I bought this laser 4 days ago.
5 in 1 200mW 532nm Open-back Kaleidoscope Green Laser Pointer Pen (2*AAA) - Tmart.com

Got it today, took the caps off and tried to light a match, but nothing worked. I'm planning on refunding it, and buying this -

250mW 532nm Adjustable Flashlight Style Green Laser Pointer (1*18650) - Tmart.com

Will this laser burn stuff?

Hey Man 100mW is enough to burn stuff, 50mW if you've got the patience.
If Tmart sent you a dud once why not get a refund and go to a more reputable company seeing as they cannot even get close to the power they said.

Such as...?

Olike dot com. They have good lasers and a good rep. On l.p.f.

Can you link me?
I can't seem to find the website.

lol no I don't know how too.but I
'm sure someone here will do it for you.
And hey welcome to l.p.f. make sure you get the proper safety glasses too.

even if it is 200mw... 200mw of non focusable green isn't going to be burning beast. i have a tested lab green that puts out 237mw and it takes a little time to ignite a match. and about 5 seconds to make black plastic smoke.

michael.

A 200mW green laser for $24.50

I give up. I want the cheapest 200mw laser, under $30, that can burn something. Will red work?

Here's a suggestion. Raise your spending limit.

heh.. Always the same story.

"I want an (excessive power) laser thats (waterproof/rechargeable/really small) and i want it for (ridiculously low price)."

Pony, just an aside -- we see this a lot, which is why you're probably not getting a whole lot of responses.

Chances are your "200mW" $24 laser is nowhere near 200mW.

Now, you're likely to have better luck with an 18650-powered laser versus 2xAA, but I still wouldn't bet on any of those lasers being ANYWHERE near 200mW. You might break 100mW if you're lucky, but that "200mW" laser being 35-50mW is not out of the question. A lot of the cheap chinese shops will advertise powers that have no bearing whatsoever on the actual output of the laser. (And, a good percentage of what IS there will likely be in IR, not green.)

With lasers, I can assure you, that most all the time, "you get what you pay for". Of course, DIY and buying from LPF members are a different story but, still, for that kind of power-to-cash ratio you're not going to find much.

That said, if you're looking for burning power alone, yes, you can go with red. And it will be a lot cheaper. There are certainly "real" 200mW red lasers for ~$35 or so. However, realize right now that they will look nowhere near as impressive to your eyes as green. The way human vision works, red will always appear dimmer than green, even if the red is much higher power than the green.

But if you're just wanting to burn... red is your best bet.

You want a lot for your budget.

For $ 43 + transport you can buy a 650nm red laser of 180 to 200mW.

I think it's maybe one of the best you can buy for that price.

Old style red laser 200mW/adjustable [OLRLA200] - $43.00 : Welcome to O-Like.com, Your source for laser products

i have this 200mw red dila from dx
$27.09 - High-Power 200mW Red Laser Pen (Burns Match + Visible Beam Daytime) - Red Lasers
and it burns WELL
and other members have lpm'd this and it is your best bet for price:burn ratio

If the power is real or close, it is certainly a very good deal.

Have you checked the power of your own?

I had one before, and it was measured at about 110mW peaking at about 130mW, but that was a long time ago

i did not measure it personally
but i have seen other members in the past on this forum measure it to be 200mw +- 10%

i think all these cheap lasers are just luck of the draw

Diode lasers are different from DPSS lasers. Reds and other diode lasers will generally be at or over spec when in the 200mw range. Greens will typically be nowhere near spec coming out of china until you get in the $.50-$1.00/mW pricing range when talking about >75mW or so.

is it because of the poor quality alignment of the crystals and/or the ir leakages?

It's because they're in 'quantity over quality' mode and trying to keep their laborers pumping out as many units per day as they can. I think generally the only real QC is 'does it make green light when you push the button'

The parts they use are capable of more generally, but taking more time and care to assemble and test means more cost and less lasers produced... And they're not competing with the 'good' laser manufacturers, they're competing with the people down the street also making $20 200mW lasers.

It's why you see a fairly wide price gap between 'cheap' dpss and 'good' dpss.

You can probably rebuild and realign most cheap modules to be near or at spec.. but even if your good at it, expect it to take a few hours of your time to do properly and get the maximum possible output.

Well, thanks for the break-in. At least I know a lot more about lasers than before this post.

If you want to burn stuff, grab a 445nm laser. If you know how to build a driver/heatsink/host/etc., it'll only cost you 50 bucks. Of course, you'll probably drop another 50 on goggles to protect your eyes.

If you just want to burn things buy an IR or red laser

You need goggles regardless of what wavelength you use.

Oh hi, I'm still new-ish to lasers - and recently I went on a spending / learning spree - and what I can tell you is that a powerful blue laser is easily constructed.

It cost me about $80 to build. But I added a bunch of switches to control the different power levels & voltage sources...

BUT, before I came across this place and started tinkering with heat sinks and building power "driver" circuits I found a 250mw red laser module from Dino Direct that was $31 shipped. All you have to do is supply the voltage from 3 - 5 volts and mine hits 220mW @4.5 volts... I liked it so much that I ordered another - and it was identical to the first one - I was a little suprised that there was any quality control.. of course it did take about three weeks for each one to arrive and there's no tracking information to speak of...but they've come through for me each time I've prdered from them. The Link
Oh yeah, that 200mW from Olike is a good choice but if you're on a budget then go for the red or buld a blue

Well, good luck. And listen to these guys, even the grumpy ones

cad602

Those red modules have their own drivers built in, which is why you can give them 5V and them live. 5V to a raw red diode would mean at best, instant LED, and at worst, you burn the bonding wires off and if your driver doesn't happen to like running without a load, you could have a fried driver as well.