This is a mini-review of the triAngle Lights 150mw Labbie sold on eBay for USD$105.95. This laser was originally reviewed by ElektroFreak in this thread. Thanks to EF I now have one also!
I found the seller very helpful, he answered my query regarding Australian customs and the unit arrived 5 days later passing straight through customs without them even opening the package. The box was marked "LASER MODULE Green 150mW" very clearly. As this is not a portable hand held laser, there are no customs restrictions.
The box was well packed, having a second box inside the first. The laser was wrapped in a lot of bubble wrap and included the spec sheet that is also posted on the eBay add. They fitted an Australian 3-pin mains plug with earth, I checked the power supply BEFORE powering it up to ensure the ground was wired and secure in line with Australian wiring rules.
The power supply includes a small 40mm fan that does make a moderate amount of noise but not too loud. (I won't hear it over Pink Floyd at 105dB anyways!). The PSU includes the TEC control loop and driver, plus the laser driver. A multicore cable connects the PSU and Laser head, this is hard wired with no connectors. Obviously they have kept the costs down, and this is fine for me. There may be just enough room to retrofit a D9 connector the the power supply case or even inline on the cable.
The Laser head is quite compact but tidy, looks more professional than the PSU thats for sure. A small aperture for the beam output is sans glass or filter, as others have posted in the original thread you may want to retrofit an IR filter. Looking the the module inside, a large threaded barrel holds the glass collimating lens and this may be adjusted as required using a two pronged tool. The lens is glued to the threaded adapter with white goop. I may choose to defocus mine a little, I'll explain why.
Beam quality is good! Very good! TEM00 straight up and thus far has maintained TEM00 for over 2 hours CW. Tight, really tight. I measured ~4mm diameter at 5M. I see no fluctuations at all which is pleasantly surprising. Yours may differ however, I can not guarantee they are all like this!
This laser burns through cardboard... Looking at the burn marks from just 10 seconds on cardboard @ 1M, the burn marks are very small. Seriously small. At 5 meters, the beam stings your hand. I may choose to defocus this tonight once I see it running in my ghetto-scanner. I have the felling this may be dangerous with such a tight beam.
Running for 2 hours CW in an 18c ambient room, the case temperature of the head is only 21c.
I have no way of measuring output so I can only guess. It is much brighter than my 100mW DPPS, so it at least 150mW as advertised. Some others have reported 300mW+ with IR, other ~200mW without IR.
Overall I am very happy with this laser.
Photos, everyone likes photos. I'll post the rest of the photos in another post.
I found the seller very helpful, he answered my query regarding Australian customs and the unit arrived 5 days later passing straight through customs without them even opening the package. The box was marked "LASER MODULE Green 150mW" very clearly. As this is not a portable hand held laser, there are no customs restrictions.
The box was well packed, having a second box inside the first. The laser was wrapped in a lot of bubble wrap and included the spec sheet that is also posted on the eBay add. They fitted an Australian 3-pin mains plug with earth, I checked the power supply BEFORE powering it up to ensure the ground was wired and secure in line with Australian wiring rules.
The power supply includes a small 40mm fan that does make a moderate amount of noise but not too loud. (I won't hear it over Pink Floyd at 105dB anyways!). The PSU includes the TEC control loop and driver, plus the laser driver. A multicore cable connects the PSU and Laser head, this is hard wired with no connectors. Obviously they have kept the costs down, and this is fine for me. There may be just enough room to retrofit a D9 connector the the power supply case or even inline on the cable.
The Laser head is quite compact but tidy, looks more professional than the PSU thats for sure. A small aperture for the beam output is sans glass or filter, as others have posted in the original thread you may want to retrofit an IR filter. Looking the the module inside, a large threaded barrel holds the glass collimating lens and this may be adjusted as required using a two pronged tool. The lens is glued to the threaded adapter with white goop. I may choose to defocus mine a little, I'll explain why.
Beam quality is good! Very good! TEM00 straight up and thus far has maintained TEM00 for over 2 hours CW. Tight, really tight. I measured ~4mm diameter at 5M. I see no fluctuations at all which is pleasantly surprising. Yours may differ however, I can not guarantee they are all like this!
This laser burns through cardboard... Looking at the burn marks from just 10 seconds on cardboard @ 1M, the burn marks are very small. Seriously small. At 5 meters, the beam stings your hand. I may choose to defocus this tonight once I see it running in my ghetto-scanner. I have the felling this may be dangerous with such a tight beam.
Running for 2 hours CW in an 18c ambient room, the case temperature of the head is only 21c.
I have no way of measuring output so I can only guess. It is much brighter than my 100mW DPPS, so it at least 150mW as advertised. Some others have reported 300mW+ with IR, other ~200mW without IR.
Overall I am very happy with this laser.
Photos, everyone likes photos. I'll post the rest of the photos in another post.
