A very important question before I go blind :)

Okay guys, so I've been looking for getting an awesome laser pointer for a while now. I was inspired when some kid brought a 30mw greenie to school. He shined it on various things and outside windows (Ofc we know safety precautions and we didn't get it on anyone). Anyways, now I want to get a 200mw greenie from Deal extreme  dealextreme /details.dx/sku.1997) . I would like a good combination of burning  potential so I can blow up those annoying balloons in school and strong beam etc. I know DX doesn't have IR filters on their pointers adn they can be relatively dangerous, but at fifty and some bucks, it's a steal. So to reiterate, I would mess around with it at school (with extreme precaution) and use it at home for experiments without people around. If this green pointer is not safe enough or something, would you suggest the dilda(200mw red)? Are there also any other caveats you guys would like to give me (i.e durability problems with DX, weaker than advertised etc.) ?

* Also what are the best AAA batteries to use with these?


*edit, I forgot to ask about IR filters. Which ones would fit this laser pointer? IF I did get one, would it drastically reduce my performance?

Thanks for your considerations.

From everything I've heard the 200mW DX greens will be less powerful than 200mW, probably by far.

In any case, don't bring it to school, you'll likely end up being arrested. 200mW is FAR too powerful to be shining around in public unless everyone in the area is wearing certified safety goggles.

ARRESTED?!

It's that powerful?

I'm pretty sure no one made a big deal about the dx 30mw that the kid brought to school. No one really cared too much. Some reactions were just "cool, that's bright."

Well.... you COULD take it to school if you asked your teacher and had it held still and did a deonstartion (cant spell) and showed them some tricks like popping a ballon inside a ballon, optical trapping, ECT.

But NEVER EVER LET SOMONE AT SHOOL OR AT HOME LET THEM PLAY WITH A LASER (10 mw or more) ! UNLESS ITS ONLY YOU AND HIM/HER AND YOU HAVE SAFETY GOGGLES IN A ROOM!

yea, I don't plan on letting anyone mess with it. I'd only shine it on stuff more than 200feet (like the end of a hallway) after school and I know no one is in the area where I'm shining at.

bombsight said:

yea, I don't plan on letting anyone mess with it. I'd only shine it on stuff more than 200feet (like the end of a hallway) after school and I know no one is in the area where I'm shining at.

Click to expand...

Not very smart idea.

Dot gets bigger as 200 feet the dot would be huge so if anyone walked out they would have a WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY bigger chance of being blinder.

I suggest you do it after school OUTSIDE.

Also you can buy IR filters from http://www.novalasers.com/

OH YEAH!!! I forgot to ask, if I bought an IR filter, How much would it hurt my performance?

First of all, don't buy it from DX no matter what. Not only are they always underspec, but the quality is terrible, and it will probably end up breaking in the next several months. Also, they are illegal to purchase if you live in the USA. 200mW green lasers are extremely expensive, and you really only need ~95mW to burn things quickly. I would reccomend this one:
http://www.skylasers.net/80mw-green-laser-pointer.html

Higher quality but a bit more expensive:
http://www.novalasers.com/NOVAstore/pc/viewPrd.asp?idcategory=3&idproduct=86

http://www.novalasers.com/NOVAstore/pc/viewPrd.asp?idcategory=7&idproduct=51

Both of those are really good, and the Novalasers are always overspec, so you'll be getting >100mW out of the Alpha.

bombsight said:

OH YEAH!!! I forgot to ask, if I bought an IR filter, How much would it hurt my performance?

Click to expand...

IR is invisible, so it won't be any darker. So not at all. And you can safely look at the dot 20 feet away.

well.... I know a lot of people go through the group buys to get the DX lasers. Many actually liked the DX lasers. Ofc I'm not expecting 200, but It should at least give me 100+.

randomlugia said:

[quote author=bombsight link=1235180204/0#6 date=1235181941]OH YEAH!!! I forgot to ask, if I bought an IR filter, How much would it hurt my performance?

Click to expand...

IR is invisible, so it won't be any darker. So not at all. And you can safely look at the dot 20 feet away.[/quote]

Oh, so there's really NO reason not to buy one?
Can u give me a link to one that will exactly fit the 200mw greenie?

bombsight said:

well.... I know a lot of people go through the group buys to get the DX lasers. Many actually liked the DX lasers. Ofc I'm not expecting 200, but It should at least give me 100+.

Click to expand...

The weaker units are usually overspec. It's up to you, but I'm sure it would break in under 6 months. :-/

bombsight said:

[quote author=randomlugia link=1235180204/0#8 date=1235182097][quote author=bombsight link=1235180204/0#6 date=1235181941]OH YEAH!!! I forgot to ask, if I bought an IR filter, How much would it hurt my performance?

Click to expand...

IR is invisible, so it won't be any darker. So not at all. And you can safely look at the dot 20 feet away.[/quote]

Oh, so there's really NO reason not to buy one?
Can u give me a link to one that will exactly fit the 200mw greenie?[/quote]

You have to open up the laser and slip in the filter right after the 532nm crystals.

Optotronics sells IR filters for a fraction of Nova's price.
http://www.optotronics.com/proddetail.php?prod=f-0006

It usually fits, but you can sand it down if it doesn't.

bombsight said:

[quote author=randomlugia link=1235180204/0#8 date=1235182097][quote author=bombsight link=1235180204/0#6 date=1235181941]OH YEAH!!! I forgot to ask, if I bought an IR filter, How much would it hurt my performance?

Click to expand...

IR is invisible, so it won't be any darker. So not at all. And you can safely look at the dot 20 feet away.[/quote]

Oh, so there's really NO reason not to buy one?
Can u give me a link to one that will exactly fit the 200mw greenie?[/quote]


I suggest getting a IR filter from Novalasers they are better quality then optronics.

Yes the dx 200mw green is BAD

I suggest you get the !TRUE! 100mw!

The 200mw green is usally TONS of IR and 100mw green and breaks quickly and overheats way too fast.

so true100mw with IR is the wya to go?
Do i get a general yay or nay consensus?

What about the 200mw red dilda burning thing? I know I don't have to worry about IR with that.

I just did the math...

A 100mW laser is capable of causing permanent eye damage in 0.000001 seconds. Half that for a 200mW.

Any laser over 5mW is illegal to import into the USA, since the maximum permissible exposure for 5mW is 0.25 seconds, which is reasonably assumed to be longer than the blink reflex.

You should learn what you're dealing with before you go shining it around your school, since if you are arrested and made an example of it would put our hobby in jeopardy.

Anyways, enough with the heavy lecturing, just be safe, kid. It really irks me to hear someone wants to buy a high powered laser "to shine at things at my school"... This is how Australia got its laws changed to make ALL laser pointers as illegal as guns.