LaserBee I Standard - Review

pianoman2011 · Nov 21, 2009

Hey guys,

Recently, I have found it unbearable to marvel at my father’s dashboard melting or that red match igniting without knowing how many milliwatts of coherent-goodness is behind the burning-business! So I finally decided to scrape up the cash to buy a Laserbee I Standard LPM. Within a week of ordering it, it was in my room being opened, which is a lot to say for a Canada to USA purchase.

I have nothing but good things to say about Jerry and his product. The power meter works wonderfully and I love it’s features, such as datalogging and a backlit LCD screen. Soon after getting my LPM, I decided I would try to build it into an enclosure. After some horrific incidents caused by my stupidity (I shall cover this later), I finally finished building the enclosure of my LPM. Since the only way I have figured out how to cut “precise” holes into plastic project boxes is with a soldering iron, the whole thing looks pretty messy and amateur, but it works for me. Here are some pictures:

The Front:

The Side:

The Bottom:

Measuring my DX “5mW” Greenie:

While enclosing the LPM into a project box, I added a few neat features to it. My favorite one is the addition of the ability to switch between battery power and wall power, so this can be both a stationary or portable LPM. The switch for this is seen in the second picture. I also added some male/female power connector sockets that I got from Radioshack so that I could attach and un-attach the wall adaptor and thermopile sensor from my LPM (2nd and 3rd pictures).

My Idiotic Mistake

While creating an enclosure for the LPM, I tried to mount the main PCB into the enclosure by widening what I thought was an “unused” hole with a 1/16” drill bit. Little did I know, I was actually disrupting an electrical connection from one side of the PCB to the other, and the whole I was drilling through was a “via route”. This caused a horrible malfunction where the LPM displayed random power readings and didn’t react to the thermopile sensor.

At the time, I freaked out, thinking that I would have to buy a whole new LPM or at least buy a new main PCB, but after messaging Jerry and taking some pictures of the problem, I fixed in less than 10 minutes. This free, easy, DIY repair was possible all because of Jerry, and if I were dealing with some other businessman, I would have probably had to send in the LPM and pay a shitload of money for nothing. THANKS JERRY, YOU’RE AWESOME!!!

A picture of what I did to the LPM to break it and Jerry’s solution (for any who are interested):

Overall, I give the LPM a 10/10 rating and Jerry’s customer service another 10/10 rating. I hope to do business with Jerry in the future, and I am extremely pleased with how everything went.

-Jakob

Edit: Sorry for the massive pictures.

Here are the power readings of all my laserz

1* Jayrob Host 405nm - 190mW-200mW
2* Taskforce 405nm - 80mW
3* Oceanus 473nm - <5mW
4* Rayfoss 532nm - 150mW-190mW
5* BudgetGadgets50 532nm - 60mW
6* DX5 532nm - 8mW
7* Coherent HeNe 543nm - 1mW
8* Rigel2 593.5nm - <5mW
9* TaskForce 650nm - 200mW-220mW

phoenix77 · Nov 21, 2009

My friend, you need to invest some Cash in a DREMEL SET. A tool like that makes a project like the one you just finished, look VERY professional. Another good addition to your soon to be growing 'Laser Tool Box' would be a Hot Glue Gun. With it you can sturdily mount things in project boxes, without the need to drill holes in PCB's. The glue is also a good electrical isolator, since it is non-conductive. It also sets in 1 to 3 min. depending on how much you gooped together. The small hot glue guns can be purchased at any hobby store, WalMart, Lowe's, etc, with extra glue sticks for under $3.00 USD. The DREMEL SET is obviously more expensive, but you can get a decent starter set for under $40.00 USD.......... rob

MISTERWILLING · Nov 21, 2009

I'm too lazy to write my own review, but I will 100% agree with this review.
I just bought my Laserbee I and have nothing but good things to say about it.

pianoman2011 · Nov 22, 2009

My friend, you need to invest some Cash in a DREMEL SET. A tool like that makes a project like the one you just finished, look VERY professional. Another good addition to your soon to be growing 'Laser Tool Box' would be a Hot Glue Gun. With it you can sturdily mount things in project boxes, without the need to drill holes in PCB's. The glue is also a good electrical isolator, since it is non-conductive. It also sets in 1 to 3 min. depending on how much you gooped together. The small hot glue guns can be purchased at any hobby store, WalMart, Lowe's, etc, with extra glue sticks for under $3.00 USD. The DREMEL SET is obviously more expensive, but you can get a decent starter set for under $40.00 USD.......... rob

Rob, buddy! I might have lost a few brain cells already from the burning plastic, cause I forgot about glue-guns! I have like two stored away in the attic! GEEZZZ that would’ve made life so much easier! And yes, I really do need a dremel. Where could I get one though? Thanks for the tips.

I just bought my Laserbee I and have nothing but good things to say about it.

I’m not surprised!

-Jakob

phoenix77 · Nov 22, 2009

Hi Jakob, for a good price on a DREMEL TOOL SET, try LOWE'S, MENARD'S, WalMart,
MEIJER'S or any other hardware store. Be on the lookout for CHRISTMAS sales now. You can find them for 50% off sometime, even more if ya shop carefully. Watch for coupons that will let you get additional accessories for free or greatly reduced prices when you buy the DREMEL TOOL by itself, or you can do like I did & ask for one of the BIG expanded sets for a CHRISTMAS gift. That way YOU spend 0 dollars & you'll get a good mid-priced DREMEL TOOL with a crap load of accessories. TIP; ask for a kit that includes the 3 ft. extension cable so you can get into awkward or tight areas. Once ya see it, you'll know what I'm talkin' about. Good Luck on your NEXT project box project. rob

pianoman2011 · Nov 22, 2009

Thanks for the advice, I'll be on the lookout

-Jakob

phoenix77 · Nov 22, 2009

Glad I could help you out, my friend. rob

Kenom · Nov 22, 2009

wow I couldn't read a single word in the review since it was white letters on a blue background.

Well except for "coherent goodness" and "idiotic" I'm not going to change my layout so that I can read the text. Might want to consider that not everyone uses the black layout on this forum.

Asherz · Nov 22, 2009

Kenom said:
wow I couldn't read a single word in the review since it was white letters on a blue background.

Well except for "coherent goodness" and "idiotic" I'm not going to change my layout so that I can read the text. Might want to consider that not everyone uses the black layout on this forum.

Nice review, but I thought all the text is white by default? He probably manually changed it so it over rides the system when you change the theme.

If you don't want to change the theme Kenom, then press ctrl+a, it'll select everything and you should be able to read it

billg519 · Nov 22, 2009

You can also get the asian dremel clones for very low $$$. I saw one of these for $20.00 CDN at a hardware store. It came with bits, sanding and cutting disks, polishing bobs, and the extension cable. Not Dremel quality of course, but fine for occasional use. Also, your bluray or red might have cut the black plastic if it wasn't too thick. Buttons can be extended with 1/4" plastic or wood dowel rod lengths sanded round for a button end, and dropped through a hole in the panel down to a tiny drop of glue on the rubber pad of the pcb switch. Saves reaching inside to press buttons ... Nice idea for allowing a power adapter to be used. What's important is that you now have a working Laserbee LPM !!!

Deleted member 8382 · Nov 22, 2009

the problem with the color is that if you don't touch anything you see it white because it's the default color. but being default doesn't mean being white, it means being the default skin color. So the same post will have white color on the dark backgrounds or black on the light background.

Probably he manually set the color to "white", so although he didn't see any change on it (because he is using the dark skin) other's can't read it now.

pianoman2011 · Nov 22, 2009

the problem with the color is that if you don't touch anything you see it white because it's the default color. but being default doesn't mean being white, it means being the default skin color. So the same post will have white color on the dark backgrounds or black on the light background.

Probably he manually set the color to "white", so although he didn't see any change on it (because he is using the dark skin) other's can't read it now.

This is exactly right lol. I made it in Microsoft Word, then copied and pasted it into here and changed the text to white since that's how it shows up on my layout. Sorry you can't read it, Kenom.

Nice review

Thanks.

You can also get the asian dremel clones for very low $$$. I saw one of these for $20.00 CDN at a hardware store. It came with bits, sanding and cutting disks, polishing bobs, and the extension cable. Not Dremel quality of course, but fine for occasional use. Also, your bluray or red might have cut the black plastic if it wasn't too thick. Buttons can be extended with 1/4" plastic or wood dowel rod lengths sanded round for a button end, and dropped through a hole in the panel down to a tiny drop of glue on the rubber pad of the pcb switch. Saves reaching inside to press buttons ... Nice idea for allowing a power adapter to be used. What's important is that you now have a working Laserbee LPM !!!

The plastic was unfortunately much too thick for any laser of mine to cut through. When you modify a project box, you can probably just break out your 60W laser LMAO. And thanks for the tips on buttons. And yeah, I'm really pleased that my LPM is both stationary and portable

.

-Jakob

bennett326 · Sep 7, 2011

:banned: spaaammmmmmmmmm

LaserBee I Standard - Review

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