Can a ~30mw laser do this?

PLEASE WATCH VIDEO AT BOTTOM OF THIS POST

I ordered these a month or so ago when I saw all the hype about the overspec eBay pens going for ~5 bucks. I bought 1 532nm and 1 405nm. Anyways, when I got them I was impressed with how bright they were obviously. Except that the 532nm didnt seem to work. I bought a pack of AAA batts, and sure enough, when i put them into the 532nm, it powered on fine. However, after letting it sit unused for a few hours, it wouldnt come on again without putting two fresh batts in (even though the ones that were in it had maybe 5 minutes of use on them).

With AAA, they can pop balloons with black spots (granted I used a magnifying glass). The 405nm seemed to be a bit easier to burn with, but I HATE using a magnifying glass, it just looks stupid having to hold one. So I ordered some hosts, a 50mw 532nm module from o-like, and some 10440 batts.

The video below is the result of my cheap eBay pen (532nm) with a 10440 battery, unaided by a magnifying glass. The 405nm in the video is only using AAA's, but even with a 10440 in it, it doesnt burn unaided.

Can anyone tell me if this is normal for one of these eBay pens? What output power might you think it has? Is the 50mw o-like I ordered a waste of money? From my understanding, 50mw isnt supposed to be able to pop balloons without an external lens.... if thats the case, what the heck is this one putting out? It pops any color balloon with a black spot, and I just tried popping a red one without a spot... results in video...

cheap ebay laser pen burn tests - YouTube

Re: cheap eBay 532nm greenie with 10440. Output power?

Have a look here: http://laserpointerforums.com/f52/cheap-ebay-pointers-some-interesting-lpm-results-73993.html :beer:

Re: cheap eBay 532nm greenie with 10440. Output power?

grainde said:

Have a look here: http://laserpointerforums.com/f52/cheap-ebay-pointers-some-interesting-lpm-results-73993.html :beer:

Click to expand...

I read that thread before posting this up....

My conundrum is, I was under the impression that 532nm takes AT LEAST 50mw, and then STILL has to be focused with an external lens (i.e magnifying glass) to pop a balloon with a black spot. The main thing I'm worried about, is that this cheap eBay pen is something crazy like 75-100mw, and that this $80+ that I have invested into the 50mw o-like Im building is actually going to be less powerful than this 5 dollar cheapo...

Thats why I posted this vid, to see if ~30mw (like the 532nm in the thread you posted) is enough to pop a balloon without a black spot, with out having external focusing. In which case, if my new o-like 50mw im building should still be more powerful....

My guess is that the quoted 30mW is a conservative figure, they've not measured it correctly, or the video is fake.