750mw+ HL445 LaserBtb came!

Hey everyone finally after a month or more I have received my powerful laser. It is a 750mw HL445nm laser from LaserBtb.com and it is fantastic! I am using two 16340 batteries from AW ICR. I received these batteries around 2 weeks or more ago and haven't charged them because the charger came with my laserbtb laser. So, before even charging them and after having sat for weeks, these batteries still gave me a seriously powerful laser! I am very happy so far with the performance of this diode, and the host is solid metal and feels really nice in the hand. I will surely be posting a review sometime soon when I have the time.

Basic info: it will project a visible beam in a lit room easily, pop balloons instantly, and burn through anything that isn't white without a second thought. The focusing ring works well, but at infinite focus the divergence is actually rather large....I couldn't manage to do any burning from farther than around 15 feet so far. I highly recommend this laser for around $100 all-told (shipping, tax, etc.) if you don't mind waiting a month or a little longer to get it. Excellent stuff! :lasergun::eg:

Yeah divergence on these diodes is pretty horrible. I can't focus mine much after 6 feet, it just becomes a line thereafter. I can light a match at about 15 feet but not much after that, although it'll still burn a black "line" (shape of the diode) into wood past that.

The HL host is actually my favourite host, prefer it to the PL, which you only really need for very powerful lasers. Just watch your duty cycle, if it gets warm round the heat sink area shut it off for a minute or two.

Enjoy your laser!

Glad everything worked out. Enjoy the new monster!

nice post some photos its always fun to see.

Is there any way to adjust the focus ring on these lasers? Basically I want to make the infinite focus focus to a farther infinity (if that makes any sense haha). It goes wayyyy pas what I need it to do in the other direction, but at infinite focus the divergence is pretty bad by around 30 feet....is there any solution for this?

Also does anyone have any experience with the laserbtb 16340 charger? It says on the charger that it outputs 600ma, and my AW ICR batteries are 550mah, so it should charge them in 1 hour. Even if they mean 600ma total and just 300ma in each of the two charging ports, that means they should charge in around 2 hours. Instead, mine have been charging over 4 hours and the light still hasn't turned green. The first time I charged them I pulled them out early and checked the voltage after around 2 hours and they both read around 4.17v, but this time I decided to let the charger run its full cycle and see what happened. I don't like the results so far....anyone know what kind of charge time I should expect here?

Lastly, I was out and about last night at a friend's college and accidentally forgot to lock it when I put it in my jacket pocket. It got turned on and stayed that way for probably at least 5-10min and got VERY hot before I realized (constant-on buttons are annoying....). Is it likely I did any damage? If so how do I know? As soon as I realized, I removed the batteries (which had pretty much drained) and put the host in the fridge for about 5 minutes to cool it off. Thanks for the advice!

Edit: Here is the charger I was sent- http://laserbtb.com/productshow.asp?id=111

beamjunkie7 said:

Is there any way to adjust the focus ring on these lasers? Basically I want to make the infinite focus focus to a farther infinity (if that makes any sense haha). It goes wayyyy pas what I need it to do in the other direction, but at infinite focus the divergence is pretty bad by around 30 feet....is there any solution for this?

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You can't change the divergence properties of the diode by altering your focus ring. It is what it is and yes, divergence is not great. I suspect in a while you'll not mind that though, as these lasers are unusable in the house at infinity focus unless you do nothing but point it at a beamstop. Hell I don't even bother focussing mine anymore - I locked the focus at around half a turn from infinity which makes it just about safe to shine around the room without leaving burn marks in anything. Still lights matches and even candles without even being focussed to a tight point. Literally no need to have it set to infinity or to even change the focus now. Plus, burning things every 2 minutes gets old fast... YMMV.

Also does anyone have any experience with the laserbtb 16340 charger? It says on the charger that it outputs 600ma, and my AW ICR batteries are 550mah, so it should charge them in 1 hour. Even if they mean 600ma total and just 300ma in each of the two charging ports, that means they should charge in around 2 hours. Instead, mine have been charging over 4 hours and the light still hasn't turned green. The first time I charged them I pulled them out early and checked the voltage after around 2 hours and they both read around 4.17v, but this time I decided to let the charger run its full cycle and see what happened. I don't like the results so far....anyone know what kind of charge time I should expect here?

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I use the laserbtb charger for my 16340s and it works fine. Takes a good 4+ hours to charge them up after my 445 eats them for breakfast but it puts a good 4.20volt charge in them and the charger hasn't gone up in flames yet. It's not so bad if the charger takes longer anyway, fast charging batteries tends to shorten their life.

Lastly, I was out and about last night at a friend's college and accidentally forgot to lock it when I put it in my jacket pocket. It got turned on and stayed that way for probably at least 5-10min and got VERY hot before I realized (constant-on buttons are annoying....). Is it likely I did any damage? If so how do I know? As soon as I realized, I removed the batteries (which had pretty much drained) and put the host in the fridge for about 5 minutes to cool it off. Thanks for the advice!

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As long as it still works you're probably fine. I hear these blue diodes are very tough, although I don't know whether laserbtb use up to date 9mm diodes or older ones. Putting the host in the fridge wasn't very smart, as you'd have subjected the metal to rapid cooling which is what kills things... so don't do that again, just let it cool naturally. It really does surprise me though that lasers like this don't have some kind of temperature ceiling where they shut off for safety. Seems to be something no-one's thought of?

A couple of my lasers like my zaser have a thermal shut off in the driver. If it reaches a certain temperature, it will not allow it to run. Even if you turn it off then on again, until a safer temperature is reached, it will not lase. I hear that this feature isn't too uncommon. (thanks Daguin )