OK, so I got hooked on IQS from sampson’s Super Beast Green thread. I bought the Super Beast Green Laser Pointer 5mw 006 Signal W/CR123A as soon as I saw these posts, noting the quick shipping, the low claimed IR, and the reputation of the seller. In fact I bought 2. One of them had a small performance problem, but I asked IQS if I could just exchange it & the cost-difference for the Super #100 Green Laser Pointer 006 Signal W/CR123A USA. He agreed, and I soon received my first one of these true beasts. My post says 156mW, but it was actually 165mW, and I was stoked. Then, I overused it and it died.
Once again, I contacted IQS. I got his recommendation on the run/rest times (1 min max for #100, 30s better, with 1-2 mins rest between runs). I also ordered 2 more #100s, a
High Quality#120 Green Laser Pointer Visible Beam W/Box, and the Deluxe Adjustable #150 Green Laser Pointer 3998 Burn. I really wish I’d waited a day, because that next day he posted Deluxe Adjustable #200 Green Laser Pointer 3998 Burn; maybe I can get that one and review it one day
Thing is, I ordered the 2 #100s on Friday, and the #120 pen and the #150 burner on SATURDAY, and they all arrived MONDAY. WTF – now that’s quick shipping!
Overall, IQS lasers are a good value:
Left to right, they are: Super Beast 006, Super Beast #100 006 x 2, #120 pen, and #150 burner.
All of the Super Beasts look the same excepting their labels (you can find more detailed descriptions and disassemblies of them in csshih’s post):
The #100 actually shows "<100mW" on its label:
One of the two #100s certainly earns that; its peak hits 131-136mW, and it stays above 120mW at all times during my tests. The other one is a bit disappointing; it actually starts at 86-87mW, and then immediately drops over the next 30s to 54-72mW. This one seems like an under-performer, but the first one makes up for it. Neither is like my original 165mW monster, but that was a fluke.
I managed to get one beam-shot of the #100 before it got too cold outside (I hope you can see the beam OK):
[EDIT - added beam shots to OP]
These beam shots are taken ~18' from the back-stop (garage door). The near-field is kind of blurry, but the beams look nice to me. Please feel free to recommend alterante D60 settings. Each of these pics took ~3sec to complete.
For reference purposes: #006 (30-80mW, runs forever with no heat):
#100-1 (peaks at 80mW, but drops .5mW/s after ~10sec active
:
#100-2 (136mW peak):
The #120 pen shows the same "<100mW" rating as the #100 Beast, but without the custom-colored-label:
It peaked between 152 and 165mW and stayed above 120mW at all times as well. Balloons with a black dot die instantly from my initial testing range (~3’). I will be testing further distances tomorrow and will update here as possible. I have not tried matches or electrical tape yet.
Beam Shot of #120 pen (165mW peak !!!):
Next is the star of the show: the #150 3998 burn:
This little guy is labeled at "<150mW" and does not disappoint:
He measured out at 151-164mW peak, with lows between 120-154mW. Note the ring on the front (left in the above photo). This is the focusing ring. When you turn it clockwise it moves the focal point in; counter-clockwise moves it out. However, this ring is very loose – while turning it, the laser dot wobbles erratically. This seemed strange to me, so I made sure the laser body itself was well secured, loosened the ring a little, and then tapped it – the dot moves pretty considerably while doing this. It makes me worry that some of the laser’s power is not making it out of the focusing housing… However, all the way in or out is actually tight and stable – it is only in the middle that this looseness is evident.
Balloons die instantly (still only tested to 3’ so far), and a match lit pretty quickly once I found the focal point. More to come here as well.
Beam Shot of #150 3998 host (162mW peak so far, but runs forever):
I really like the starburst pattern of the dot on the black foam-core backstop. I also like the way each successively brighter beam shows more and more how my hallway needed sweeping of dog food :tsk:
Since I ended up with a host of batteries and, well, hosts, I decided to set up a series of trials for testing the power. All tests were run for 30 seconds. Each host was rested a minimum of 5 minutes between tests (walking the list of hosts took at least that long). The first run was with the batteries as-is; the 2nd run was after a fresh charge on the rechargeables. To add spice, for the pen, I used Costco/Kirkland AAAs for the first run, and Duracells for the 2nd). I tested the battery voltage before and after the 30 second run to see if it drained noticeably. I do not have a Kenometer Pro yet, so I have no ability to capture the run over time except my fallible eyeballs. Also, I’m no pro at the nospin LPM yet, so need to work on my tri-pod stability & aiming skills, which means that these numbers are likely not perfect. My wife has suggested we make some jigs to lay the lasers into that will line up with the LPM with no wiggle – hopefully, we can work on that later this week.
My thanks to all of those on LPF that have encouraged me in this hobby, especially to Flaminpyro and Eudaimonium.
Hopefully, these statistics are helpful to you-all.
Run #1 (batteries as-is):
Host______________ Battery_________ Initial V__ Power Min/Max Final V
Super Beast 006___ Panasonic_______ 2.931______ 12-29________ 2.86
Super Beast #100-1 Powerizer-1_____ 3.099______ 30-60________ 2.92
Super Beast #100-2 Powerizer-2_____ 3.120______ 60-101_______ 2.89
#120 Pen__________ Kirkland AAA____ 1.56x2_____ 102-165______ 1.51x2
#150 3998 Burn____ AOBA (?)________ 3.292______ 120-164______ 3.26
Super Beast 006___ Tenergy 900mAh-1 3.559______ 26-34________ 3.90 (?)
Super Beast #100-1 Tenergy 900mAh-2 3.72_______ 86-74 (!)____ 3.71
Super Beast #100-2 Tenergy 900mAh-3 3.73_______ 120-136______ 3.72
#150 3998 Burn____ Tenergy 900mAh-4 3.79_______ 120-161______ 4.15 (?)
Run #2 (batteries freshly charged):
Host______________ Battery_________ Initial V__ Power Min/Max Final V
#120 Pen__________ Duracell AAA____ 1.56x2_____ 120-152______ 1.54x2
#150 3998 Burn____ AOBA (?)________ 3.4________ 130-155______ 3.337
Super Beast 006___ Tenergy 900mAh-1 4.17_______ 31-37________ 4.15
Super Beast #100-1 Tenergy 900mAh-2 3.99 (?)___ 87-58 (!)____ 4.09 (?)
Super Beast #100-2 Tenergy 900mAh-3 4.12_______ 121-131______ 4.12
#150 3998 Burn____ Tenergy 900mAh-4 4.18_______ 154-162______ 4.13
The (!)s indicate the #100 that always started high and dropped by .5-1mW/sec continuously. There is something wrong with this guy…
The (?)s indicate battery voltage anomalies – maybe my finger was shorting the contacts or something – not sure what happened there.
I am also not sure why the 2nd run was generally lower in wattage for the high-end lasers … hopefully the 3rd run tomorrow will show something different.
Bobby
Once again, I contacted IQS. I got his recommendation on the run/rest times (1 min max for #100, 30s better, with 1-2 mins rest between runs). I also ordered 2 more #100s, a
High Quality#120 Green Laser Pointer Visible Beam W/Box, and the Deluxe Adjustable #150 Green Laser Pointer 3998 Burn. I really wish I’d waited a day, because that next day he posted Deluxe Adjustable #200 Green Laser Pointer 3998 Burn; maybe I can get that one and review it one day
Thing is, I ordered the 2 #100s on Friday, and the #120 pen and the #150 burner on SATURDAY, and they all arrived MONDAY. WTF – now that’s quick shipping!
Overall, IQS lasers are a good value:
- I do not have a way to split off IR from green yet, but others in the posts linked throughout have done so and seen the IR is relatively low
- IQS (itemquickship) really does ship quickly!
- Prices are generally lower than the competition, and when not, he has generally matched others’ prices item-for-item
- IQS stands behind his products, and seems interested in providing products we are interested in
Left to right, they are: Super Beast 006, Super Beast #100 006 x 2, #120 pen, and #150 burner.
All of the Super Beasts look the same excepting their labels (you can find more detailed descriptions and disassemblies of them in csshih’s post):
The #100 actually shows "<100mW" on its label:
One of the two #100s certainly earns that; its peak hits 131-136mW, and it stays above 120mW at all times during my tests. The other one is a bit disappointing; it actually starts at 86-87mW, and then immediately drops over the next 30s to 54-72mW. This one seems like an under-performer, but the first one makes up for it. Neither is like my original 165mW monster, but that was a fluke.
I managed to get one beam-shot of the #100 before it got too cold outside (I hope you can see the beam OK):
[EDIT - added beam shots to OP]
These beam shots are taken ~18' from the back-stop (garage door). The near-field is kind of blurry, but the beams look nice to me. Please feel free to recommend alterante D60 settings. Each of these pics took ~3sec to complete.
For reference purposes: #006 (30-80mW, runs forever with no heat):
#100-1 (peaks at 80mW, but drops .5mW/s after ~10sec active
:
#100-2 (136mW peak):
The #120 pen shows the same "<100mW" rating as the #100 Beast, but without the custom-colored-label:
It peaked between 152 and 165mW and stayed above 120mW at all times as well. Balloons with a black dot die instantly from my initial testing range (~3’). I will be testing further distances tomorrow and will update here as possible. I have not tried matches or electrical tape yet.
Beam Shot of #120 pen (165mW peak !!!):
Next is the star of the show: the #150 3998 burn:
This little guy is labeled at "<150mW" and does not disappoint:
He measured out at 151-164mW peak, with lows between 120-154mW. Note the ring on the front (left in the above photo). This is the focusing ring. When you turn it clockwise it moves the focal point in; counter-clockwise moves it out. However, this ring is very loose – while turning it, the laser dot wobbles erratically. This seemed strange to me, so I made sure the laser body itself was well secured, loosened the ring a little, and then tapped it – the dot moves pretty considerably while doing this. It makes me worry that some of the laser’s power is not making it out of the focusing housing… However, all the way in or out is actually tight and stable – it is only in the middle that this looseness is evident.
Balloons die instantly (still only tested to 3’ so far), and a match lit pretty quickly once I found the focal point. More to come here as well.
Beam Shot of #150 3998 host (162mW peak so far, but runs forever):
I really like the starburst pattern of the dot on the black foam-core backstop. I also like the way each successively brighter beam shows more and more how my hallway needed sweeping of dog food :tsk:
Since I ended up with a host of batteries and, well, hosts, I decided to set up a series of trials for testing the power. All tests were run for 30 seconds. Each host was rested a minimum of 5 minutes between tests (walking the list of hosts took at least that long). The first run was with the batteries as-is; the 2nd run was after a fresh charge on the rechargeables. To add spice, for the pen, I used Costco/Kirkland AAAs for the first run, and Duracells for the 2nd). I tested the battery voltage before and after the 30 second run to see if it drained noticeably. I do not have a Kenometer Pro yet, so I have no ability to capture the run over time except my fallible eyeballs. Also, I’m no pro at the nospin LPM yet, so need to work on my tri-pod stability & aiming skills, which means that these numbers are likely not perfect. My wife has suggested we make some jigs to lay the lasers into that will line up with the LPM with no wiggle – hopefully, we can work on that later this week.
My thanks to all of those on LPF that have encouraged me in this hobby, especially to Flaminpyro and Eudaimonium.
Hopefully, these statistics are helpful to you-all.
Run #1 (batteries as-is):
Host______________ Battery_________ Initial V__ Power Min/Max Final V
Super Beast 006___ Panasonic_______ 2.931______ 12-29________ 2.86
Super Beast #100-1 Powerizer-1_____ 3.099______ 30-60________ 2.92
Super Beast #100-2 Powerizer-2_____ 3.120______ 60-101_______ 2.89
#120 Pen__________ Kirkland AAA____ 1.56x2_____ 102-165______ 1.51x2
#150 3998 Burn____ AOBA (?)________ 3.292______ 120-164______ 3.26
Super Beast 006___ Tenergy 900mAh-1 3.559______ 26-34________ 3.90 (?)
Super Beast #100-1 Tenergy 900mAh-2 3.72_______ 86-74 (!)____ 3.71
Super Beast #100-2 Tenergy 900mAh-3 3.73_______ 120-136______ 3.72
#150 3998 Burn____ Tenergy 900mAh-4 3.79_______ 120-161______ 4.15 (?)
Run #2 (batteries freshly charged):
Host______________ Battery_________ Initial V__ Power Min/Max Final V
#120 Pen__________ Duracell AAA____ 1.56x2_____ 120-152______ 1.54x2
#150 3998 Burn____ AOBA (?)________ 3.4________ 130-155______ 3.337
Super Beast 006___ Tenergy 900mAh-1 4.17_______ 31-37________ 4.15
Super Beast #100-1 Tenergy 900mAh-2 3.99 (?)___ 87-58 (!)____ 4.09 (?)
Super Beast #100-2 Tenergy 900mAh-3 4.12_______ 121-131______ 4.12
#150 3998 Burn____ Tenergy 900mAh-4 4.18_______ 154-162______ 4.13
The (!)s indicate the #100 that always started high and dropped by .5-1mW/sec continuously. There is something wrong with this guy…
The (?)s indicate battery voltage anomalies – maybe my finger was shorting the contacts or something – not sure what happened there.
I am also not sure why the 2nd run was generally lower in wattage for the high-end lasers … hopefully the 3rd run tomorrow will show something different.
Bobby
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