Hi everyone.
I bought this laser yesterday in a store selling all sorts of lights, led stuff and a few lasers. Even in the light or partial shade you can see the beam, in the dark it's really awesome. It was sold to me as 30mW, but considering even the 15mW one from WL can burn through stuff, and this one doesn't even get anything even slightly warm, i'm doubting it is 30mW. I bought it for HK$320, which is about $41 USD.
Being the impatient noob I am, i decided I wanted it open to see if I could easily mod it. Though, the whole laser part (the other part is the battery holder which screws off) is made from one piece of thick metal (at least 1.5mm) and so I couldn't screw off the end where the laser should be. The other end didn't budge at all either, so I decided to saw off the end. After that I found a little lens on the end of 1cm of black tube that i could screw out. If you look into the lens slightly from an angle it's purple (is this maybe the IR filter?). Under that was a thing with a plastic/glass circle on top with a tiny green speck in the middle. I couldn't get this out in any way (I still wonder how they got it in), until i sawed off another part of the other end of the case. I have it out now, but it's all glued together very very well with a completely transparent adhesive.
Under the flat clear cylinder shaped lens thing with the green speck in it is what seems to be a small whitish tube covered in what seems to be some kind of white thermal paste.
Now, when I took out the PCB (there was really no other way of doing this, the pen is constructed in a way that it can never be taken apart), I ended up pulling out the 3 pins from the diode. I probably can't get these back in, but I'll show you the pcb anyway. The left side is borked up from where I put force on it to pull it out.
My question to you is: does this seem like a 30mW laser to you? Could it have been modded if it were possible to take it apart without destroying it? How come it couldn't burn anything? What's the quality of this laser like, on a scale of 0=china shit, 5=WL, 10=really good stuff
Here's all the pics. The warning label on the pen itself says Class III, output <30mW, 532nm +/- 10.
I bought this laser yesterday in a store selling all sorts of lights, led stuff and a few lasers. Even in the light or partial shade you can see the beam, in the dark it's really awesome. It was sold to me as 30mW, but considering even the 15mW one from WL can burn through stuff, and this one doesn't even get anything even slightly warm, i'm doubting it is 30mW. I bought it for HK$320, which is about $41 USD.
Being the impatient noob I am, i decided I wanted it open to see if I could easily mod it. Though, the whole laser part (the other part is the battery holder which screws off) is made from one piece of thick metal (at least 1.5mm) and so I couldn't screw off the end where the laser should be. The other end didn't budge at all either, so I decided to saw off the end. After that I found a little lens on the end of 1cm of black tube that i could screw out. If you look into the lens slightly from an angle it's purple (is this maybe the IR filter?). Under that was a thing with a plastic/glass circle on top with a tiny green speck in the middle. I couldn't get this out in any way (I still wonder how they got it in), until i sawed off another part of the other end of the case. I have it out now, but it's all glued together very very well with a completely transparent adhesive.
Under the flat clear cylinder shaped lens thing with the green speck in it is what seems to be a small whitish tube covered in what seems to be some kind of white thermal paste.
Now, when I took out the PCB (there was really no other way of doing this, the pen is constructed in a way that it can never be taken apart), I ended up pulling out the 3 pins from the diode. I probably can't get these back in, but I'll show you the pcb anyway. The left side is borked up from where I put force on it to pull it out.
My question to you is: does this seem like a 30mW laser to you? Could it have been modded if it were possible to take it apart without destroying it? How come it couldn't burn anything? What's the quality of this laser like, on a scale of 0=china shit, 5=WL, 10=really good stuff
Here's all the pics. The warning label on the pen itself says Class III, output <30mW, 532nm +/- 10.
there are many overrated, cheap knockoffs from China, as with almost every product nowadays...