I ordered this Laser in early march and it arrived almost 4 weeks later.

here's the link: 200mW blue violet laser pointer : BeamQ Laser Pointers, 50mw-200mw,Green,Red,High Power,Cheap

It came with charger but without battery and here is such a battery more than 15$ so I ordered some online and had to wait for more than 2 weeks.
The host itself actually feels really good and quite heavy and is also easy to adjust.
With a 3.7V cr123a it performed quite well as shown in the vid from Beamq but the on/off switch was a bit defective and I had to repair it.
Also a big minus is the horrible beam divergence. On short distance up to 2m focusing works really good you can easily burn things but on longer than 2m you can't get the point smaller. I measured the dot size at 6m is about 25mm big
Some days later, after about 30min burning time (not at once of course) it dimmed down to a very low level maybe 1mW and it's really hard to see
I left several messages at beamq and also tried to contact them by phone but I didn't even get an answer... so thumbs down for that company
And the perfidiously part of them is that they say everywhere thay will 100% refund nomatter what also seen here: BeamQ?
and here: is this a good review site?

Unfortunely I wasn't on LPF yet that time and I couldn't find anything bad about Beamq, also it was back then the cheapest 200mW bluray that I found.

So all in all to say that was just money threw out of the window


I haven't made pics from when it still worked but here's some when it dimmed down:

the dimmed beamq:


compared to a ~10mW pen:


and additional a 495mW:

This is sad to hear ;(

Sorry to hear.

First off. Sorry to hear about your experience

Does anyone know what actually happens to the diode when it goes like this? I have a ~200mW (180mW measured when it was working) that looks *EXACTLY* like this.

What's funny is that the diode seems to develop extremely amount of heat even to generate this slight dim light. It gets burning hot right away.

Over heating issue? Diode short of some kind?

COD, catastrophic optical damage, diode becomes incredibly inefficient.

Which optical part fails? And how does it fail?

And what is the main cause for this failure? Just poor diode quality? Insufficient cooling?

Any input appreciated :-)

It can happen when a diode is overdriven, heruur's 2.6W 445nm diode is still running, but it is only doing about 300mW at over 650mA (no lenses for any of these readings), it suffered from massive COD from being overdriven so hard. I'm not sure how exactly it happens, just that it's bad.

Ah. Equals the cheap Chinese companies we obviously dealt with used diodes not at all suitable for the rating. Or even purchasing lower rated pointers, potmodding them and sending out with new stickers Gotcha.

To much voltage mostly. Also poor heat sinking. Part of the LD cavity reflector melts.

Thanks for summary.

My pointer probably fits in to both of the above.

Sometimes you can get a reflection back into the diode, and that will cause COD too. This can happen sometimes when you turn the laser on with the dust cap on. Happened to my first PHR.

Yeh I think they did this with mine too.
It's simply a diode not strong enough and they overdrove it.
Make more money using cheaper components... that's the way they think

Funny was also first they answered really quick and nice and after I paid for it
they waited a long time to answer and when I told them that it doesn't work anymore and and asked for refund (at least a partial) they didn't answer anymore!

eBay is full of diodes that are rated 300mW, 500mW, 1000mW. But what they dont tell you is they will only last minutes at those powers. Its typical hype. Dont always believe what you read, especially from someone who is trying to sell you something.

I had a few chinese pointer tumm up like that. its proper irritating, but you cant expect a whole lot for under 20$


i finally got my ~.5W of 532, so im hooked for a while

If you have the ability... buy another LD on the Forum and
replace it...

Jerry

Hey Jerry for the tip

I think I could open that host
But are you sure that it's the diode that was killed?
Or could it also be something else?
Also what diode would be good for it?

The picture of the output looks to me like the LD has LEDed...
It is no longer Lasing....

I'm not sure that your laser was putting out a full 200mW of
405nm...
You could choose a Blu-Ray LD using the info on this Thread
for long life usage...

http://laserpointerforums.com/f38/bl...ife-44746.html

Jerry

The 12x diodes are very cheap these days, a month ago they cost $200. I´m very sorry for your laser... this is the reason why I always look for serious sellers. Their is also a chance to get a damaged laser, but the risk is much more minimized.

Die massiv provisorische Schmutzkappe am Dilda solltest runtergeben bevor ihn einschaltest, Alufolie reflektiert ja bekanntlich ziemlich stark.