Hi all! I've lurked here a few times in the past, but now I've been bitten by the laser bug bad enough to buy again, so I've been reading around for the last couple of days. I'm looking for a new greenie, but I am paralyzed by all the choices, and I'm unsure of what power I want. So here I am! I guess first, a little bit of back story and how I want to use my next laser.
In late 2006, I bought a 120mW EnVee from Lucent Optics, which I had until early 2010 when my roommate stole it as I was moving out. >_< I'm not too upset about it, because I was not gentle to it, running it for too long and one time in too cold an environment, so by then it was no longer burning things and mode hopping a lot.
I know you guys will probably bash me for this, but I didn't get goggles for this laser.
To me, the whole point of a laser is two things: the pure and bright color, and the beam. Goggles kill both (presumably--I haven't seen any pics of what a laser looks like when seen through goggles).
I was otherwise very responsible with it, and I had a lot of respect for its power. I never aimed it at planes or people, didn't use it as an animal toy, etc. But it was still low enough power that I could be reasonably sure I wouldn't get more than a tiny fraction of a seconds' worth of a small percentage of beam exposure when shining it at, say, a chandelier, or a round reflective object which would cause the dot to expand to inches in diameter before potentially entering my eye.
The cost per milliwatt of green lasers has gone down by at least a factor of 5 since the EnVee, so naturally I am interested in something more powerful. But because of the way I used it, I am *extremely* wary of buying anything substantially more powerful--it was already potentially very dangerous! I will definitely be getting laser goggles this time around (DragonLasers has some cheap ones that work with glasses), but I would still like something low enough power that I don't need them all the time.
Okay, so for those of you who aren't preparing to light me on fire with 1W+ lasers for my sins and dissent (I kid; of course none of you would actually do that...right?) This is what I am looking for overall.
I'm shooting to spend between $100-200 on the laser (lasers?) itself. It looks like this puts me into the 100-400mW power range. I definitely want something that takes 18650s; I hated buying the expensive lithium AA batteries for the EnVee! Plus, it'll give me an excuse to get some decent cells and a charger and dive into flashlights which take them as well
I don't really want to have LESS power than what I had before, so considering that cheaper lasers are usually underspec, a 150mW would probably be ideal. I would appreciate any thoughts on this. I would also like to achieve as long a duty cycle as is feasible, but I'm probably not venturing too far to say that I won't get past 60-120 seconds of on time per 30-60 seconds of off time. For lasers whose info pages don't specify duty cycle, should I ask the seller, or just generally assume a 50% 60 seconds on/60 seconds off cycle?
I really like O-Like's offerings, and reviews of them appear to be good. The waterproof aspect is particularly intriguing to me; submersion is something I've been dying to be able to do with a laser! Visible light going from water to air requires a high angle of incidence, so a laser at a low angle pointing at the surface would mostly reflect back into the water, and I would just LOVE to see this, not to mention seeing the full power beam underwater instead of what you get after some is reflected off the surface.
Lazerer and Rayfoss also look to have some nice products, but none are waterproof that I can tell. I could do without that feature as long as I'm getting a good laser for my money. All of Lazerer's 150mW are out of stock, unfortunately.
I'm not sure what to make of focusable lasers. From a safety standpoint, it seems like a great idea, I can intentionally defocus it a bit to reduce the impact of any accidental exposure, and of course it would be easier to burn things with. But at the same time, I don't want the focusing to be something that's loose or becomes loose over time and easily changes focus.
Maybe I should get a lower power laser, like a 50mW or 100mW, to use as my "foolish toy" (I use the term as loosely as I can), and a bigger one to use primarily with goggles or outdoors? O-Like has a waterproof 50mW for $35, and I saw a review thread which lauded it for its build quality and tight beam.
I wish it were possible for a diode laser to be able to be driven at a wider range of output power... Switching between 5mW and 150mW would be nice! Short of PWM, I don't see this happening, and 5mW average power comprised of 150mW pulses will probably still be bad to get in your eye.
What's the word on IR filters? Given my usage, would it be a good idea to ensure that I either get a laser with one, or retrofit one? It looks like the units in my price range pretty much forego the filter, which is odd to me because the filters themselves are so cheap...
Also, what kinds of safety features do lasers in my price range have? It looks like some have a key, but there's no mention of a turn on delay. The EnVee had a 2 or 3 second turn on delay, which I felt was too long--I ended up modding it to have no delay since I couldn't figure out how to shorten it (the 555 circuit on the driver was unusual in its design). Something around .5 to 1 second would be nice as an assurance that accidental pushing of the button will be noticed before anything bad happens, without getting too much in the way of actually using the laser. Or (this would totally spoil me but I'm certain nothing on the market has it) a 3 position key where you could toggle the turn on delay, so that "drawing" on plastic or leather isn't a painful exercise in waiting each time you need to stop to make a new line.
Okay, I think that's all I wanted to say. Off to bed with me.
... Wow, this turned out to be a really long post!
In late 2006, I bought a 120mW EnVee from Lucent Optics, which I had until early 2010 when my roommate stole it as I was moving out. >_< I'm not too upset about it, because I was not gentle to it, running it for too long and one time in too cold an environment, so by then it was no longer burning things and mode hopping a lot.
I know you guys will probably bash me for this, but I didn't get goggles for this laser.
To me, the whole point of a laser is two things: the pure and bright color, and the beam. Goggles kill both (presumably--I haven't seen any pics of what a laser looks like when seen through goggles).I was otherwise very responsible with it, and I had a lot of respect for its power. I never aimed it at planes or people, didn't use it as an animal toy, etc. But it was still low enough power that I could be reasonably sure I wouldn't get more than a tiny fraction of a seconds' worth of a small percentage of beam exposure when shining it at, say, a chandelier, or a round reflective object which would cause the dot to expand to inches in diameter before potentially entering my eye.
The cost per milliwatt of green lasers has gone down by at least a factor of 5 since the EnVee, so naturally I am interested in something more powerful. But because of the way I used it, I am *extremely* wary of buying anything substantially more powerful--it was already potentially very dangerous! I will definitely be getting laser goggles this time around (DragonLasers has some cheap ones that work with glasses), but I would still like something low enough power that I don't need them all the time.
Okay, so for those of you who aren't preparing to light me on fire with 1W+ lasers for my sins and dissent
(I kid; of course none of you would actually do that...right?) This is what I am looking for overall.I'm shooting to spend between $100-200 on the laser (lasers?) itself. It looks like this puts me into the 100-400mW power range. I definitely want something that takes 18650s; I hated buying the expensive lithium AA batteries for the EnVee! Plus, it'll give me an excuse to get some decent cells and a charger and dive into flashlights which take them as well
I don't really want to have LESS power than what I had before, so considering that cheaper lasers are usually underspec, a 150mW would probably be ideal. I would appreciate any thoughts on this. I would also like to achieve as long a duty cycle as is feasible, but I'm probably not venturing too far to say that I won't get past 60-120 seconds of on time per 30-60 seconds of off time. For lasers whose info pages don't specify duty cycle, should I ask the seller, or just generally assume a 50% 60 seconds on/60 seconds off cycle?
I really like O-Like's offerings, and reviews of them appear to be good. The waterproof aspect is particularly intriguing to me; submersion is something I've been dying to be able to do with a laser! Visible light going from water to air requires a high angle of incidence, so a laser at a low angle pointing at the surface would mostly reflect back into the water, and I would just LOVE to see this, not to mention seeing the full power beam underwater instead of what you get after some is reflected off the surface.
Lazerer and Rayfoss also look to have some nice products, but none are waterproof that I can tell. I could do without that feature as long as I'm getting a good laser for my money. All of Lazerer's 150mW are out of stock, unfortunately.
I'm not sure what to make of focusable lasers. From a safety standpoint, it seems like a great idea, I can intentionally defocus it a bit to reduce the impact of any accidental exposure, and of course it would be easier to burn things with. But at the same time, I don't want the focusing to be something that's loose or becomes loose over time and easily changes focus.
Maybe I should get a lower power laser, like a 50mW or 100mW, to use as my "foolish toy" (I use the term as loosely as I can), and a bigger one to use primarily with goggles or outdoors? O-Like has a waterproof 50mW for $35, and I saw a review thread which lauded it for its build quality and tight beam.
I wish it were possible for a diode laser to be able to be driven at a wider range of output power... Switching between 5mW and 150mW would be nice! Short of PWM, I don't see this happening, and 5mW average power comprised of 150mW pulses will probably still be bad to get in your eye.
What's the word on IR filters? Given my usage, would it be a good idea to ensure that I either get a laser with one, or retrofit one? It looks like the units in my price range pretty much forego the filter, which is odd to me because the filters themselves are so cheap...
Also, what kinds of safety features do lasers in my price range have? It looks like some have a key, but there's no mention of a turn on delay. The EnVee had a 2 or 3 second turn on delay, which I felt was too long--I ended up modding it to have no delay since I couldn't figure out how to shorten it (the 555 circuit on the driver was unusual in its design). Something around .5 to 1 second would be nice as an assurance that accidental pushing of the button will be noticed before anything bad happens, without getting too much in the way of actually using the laser. Or (this would totally spoil me but I'm certain nothing on the market has it) a 3 position key where you could toggle the turn on delay, so that "drawing" on plastic or leather isn't a painful exercise in waiting each time you need to stop to make a new line.
Okay, I think that's all I wanted to say. Off to bed with me.
... Wow, this turned out to be a really long post!
