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FocalPrice <200mW green AA

DrSid

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I was buying famous focalprice anti-green glasses .. and when I was at it I browsed their cheap lasers for some curiosities .. and here is one.

200mW 532nm Green Beam Laser Pointer (Black)

Yep .. AA host.

So how is it ? First .. it's not 200mW, but that was to be expected. It may actually be under 100mW. It simply does not burn. I cannot light match, CD case gets somewhat marked, but it won't burn through in minute (didn't wait longer), it smokes dark wood but without leaving any marks. It can cut thin black plastic bag, and that's it.

EDIT: I compared the power to my 200mW red laser, which I can't measure too, but which burns as 200mW should. I used thin metal plate and IR thermometer to compare the powers (more HERE).
And if my red has 200mW, this one has 35mW. Thirty five.


The host is simple, push button on side, not focusable. Feels heavy. Anyway, the batteries rattle inside, so the resulting feeling is not very good.

Push button is (guess what) not very good. Poor contact, wiggles a bit.

There is common AAA sized green module inside, no tricks here. Heat-sinking won't be better then with AAA hosts, it might actually be worse, because of all that space inside.

Lens can be easily accessed for focus fix. There is some soft transparent glue on the threads to fix the focus, witch can be easily removed. Even the optics can be easily unscrewed from the lasing cavity, and you can watch all that nasty bits inside (with proper eye safety measures). Driver itself cannot be easily removed from the host, it's most probably pressed in.

Batteries goes in nipple out (case positive). However there is no label mentioning this fact. There is also no manual with the laser at all.

There were batteries included. Looks like cheap AAs, will try with something stronger later.

The beam is strange. It's VERY thin at the aperture. Under 1mm. It almost cannot be focused for better burning capabilities. It is also very hard to focus at large distance, it seems as the diffraction is kicking in, which would be expectable with such small aperture. Beam also comes out at slight angle.

IR is not filtered, and it is rather strong, and what more, it is focused in two rather tight side beams, not spread. I use webcam with removed IR filter for this, and there really are tons of IR.

Shipping service: shipped next day, arrived after 10 days (Czech Republic, EU).

Packaging: Laser was in fine box, glasses just in simple bag. Everything in bigger paper bag. It's a miracle the glasses survived.

Pros:
- AA host .. cheap batteries
- very thin beam
- the box is rather fine

Cons:
- heavily underspecs (to be expected at this price, but still this much difference is not usual)
- IR not filtered, and somewhat well focused around the main beam.
- no manual, not even battery orientation label
- build quality is so so
- high beam diffraction, impossible to achieve good focus at a distance

Would I buy it again ? No. I'm slightly disappointed even if I was not expecting anything.

Pictures:







I tried to make pictures of IR but they did not came out well so far.
 
Last edited:





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At least you got a nice host, though... *shrugs*

did you get a look at the crystals? Curious if they look like pen crystals or if they look like they might could handle more power...
 

DrSid

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Nooo .. it's totally pen crystal. And even those pen crystals comes in larger and smaller .. and this one is totally tiny. That seems to be why the beam is so thin.
 
Joined
Dec 5, 2010
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So, what can we do about the AA battery situation? How many volts can these things handle. I doubt very much that they are jam packed with microflex drives!
Maybe they use rkcstr's linear drive!!!??? and can handle big time voltage!

Can we use rechargeables? What else will fit in there?
 

DrSid

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I now bought another AA host .. from focalprice .. but this was just for $14, so it seemed like good fun. Declared 50mW and it shines almost as that ! It's a bit better build quality. It did not work out of the box, but it was just poor contact, ball of aluminum foil fixed that.
The host looks generally totally same. Except it's not.
It can be dismantled in half and the middle piece can be left out, in which case it perfectly fits one AA battery. They even said it would work with one AA, which would be cool, except it does not. But I could easily put in one CR2 which I have plenty for my red lasers. Again, lots of aluminum foil, because CR2 is much shorter. Like that I have really nice small rechargable green pointer.
 




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