O-like Power Rock 50mW green [big picz]

Hey people,

Power Rock Green laser Torch 50mW /Focusable&Waterproof [OL-MRGL50] - $34.99 : Zen Cart!, The Art of E-commerce

I have ordered this laser on 28th December 2011, arrived 13th January 2012, which is only 16 days, out of which a lot of them were holidays of all sorts. O-like's got pretty fast shipping lately.

So here it is:


As you can see, it arrives with a nylon holster which you can secure on your belt - pretty cool.

Detail of the belt-securing part.

Laser itself is quite smaller then I've imagined it:





16340 battery for scale. Laser actually uses 18650 battery, which is included.

Now, THIS was a VERY pleasent surprise:


I remember telling Susie that perhaps she could carry two types of chargers and send them accordingly to the part of the world - and looks like they started doing just that! Now I have one charger extra I wasn't planning on.

Now, the focusing crown taken off:


And yes the laser is focusable by turning the head of it, much like 400mW Crown laser (see link in my signature for review of that).

Looking down the battery barrel:


You can clearly see the bridged switch, indicating it's a re-used pen module. Which is not necessarily a bad thing.

I also picked up an upgraded carrying case for $5;

And it's a STEAL at that price. It's well made, sturdy, with outside zipper pocket and inside net pocket for placing whatever you like, along with dedicated slots for laser, battery and charger. On the back there's also a small strip for carrying it on your belt if you want, but that's rather bulky.

Anyway, for 50mW laser, you get exactly what you'd expect out of 50mW laser, regarding beam visibility:






But not regarding the beam specs:
At the aperture, beam is 2mm wide. I have managed to achieve a tad under 3.5 mm wide beam at 3.50 meters distance, which is a divergence of around 0.4 - 0.5 miliRadians! Incredible!

Current draw from an out of the box 3.70 Volts battery is, to absolutely nobody's surprise, 0.27 Amps.

Power measurement - with a peak of 63mW within 20 seconds, during the next 3 minutes of being ON it dropped to 60mW. Note - IR filter was NOT used. I'd say, dead on.

Pros:
-Outside appearance aesthetically pleasing
-Finish uniform, perfect
-Threads smooth, and lubricated
-Double o-rings on threads, NOTE: Have NOT tested waterproofness
-Small, easy to carry in your pocket or on your belt with holster provided
-Batteries and region-specific plug charger provided (don't see too much of that)
-Power on-spec (tad overspec, actually - peak of 60-63 mW, but with IR included), brutally stable
-Teh divergence, man! 0.5 mRads, c'mon!
-Well heatsinked - I believe the 50mW version is 100% duty cycle, given the mass of the host.

Cons:
-The tailcap clicky switch is tad deep, so if you've got fat fingers you'll have trouble turning it on. Might be just the case with my laser, though. Not sure.


Conclusion:
This was a dropped ship laser for a friend of mine. I'm getting myself one, perhaps 100mW version, for my own personal collections. This is the best physical form of thirty five dollars.

nice review good job buddy :beer: would be a good first green handheld

that divergence wow!

nice find-
+rep.
got an IF filter?

we should chip in on a random sample to test to death.
was the shipping free///?

Wow, that upgraded carrying case is NICE! Also, excellent divergence, and looks like a pretty decent build quality! Great review!

Looks like the same exact design as the 635nm version. I'm betting there is no IR filter, although the way it's made, it's very easy to install.

For a 50mW greenie this is pretty nice.

Nope, there's no IR filter, and I don't have one (otherwise I'd obviously take measurements and notes WITH the IR filter, in the OP )

Yeah, the best starter laser around. This one's going to a guy who's just getting interested in lasers, so yeah that's the death warrant of his wallet, right there.

Eudaimonium said:

so yeah that's the death warrant of his wallet, right there.

Click to expand...

Heh, you got that right. Especially with you manking those beautiful hosts...

I think at this point lasers have basically cost me two vacations. Maybe more

i think your collection is well worth 2 vacations or more
and nice review!
i was on the fence for getting two
but now im definitely going to order!

EDIT:
would you say that it would be fairly easy to switch out the driver and install a "3-mode" driver?
i like the option of having different powers for different uses
thanks!

I'm not motivated enough to create my own thread, so I'll post a few additions here (if thats ok?)

I got this too, shipping was about the same.

Mine came with an asian outlet charger, so I needed to get a converter for being in the states ;p

The button is indeed a little hard to push all the way in, but almost better as a safety feature. I've tried accidentally turning it on, and its really hard.


Seriously, I love my laser. Only problem with this one is the module-thing (its down the barrel where the battery is...I'm still a little new) is actually very easy to bend over. This can (and did) cause a small short on the battery and side of casing and driver. To correct this I had to stuff a small amount of paper on each side to hold it up.

Anyway, You really said every thing important, but after using this for a month I thought I could add too. :kewlpics:

I'm glad you're happy with that laser, it's really an AWESOME piece of collection, small, futuristic looking, poweful, well heatsinked, focusable, battery life over 9000.

And it's cheap. What more can you ask for?

you said the divergence was good? about how big does the dot get after a quarter mile? or so?

I just order one of these, I an noob when it comes to these lasers, I bought a cheap 5mw version a bit agao and got me looking around.
I am mainly worried about the IR filter and am curious about how hard it would be to add one to this laser, could it be as easy as cutting a peice of film and putting it between the laser and the focus peice? I guess not since people say they do not have one on there to save money?
I did not orde some glasses at all, but if I use it out side that should be ok?

I don't believe there's much concern over IR, if there's any at all it's bound to be less than what, 10mW, and horribly divergent at that.

Glasses would be great if you're going to do some burning, but for general pointing around you don't need them as long as you're very careful of where the beam goes. You don't want it reflected back at you or somebody else!

Thanks for review

I just got mine today, and seems good. Question, with the focus cap off, is it supposed to be a huge spot on the wall? I was thinking it would still be a nice laser beam even with the focus cap off, but that the cap just just you focus it more. It looks like a green flashlight with the cap off.