Help Selecting A Laser

hello,

I wish to purchase a laser and I want to be able to see the beam in regular or dim light. I thought the 405nm blu ray diodes would accomplish this but I realized after buying one that cameras made the beam appear more visable than in reality and the beam is barely visible. So now I am looking around for a type of diode that operates in a more visible spectrum so I can see a solid beam in regular or slightly dim light. Any help would be appreciated.

Cheers,
jadedtool

You should purchase a green laser, they are the most visible, with you able to see the beam at low powers. 50mW is sufficient for a beam in light.

Thanks for the help, my next question is: Do you know where I can get one at a reasonable price? i was looking at some sites but the comments cast doubt as to the real mw ratings and other sites are just plain overpriced. Any help would be appreciated.

Cheers,
jadedtool

jadedtool said:

Thanks for the help, my next question is: Do you know where I can get one at a reasonable price?  i was looking at some sites but the comments cast doubt as to the real mw ratings and other sites are just plain overpriced.  Any help would be appreciated.

Cheers,
jadedtool

Click to expand...

Cheapest GOOD one: http://www.dealextreme.com/

Great but way overpriced: http://www.wickedlasers.com/

jadedtool said:

hello,

I wish to purchase a laser and I want to be able to see the beam in regular or dim light.  I thought the 405nm blu ray diodes would accomplish this but I realized after buying one that cameras made the beam appear more visable than in reality and the beam is barely visible. So now I am looking around for a type of diode that operates in a more visible spectrum so I can see a solid beam in regular or slightly dim light.  Any help would be appreciated.

Cheers,
jadedtool  

Click to expand...

Here I go.

Blue for cool.

Red for burn.

Green for beam.

Violet for all around!

AusLasersSuck, a fair amount of people would disagree with you when it comes to the quality of DX and Wicked Lasers.

(Based solely on what I've heard) I would recommend purchasing from NOVAlasers or Optotronics.

Anything over 50mW's would do you justice, anything over 100mW's and you might want to consider safety glasses.

I would say safety glasses for anything over 30mW. A direct hit with anything higher than that and you have permanent eye damage.

Go with www.novalasers.com, www.laserglow.com, or www.optotronics.com.

Wickedlasers has a very bad reputation around here for selling overpriced, underpowered units. Also, Dealextreme is cheap, but not reliable.

-Mark

If you are in the US, you can't order over 5mw from DX. You would have to use one of the workarounds on this board to get it. Good rule of thumb with DX is if you want 50mw, get a DX 100mw unit. You will often get about half the advertised power from a DX laser. I bought the DX 200 green powered by 1 x 18650, it only puts out 95mw according to my Coherent thermal power meter. I also bought a DX True 50mw green, it gives 70mw, but has no IR filter, so some of the 70mw is IR. If you do get a DX, you should buy an IR filter for it for safety reasons. Also heed the suggestion for getting goggles! DX is the cheap way. There are a few other DX like suppliers who do still ship into the US.

The best way is Nova, or Opto, as mentioned. If you are already a laser builder, you could get a green module from o-like.com and incorporate it into your own host. As a module is not a complete laser, it will normally pass customs with no problems at all.