Looking to buy from DX, please advise.

goninanbl00d said:

Does it light a match? Then it's at least 100mW.

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my 50mW greenie lights matches

Unfocused?

My 50mW can't even smoke leather unfocused. I'm guessing it's very underspec.

However, past testing by members shows that it takes 100mW at infinity to light a match. 50mW can light a match when focused.

@dnar, the two round holes are for a special type of screwdriver that fits into both holes.

Ok, I improved the focus by unscrewing the body (comes apart in two parts) and filed one end of the body down so that it screwed together another half turn. I stuffed a bit of tissue inside so that brass fillings did not get to the lens). I also cleaned the collimating lens (looks like customs put their greasy mits on it!) and that got rid of most of the "splash". It is now looking much better and now lights a match almost instantly at 1 meter. Given this and consumption of 700mA, what would you estimate the optical power output to be?

The 50mW was perfect in collimation, drew 300mA at 3V and looked great. I tweaked the pot (with power off) and settled on 600mA which is much brighter. In the end, the 50mW and 200mW units both look pretty similar. Not bad considering the 50mW was 1/4 the price (approx $15). Very very happy.

The goggles work well too, I see almost no 532 with them on, in fact the beam target looks orange.

BTW, the 50/200mW modules do not include an optical regulation system.

My module got a bit of tarnish on the lens retaining ring when I recieved it. So they'd must have opened it too.

Either way, your module might actually be putting out *gasp* 200mW. Not common for something from DX. At the very least it'd be 175mW.

I tweaked the pot

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Whatever happened to never pot modding ever again?