5W 450nm - No brand Chinese laser from ebay - $57

[blownupp]

Thanks for posting a review OP! I just ordered one of these on Sunday - I won an eBay auction for $48 within the US including everything but the case and glasses (which just came in today from a different seller). This will be my first [hand held] Class IV and I'm looking forward to getting my hands on it. I'm curious to know what an LPM would read for it to see how consistent this build is.

I watched a different review on Youtube for a very similar build to yours and the fellow posted a follow-up reading of 1.075W:

I'm aware the lens won't be anything to write home about and only plan on replacing it if it won't be too much trouble since I'm already planning a 3.5w custom build and would rather just put the money towards that.

EDIT: My first Class IV was for a small DIY laser engraver build, one of those [EDIT 2](not M140) BDR-209 405nm diodes which I abused the living crap out of until it died on me. I've learned my lesson to be a lot more careful with any power supply; I was using a non-startup protected variable voltage/variable current supply and made the mistake of turning it on while connected straight to the diode too many times. Lesson learned!

 

[VirtueViolater]

M140's are 445nm, not 405, j/s

 

[blownupp]

M140's are 445nm, not 405, j/s

Whoops, BDR-209 is the one I meant! I'm just now starting to learn my different diode models ¯\_(⊙︿⊙)_/¯

 

[micheal rosen]

This is my first laser >5mW which I bought for UFO pointing a.k.a skywatching

That laser is not less than 5mw, no cheap blue laser is. and its not 5W as the title says either. but most importantly NEVER point lasers at UFO's, theyre called unidentified for a reason: they could be anything! most of the time THEY'RE PLANES! And i know, its probably just a joke, but please dont joke about shining lasers at aircraft, we take it seriously here.

 

[Sta]

That laser is not less than 5mw

That is why he put a greater than sign. :beer:

 

[micheal rosen]

That is why he put a greater than sign. :beer:

Oh wow :crackup: im so used to assuming that a sign in front of 5mw is always <. well, the rest of what i said makes sense atleast.

 

[Alaskan]

I agree with the warning about pointing at UFO's, don't point at them, if they are UFO's you don't know what they are and could end up in jail while giving laser pointers a bad name at the same time. Maybe you just intend on circling them with the beam without actually pointing at them, but even that could end up badly, if the aircraft reports you as harassing them. Even pointing in the flight path of an aircraft is illegal and if circling them with the beam, you would certainly be crossing their flight path, unless heading directly away from you.

For the twilight zone minded, if you really want a pointer for UFO's, maybe get a 300mw single mode 808 to 960+nm IR laser pointer? They are invisible (except to cameras, i.e. police helicopter) and so called UFO's (not airplanes) have been reported to respond to those from time to time. For this use, single mode is paramount to have a low divergence IR pointer because most IR laser diodes have AWFUL divergence and spread out too quickly. The bad news is I know of no single mode IR laser pointers being sold anywhere. The good news is if you learn to build your own you can have one, use a 25mm/1 inch or larger diameter lens with a single mode IR laser and you will have extremely low divergence.

i.e. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Laser-Diode...rared-SDL-JDSU-5431-J1-54-00213-/251455886561

Edit: Using infrared makes the beam invisible to the naked eye, there certainly won't be any vision affecting glare to aircraft created by IR, but shine it at a law enforcement aircraft with cameras which could be temporarily disabled by it, and I bet you would still be in trouble if they could find you.

I don't take the possibility alien craft are visiting this world, or could, as impossible, but some small minded tin hat wearing individuals who are afraid of admitting it do. The small minded part comes from refusing to investigate the possibilities, science has already proven space can be moved instead of traveling through it, and there is no speed limit to warping space and riding it like a wave. Yes, this is Star Trek stuff, but a device has been made which has this effect, minute, but real. Gives us under 100 years and we might have something workable. This link explains how it could work, I don't have the time to find the recent article which showed an experiment which proved the theory: http://www.space.com/17628-warp-drive-possible-interstellar-spaceflight.html

 

[blownupp]

Just out of curiosity, Alaskan, why do you recommend an 808nm laser? I may be wrong, but I thought 808nm IR isn't visible to the naked eye - is the idea for it to only be available on camera?