adam1
0
- Joined
- Jan 22, 2013
- Messages
- 55
- Points
- 8
Hey everyone.
First off, sorry to Victoria at Lightscastle that this review has taken me so long to get up. I had lots of trouble with a broken RS232 to USB cable that I was sent from Ebay. But here is the review.
Recently I contacted Lightscastle about obtaining a sample of their 200mw 532nm green module FOUND HERE for $32 US. This is my review of the module that I received.
SHIPPING
The module was sent on the 19th of July and I received it on the 30th of July, so 11 days from when it was sent to when I received it, which is average to Australia. Packaging was adequate to protect the module. The module was bubble wrapped and then placed in a padded envelope. Here's some pictures of the packaging.
And here's a picture of the module itself.
TESTING AND RESULTS
For testing I replaced the wires with a spring and inserted the module into a C6 host to make it easier for me to LPM. I do not believe that this affected the results as it is the heat generated by the driver and not the diode that is the main variable that affects the performance of this module.
This is a graph from a cold start for 10 minutes using a fully charged 16340 battery. Tested using a 1W LaserBee I.
Results for this module seem very variable. This time I got an average over 10 minutes of 70mW, but in another test I got an average over 10 mins of 40mW. However the peak from a cold start seems pretty consistent at ~101-102mW. This test was actually the highest peak that I have ever measured from this module. I believe that at ~5.5 mins is where the heat from the driver really kicked in and dropped the output quite dramatically.
One thing that I was quite pleased about with this module was the low amount or IR in the beam. When it is at its peak at around 100mW and I place an IR filter in front of the beam, the reading only drops to about 90mW. As a test I LPM'd my friend's "5mW" 532 Ebay pen. It read ~50mW and this dropped to 20mW with an IR filter. Clearly the Lightscastle module is much better quality than the modules commonly found in Ebay pens.
Soon I will add heatsinking to the driver and a diode before the driver for ~0.7V voltage drop so that the driver has to dissipate less heat and for reverse polarity protection. I will update this thread with a new graph once I have done that.
EDIT: So I added the diode and heatsink like I said I would and this was the result
BEAMSHOTS!!!
Original, Unedited Outdoor Beamshot
Edited
Indoor Beamshot
First off, sorry to Victoria at Lightscastle that this review has taken me so long to get up. I had lots of trouble with a broken RS232 to USB cable that I was sent from Ebay. But here is the review.
Recently I contacted Lightscastle about obtaining a sample of their 200mw 532nm green module FOUND HERE for $32 US. This is my review of the module that I received.
SHIPPING
The module was sent on the 19th of July and I received it on the 30th of July, so 11 days from when it was sent to when I received it, which is average to Australia. Packaging was adequate to protect the module. The module was bubble wrapped and then placed in a padded envelope. Here's some pictures of the packaging.
And here's a picture of the module itself.
TESTING AND RESULTS
For testing I replaced the wires with a spring and inserted the module into a C6 host to make it easier for me to LPM. I do not believe that this affected the results as it is the heat generated by the driver and not the diode that is the main variable that affects the performance of this module.
This is a graph from a cold start for 10 minutes using a fully charged 16340 battery. Tested using a 1W LaserBee I.
Results for this module seem very variable. This time I got an average over 10 minutes of 70mW, but in another test I got an average over 10 mins of 40mW. However the peak from a cold start seems pretty consistent at ~101-102mW. This test was actually the highest peak that I have ever measured from this module. I believe that at ~5.5 mins is where the heat from the driver really kicked in and dropped the output quite dramatically.
One thing that I was quite pleased about with this module was the low amount or IR in the beam. When it is at its peak at around 100mW and I place an IR filter in front of the beam, the reading only drops to about 90mW. As a test I LPM'd my friend's "5mW" 532 Ebay pen. It read ~50mW and this dropped to 20mW with an IR filter. Clearly the Lightscastle module is much better quality than the modules commonly found in Ebay pens.
Soon I will add heatsinking to the driver and a diode before the driver for ~0.7V voltage drop so that the driver has to dissipate less heat and for reverse polarity protection. I will update this thread with a new graph once I have done that.
EDIT: So I added the diode and heatsink like I said I would and this was the result
BEAMSHOTS!!!
Original, Unedited Outdoor Beamshot
Edited
Indoor Beamshot
Last edited:
