Looking to buy >200mw 520nm ~$200

So as the title says, im in the market for a greater than 200mw 520nm "diode green" laser. After my recent mishap, im looking to not get some piece of crap inexpensive chinese laser, i want the real deal.

My ideals:

Focusable

Takes an 18650 (ive heard theyre amazing at dumping a ton of power)

Has a momentary on/off button thats not on the butt of the device, UNLESS someone has a good reason otherwise.

isnt 10 feet long or a foot in diameter. But seriously, but id take short duty cycles over a larger laser. Still, >45 seconds on/off would be nice.

Though this laser will mainly be used for astronomy and engineering class purposes, Id like to be able to burn as well, and maybe id do something cool with some galvanometers.

So far ive looked at WL, Sci Fi Lasers, Laserbtb (i think their lasers are a bit too big) and the sanwu laser shop (really like their lasers, but id like it to be focusable, and as far as i can tell theyre not unless you attach another lens)

Ive also seen the lasers in the 501b host, but i cant bring myself to buy one.

Does anyone have some suggestions?

Thanks,
Kyle

At 200mw, you aren't going to get that in a sleek little pen laser unless the duty cycle or amount of time you can use it is extremely short and most manufacturers won't build pointers with high power short duty cycles because users will too often quickly destroy them and blame the laser instead of their running it far too long. In my opinion 532nm DPSS is superior to 520nm laser diodes, unless you have a 3 to 4X beam expander, because the divergence of a 520nm multimode laser diode which can put out that much power is quite high, with exception of the 50mw single mode version of the 520 laser diode which has better divergence than most 532nm DPSS lasers.

520nm green laser diodes come in single mode 50mw & 120mw multimode which can be pushed to about double their rated output, so if you find a 200mw 520nm it's probably a 120mw diode being pushed hard. You can get a 700mw output 520nm laser diode pointer, or a 1000 mw version too, the 1 watt 520nm laser diodes can sometimes put out a watt and a half or more but all of the multimode 520nm laser diodes from 120mw on up have very poor divergence without an expander.

If you want a 200mw 520nm laser pointer and want it to last a long time maybe consider buying a 700mw version and running it at lower than rated current? It will last forever if ran that way, less something wrong with the driver or abuse of some kind, but I still think a beam expander is needed for the multimode diodes, unless you don't care the beam fans out after a couple of miles or so to where it isn't very visible anymore. There are some members here who make some reasonably priced but extremely nice hosts for laser diodes, you can get the laser diode in a Aixiz module with lens and driver circuit board from DTR at a good price too. Get a host made and in about 10 minutes of your own time putting things together you will have a laser.

If you have someone design a host for you and put a DTR laser module in it, you can have a small high powered pointer just like you want, just don't run it too long. The drivers in the modules DTR sells usually won't let you run it too long anyway (unless special care is taken to heat sink them into the module or host better, or are the lower powered module drivers which don't get hot), if they get too hot they automatically stop the laser from working until it cools off, but check with him for which ones do that. I suppose it is entirely possible to use one of his higher powered laser diode modules with too small of a host and the diode gets too hot first, before the driver, so you would need to balance the size of the host vs the power of the laser diode to avoid that, or just be darn sure you don't run the laser too long if in a relatively small host for the power output.

I really would look at the Jetlasers or Laserbtb units again, if you have a host made for you the one thing I don't like about most of them is the way they focus, they rely upon spinning a cap which has a G2 type of lens in it, sometimes they can be a pain compared to the better engineered units with integral lenses you can adjust. Just seems to be a weak link in these designs to me where the lens in the Aixiz module is what spins to focus it, not very precision compared to what JetLasers does. I say that and have several of that type myself and am happy with them, so don't let me throw cold water on the idea of a host and DTR module.

Youve given me a lot to think about. Id like to make my own laser, but at the same time i feel like in the end it would be something i wouldnt like. Id kinda rather leave it to the "professionals"

520nm was more of a preference than a necessity. I guess getting a diode in the 200mw range is either expensive or risky. (700mw@200 or 120mw@200)

Im perfectly fine with a 532nm setup, so long as the beam is bright, it burns, etc.

As far as laserbtb goes, if im aiming for more compact, this looks great(300mw variant), HL 532nm 50-300
But at the same time, the taking a single 16340 concerns me. I feel the current draw would either be right on the edge of what the battery could sustain without heat, or id get a really short runtime, whereas i think that the "portable laser" that takes an 18650 seems extremely oversized.

1, would the laser i received actually be 300mw running off of the single 16340, and 2, is it possible someone on the forums could make a tube expander to allow me to use a 16650 (over double the capacity) if i provided the thread specifications?

I'm sure it varies greatly, but do you know roughly how long a 120mw 520nm diode being pushed to 200-250mw would last? I bought one from Sci-Fi Lasers without really taking the life span into consideration...

Purchased an hl 532 300mw. Hope im not disappointed this time. Will make a review when i receive it.

Seems like a good choice. Their products are of good quality so you won't have to worry about it being disappointing. Some tend to be overspec as well.

Jombo23 said:

So as the title says, im in the market for a greater than 200mw 520nm "diode green" laser. After my recent mishap, im looking to not get some piece of crap inexpensive chinese laser, i want the real deal.

My ideals:

Focusable

Takes an 18650 (ive heard theyre amazing at dumping a ton of power)

Has a momentary on/off button thats not on the butt of the device, UNLESS someone has a good reason otherwise.

isnt 10 feet long or a foot in diameter. But seriously, but id take short duty cycles over a larger laser. Still, >45 seconds on/off would be nice.

Though this laser will mainly be used for astronomy and engineering class purposes, Id like to be able to burn as well, and maybe id do something cool with some galvanometers.

So far ive looked at WL, Sci Fi Lasers, Laserbtb (i think their lasers are a bit too big) and the sanwu laser shop (really like their lasers, but id like it to be focusable, and as far as i can tell theyre not unless you attach another lens)

Ive also seen the lasers in the 501b host, but i cant bring myself to buy one.

Does anyone have some suggestions?

Thanks,
Kyle

Click to expand...

Check out skylasers. or the ple pro.

Order still says awaiting payment on the laserbtb site, credit card has a "pending transaction, says AUTH. Email from paypal says payment successful.
What?

Apparently lasers just arent my thing....

Jombo23 said:

Order still says awaiting payment on the laserbtb site, credit card has a "pending transaction, says AUTH. Email from paypal says payment successful.
What?

Apparently lasers just arent my thing....

Click to expand...

Give it some time. There's a chance that they have to verify the payment manually and that they don't work in the weekends.

Just for shats and gaggles i shot them a friendly email.