New 200mw green Kaidomain laser.(takes cr2)

Whoa! What?!? 0.8-1A?!?

That is more than a 0.5W diode! Or it is severelly overdriven. Maybe i should try these currents with my DX200 modules, as i can't get a decent power out of them at 0.7A.
The high peak and fast drop indicates lack of regulation as usual. Thanks for the measurements. Can't wait to get it myself.

You are using primary batteries? You should try the green CR2 Li-Fe-PO rechargables. They can keep a high current for longer.


It is really surprising, that it doesn't heat up more at these currents. Good to hear, that it's not mode hopping tho. Gives me hope it will measure in higher than my other "200"mW green lasers.

Yes I am using primaries.

Maybe I should add that my hand is aching. This thing burns my pale skin. ;D

Polar_LIght said:

Maybe I should add that my hand is aching. This thing burns my pale skin. ;D

Click to expand...

Yeah, green lasers can do that from 50mW up. How fast they sting depends on power of course.

I guess it's supposed to get pretty warm at these currents... its dissipating 2 to 3 watts in that small case. I'm really looking forward to see some power measurements on this laser, if it actually delivers close to 200 mW i'm getting one too

Also, i hope DX will get it too, they only sell the 5mW model currently:
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.10092 , but by the looks of it its exterior is identical.

Got mine today, It is doing at least 125mW. I haven't tested this with an IR filter yet. Without filter I am getting readings of 375mW so this laser is spewing a lot of IR. I will test and check back later. Also this laser is in tem01, 2 dots very close to each other discernible at 15ft.

Doesnt sound all that good then - i wonder how much green power there actually is.

Being locked in TEM01 is bit of a no-go if you ask me, perhaps it will hop back to proper 00 after a while, you never know with these things.

o after tuned this laser down to 80mW it has a nice tem00 beam and doesn't mode hop. I'm happy. It is very compact.

I just got mine.. On the included primary cell it's just barely above 100mW. On the 3V rechargable CR2 (not full)) it's a little more, but dropping fast to >80mW.

I am charging the CR2 at the moment, to try with a full one, altho the measured current in the 20A DMM range was 0.78A already. The driver is identical to the DX200 "driver", but without a button, so the DMM is actually reducing the current as i am measuring it.
This means the laser is consming more than my DX200s and putting out less. I don't even dare put in a 3.6V cell, the current is almost too high already.

There would seem to be a hint of mode hopping, no beam splitting yet. Seems to be recovering... Warm the beam looks good.


The power dropped, till it was barely higher, than my KD50 is peaking at(76mW). But then it suddenly jumped back to >90mW. Looks like it likes being warm.

The body is getting warm, and the power just climbed back to >100mW (still on the primary cell). Then it dropped back to >80mW. Part of this could be batteries fault, and current regulation might help a bit, since the driver doesn't do anything more than a resistor would. This is what i really don't like in these cheap lasers - the power always depends on the battery alone (+ heat). Can't wait to rip the wanna-be driver out and put a real one in.

At first glance the body would appear to be a better build, but the tailcap threads just got so stuck, that i feared i couldn't get the tailcap off.. I will need to redo the threads a bit.


The only good thing so far is the way the head is built.. It has a narrow opening at the top, but the collimator is deeper inside. This way, only the green beam can escape and most of the IR gets blocked. There may be a few mW of IR coming out, but it's hardly noticable. I will do a test with an IR filter, and add the 6% it takes away from the green, to get the real power. Wouldn't be surprised if i get the same result as without the filter, like with others.

Otherwise, the beam comes out slightly at an angle, but this is very common in these.

In the end it is not as good as my Rominsen/DX200 frankenstein laser. But that one took four DX200s to find one that wouldn't mode hop.

The "200"mW genuine newwish would seem to swing between 70 - 110mW unpredictably on the primary cell if left on for a while.
When the 3V rechargable recharges, i will test it with that as well.


This is all i can say for now. Need to go back to work.

Interesting.. Now the power is only 50mW all of a sudden. But then it slowly climbs to 80mW.

Not very happy with this laser, but at least it's not mode hopping. Cold be good for a present. For some strange reason the current measures higher with the primary (780mA) than with the rechargable (720mA), even tho i just took it off the charger. But the power would seem to be higher with the rechargable.

I'm gonna put it into my cooler now, to see what happens. The power would seem to be 80mW most of the time. I can see a lot of IR glow inside the head, but as i said, not much is coming out, due to the design.

Doesnt sound like a real winner to me... the design seems nice but the power level and stability are a bit disappointing.

I wonder if swapping the driver will do you much good, i guess it could improve stability, but running it at higher current seems a risk. Then again, it's hard to tell what pump diode is in these and how much it can actually handle. It might be fine with 800, 900 or even more milliamps, but i guess blowing at least one up would be required to find out. At $100 and weeks of waiting, i reckon you wont try

Well, swapping the driver didn't really do much good in the KDX200 and the R-DX200 either. Except preventing the power from being a bit lower every time i turn it on of course.. But in a single measurement from a full battery, the results are pretty much the same with or without regulation. It might have something to do with saturated crystals....


The real stability problem is the crystals changing in efficiency with heat. Sometimes, when i improve heatsinking, the power actualy gets lower and slowly climbs.


I just took it out of the cooler, put in a freshly recharged CR2 and powered it up. It peaked at >140mW, and it was looking good, but then it experienced a VERY sudden power drop to 80mW again.

At the second power up, it peaked lower but didn't have the sudden power drop. Could be bad heatsinking... It might do better in the Rominsen body.. I am getting another Rominsen soon, so i might try.

That's disappointing that this laser didn't turn out so good. I really like the design, I reckon it's a really small laser.

But huge waiting period and under performing specs... not sure a pretty case isn't worth that...

I like my DX200 modded Rominsen much more. It's peaking lower (140mW instead of 150mW) but at least it stays above 100mW for seven minutes..

This one peaks high and drops VERY low. I'll try to improve it a bit. But it will still make a nice present i think. I tried several times at different temperatures, but it spends most of the time around 80mW.


But at least it's not mode hopping. When i have some time i will experiment with different currents and heatsinking. There is no guarantee it will help, but i guess i'll see soon enough.


I REALLY hope the two 50mW versions i ordered for a friend are better.. If they should suck i will either return everything or give him this one.



EDIT: I could hook it up to my PSU in current regulation mode and quickly check if it does any good, without replacing the driver.

Oh, and it is mode hopping.. I went to check the divergence, as it appeared to be low, and noticed two dots. They are almost one, but you can see where they want to separate..

I'm pretty sure, the sudden power drop is a result of mode hopping.

booooooo
I ordered the 100mw new wish over three weeks ago thinking they had it in stock and it STILL is "waiting for supplier" ships in 1-4 weeks. Now I hear that it will probably suck when/IF it does arrive

Do you have a meter Razako?

I was just wondering, if the 200mW is actually more like 100mW, only peaking higher, what will the 100mW be like.

But it is possible, that it will be more stable, if it uses a lower current and heats up less. It would seem, they are better at building lower power lasers, and the higher power ones have more problems. Their classification system is also part of the problem here.. They are selling these as "under 200mW". And it is under 200mW But unfortunately it is sometimes even under 100mW. Luckily not by much.

I really hope you get a better unit, than me. I mean, it's not that horribly bad, i've seen much worse in the DX200s, but the one good DX200 behaves better than this one. I'm guessing it will be similar with these. Some will be very good, others will be very bad.

Also, my experience really doesn't tell much about the actual state of things, because i NEVER get a good green.
It's like i'm jinxed, when it comes to chinese green lasers, even when i buy fom CNI...

IgorT said:

Do you have a meter Razako?

I was just wondering, if the 200mW is actually more like 100mW, only peaking higher, what will the 100mW be like.

But it is possible, that it will be more stable, if it uses a lower current and heats up less. It would seem, they are better at building lower power lasers, and the higher power ones have more problems. Their classification system is also part of the problem here.. They are selling these as "under 200mW". And it is under 200mW But unfortunately it is sometimes even under 100mW. Luckily not by much.

I really hope you get a better unit, than me. I mean, it's not that horribly bad, i've seen much worse in the DX200s, but the one good DX200 behaves better than this one. I'm guessing it will be similar with these. Some will be very good, others will be very bad.

Also, my experience really doesn't tell much about the actual state of things, because i NEVER get a good green.
It's like i'm jinxed, when it comes to chinese green lasers, even when i buy fom CNI...

Click to expand...

I have 2 power meters. A lasercheck with accuracy issues and an andover holography LPM. This is a reading I got from the my herc.