Got my X175 today...

And, Holy Hell, that $505 investment was so damned worth it. It doesn't even begin to compare to the 125mW Spymodex one that I have. I've been cutting through electrical tapes and stinging myself on the skin (with instant results, unlike the Spymodex which took a while for it to begin tingling and then suddenly slap me with the stinging sensation) after I got it. It says 182.4mW peak and 178.8mW average on the sticker on the case. Still, I'd like to try testing this sucker out for myself, though, because I've frequently read about how NOVAlasers usually go over their rated power by a whole lot more. (Anyone know a cheap 532nm power meter that's up for grab?)

The bad thing is that it didn't come with a cap to protect the optics. I did improvise a solution using a transparent piece of plastic cut from the Duracell packaging and black electrical tape to prevent anything from going into the hole and dirtying up the lens, so that carrying it in my pocket wouldn't worry me too much. (I still need to worry about the button protuding on the side, though, because I'm worried that my wallet will press the damned thing by accident.)

I feel so elitist. Now the only thing that holds me back from being a true laser freak is ripping out a 405nm diode from a dead Blu-ray player and making a blue pointer. (I might wait until Sony begins rolling out smaller diodes for their Blu-ray players.)

Thanks to me_too_lazy, RA_pierce, Switch, quadcam and charleytown55il in my previous thread for helping me out with the selection.

p.s. -- charleytown55il, I've seen the Optotronics page before. They didn't have a pen-sized pointer that was rated over 30mW, so I went with NOVA. But thanks, anyway.

great purchase!!
does the unit project a true tem00 beam also can u see the beam in a clear lit-up room without any fog?
dnt forget to post some pics/vids

Awesome! Great purchase! Definitely post pics and videos!

To protect the lens from getting dirty on my x105 I cut out a piece of clear plastic from a broken cellphone screen and put it on the inside of the gold removable aperture cover... it worked great.

Cool! Not many bought the 175 before!I was expecting higher ratings but hey, it's higher than advertised.Besides, maybe it was having a bad day.I'm sure you can get a higher peak in the right conditions.Thanks for adding my name there ;D And do post some vids of some super fast tape cutting or something

darklandz said:

great purchase!!
does the unit project a true tem00 beam also can u see the beam in a clear lit-up room without any fog?
dnt forget to post some pics/vids

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I'm getting a perfect TEM00 for now. I can also see the beam during daylight. I even asked my friend if he could see the beam, and his answer was, "Hell yeah, I can see the beam," and immediately proceeded to ask me where I've gotten it from.

http : // enomosiki . zftp . com / misc / laser / x175_tape . avi   (Remove the spaces in the URL and paste it to your browser.)
^ Video of me cutting through electrical tape with the X175. It took a bit long because my hand was unsteady as heck from caffeine shock, as well as the fact that the tape is a thick Temflex 1700 by 3M, not one of those thin cheapo ones that you get from 99¢ stores. I didn't include sound in the video to reduce the filesize.

RA_pierce said:

Awesome! Great purchase! Definitely post pics and videos!

To protect the lens from getting dirty on my x105 I cut out a piece of clear plastic from a broken cellphone screen and put it on the inside of the gold removable aperture cover... it worked great.

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That's what I did, too. I just cut a clear piece of plastic cover from Duracell battery pack that I bought and snuggly fit it into the cap, as well as creating a separate lid for it also.

lol you stopped shining the laser at exactly 100 seconds, at first i was thinking, "way to follow the duty cycle!" but then you turned it back on within 3 seconds. lol ;D

oh wow you have a very stable laser
yea i've been through a lot of lasers in the past 2 years
but i think my x150's the one im gonna keep til it dies

wow, awesome laser man!

Switch said:

Cool! Not many bought the 175 before!I was expecting higher ratings but hey, it's higher than advertised.Besides, maybe it was having a bad day.I'm sure you can get a higher peak in the right conditions.Thanks for adding my name there ;D And do post some vids of some super fast tape cutting or something

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The output power are from the sticker that came with stuck to the case. I haven't done any personal testing with a power meter yet, so I'm willing to bet this sucker can actually go higher than what it says on the sticker.

cbrian4 said:

lol you stopped shining the laser at exactly 100 seconds, at first i was thinking, "way to follow the duty cycle!" but then you turned it back on within 3 seconds. lol ;D

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Heh. I figured out why the tape was cutting so slow. Apparently, I drained the batteries after an hour-long marathon session of cutting through other electrical tapes and stinging myself on the skin before I took the video. I was wondering why the beam looked so dim and realized how I took the batteries to their limit. I replaced the batteries with fresh ones and the thing lit up like a lightsabre again.

me_too_lazy said:

oh wow you have a very stable laser
yea i've been through a lot of lasers in the past 2 years
but i think my x150's the one im gonna keep til it dies

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Yeah. I doubt that you can get anything better than 3.6mW different between peak and average outputs for a pen-sized pointer. Can't beat that.

In regards to a cheap power meter... Kenom is the man for that! He sells thermal power meters around $100. (I think its around $100, not much more if so)

enomosiki - congratulations... ;D It's amazing how much power they have been able to get these up to. Nova definitely does an awesome job too...every single time.

BlueFusion said:

In regards to a cheap power meter... Kenom is the man for that! He sells thermal power meters around $100. (I think its around $100, not much more if so)

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Thanks for letting me know, But are they accurate, and can they handle high output power?

Gazoo said:

enomosiki - congratulations... ;D It's amazing how much power they have been able to get these up to. Nova definitely does an awesome job too...every single time.

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Yeah. It's really something when even the cops ask where and how much I have gotten it for. Heh...

Kenoms meters are good for 3 Watts.

enomosiki said:

Yeah. I doubt that you can get anything better than 3.6mW different between peak and average outputs for a pen-sized pointer. Can't beat that.

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My X105 peaks at 120.5 and averages at 118.6mW... 1.9mW difference!!! ;D
But try it with Lithium batteries... And remember the X150 & X175 models have a shorter duty cycle... I think it's actually recommended 30 seconds on and 10 off...
BTW- the more tension on the tape, the better it cuts.

spyrorocks said:

Kenoms meters are good for 3 Watts.

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Sorry to ask again, but are they accurate? I mean, I just blew through about $500, and I really don't want to spend more than I have to. :-/

RA_pierce said:

My X105 peaks at 120.5 and averages at 118.6mW... 1.9mW difference!!! ;D

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That's pretty damned stable.

But try it with Lithium batteries... And remember the X150 & X175 models have a shorter duty cycle... I think it's actually recommended 30 seconds on and 10 off...

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Hmm... The instructions say 100-to-10 for the cycle, but I will keep that in mind. I will also grab some Energizer lithium batteries soon to see the difference.

BTW- the more tension on the tape, the better it cuts.

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Isn't that cheating?