nm Red laser, scares the crap out of me, and I don't really think this guy will get any use.

- I don't have IR glasses, so it was a stretch to even get this guy LPM'd safely (I wrapped my head in blankets and LPM'd it by touch. I'm glad nobody was around to see). I managed to test its burning abilities on some black tape, also by touch, while in this head-wrapped position, and it was pretty impressive. On par with maybe a 500mW 405nm.

- Strange observation: Although it seemed to burn the black tape quite well, it had almost no impact on my skin. This is much different than the phenomena experienced with a 405 or 445, which will basically burn anything it hits.

- If I get IR glasses again, I'll do an update to this review. For now, this guy is too terrifying to see any more use from me. Photos to follow:

Nice review.....

You forgot to mention what LPM you used to test the output...
You would think that after all this time on LPF that Dino Direct
could send out a 1Watt advertised Laser that was not 20% below
advertised ratings...

Maybe Dino Direct should invest in a Laser Power Mete.. me thinks.
I agree the price is low.... but so is the advertised output...IMO

Jerry

Used a LaserBee USB 2.5W

Don't take my initial measurement as final though - I'm charging my batteries now, and if I can get up the courage, I'll LPM it again. I wouldn't be surprised if this hit 1W when fully charged. The batteries are taking a while, so the one I used might have been lower than I thought.

It peaks above 900mW with a fully charged cell.

Not bad. I'd consider -10% to be a good enough margin of error.

this may sound like a stupid question. but what purpose does the 3.5mm jack with the red wire serve?

^^ Its a safety Feature.

Nice Review. Not bad for the Price. I like the Host alot.

+

That's really reasonable. But is it focusable? And mind trying to focus it to infinity and then taking a CCD picture of it? I want to see the beam specs =p If you have the courage, anyway.

rhd said:

It peaks above 900mW with a fully charged cell.

Not bad. I'd consider -10% to be a good enough margin of error.

Click to expand...

Yeah.... that a lot better....
-10% is quite acceptable...especially for that price...

As was asked above.... can it be focused..???
I'd like to see a beam profile at a distance as well...


Jerry

It can be focussed.

I couldn't really find a way to safely photograph and demonstrate the laser without glasses. But I was able to safely make some observations, and I think I can relay them fairly well.

Basically, the beam is square. It produces a ~4mm square when in it's default unfocused state. Then when you focus it, the square doesn't *exactly* get smaller, but rather turns into more of a "line" that is very thin, and very powerful, but still a line.

Up close, as in a few feet, you can practically get this focus small enough that it looks like (and may even be) a dot. In other words, you can get it so small that it's too small to identify whether it's really just a tiny tiny square, a tiny tiny circle, or a tiny tiny line. This is where it burns best.

At a distance, you're stuck focusing it to a very thin line. Even here, it's pretty absurdly powerful. I affixed the laser in place, focussed it to a line, and then walked about 10 feet downbeam. At this range, the thin line still cuts tape, and other black stuff. It's pretty odd to not see any beam, but to suddenly see your black item start to bubble away.

It was quite a challenge to do this safely without glasses. It took a half hour just to figure out the order of setup so that I could accomplish all of this without exposing my eyes to any potential danger - and I'm not sure there's a whole lot more I can do with this until I get proper eye protection again. So for now, I hope those stories are enough

EDIT: By the way - I feel bad for posting this writeup - because it's a really bad example to have set. Anyone reading - please understand that this was a very meticulously planned out test of the laser, and took a great deal of both hesitation, and safety over-kill on my part, before I was ok about testing this laser without glasses. Having said that, testing a 1W IR laser without glasses is just about the dumbest thing anyone could ever do. I won't outline how I approached this safely without glasses, because I don't want to give the impression that there IS a safe alternative to glasses. There isn't. But understand that I took a great deal of time to get this setup to a state where I felt ok about turning on the laser, and testing a few aspects of it.

first thing first, why did you get such a powerful IR laser if:
1. you dont have goggles for it
2. you dont really know what to do with it

thats an insane price for a 1w ir laser though!
seems dino has pulled their socks up... for SOME of the lasers at least..

blue bumblebee said:

first thing first, why did you get such a powerful IR laser if:
1. you dont have goggles for it
2. you dont really know what to do with it

Click to expand...

1. Short version of the story - I had goggles when I purchased the laser, but moved recently for a short-term position far from home, and didn't bring them with me. Mail forward meant I still got my laser, but the goggles didn't make the voyage with me.

2. Well... what do you do with a 1,500 mW 445nm blue laser? Let alone what do many of us do with 3 of them? or 5? or 10 of them? If you say "play with them because they look cool" you'll be right about them having a leg up on IR lasers, but I'm not sure I'd be very impressed with that answer.

If you start questioning the use-cases for high powered handheld lasers, you'll be toying with a lot of emotions around here

well the blues and greens has an awesome BEAM!
but the ir isnt much for show
maybe for "magic tricks"?

blue bumblebee said:

well the blues and greens has an awesome BEAM!
but the ir isnt much for show
maybe for "magic tricks"?

Click to expand...

"Magic Tricks" - that is absolutely the wrong mentality to have. Sorry. But that's the last thing anyone should be thinking about with a laser like the one I reviewed.

EDIT: It wasn't an oversight that I avoided putting the URL in the OP. Might I suggest that you edit it out of your post?

808 does not get absorbed as effectively by your hand than the lower wavelength lasers.
nice review!

Thank you for the review rhd! (+:beer: for you)

Actually I´m VERY DINO-PRO.

If you guys knew what I´ve lying around here from DINO, you would freak out!

Put a ir filter in front of it when u lpm test, so you can see how much red it leaks.
Lol

Just kidding, 70$ is great price.
Nice review, but no beamshot?