A little help please

Hello all, I'm new here.

So, I guess I wasn't aware that there is such a laser enthusiast community and made a rather impulsive and uniformed decision when I just ordered a <5mW green laser from Wicked Lasers. I usually research my purchases better. I only ordered it a few days ago so I haven't encountered any shipping or quality issues yet, maybe it won't be so bad.

However, I think I may want a different laser anyway. I basically am not interested, at this stage, in buying a green laser that I have to be so conscientious in its use; I want something with very minimal reflection hazard and one that I can look at the spot without glasses. Also looking for better range than the ~700 meters Wicked Lasers claims. From what I've read so far, I understand that I can probably get away with something, with these considerations, between 10-20 mW and am checking these out:


Optotronics +10mW
- do I need to be concerned about the IR (surprisingly to me) that this one emits

Dragon Lasers Viper 15mW

Maybe the Laserglow 20 mW, but a bit large, expensive, and powerful

Novalaser Discovery <5mW because of the nifty grating (or can I get these for all?) but want more range


Are these all--don't know the right term--modulated or regulated so that the beam is the same strength as the battery drains?

Also, need to ship to the States.

Thank you for any thoughts,
Dustin

Hmmm no replies...oh well. I actually ordered the 15mW from Dragon Lasers to be my first laser. I'll give my little bro the core, if I ever receive it :/

A good morning afternoon evening night lol where is my coffee , aka a forum is not a live chatroom.
So you ordered 2 laser pointers ? good choice any questions ?
Yes they will ( not sure about the wicket laser ) but they will keep a a strong beam while the batt. drains not so sure about the shipping to the states. good luck and be aware that more then 5 mW is dangerous ( direct eye exposure ) not reflections or looking @ the dot cheers

Yeah, I know, I was just excited--caught laser fever

Um I guess not, I'm just going to be careful where I shine it, outdoors or indoors...well, is the dot always ok to look at or do you not want to look at it too close or for too long?

At 5mw reflections will not damage your eyes. The only way to really hurt yourself at that power is to shine it directly into your eye or someone else's eye and hold it there. So.. DON'T DO THAT.

The real danger is to remember to never, ever shine it at a moving vehicle, airplane, helicopter, or police officer. You could cause an accident, be fined and/or be shot.

A good 5mw green laser will be easily visible in a room with the lights on. The beam will be visible if its dark and the air is dusty. 15mw will be more visible. Don't shine 15mw directly into anyone's eyes.

At that power it is not a huge concern if the laser is not IR filtered. A filtered laser will appear twice as bright, though, since the IR counts as part of that 15mw.

Ablaze's safety advice stands firmly, however you got the IR filtering part the other way around.

IR filtered lasers do not appear brighter or dimmer. Adding an IR filter just eliminates the IR light which is emitted along with 532nm green light (due to conversion process), but I see no need to do that in laser less powerful than couple hundreds of milliwatts, only then does the IR present a problem (since you cannot see it and you might get it reflected into your eyes).

15mW green is an excellent choice for a starter's laser, no doubt, and from Dragon Lasers means it will be a very high quality laser pen.

EDIT- Oh, one more thing. Although the laser is relatively low powered (15mW), it would be no surprise to receive an overspec unit from quality manufacturers, but that aside, even 15mW of green WILL blind you if you have it enter your eye, either directly or through a mirror. So, mind where do you point it, not just for your own sake, but for sake of everybody around you. Remember, a person behind the laser is not in greater danger than those in front of it.

Thanks guys for your advice, I shall be careful. Can't wait for it to come but it has already shipped! Guess what, the WL hasn't

DAF80303 said:

Optotronics +10mW
- do I need to be concerned about the IR (surprisingly to me) that this one emits

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No. Not if it's really doing 0.5-1mW of IR. IR focuses apart from the beam, as well, and generally will be off-focus when the green beam is a point. It tends to have more spread.

Optotronics does good stuff; personally I don't like the newwish pen hosts (which is what that is); but their RPLs are quite nice, and the owner of the company frequents the board here. Also, in the US, so that's a big advantage.

Dragon Lasers Viper 15mW

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As of recent, my rule is

A) Unless the price is so good you don't care if you lose the money or,
B) The laser can't be gotten anywhere else (CNI models, for example)

avoid ordering from China if you can. Dragonlasers has had a come-and-go sort of reputation; sometimes they're stellar, other times they'll ship you a dud and not respond. The problem with Chinese companies is, they know you can't really do much if they send you a rock in a box, and then there are the customs issues and language issues and...

...But the prices sure are good.

Maybe the Laserglow 20 mW, but a bit large, expensive, and powerful

Novalaser Discovery <5mW because of the nifty grating (or can I get these for all?) but want more range

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If you spend the extra money to go with Laserglow, realize you are spending that money to have less worry and something that was likely CNI-sourced, tested, of better quality, and some degree of 'polish'. And someone you can contact who will actually respond. It's a personal choice, paying Laserglow's prices, but even with the CNI group buys and cheap chinese lasers here, I still do it pretty regularly when I want something really nice. The 100mW 445 Polaris that I got from them is one of my favorite lasers, even though it won't burn a hole through a ford engine block, or whatever. You won't go wrong with Laserglow, and if you want to avoid frustration, I'd say maybe give that a shot.

Are these all--don't know the right term--modulated or regulated so that the beam is the same strength as the battery drains?

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Generally, yes. Maybe towards the VERY end, as in, last minutes of useful life, you'll get a dimmed beam. But it won't be a gradual falloff. However, pay attention to duty cycle. Many DPSS units you don't want to just leave on for an hour, for example. Overbuilt 5mw ones are another story though, and if you're looking for something like that, take a harder look at Laserglow/Nova.

Also, need to ship to the States.

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They all will. But I'd lean towards Laserglow or Optotronics if it's a worry.

Eudaimonium said:

IR filtered lasers do not appear brighter or dimmer. Adding an IR filter just eliminates the IR light which is emitted along with 532nm green light (due to conversion process), but I see no need to do that in laser less powerful than couple hundreds of milliwatts, only then does the IR present a problem (since you cannot see it and you might get it reflected into your eyes).

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Interestingly I agree with every point you made. If you receive a green laser and put an IR filter cap on it the laser will appear no brighter. However, if you were to then measure the mw output of that laser you would get a reading of less than half of the output without the cap.

So when you get a laser that is tuned to a specific output and has an internal IR filter that laser will be tuned higher to produce X-mw of green only light, rather than X-mw of green + IR light. Of course, this logic doesn't hold as well for high powered lasers since they are usually just turned up to their maximum value.

Ablaze said:

Interestingly I agree with every point you made. If you receive a green laser and put an IR filter cap on it the laser will appear no brighter. However, if you were to then measure the mw output of that laser you would get a reading of less than half of the output without the cap.

So when you get a laser that is tuned to a specific output and has an internal IR filter that laser will be tuned higher to produce X-mw of green only light, rather than X-mw of green + IR light. Of course, this logic doesn't hold as well for high powered lasers since they are usually just turned up to their maximum value.

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This part is what I'd like to disagree - the percentage of IR in he laser light output in unfiltered systems is somewhere around 20%, if even that much (usually less).

So basically it does not even affect the reading of the power significantly, if you hold the laser at say, 1 meter from the sensor, the IR will diverge too much to provide any offset to the readout.

Your other point stands firmly, and I agree.

aryntha said:

...Dragonlasers has had a come-and-go sort of reputation; sometimes they're stellar, other times they'll ship you a dud...

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So, I ordered a 15 mW from Dragon Lasers before I read your post; maybe I would have chosen differently had I saw it. By "dud" do you mean a unit that may stop working after a month? or do you mean an underpowered unit?

I see that you live in Evergreen. I live down the hill in Boulder. Maybe I could drive up there one evening and we could power test if you have a power meter and I would also love the opportunity to check out some of your lasers.

That's interesting. I'm sure some diodes are more efficient than others. I have no personal experience with diodes over 40mw, but it wouldn't surprise me to learn that they are more efficient.

All I have is my own experience, and here it is: Both of these lasers were bought from the same company. The laser on the left is tuned to 10mw with no IR filter. The laser on the right is tuned to 5mw with an IR filter. The one on the right appears brighter in every case.

Heh one of those lasers is not putting out the correct power. Probably both of them.

DAF80303 said:

So, I ordered a 15 mW from Dragon Lasers before I read your post; maybe I would have chosen differently had I saw it. By "dud" do you mean a unit that may stop working after a month? or do you mean an underpowered unit?

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Some folks have gotten underpowered units... As far as lasers dying, well, it does happen; I've had some repaired by CNI out of warranty and while it was a pain, it wasn't the end of the world... In warranty it usually works out. DL isn't horrible, just i've seen some folks end up with underspec units and get the runaround lately. That has been the exception though and not the rule.

I see that you live in Evergreen. I live down the hill in Boulder. Maybe I could drive up there one evening and we could power test if you have a power meter and I would also love the opportunity to check out some of your lasers.

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I've got LPMs, yeah, and we could likely arrange something like that. I actually end up in Bouder a lot, since I do some work with the Super Audio Center there. I'm out for this week for work, though, which is (part of) why I've been spotty on the forum.

aryntha said:

Some folks have gotten underpowered units... As far as lasers dying, well, it does happen; I've had some repaired by CNI out of warranty and while it was a pain, it wasn't the end of the world... In warranty it usually works out. DL isn't horrible, just i've seen some folks end up with underspec units and get the runaround lately. That has been the exception though and not the rule.



I've got LPMs, yeah, and we could likely arrange something like that. I actually end up in Bouder a lot, since I do some work with the Super Audio Center there. I'm out for this week for work, though, which is (part of) why I've been spotty on the forum.

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Well, I have my fingers crossed...if how fast they shipped is any indication of their overall customer service then I'm not too worried.

Cool, let's get together! YGPM

So I got the Core today! 10/26-11/7...not too bad eh? Under two weeks. Shipped 10/31, though I didn't get the shipment notification til yesterday, haha. I'm having fun with it. My DL 15mW should be here soon, so I'm still thinking the Core will make a nice gift for my brother.

One more thing: as I was sitting here shining it around the living room I suddenly thought "oh s&*$, the cat!" and at that very moment the cat lept out at the laser. Now, he loves playing with with the little cheapo $5 red laser from the hardware store, but is this <5mW green too powerful for him? I'm sort of thinking so, but what's the consensus?